White Sangria

My first attempt at salted caramel cupcakes (and a few thereafter) were such HUGE hits that I decided to play with it a bit. Not a lot, but enough that it warranted another blog about it. Chocolate + salted caramel = can't be too bad unless you're diabetic and/or have heart problems, right?


Anyways, I needed something spectacular to go with and off-set the sweetness of my chocolate salted caramel cupcakes. The hubs is a sangria fan, and I love the fruits that generally go into a white sangria. And ginger ale. MMM.. So, I decided it was time to give it a go.

Ingredients:


1/2 of a ripe nectarine, chunked
1/2 of an orange, chunked
3-4 LARGE strawberries, chunked
10-15 ripe raspberries
4-6 Rainier cherries, halved and pitted
1/4 c sugar or Splenda
1 small lemon (or half of a large), sliced thinly and de-seeded
1 750ml bottle of white wine (I used Kestrel Pure Platinum)
Ginger ale / Club Soda / Lemon-lime soda

Directions:


Toss fruit into a glass pitcher. Add sugar, toss to coat. Add wine, cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. You *can* drink it right away, but it won't be nearly as good as if you let the fruit and wine meld. When ready to serve, add gingerale. The ratio should be about 1/2 to 2/3 wine : 1/3 to 1/2 soda, depending on how much of the wine you want to taste. I do about half and half. Add ice and serve!

Whipped Margarita

I'm a tequila girl. Through and through. Not the nasty dirty socks kind, I'm a silver tequila girl. I'm also a whipped cream vodka kinda girl. Why not combine the two? HECK YEAH!


Introducing: The Whipped Margarita.

Also introducing a major YUM factor.


Ingredients:


1oz silver or blanco tequila
1oz whipped cream vodka
1oz triple sec or Grand Marnier
1oz sour mix
1oz lime juice


Directions:


Build all ingredients in a collins glass over ice. Enjoy!




Another fun variation might be to add a float of grenadine for a whipped cherry margarita! MMMMMMMMMM. I'm sure you could also turn this into a delicious blended drink if you had a blender that crushed ice (unlike mine which just stirs the ice). 

Hot Buttered Rum Mix

Okay guys, short post! This is meant to go along with my Hot Buttered Rum Cookies, or you can enjoy as it's meant!


1 Stick of butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves


Combine all ingredients, refrigerate (or freeze!) until used.


See? Simple. 


If you want to make hot buttered rum, add 1 tsp or so of mix to a mug, 1 jigger (about 1 oz) of rum, and fill with either hot water or hot coffee, enjoy!

Whipped Sunrise

It's been a long week. I mean like, I'm really feelin' the extra day today. I don't even care that it's an extra day in the YEAR, not of the week, it's been long already. So when this recipe popped up on my Facebook from Smirnoff this afternoon, I was pretty excited. The original recipe can be found on their Facebook page. 

I don't generally keep pineapple juice on hand, mostly because I'm the only one in the house that will drink it, and, well, it won't go very fast. I do generally have orange juice though. Oh, yet again, another improvisation out of lack of the right ingredients and of will to head to the grocery store for ONE LOUSY ITEM. Not that I haven't done it before, because I have. A lot. Anyways. There are two versions of this. The original, which is a Whipped Sunrise, and the kid-friendly version, the Foggy Sunrise. 

Isn't it gorgeous? Credit to Smirnoff for this one!

Whipped Sunrise:

1 1/2 oz whipped cream vodka (I used Pinnacle, don't tell Smirnoff that!)

3 oz sour mix

2 oz orange juice (or pineapple if you want to do as the original says)

1/2 oz grenadine

Put everything except grenadine into a shaker filled with ice and shake until very cold. Pour into a martini glass (or be classy like me and just dump it all into a highball glass, ice and all!). Add about 1/2 oz grenadine to the top. Grenadine will sink to the bottom. Top with whipped cream if you're fancy (and have whipped cream, which I don't..). 

Variation:

Foggy Sunrise:

1/2 oz half & half

3 oz sour mix

3 oz orange or pineapple juice

1/2 oz grenadine

See above for instructions. 

Enjoy! I know I will.