Boozy

Category: Boozy

23
Feb
2015

Grapefruit Paloma Margaritas

Happy National Margarita Day!!

Yes, it’s a thing.

A very, very good thing.
I can honest to goodness say it’s a good thing now that I’ve discovered what really goes into a margarita because up until about 2 years ago, I couldn’t stand these super salty, ridiculously crappy sweet and sour mix/well tequila laden cocktails AT ALL. If I drank one I knew the next day I would have a little something I like to call “Hangover Heartburn”. It’s where a migraine meets acid reflux and has a baby. The only cure for it is a shot of antacid with an ibuprofen chaser.

Welcome to 30, you old so-and-so. I’ve saved you a seat right here next to me.

It wasn’t until I had my first real, honest to goodness margarita from real ingredients that I conceded that margaritas didn’t have to be happy hour nightmares dressed up in weird little umbrellas and maraschino cherries. They are actually made out of lime juice, sugar, tequila, triple sec, and ice. No blending. No sweet and sour mix. No tequila out of a fountain squirter. Just simple and recognizable ingredients. Now, why this isn’t done everywhere, I don’t know but it should probably be a law.

Up until I found my holy grail margarita cantina/recipe, I just stuck to what I knew as the best tequila cocktail known to man: The Paloma.
You may not know what a Paloma is so let me brown-girl-break-it-down for you: A “paloma” is the most popular tequila-based drink in Mexico. It’s similar to a margarita in that it contains tequila, lime juice, and ice. However, what sets the paloma apart is one special ingredient: grapefruit.

Now this whole grapefruit thing can go two ways when making this drink:
You can keep it real and make it the way we would growing up by simply using ice, tequila, grapefruit soda and a twist of lime

-OR-

you can keep it all crafty-hipster-farm-fresh-foo-foo and use fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, sugar or simple syrup, fresh lime juice and top it with a floater of club soda.

I like to think I’m about a 3 on the fancy-pants scale when it comes to palomas and about a 9 on the snobby-hipster scale when it comes to margaritas. I’m secure enough to admit this but you may not be so I have married my two selves to make this poor man’s margarita/rich man’s paloma margarita mashup recipe for you.

Now go put away the antacids but leave out that ibuprofen…you may need it after a couple of these bad boys.

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17
Jan
2015

Make-Ahead Tiramisu

categories: Boozy, Cakes, Coffee, Dessert, italian

It’s a new year & that means new kitchen adventures!

I took more than a little break since last year because so much has happened!

Between weddings, graduations, tons of catering jobs, moving to a new city, finding a new house, and starting up my business in this new town, my poor little blog went to the wayside.

Poor ‘lil .com. I’m sorry.

But I promised myself that I would attend to my neglected blog & finally download all these photos of deliciousness I have been making these last couple months because you know I didn’t stop cooking & creating recipes!

The first on my list: Make-Ahead Tiramisu.

While this Make-Ahead Tiramisu may NOT be a traditional tiramisu, it IS super simple to put together and perfect for gatherings & potlucks because well, you make it ahead of time so there’s no rushing on the day of! One to two days later, the tiramisu has had enough time to let the flavors mingle and just the right balance of rich sweetness.

OK, so let’s just get this out of the way: I’m not a coffee fan. I know, I know…In this world of frappu-fancy-ccinos, a person who doesn’t like coffee might as well be put on the “no fly list” but I can’t help it. That stuff is usually bitter and my mouth hates me a little whenever my brain forgets that I don’t enjoy the stuff. When I took my first bite of this dessert I have to admit, it wasn’t a game changer. The cream was kind of bland and the espresso tasted exactly what I thought it would taste like. Bitter. I had kind of given up on it but decided to cover it and wait the recommended 24 hours before I judged.

Now, I don’t really know what happened after the 24 hour mark, but I’m pretty sure it involved some unicorn-type magic because what tasted like a bland yet bitter cookies and cream cake, now tasted like pure friggin’ heaven. The bland cream had somehow, amazingly, become sweet and the bitter ladyfingers had turned into a kind of mocha flavored cookie.

Like I said: Unicorns.

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16
Mar
2014

Homemade Irish Cream

categories: Beverage, Boozy, Cocktails, Drink, Irish

Top of the mornin’ to ya.

Have you been wondering why the supermarket has all of a sudden put out corned beef & cabbage in convenient little bundles?

Why the police all of a sudden decide it’s a good idea to put a checkpoint on every corner of your hometown?

Why people at your favorite bar have been drinking that unholy concoction of green-dyed beer?

Yes, it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day.

Bust out your favorite green striped tube socks, ladies.

Now if you’re like me & you don’t want to dye your insides green with your cocktail, have I got a treat for you.

Homemade Irish Cream is kind of like Bailey’s but better.

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02
Mar
2014

PeachBerry Bellini

categories: Boozy, Brunch, Cocktails

So some pretty awesome stuff has been happening in my life.

I bought a VitaMix. Only fellow food nerds will understand why this is amazing. It’s like the Mercedes-Benz of blenders…& yes, I just said this & yes, I love it.
I finished planning my wedding. Like, from start to finish & with a month to spare! Shoot, even I’m amazed I didn’t wait to the last minute!
One of my recipes was featured on Today.com Food Section. I’m a little overwhelmed that anyone reads my blog, let alone anyone from the Today show. That’s legit.

So for all of these really amazing things to happen in one week, I thought I deserved a little celebration in the form of a Sunday Bellini.

This drink is also going to make a great addition to our Oscar Party tonight,

so don’t feel like you have to have a celebratory day drink like me.

You can celebrate at night where the darkness will hide the judgement from others…

but if like me, you don’t really give a poo & love yourself a Sunday Champagne Brunch,

have at it!

Being that I had this brand new blender just sitting there begging to be used, I decided to think outside the box & jazz up my usual o.j. & champagne mimosas.

So I raided my fridge & came up with this PeachBerry Bellini!

Not only is it full of fresh fruit (which is totally healthy, duh) but it makes the champagne feel so much fancier & look amazing which is perfect for a celebration!

I paired this cocktail with my Vegetarian Hash & Basil Vinaigrette Brunch recipe & they were perfect together!

A little sweet, a little savory, a little buzzed.

Yeah, Sunday just became my favorite day of the week.

Enjoy!

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20
Sep
2013

Guinness Irish Cream Cupcakes

categories: Boozy, cupcakes, Dessert, Irish

I don’t really care for goodbyes.

It might just be me but I think they are kind of awkward & sad.

The worst part is that there are so many ways to accomplish this sad awkwardness:

There’s the weird hug that lingers just long enough to make you drop your arms hoping it signals “let go of me” but the other person still keeps on hugging…so you slowly raise your arms back up to keep hugging them only to have them pull away and leave you there with your arms weirdly outstretched….

There’s the weird “handshake-hug-high-five-confusion” that happens with people you kind-of-sort-of-know just well enough to be confused as to where your relationship stands at this very moment…

There’s the uncomfortable “waving-goodbye-from-a-foot-away” which I feel is like a slightly less bitchy way of saying, “I’d really prefer if you wouldn’t physically touch me as we part”…

There’s the “oh-yeah-and-one-more-thing” goodbye which leads to the “saying-goodbye-five-times-before-you-actually-leave” goodbye.

There’s the “I’m-saying-goodbye-to-a-kiss-on-the-cheek-goodbye-kinda-person” that leaves you feeling like you are either better looking than you thought you were or like someone just over-shared about their last OB/GYN visit.

Yeah…I don’t really wake up in the morning missing that one.

Lucky for me, I chose friends that are none of the above.

For instance, when a friend recently left on a trip to Ireland for 6 weeks, not one person shed a single tear or waved goodbye 6-inches away from my face.

Yup, my friends are pretty awesome & socially appropriate.

So in order to thank my Ireland-bound buddy for not being weird & never ever kissing me on the cheek, I made her these Guinness Irish Cream Cupcakes!

They are a delicious mix of Irish whiskey, Irish Cream, Guinness,
chocolate & buttercream.
If you don’t happen to have any store brand Irish cream on hand (for example, the Bailey’s I pictured above), you can make your own using my Homemade Irish Cream recipe. This recipe will make more than enough liqueur to make the frosting with leftovers for Irish Coffee’s all week long.
Who said St. Patrick’s Day can’t be St. Patrick’s week?

Even though these cupcakes were pretty boozy, I promise no one over-hugged each other & there wasn’t even one Irish goodbye said that night (google it!)

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