Showing posts with label Cocktail Time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cocktail Time. Show all posts

Friday, August 3, 2012

Firefly Sparklers and Summertime Music

When I think of summertime evenings, I think of sitting out on a patio/deck, enjoying a tall glass of sweet tea (or a cocktail :) ) and watching the fireflies play.



This cocktail is the perfect way to end a hot summer evening, sitting outside, enjoying the fireflies and other summer fun!


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Firefly Sparklers
  • 2 oz of Sweet Tea Vodka
  • 6 oz of lemonaid (any kind will do, but I tried Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonaid, and it was very tasty)
  • 4 oz of 7-up or any kind of fizzy water

Mix ingredients in a cute summery tumbler with ice. Add a fun straw and then enjoy!

The other day I was thinking about different songs that remind me of summer, and that I like to listen to in the summer. A lot of them talk about summer, or have a beach hut type vibe. I made a playlist of some of my favorites, and wanted to share with you so that you too could enjoy during our last month of summer.

Summer Playlist
  • Summer Nights - Rascal Flats
  • Virginia Bluebell - Miranda Lambert
  • Barefoot Blue Jean Night - Jake Owen
  • Where the Boat Leaves From - Zack Brown Band
  • Toes - Zack Brown Band
  • American Honey - Lady Antebellum
  • Springsteen - Eric Church
  • Beer in Mexico - Kenny Chesney
  • Summertime - Kenny Chesney
And for some old school songs:
  • Summer Girls - LFO
  • Summertime - DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
  • Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffet
  • Island in the Sun - Weezer
  • California Love - 2Pac
  • American Boy - Estelle
What are you listening to this summer?
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Friday, July 13, 2012

Skinny Sunrise Cocktail and Rock Star Nails

Happy Friday! Just a few fun things to kick-start the weekend.

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Skinny Sunrise Cocktail

Here is a fun cocktail recipe that is also very low in calories. It is great for a hot summer day on the patio, or also for brunch! The strawberry simple syrup will stay good in the fridge for about a week, so you can use it for other cocktails as well and it was really good with a little citrus vodka and some club soda...just sayin! :)

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons (1oz) rum (could use any other type of liquor)
1 Tablespoon (.5oz) strawberry simple syrup
3 Tablespoons (1.5oz) orange juice (about 1/2 navel orange)
3 Tablespoons (1.5oz) pineapple juice
1/4 cup (2oz) club soda
ice

For the strawberry simple syrup (makes ~1 cup syrup):
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
3 large strawberries

Directions:
1. For the strawberry simple syrup: Combine sugar, water, and strawberries into a small saucepan over high heat. Mash strawberries as the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 30 seconds, then turn off the heat and allow syrup to cool completely. Transfer syrup to a food processor or blender, process until smooth, then strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the strawberry seeds (optional.) Chill in the fridge.
2. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, then add rum, strawberry simple syrup, orange juice, and pineapple juice. Shake until very cold. Pour into a glass, including the ice, then top with club soda.

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Rock Star Nails
I decided that I needed some fun nails for the concert the other day. I have been wanting to try the new trend where you have a sparkly accent nail on your ring fingers. I used OPI Kola Berry and Sephora by OPI Sparkling Personality. It's a fun trend to try and the silver sparkly polish has fun hot pink flecks in it, so it goes really well with a hot pink polish. It's very sparkly in the sun and in the elevator at work (where I took this pic...ha!)


Thursday, June 28, 2012

For the Beer Novices: Fruity Beer Review

I have recently just started drinking beer. I have always enjoyed my girly fruity drinks, and beer just wasn't appealing to me. I recently started trying fruit beers, which are much sweeter, and to me don't seem to have the same aftertaste that most beers have. For me the strong aftertaste is what typically turns me off on beers.

I wanted to share some of the beers that I have tried and hopefully encourge all your beer novices and martini drinkers out there to try something a little different.

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Luna Strawbeer Beer - Ok so probably most people would not consider this a beer. The label actually says it's a flavored tea beer, and I am still trying to figure out what that means. Anyone know?? This tasted just like drinking strawberry soda, or maybe a strawberry champagne, and it was absolutly delish! Tasted nothing like beer, but it made me feel somewhat cool that I was drinking beer :) We found this at Whole Foods, and was suprised to find that this was actually brewed in our town -- Columbus, Ohio. Even more reason to try it! Please note that this was a larger bottle, very cool label, and we got a couple of servings out of it.


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Sam'l Smith Organic Strawberry Ale - This was kind of similar to the Luna strawberry beer, but it was a little less sweeter and a little less strawberry flavored. It still didn't have the beer aftertaste which I liked, and it is organic -- score for being healthy while drinking beer! We got this one at Giant Eagle, and like the Luna beer it was a larger bottle. I think I got 2 red solo cups worth of beer out of the bottle (like my way of measuring, so perfect for a beer post!)

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Boulder Kinda Blue -- This is a blueberry wheat beer. I LOVE blueberries and anything blueberry flavored, so I was extra excited to taste this beer. It was a very light beer, but didn't really have a big blueberry taste to it. I was a little disappointed in that, but I think because the strawberry beers I have been drinking had such a strong strawberry flavor to it, my expectations were probably off for this one. It wasn't bad by any means, and had only a slight beer aftertaste, and was a way of getting me closer to drinking actual beer than what I had been drinking. I would probably try it again, but I don't think this will become one of my favorites. I do want to find a blueberry beer to love, so I'll just have to keep on with my search. We got this at Giant Eagle, and it came in the standard 6 pack of bottles.

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Zimmerman's Framboise Raspberry Lambic - This one is also a very fruity flavored beer and had a very strong rasberry flavor. It was a little tart, but still very tasty. This one also seemed a little thicker than some of the other fruit flavored beers. We got this at Giant Eagle also, and it was available to purchase as a single beer. I also enjoyed this beer at the World of Beers a few weeks ago.


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Fruit Cocktail Beer from World of Beers -- This was a fun tasty beer, and I wrote about this beer last week, so check out this post.

Overall it's been fun trying out beers, and I will probably continue to try some different ones here and there. I am also trying to drink a bunch of wine so that I can make a wine cork wreath -- anyone seen these on Pinterest? I need about 75 more corks, so I'll probably be focusing on wine a little more, but it's fun to try new beers especially now that it is summer and there are a ton of cookouts with family and friends. How about you? Any fun beers you recommend?

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Fruit Cocktail Beer

Last Saturday night we went to the World of Beers in German Village. World of Beers has a lot of different cocktail style beers where they mix different types of beers together to get a different type of flavor. An example of this is a Black and Tan which is a blend of pale ale and a dark beer such as a stout or porter.

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I am slowly getting into and trying different beers, and am starting with more fruity type beers. One beer on their menu that caught my eye was The Fruit Cocktail. It is a Hefe-Weizen topped with Raspberry Lambic and Blueberry Wheat Ale. They also included an orange flavored beer (not Blue Moon, but similar), although sadly we could not tell the brand/type. The Fruit Cocktail beer was then garnished with a few blueberries and a large orange wedge.

This beer was very light, and slightly sweet (although a few guys in our party thought it was too sweet). It didn't have as much of a fruit flavor as I was expecting and it wasn't as sweet as a Lambic typically is, but it did have a little bit of a sweet, fruity flavor. This is probably because it was about 3/4 Hefe-Weizen and only a little of the sweeter/fruitier beers.

It did have a good taste and to a person who isn't a huge fan of beer, it was very enjoyable. I would highly recommend this drink to someone looking for something very light and somewhat sweet. As I try more beers, I'll be sure to share my reviews/favorites! What types of beers do you like?

Friday, September 16, 2011

Cocktail Time: Wyandotte Winery (Local Winery)

For those of you who are currently living in Columbus, or are planning on visiting soon, I wanted to share a great local winery. I have been to Wyandotte Winery a few times for tastings and recently was there for a happy hour. They have a great little tasting room and a small banquet room as well for get-togethers of around 30 or so people.


This winery is actually just down the road from where I live, and I have passed by this place so many times that I was so glad to finally get to try it out. They have about 11 different wines and you can either do 6 wines for $5 or 11 wines for $10, or 1 wine for $1 (although one of the wines is $2). They also give very generous pours, so if you do the "Grand Tasting" which is the 11 wines for $10 you end up getting about 2 decent sized glasses of wine. They also have a really great variety of dry and sweet wines, so there really is something for everyone.

I really liked the wine White Roses, which according to their website is "a classic Niagara wine available in both a sweet still and dry sparkling style. The aroma reminds many people of the grape vines that used to grow in their Grandmother's back yard." It is kind of sweet, but not overly sweet. It really does make you feel like you are in a rose garden, which I love!

I also really liked the Raspberry Summer wine which is made from 100% raspberry juice. The Graystone, which is an Ohio Riesling is also pretty good with tastes of peach and mango, but my friends didn't like it as much as I did. It was very crisp, which I tend to like in a wine.

If you are in the area, be sure to stop by and check out this winery. They also have a cute little gift shop with lots of fun gifts for wine enthusiasts.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Cocktail o'Clock: Rocky Road Hot Chocolate

I saw this recipe on Every Day Food's Twitter Page. I tried it the other night and it is delicious! It is very sweet, expecially once the marshmallows are melted into the drink. Make sure to use unsweetened cocoa, or else it will be too sweet to drink (unless you have a major sweet tooth...ha!). The amaretto and marshmallows will add the sweetness to the drink.

Cocktail o'Clock: Rocky Road Hot Chocolate


In a large ovenproof mug combine 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 1½ cups hot milk and 1½ ounces amaretto. Top with miniature marshmallows and place under broiler until golden brown and puffed

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Skinnygirl Mojito

Saturday evening, I had a good friend over to watch a movie, and we tried these Skinnygirl Mojito's from Bethenny's book The Skinnygirl Dish. They were very good, but very strong. If you don't like them strong, I would recommend adding more soda (they are about half liquor/half soda).

Image from Bethenny's website

Skinnygirl Mojito

Ingredients:
-- 2 tbsp. fresh mint
-- 1/2 lime cut into 6 wedges
-- 1 cup ice
-- 1 1/2 tbsp. lime juice
-- 1/2 tsp. gently warmed honey
-- 2 oz. clear rum
-- 4 oz. club soda (I used diet 7-up)
-- mint and lime for garnish

Directions:
In a martini shaker, use a long spoon to muddle the fresh mint (tear into smaller pieces first to release the flavor) and the 1/2 lime cut into 6 wedges. Add 1 cup ice and 1 1/2 tbsp. lime juice. Combine 1/2 tsp. gently warmed honey, 2 oz. clear rum and 4 oz. club soda. Add this combination to muddled mixture. Stir until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with mint and lime.