Spiked Hot Caramel Apple Cider

I originally saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought that it would make an easy fall cocktail recipe.  

From Cooking in College. 

Ingredients: 

-4 mug’s worth of apple cider

-1 mug’s worth of caramel vodka (or caramel apple vodka) 

-1 cinnamon stick

-1/4 cup brown sugar

Put all ingredients into the crock pot. Heat on low until warm, don't heat too long because you don't want the alcohol to burn off. Serve with a sugar/brown sugar rimmed glass and with cinnamon sticks.

This was incredibly easy to make, it took no effort. I thought the alcohol was a little strong in this. If I made this again I would maybe so half a mug of the caramel vodka because the aftertaste of it was strong. Overall a good recipe.

Grilled Citrus & Grape Sangria

I would really recommend grilling fruit, it tastes great and is easy to make. However, I wasn't too crazy about putting it in a drink. It wasn't bad, but I didn't think it added much to the flavor of the wine and triple sec mix, except that some of the grill pieces were in the drink. We cleaned the grill really well before we did this, but I think it is still hard to get everything off. I think maybe if you did this on a george forman type grill it would work better because it would much cleaner.

This recipe comes from Food and Wine.

Ingredients:

-1 cup grapes
-1 orange
-1 lemon
-1 bottle pink wine
-4 oz agave syrup
-4 oz Triple Sec
-Ice

Grill the slices of lemon and orange for 6 minutes.

Grill the grapes in a basket for 6 minutes.

Grill the fruit until marks form.

Mix the grilled fruit with the alcohol and let sit for at least an hour before serving.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Martini

Sometimes I think drinks that are supposed to taste like some food like a cake or fruit really don't, but I thought this one actually tasted like pineapple upside down cake in drink form, I thought it was really good.

I originally saw this on pinterest, but there wasn't a link so I just guessed on the recipe.

Ingredients:

-1 part pineapple juice

- part orange juice

-2 parts cake vodka 

-1 part grenadine

This tasted good, and it was fun because it had a good orange color. All of the flavors blended really well together, you could taste a little bit of everything.

Chocolate Margarita

Most people have a certain type of drink that they gravitate to -- for me it's margaritas. I love all flavors of margarita and I really like experimenting with out of the box flavor pairings. When I saw this chocolate margarita on Pinterest, I was in love.

Thanks so much to Kayla for the beautiful pictures of this one, check out her blog.

Recipe adapted from Sweet Life.


Ingredients: 
For Chocolate Syrup
-¾ cup sugar
-½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-½ cup water
-Pinch of salt
-1 tsp vanilla extract

For Margarita
-½ cup chocolate syrup
-¾ cup tequila
-¼ cup heavy cream
-1/3 cup Triple Sec
-1/2 cup creme de cocoa
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-Shaved chocolate for the rim
-2 tablespoons chocolate syrup for rim
-Chocolate for garnish

I made the chocolate syrup a day ahead of time. Whisk all ingredients together (except the vanilla) in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and allow the syrup to boil for 4-5 minutes, the mixture should thicken. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

To make the margarita in a shaker (we made individuals, if you're making a big batch, use a pitcher) of ice mix the creme de cocoa, tequila, triple sec, chocolate syrup, heavy cream and cinnamon.

Rim the glasses with chocolate syrup and dip in the chocolate flakes.

Enjoy!

My friends thought this drink was too strong, but I thought it was delicious! I really enjoyed the smooth chocolate taste paired with the tequila. This is the kind of drink that I would make again.

Fruit Ice Cubes

Ice cubes aren't much of a recipe, but I wanted to share because adding fruit this way to ice actually worked, it did freeze without a problem, and was clear enough that it looked pretty in a glass. This is great to add to a clear drink, like sprite or a clear alcohol like vodka, rum or triple sec.

You could probably use any fruit, but I used raspberries and blackberries.

I used whole raspberries and cut the blackberries in half.
They froze in about the same amount of time regular ice cubes would.

These would be good for an late summer party, or if you are hosting a cocktail party, they can make a plain drink have some color.

Goblet of Fire

This was so cool! I was really surprised this worked as well as it did. The flame looked awesome coming out of the glass, it really was a bright blue. Adding cinnamon made it spark, which was also very awesome, it did look like something that could have come from the Harry Potter movie. Thanks to Kayla for the awesome pictures on this one.

This idea is on Pinterest a lot, but I found instructions here.

Ingredients:
-1 oz vodka

-1 oz blue curacao 

-3 oz lemonade

-151 

-Pinch of cinnamon

Check out the video we made of us lighting the goblet of fire.

                                          

Mix the curacao, vodka, and lemonade.

Flammable!

We did ours outside, I was nervous about doing
this one indoors.

Pour the 151 on top and quickly light.  We had to try
a few times, but if you hold the lighter on top of the drink
for a few seconds it eventually caught on fire.

A sprinkle of cinnamon made these
awesome sparks.

The flame lasted for a really long time! The original post said to be careful because the drink can still be on fire after the flame looks like it is out, so make sure to wait before you drink it.

Our first try of this was admittedly not good, we tried at least 5 or 6 times and it didn't light. The second try we used less lemonade and just used alcohol. That worked much better. We used a lot of cinnamon for the sparks, so we couldn't drink it afterwards, but it was so worth it.

Summer Punch

This recipe is all over Pinterest so we decided to try it. This makes a lot of servings, but it's worth it.

Ingredients:
-2 bottles Moscato
-1 pink lemonade concentrate
-3 C of Sprite
-Fresh raspberries

Mix all ingredients together in a large punch bowl or pitcher.  

Serve over ice.

This recipe was really good. You could hardly taste the alcohol in the drink because it was sweet. I don't think it was overwhelmingly sweet though. There was a slight tangy flavor from the lemonade concentrate. . Everyone who tried this at our party really enjoyed it, our friend Rachael's husband kept stealing sips from her cup. This recipe is well worth serving at a party because it does make so many drinks.

Bloody Berry

This was a unique drink because it wasn't just mixing different liquids together, it actually used fresh strawberries in the drink. This reminded me a lot of a Strawberry Julius, it had the same flavor and consistency. This recipe was actually really tasty.

This recipe is from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients:

-4 cups hulled, chopped strawberries
-¼ cup lime juice
-1 cup sugar
-½ cup peeled and coarsely chopped fresh ginger
-hot sauce

-vodka if you want to make it an alcoholic drink

Cut and hull the strawberries. It took us almost 2 containers of
strawberries to get enough. 

Blend the strawberries with the lime juice.
Meanwhile, heat the sugar, water, ginger, and hot sauce until the sugar is dissolved.
Stir the 2 mixtures together.

This was the hard part for us, strain the liquid to get all the seeds out. Ours was pretty thick it took a really long time to get it all strained through a fine mesh strainer.

Pour the mixture over ice.

Stir in some vodka.

This drink was really good on its own, and also good with the vodka, and I couldn't taste the alcohol in it all. I'm not sure I would make it again though just because it was really time consuming, but Alecia's mom said that the strained we were using was too fine, you want a strainer that can trap the strawberry seeds, while letting liquid through. Since we were using a super fine mesh strainer we had a lot of trouble.

Blood Orange Tequila Drink with Lime

It's starting to get warm out, and summer is the perfect time for fun cocktail recipes. This one uses blood oranges and is perfect for the beach or a summer party. The blood orange gave it a really deep red color, I thought this was fun for a different orange cocktail. The original recipe comes from Food fashion and fun.

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup Blood Orange Juice (this took us about 3 oranges)
-1/4 cup Lime Juice
-1/2 cup Tequila
-1 cup Sparkling Limeade
-Extra Blood Orange Slices for garnish

Cut the oranges. They are really a deep red on the inside.

Add the ingredients with some ice to a shaker.

Pour into a glass.

Garnish with an orange slice.

Find a good spot to enjoy your drink!

The color in this was pretty cool. If I made this again, I would use a little less lime juice, it had a pretty strong citrus taste.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Martini

This cocktail recipe comes from The Sweetest Temptations.

For an extra dose of chocolate-cherry goodness enjoy with Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cupcakes.

Ingredients:

-1 1/2 oz Cherry Vodka

-1 1/2 oz Chocolate Vodka

-1 ounce Creme de Cacao

-1 1/2 oz Half & Half

-Chocolate Syrup

-Grenadine
-Cherries

Assemble the ingredients. 

Drizzle as many cocktail glass as needed with chocolate.
Mix ingredients in a shaker with ice, pour into prepared glasses.

Garnish with a cherry.

This will make one cocktail. 

Enjoy!

Like any martini, this drink is strong. The flavors went perfectly together, this martini is a perfect after dinner drink and the ingredients are ingredients that you probably have on hand if you have a decently stocked bar at home, I think we only needed to buy a few ingredients for this recipe.

King Cake Cocktail

Happy Mardi Gras! I wish that I could be in NOLA celebrating right now, to learn more about King Cake and other Mardi Gras traditions, check out the official website. This recipe comes from Food Network magazine, you can find the original here.

This is the third bog that we've had a guest photographer for. Check out the other two blogs Kayla did guest photography for: Twice Baked Red Potatoes and Corn Risotto. Additionally, here's the link to Kayla's website. She did gorgeous work on all of the food photography for Vegetarian & Cooking!, her other photos are equally beautiful. 

Other Mardi Gras blogs: Mini King Cakes and Vegetarian Jambalaya.

Adapted from Food Network's Parade Time Cocktail. 

Ingredients: 

-Green, purple and gold sanding sugar, for the glass

-2 ounced vanilla-flavored vodka plus 2 drops almond extract

-1 ounce orange juice

-1 ounce Baileys Irish Cream

-Ground cinnamon, for dusting

  

   

Two reasons why this photo is included:
1.) Check out my cool new apron that J. got me for Christmas.
2.) This is where the magic happens whenever we cook the command station is set up in the middle of the kitchen. 

Mix all of the ingredients in a shaker.
I don't have a shaker so I used a glass with ice.  

Shake the ingredients.    

Lightly coat each glass with water.

Rim the glasses with the tri-colored sugar.

  

Carefully pour the cocktail into a rimmed glass.
Dust with a little cinnamon. 

The recipe makes one cocktail.

Cheers to Fat Tuesday.

This cocktail is the perfect way to kick off to Lent. If you find it to be a little too strong, just add more orange juice. If you're looking to celebrate Mardi Gras without travelling to New Orleans, invited some friends over and enjoy these with some Mini King Cakes. Mardi Gras is a celebration and these recipes are based on ingredients you already have. Cheers!