My Favorite Things...Part III

One of my favorite Christmas songs is "My Favorite Things"

Who can forget Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music?

Classic

Although my favorite rendition has always been country singer Lorrie Morgan's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXiTIsB_ADQ

As we are winding down to the last few days before Christmas , I am reflecting on some of my favorite things.

So I decided I would do posts this week on things that bring a smile to my face .

I hope they make you smile too.

From flickr.com

Least you all think I'm a Lush ( and I know some of you do ) ,

I must say, I do enjoy a good cocktail.

Whether it's sharing a morning Bloody Mary,

or a late afternoon sangria with my BFF's at the river or

a wine and snacky party with my girlfriends,

good friends and good cocktails = a smile on my face.

 I thought I would share a couple of my go-to cocktail recipes with you.

At the river, my BFF and I like to mix up a batch of homemade Bloody Mary mix.

via  cupcakesandcashmere.com

We bottle it up and have it on hand for the season.

It is SO much better than bought mix.

Bloody Mary Mix

31/2 Cups water

31/2 Beef Bouillon cubes

Boil these and remove from heat.

Add:

3/4 cup lemon juice

1 T. celery salt

1 T. Tabasco

3 quarts V-8

1 quart Clamato

3 1/2 ounce Worcestershire sauce

1 T. horseradish

Bottle it up for the best Bloody Marys ever.

Add Vodka ( your preference on amount) pour in mix and garnish.

We like the " whole salad bar" , pickle spear, olive, celery stalk, etc.

Enjoy!

via kathiecooks.blogspot.com

Around the neighborhood , I'm famous ( or infamous ) for my Sangria.

Sangria is basically a wine punch made with various fruit juices and liquors.

My basic recipe is as follows :

One bottle dry red wine

One cup Rum

One cup Raspberry Schnapps

I can frozen lemonade

1 can frozen fruit punch

3 cups water ( sometimes I use 7-up or Spite in place of water for a little fizz)

Sliced fruit ,1 lemons , 1 limes , 1 orange

Place the fruit in the bottom of  a gallon size container

( I like to use the Pampered Chef Quick-Stir Pitcher)

add  all the other ingredients.

If you are using soda instead of water, don't add it till you are ready to serve.

Let the party begin !

I've already told you about my love of wine .

And my adventure in stomping grapes at my favorite Iowa Winery.

I just love a glass of Summerset Caba Moch . If you are in the Indianola, Iowa area, you should check out their beautiful winery.

From etsy.com

My last recipe to share with you is for my favorite Martini.

Lemon Drop ~ YUMMY !

via  weddingchicks.com

1 1/2 ounces vodka (use a good-quality vodka)

1/2 ounce orange liqueur (Triple Sec, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, etc.)
1 teaspoon superfine sugar or to taste*
3/4 ounce freshly-squeezed lemon juice
Ice cubes
Superfine sugar for dipping
Twisted peel of lemon

.
Mix the vodka, orange liqueur, sugar, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice

and Shake, Shake , Shake... Shake your booty.

Anyway...

(supposedly the cocktail is to be shaken 40 times to make sure the sugar is well blended).
Pour strained liquor into sugar-rimmed martini glass and garnish with a twisted peel of lemon.

 To create a sugar-rimmed glass,

 take a lemon wedge and rub the drinking surface of the glass so it is barely moist.

Dip the edge of the glass into the superfine sugar.

via annetaintor.com

Cheers.....

Partying at these Linkies:

http://www.mygirlishwhims.blogspot.com/


http://www.itsoverflowing.com/2011/12/overflowing-with-creativity-1.html



http://www.sugaranddots.com/

Thirsty Thursday - It's Martini Time

One of my favorite cocktails are martinis. Not the James Bond ,"stirred not shaken" kind, but the yummy , fluffy, girly kind.
We are taking a trip to the local orchard this weekend and that got me thinking about apple martinis. I found this great recipe at allrecipes.com.



Ingredients

• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger best-quality vodka
• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger apple schnapps
• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger frozen lemonade
• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger chilled lemon-lime soda
• 1 lime wedge
• 1 maraschino cherries

Directions

1. Pour the vodka, schnapps, lemonade, and soda into a cocktail shaker over ice. Cover, and shake until the outside of the shaker has frosted. Strain into a chilled martini glass, and garnish with a lime wedge and maraschino cherry to serve.

The next most important thing when having a martini is proper stemware . Enough can NOT be said be said about proper stemware !



Aren't these beautiful? And FUN !

And what are martini's if not fun ???

Wordless Wednesday - Almost

So , I'm pretty new to this blogging thing , (but I am having fun with it ) and I see quite a few blogs that do " Wordless Wednesday" posts.
Now I have Addie every Wednesday afternoon, so I thought it would be a pretty cool feature on my blog too.
Here's the problem.... it's almost impossible for me to be wordless about ANYTHING ! But.... I am going to try use as few words as possible.
This Wednesday's theme : INSPIRATION.

I have found another cool thing while blogging , it's called Pinterest . It's a great creative tool , that lets you look at other people's inspiration. It's like an online scrapbook of all things that interest you. How many times have you looked at a picture in a magazine and thought it was great and got some inspiration from it , then when you tried to find it back , you couldn't remember which magazine it was in or which issue of which magazine (  if you're like me, you have all the issues because you just can't part with them , cause you might need to refer back... someday ), well this helps you store all of those ideas on " boards". For instance , I have a board for "garden" and " quotes" and "inspiration " and , well , you can have as many boards as you have interests if you want . It's awesome , I'm telling you !

ANYWAY...... here is some of my INSPIRATION ....

Inspiration for my " chair obsession"

An Inspiration for next year in the Moon Garden. Can't you just see a similar arrangement with silver pots and white flowers ? HEAVEN !

One of the next DIY projects I'm going to tackle. Addie LOVES writing with her chalk. Just because it's functional doesn't mean it can't be beautiful !

Pomegranate Champagne Punch

I think this will be the "signature cocktail "  at my next Girl's Night party ! YUMM!

My quote of the week.....BUT oh, so true !

Ok , so it wasn't "Wordless" , but this is as close as it gets for me. The wordless Wednesday word is INSPIRATION and  I hope my blog gives you a little of that.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's new feature , "Thirsty Thursday". I haven't found a blog yet that does that , but I'm sure there must be one or two !