Easter Cake Cocktail

April 13, 2014 ~ Angela ~ 14 Comments

You didn’t think I’d let Easter come and go without giving you at least one holiday-appropriate cocktail, did you? Despite the fact that ~~Mother Nature has obviously lost her flipping mind~~ it is in the 80s today here in Jersey (after being cold enough for winter jackets last week) I am trying to stay in the Spring/Easter spirit. This cocktail definitely put me in the right frame of mind!!

Cocont, lemon, white chocolate…. Hmmmmm. Kind of sounds like a liquid version of my Lemon Coconut Magic Bars, doesn’t it?! They were a hit, and I am sure this will be too!

Easter Cake Cocktail

Ingredients:

1.5 oz Malibu Coconut Rum
1 oz Drillaud White Cocoa Creme de Cacao (or any white chocolate liqueur)
.5 oz Limoncello
2 oz half & half/milk/coconut milk
2 tsp white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
ice
Whipped cream and sprinkles for garnish (optional)

Directions:

In a cocktail shaker, combine rum, creme de cacao, limoncello, half & half and cake mix. Stir to incorporate cake mix into the liquid before adding ice and shaking till cold. Pour into glass and top with whipped cream and sprinkles. You could also use coconut flakes as a garnish instead of sprinkles.

* Please note that for these photos I doubled the recipe to fill the mason jar.

Even though I have named this drink after the upcoming holiday, it would make a lovely summer drink as well. You could even blend in some vanilla or coconut ice cream to make a Lemon Coconut Cake Shake!

Do you have a favorite Easter cocktail? Leave a comment letting me know what it is! I am always looking for holiday themed drink recipes! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Sundae Funday

June 17, 2013July 7, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 9 Comments

Here we are folks, Monday AGAIN. Another weekend has passed by all too quickly and another week looms long on the horizon. Right now you are probably saying to yourself, Monday mornings are bad enough without this chick bringing me down. What gives?

I give! I give you this!

That’s right – I am turning Mondays around! Okay, well maybe just this Monday but it’s a start, right?

One day a few weeks ago, while perusing Malibu Rum’s Facebook page, I discovered the existence of Malibu Sundae. Chocolate ice cream, coconut, rum… This sounded SO GOOD that I had to have it! I hit my usual liquor store which has a huge selection of pretty much everything. They did not have this.

Neither did any of the other liquor stores within a 15 mile radius of my house. I know this because I called them all.

“Hi! I was calling to find out if you carry Malibu Sundae?”

“Malibu Sunday?”

“Sundae like ice cream sundae.”

“Oh, no, we don’t have that.”

I finally found it on the website for a nearby liquor store. They didn’t have it in-store but I could special order it through their site.

And then it arrived. And it was good.

It’s delicious by itself, straight out of the bottle. It’s awesome mixed with Baileys Caramel and half & half. It’s AMAZING in my Tropical Sundae Cocktail!

Tropical Sundae Cocktail

2 oz Malibu Sundae
1 oz Creme de Banana
2 oz half & half
1 oz pineapple juice
1 banana cut into chunks
ice
chocolate syrup, 1 maraschino cherry, 1 pineapple chunk for garnish (optional)

Combine all ingredients except the garnish ingredients in a blender and blend. Swirl chocolate syrup inside the glass, pour and enjoy! Adding a hokey cocktail umbrella ups the cheer factor – especially helpful after another soul-crushing Monday at work.

Cheers!

Name that drink!

August 26, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

Seriously, I need help. No, not that kind of help. I swear, I’m not an alcoholic. The last drink I made was last weekend (Key Lime Martini– yummy!) and I haven’t had one since. Until tonight.

I had some bananas ripening on top of the fridge that I needed to do something with and lots of rum leftover from the Rum and Coke cupcakes, and since I am off from work tomorrow and Tuesday (woohoo! four day weekend!) I decided to mix up a new cocktail. It’s really good. The only problem is that I don’t know what to call it.

Here’s the recipe:

As Yet Unnamed Cocktail

Ingredients:

1 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk, due to some bizarre adult onset lactose intolerance)
1 ripe banana
1 shot dark rum
1 shot Bailey’s Caramel
1/2 shot Creme de Banana
ice

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

And then, after you’ve had one, tell me what I should call it! I was thinking of all the typical monkey type names…bananas and all that jazz, but I think they’ve all be done. Then my boyfriend said I should call it BananaFanaFoFana (is that how you spell that nonsense?!). Cute, but when this recipe goes viral and drunk people everywhere are ordering it at bars that’s going to be quite a mouthful. “Can I have another BananaFanFo…aww, just make me some more monkey juice bartender!”

So, any thoughts? Or are you too busy busting out the blender? ; )

Sangria for the Sneezy Soul

June 2, 2012March 11, 2014 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

Last weekend was perfect. Sunny weather, an extra day off from work, the unofficial start to summer… Instead of going “down the shore” as we say here in Jersey, I came down with a cold.

When I get sick, I go all out. I don’t spend a day or two feeling like crap and then bounce back. I get bring-in-the-CDC-and-maybe-a-voodoo-healer-for-good-measure sick. The highlight of every day this week has been bedtime, except for that one night there was a freaking giant spider running around on my bed. Unfortunately it was real, and not some Nyquil induced hallucination.

So now it’s another lovely Saturday and I STILL feel like garbage! In order to cheer myself up (and in hopes that some alcohol might kill of the super germs that have taken over my body) I decided to make myself some sangria.

At first I browsed some recipes online but a lot of them required ingredients that I didn’t have, nor did I have the energy to put on some respectable clothes and go to the store. So I decided to just wing it with stuff I had in the house.

Not only does it taste great, I just LOVE the colors!

I am now back in my Angela-shaped indentation on the couch with my tissues, sangria and a package of Twizzlers that my wonderful boyfriend picked up for me, watching Tough Love New Orleans. I feel better already. : )

Summer Green Sangria

Bottle of white wine (I used Smart Cookie Sauvignon Blanc)
20 fl oz lemon lime soda
6 fl oz pineapple juice
1/2 cup melon liqueur
Agave nectar to taste (if you want a little extra sweetness)
Blueberries, one orange, one kiwi

Combine wine, soda, pineapple juice and melon liqueur. If desired, add agave nectar to taste. Give it a good stir, then add blueberries, orange slices and sliced kiwi. Let sit in the fridge for a least an hour to let the flavors combine. Then…enjoy (preferably in a nice sunny spot on the porch)!

When Graduation Hands You Lemons…

May 22, 2012May 22, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 2 Comments

This is a picture of me six years ago on the day I graduated from college –

This is a picture that 2012 Angela would have sent 2006 Angela a few weeks before said graduation (if one could do those types of things…) –

College went something like this for me:

Ugh, I don’t know what I want to do, but I have to go to college…. Oooh, I’ll be a Liberal Arts major. That’s broad enough…. Oh wait, I like to write – I’ll be an English major!…. If I have to write ANOTHER FLIPPING PAPER about a book I am going to go jump off the Ben Franklin Bridge…. I’ll switch my major to Political Science! I like politics, and all that matters in the end is that I have a degree of some sort, right?…. RIGHT?!

I went to Rutgers University (it’s a good school) and my lack of direction aside, I was no dummy. I graduated with honors.

Six years later, to quote Sandra Bullock‘s character Lucy in While You Were Sleeping, “I go to work and I sit in a box like a veal.” Granted, she sat in a toll booth while I sit in a cubicle, and my lovely desk job has probably turned me into a much fattier piece of meat than a veal but you get the point.

Is this where I wanted to end up, with a yearly salary that is STILL a smaller number than the amount of money I had to take out in student loans to finance my useless Bachelor’s degree? (Still paying those back by the way…) I guess that’s what happens when you don’t have a plan but even years later I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up (some more).

I guess I should just be happy that I’m not graduating NOW, when a picture like this would be the most apropos –

There is one good thing I took away from my college years (aside from that lovely, EXPENSIVE piece of paper hanging on the wall in my home office) and that is Starbucks Passion Tea Lemonade. There was a Starbucks on campus. Going there for my PTL fix was the only thing I looked forward to every day.

Last week at the grocery store I saw Tazo Iced Passion teabags. The thought that I could now make my drink at home instead of paying Starbucks the six dollars and a kidney it costs for a Grande Tea these days made me very happy. Then I had an even happier thought, and that involved Limoncello. Enter, Tipsy Tea Lemonade…

This one is pretty simple. Prepare the tea according to the directions on the box and sweeten it (or not!) to your tastes. I used honey to sweeten mine. Once the tea is chilled fill a glass with half tea and half lemonade. As you can see, I used a bottle of convenience store lemonade (if you don’t have a Wawa where you live I’d like to offer my condolences) but if you want to get fancy feel free to make your own! The last step is to add as much Limoncello as your drunken heart desires. I used about a shot glass full. Mix, add ice and ENJOY!

Cheers to all the recent grads! Make this drink for your poor mothers when you all have to move back home for the next ten years…

Fruit Loopy

April 22, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 1 Comment

I am a marketing major’s dream. Slap some colorful artwork or something shiny on a product and I am drawn to it like a kid with ADD. The most recent thing to catch my eye was Three Olives Loopy. I was wandering up and down the vodka aisle at the liquor store while my boyfriend changed his mind for the millionth time about what beer he was going to buy and there it was – purple cap, blue, yellow, orange, pink and purple rings and that name – Loopy. Vodka that tastes like Fruit Loops?! Gimmie, gimmie!!!

It’s a rainy day today – perfect for staying in an experimenting with my pretty bottle of vodka. I cracked it open and the smell of one of my favorite kiddie cereals wafted out. This is going to be so easy, I thought to myself. Mix the vodka with some of the heavy cream I have left from yesterday’s chocolate mousse cake and I should have a drink that tastes just like the leftover milk from a bowl of Fruit Loops. I poured a shot of vodka and a splash of cream into my cocktail shaker with some ice, gave it a quick shake and then went in for the taste test.

WHY do things smell so good and then taste like CRAP?! Coffee, smelly markers, Loopy vodka. Unfair. It didn’t taste at all like Fruit Loops and had that nasty cheap vodka burn. I added some grenadine and shook again. Still yucky. As a last resort I tried adding some cherry fruit juice I had in the fridge and then…

Ahhhhhhhh!!! If Toucan Sam was a boozer, this would be his drink of choice.