Saturday Night Sips – Fizzy Candy Lemonade

July 26, 2014 ~ Angela ~ 3 Comments

Hi everyone! Sorry for being MIA for the most part this summer – I started grad school and it’s ~~kicking my ass~~ very time consuming. However, after a long day of slogging through lease accounting homework I decided I needed a cocktail. I whipped up something new and had to drop in to share it. So this post is going to be short and sweet, just like the ingredient list for my Fizzy Candy Lemonade!

Fizzy Candy Lemonade

Ingredients:

Sparkling Lemonade
Sprite
Pinnacle County Fair Cotton Vodka
Grenadine
Ice

Directions:

Pour as big a shot of the vodka as you want into a glass. Fill the glass almost the rest of the way with half sparkling lemonade and half Sprite. Give it a stir, add some ice and then pour in a splash of grenadine.

That’s it! Totally simple – no measuring required. And look, it’s ombré! Is ombré still in, or am I too late? I have been out of the loop the past few months… Oh well, it’s pretty, pink, summery, and tastes awesome. What are you waiting for? It’s Saturday night – drink up!

Black and Bloopy

July 11, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 8 Comments

I never would have thought that a cocktail could look like a bruise, but tonight I have succeeded in creating one. I don’t know if this is an accomplishment to be proud of, but here it is… the Black and Bloopy!

I bought this lovely little tub of Electric Lemonade Slush Mix from Tastefully Simple. Add water, vodka (I used Three Olives Loopy) and then stick it in the freezer. I did this a few weeks ago, and then promptly forgot about it. Then today happened, and today was one of those days that needs to end with a cocktail. After I hacked out enough to fill my glass I gave it a taste. Good but VERY sour! So I decided to add some grenadine for a little extra sweetness. The end result was a very good, although oddly colored alcoholic slushy.

This one is pretty easy! Buy some of this slush mix from your area Tastefully Simple rep (support your local business while you booze!), add water and the vodka of your choice per the instructions on the container and freeze! When serving, if you want your drink to look like its been in a bar fight drizzle in some grenadine.

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.

Fruit Loopy Ingredients

One shot Three Olives Loopy
One shot cherry fruit juice
Splash of cream/half & half/milk to taste
Splash of grenadine
Ice

Directions

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake it up (oooh-oooh)!

If you like, rim your martini glass with some crushed Fruit Loops before pouring in your cocktail.

Buttons (Or, Why Sometimes Boxed Is Better)

April 10, 2012April 10, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 1 Comment

I have been tasked with making cupcakes for a coworker’s 60th birthday celebration tomorrow. At first I was thinking of making the Snickerdoodle cupcakes I posted about in Cupcakes Taste Better Than Gasoline, but then I decided I wanted to try something new – something light and fruity for spring. I did my usual internet perusal and found a recipe for lemon cupcakes made with light coconut milk. Sounds tasty, right?

Since I always like to be cautious, I baked them last night. This way, if they didn’t turn out as hoped I still had tonight to make a new batch. Good thing. They were…weird. Perhaps it was the light coconut milk? I’ve cooked with it, but never baked with it before. The batter was made from scratch, and that was the only thing in it that wasn’t normal for a cupcake… Whatever it was, I knew that recipe was not a keeper.

So today I regrouped with a good old-fashioned lemon boxed cake mix. Easy peasy, trusted results! I put lemon batter in, I got lemon cupcakes out! I did try a little experiment with the frosting – I decided to make a cherry flavored buttercream. It may very well be the best thing I have ever created. I had a decent amount left after frosting the cupcakes. I didn’t want to wash it down the sink but I knew that if I put it in a container in the fridge that I would end up gorging myself on it at some point later in the evening. I did eat a giant blob of it before disposing of the rest. 😛

So, lemon cake + cherry frosting = Cherry Lemonade Cupcakes! I got a bag of colorful buttons from the local craft store to use as decoration because the birthday girl loves to sew. Hopefully people can control themselves long enough to remove the buttons before diving into one of these babies…

Cherry Lemonade Cupcakes

Lemon Cupcakes

Box of lemon cake mix and ingredients listed on box.

Cherry Buttercream (adapted from Butter Cream Frosting II on allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons grenadine

Directions

Make cupcakes according to directions on box. Let cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter and shortening in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add all other ingredients and beat well.

I like to put a lot of icing on my cupcakes, so if you’re going to do it my way make two batches of icing to decorate 24 cupcakes.

Hop, Skip and Go Naked?

March 21, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 2 Comments

No, it’s not some kind of adult playground game. It’s a cocktail! I stumbled upon this gem while poking around on my favorite recipe site – Allrecipes.com.

If you Google “Hop Skip and Go Naked recipe” you will most likely find a bunch of recipes that involve a combination of beer, vodka and lemonade (ew?). You might also find a cookie recipe or two. Cookies are good, but this drink is better!

Simple ingredients – cherry vodka, Triple Sec, cranberry juice and grenadine. Tastes just like Hawaiian Punch.

Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red (Photo credit: Like_the_Grand_Canyon)

It is SO good that it’s quite easy to knock back a few, kind of forgetting the vodka part, until suddenly… you’re drunk! Thus, I have renamed this drink Hawaiian Punch Drunk. It’s a much more suitable moniker, and removes any connections to that hillbilly beer/lemonade concoction. Whatever you call it though, you should definitely try it – especially if you live in my neck of the woods where it’s going to be 80 degrees tomorrow!