It’s been a little while since I shared a cocktail recipe! I’ve been meaning to make this Blackberry Gin Fizz cocktail since I saw a version of it in the June issue of Cooking Light.
A “fizz” is a cocktail that includes an acidic juice (lemon or lime usually) and carbonated water. Fizzes typically also use egg whites in the recipe to add some extra froth on top.
I absolutely love gin fizzes, they are a perfect warm-weather drink. I used the Cooking Light recipe for a Blackberry Gin Fizz as a starting point, but adapted it slightly.
NOTE: I was sent some blood oranges and cara cara oranges from The Limoneira Company to use in a recipe. All opinions are mine.
It’s pretty obvious that I love citrus, I use the juice and zest of lemons, limes, and oranges in most of my recipes, so I’m excited to share this recipe for Frozen Blood Orange Margaritas.
So when The Limoneira Company contacted me to help spread the word about their new offerings, I jumped at the chance. Limoneira is traditionally known for its lemons, but recently began expanding their orchards to include more specialty citrus, including Cara Cara and Blood Oranges.
Blood Oranges have a slightly less acidic taste than regular oranges, and their bright red color makes for some really beautiful dishes. I wanted to showcase their color, so I decided to make blood orange margaritas.
As much as I am trying to will it to be spring, it is still pretty cold in Philadelphia, so this version has a bit of cinnamon to add a bit of warmth to the flavor.
You can never have too many festive cocktails to help you celebrate this time of year, don’t you think, especially one that uses in season fruit, like these Pomegranate Margaritas!
This recipe for Pomegranate Margaritas makes a beautiful drink, perfect for small gatherings!
I made my own juice for this recipe (instructions below) but you can just purchase pomegranate juice at your grocery store to make this a super quick recipe.
cThis has been quite a dreary and rainy fall so far. One of my favorite remedies for blah weather is a warm beverage. In the fall, you really can’t go wrong with a mulled apple cider, like this Orange Mulled Whiskey Cider!
Nielsen-Massey sent me a sample of their Pure Orange Extract to use in this citrusy spiced cider. Nielsen-Massey has offered high quality vanilla and other flavors since 1907. They are my go to for extracts, vanilla beans, and vanilla powder. Their Pure Orange Extract is a great pantry way to always have citrus flavor on hand. Just 1/2 teaspoons of the orange extract equals two tablespoons fresh orange juice.
They must have known Philadelphia has been basically sitting under a cloud and that I needed a warm pick me up! The addition of the pure orange extract to this cider brings some brightness to the mulled cider.
This cider uses some of my favorite spices to really bring the fall flavor. I picked up my spices at the Head Nut in Reading Terminal, but you can also find them at Penzey’s.
Recipe (serves 6):
2 quarts apple cider
1/2 cup 100% pure pomegranate juice
1/3 cup 100% pure maple syrup
1 Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean
1 teaspoon Nielsen-Massey Pure Orange Extract
3 large cinnamon sticks
12 whole cloves
5 whole allspice berries
1/4 teaspoon cardamom seeds
3/4 cup whiskey
Add the apple cider, pomegranate juice and maple syrup to a large saucepan; heat over medium-high heat.
Split vanilla bean in half lengthwise with the tip of a small knife.
Scrape both sides of the bean with the knife’s dull side and add the seeds and bean to the saucepan. (The seeds are the black flecks in the cider.)
Add the orange extract, cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries and cardamom seeds to the saucepan; stir to combine. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 30 minutes. Strain mulled cider through a fine mesh sieve.
Add whiskey; stir to combine. Serve with a fresh apple or orange slice.
This cider tastes just like fall! What a comforting beverage as the weather turns colder.
The spices in the cider add a nice warmth to the drink, complementing the apple and whiskey flavors nicely.
The orange flavor from Nielsen-Massey’s Pure Orange Extract comes through as well, adding a burst of bright citrus and making for a super tasty drink!
Note: I was sent coupons for Graeter’s Ice Cream for review. Opinions are my own.
Happy National Root Beer Float Day! I had to celebrate the only way I know how, by making myself a root beer float, or, more specifically, an Adult Root Beer Float!
Luckily, Graeter’s Ice Cream wanted me to celebrate in style and sent me some coupons so that I could try their snazzy flavors in my float.
Graeter’s Ice Cream
Graeter’s Ice Cream is still made the same way it has been since 1870: by hand. Made with high quality ingredients, the ice cream is still made one batch at a time in 2 1/2 gallon French pots.
Graeter’s has some seriously awesome flavors. To highlight some of them, I decided to make an “adult” root beer float, made with Not Your Father’s Root Beer, because, why not?
The Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chip Ice Cream seemed like the perfect way to make a root beer float more for adults– it’s made with the bold taste of Kentucky bourbon, then loaded it with roasted, buttered, salted pecan halves and our gourmet bittersweet chocolate chips. (There isn’t actually bourbon in it by the way.)
The Original Salted Caramel is one of the first flavors Graeter’s made over a century ago. Made with brown sugar, cream, and a pinch of salt, it’s a perfect complement to root beer in my opinion!
(They also have a Madagascar Vanilla Bean flavor if you’re not feeling particularly adventurous with your float this time around.)
Ingredients:
1 pint Graeter’s Ice Cream of your choice, (I suggest Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chip or Original Salted Caramel)
Note: I was sent a Coyote Outdoor Grill to participate in the #CoyoteChallenge. All opinions are mine alone.
I am absolutely loving my Coyote OutdoorGrill; I have been grilling anything and everything I can find! To see some of my other recipes I’ve made using my beloved grill, check them out here. This time, I wanted to branch out and find recipes that you may not necessarily consider making on the grill.
I kept to the recipe for the most part, but added in some peaches for extra flavor because my husband loves all things peach and ended up with this recipe for Grilled Peach Old Fashioned Cocktail. I also substituted in Rye Whiskey to suit our personal tastes. Feel free to use your favorite bourbon of choice instead.
My friends and I loooooove Old Fashioned’s so I was thrilled to find a new version of our favorite cocktail. I make a mean Fizzy Old Fashioned that is a perfect “punch” for groups of friends; it’s not nearly as strong as a typical Old Fashioned, but the bourbon taste is still very present.
Ingredients:
1/2 orange, cut into slices
12 pitted cherries
1 peach, cut into quarter slices, with the stone removed
1 (750-ml bottle) rye whiskey (such as Bulleit Rye)
1 liter club soda, cold or blood orange soda, cold
ice
A quick note for my gluten-free friends. Rye whiskey, obviously derived from rye, is gluten-free. The distilling process removes the gluten proteins. So drink away!
Today (July 22nd), Ball brand is hosting it’s sixth annual Can-It-Forward Day. (You may recall my last post on Can-It-Forward Day, where I canned on my own for the very first time to make salsa.) Can-It-Forward day is a day to celebrate the joys of fresh preserving, and encourage both new and veteran canners to preserve more. This year, the day will be streamed online via Facebook Live from 10:00 am 3:30 pm EST. Throughout the day, the Ball brand and expert ambassadors will be demoing a variety of canning recipes. In the true spirit of “canning it forward,” for every engagement received on the videos, whether it be a comment, like or share, the brand donate $1 to a local charity, so be sure to check it out!
You can also ask Jarden Home Brands canning experts any preserving or home canning questions via Twitter with the hashtag #canitforward from 10AM – 5PM ET on July 22nd. Share your own #canitforward creations with the brand on Pinterest and Instagram as well!
Ball brand has also launched the Freshly Preserved Ideas Tumblr page, a “digital pledge page” a place for consumers to take the pledge to Can-It-Forward this year. Check it out and pledge!
I really loved the new canning book from Ball; along with canning and preserving recipes, there are many recipes that incorporate the canned/preserved items.
source: freshpreserving.com/
I wanted to show off how great both types of recipes found in the book are, so I made a blackberry syrup to can, and used it in a watermelon blackberry granita.
The blue wide mouth pint jars are SO PRETTY. I have been using a set of the regular mouth blue pint jars as my drinking glasses for years so I was excited to use the wide mouth for their actual intended use!
source: freshpreserving.com/
I will get to the canning and recipes shortly, BUT Ball brand was also kind enough to provide a second set of the products I received as a giveaway to my readers! Details on how to enter will be at the end of the post!
Ingredients:
For Blackberry Syrup:
3 lbs blackberries
2 cups water
2 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp bottled lemon juice
For Watermelon-Blackberry Granita:
8 cups seeded watermelon cubes
1/2 cup Blackberry Syrup
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
Gear:
stainless steel or enameled Dutch oven
wire-mesh strainer
3 pint jars, lids, and bands
large pot for canning + a rack to keep the jars off the bottom of the pot
cheesecloth
13×9 inch baking dish
So, since my last post, I’ve upgraded my canning situation to the Ball Fresh Preserving Kit. However, for beginners, you really can’t beat the value of the Beginners Kit that I used last year to make the salsa. On to the recipes!
Over the past year, quite a few of my good friends have gotten engaged. Four of us are getting married this summer (!), so we have plenty to celebrate and discuss when we meet up.
We all love a good cocktail to make our time together festive and have made a few fun ones in the past. This time around, I decided to make us a gin-based drink that just screams spring.
Gimlets are traditionally made with gin (or vodka) and lime juice, but I wanted to create a new, fun cocktail with a few choice ingredients. This Sparkling Blackberry Gimlet is made with Blackberry Ginger Ale. To further enhance the blackberry flavor, I made a quick blackberry-mint simple syrup to go with it. You can substitute in traditional simple syrup if you’d prefer.
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MySmoothie #CollectiveBias
My weekends have become so busy lately as my wedding gets closer. We are now just 2 months from the big day, and every weekend I feel like I have something wedding related I have to attend to. Because I am always on the go, it has become kind of difficult to get a good breakfast in on weekends, so my go-to breakfast of choice are smoothies, like this Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie!
I love smoothies, but some smoothies don’t keep me full long enough to really be worth making them. So I’ve amped up this smoothie with a few ingredients I picked up at Walmart to keep me full longer.
The base of this smoothie is Oikos Vanilla Triple Zero Greek Nonfat Yogurt, which has 15 grams of protein per 5.3oz which helps me stay full longer. The yogurt also has 0 fat, 0 added sugar,* and 0 artificial sweeteners.
I’m a firm believer that peanut butter makes smoothies taste so much better, so I also used Jif™ Peanut Powder to add peanut buttery goodness. The Peanut Powder has 85% less fat that traditional peanut butter and no sugar added.
Note: right now there is an Ibotta offer for $1.50 cash back on the combination of Jif Peanut Powder and Oikos (Vanilla) Triple Zero Greek Yogurt OR $1.50 cash back on the combination of Jif Creamy Peanut Butter and Dannon Vanilla Yogurt
*not a low calorie food
I also added in old fashioned oats, a banana, and some milk to make a super tasty and filling smoothie that I can take on the go!
Ingredients (serves 2):
1 banana, sliced
1/2 cup skim milk or almond milk
1/2 cup Oikos Vanilla Triple Zero Greek Nonfat Yogurt
The Holiday Season is officially upon us! And what better way to begin the season than with a giveaway? This post and giveaway are brought to you by one of my favorite organizations, World Vision.
The World Vision Gift Catalog is filled with beautiful gift options for this gift-giving season and cover every budget ($10 to $5,100) that help children and families in need worldwide.
The World Vision Gift Catalog offers an alternative (or addition to) traditional holiday gift giving. With a financial contribution, the gift giver can select from dozens of items that you will get while helping a person in need. For example, a gardener may enjoy giving hybrid or drought-resistant seeds to a farmer through a donation of just $17 to help one family. Or a child may be the perfect recipient of a donation of $35 which buys new toys such as stuffed animals, dolls, sports equipment, simple games, and more. Because of donations from leading companies, this gift actually goes 12 times further to provide fun-filled toys (it would buy $420 worth of new toys).
A Chai Toddy is a hot toddy made with chai, which is a tea made with a blend of spices typically including green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, ground ginger, and black peppercorns. With the addition of whiskey or bourbon, a Chai Toddy makes for a yummy party beverage, don’t you think?
This post is sponsored by Door-to-Door Organics. All opinions are my own. #MyFarm2Table
I have been using Door-to-Door Organics for a while now, receiving a Little Mixed Box every other week, and I absolutely love it. Each box is always filled with great quality produce that I can customize a few days prior to ensure I get exactly what I want each time.
This week, I will be sharing a bunch of recipes that I made for a Farm-to-Table Dinner using a Local Farm Box plus a curated selection of local foods, courtesy of Door-to-Door Organics. I had plenty of ingredient to choose from, look at all these goodies!
These products are sourced locally when possible and come from a number of different local farmers.
Interested in trying out a farm box for yourself? Enter code ICanFarm2Table to receive 40% your first delivery!
I used this as an opportunity to bring some of the “farm” into my little city condo. We typically eat dinner on the kitchen island, so I transformed our little space into a picnic! The tomatoes were so gorgeous, the ones not used for the meal became part of the tablescape, along with some of the fresh herbs I used in the recipes as well as a bouquet of flowers.
We had plenty of options to choose from, beginning with Gazpacho and then feasting on Zucchini Boats, Mediterranean Chicken Skewers, and Jalapeno Poppers. Our meal was complemented with a Sparkling Blueberry Pomegranate Cocktail, which was 1/2 oz St. Germain with Club Soda and a splash of Pomegranate Juice topped with Blueberries — so simple and really tasty!
I’m sharing the recipes all week (with the Sparkling Blueberry Pomegranate Cocktail below) so stop back to see what I’ve made!
I served the food on wooden boards to give it a more outdoorsy feel and we drank out of mason jars (which is actually the norm in my household anyways).
This post is sponsored by Equal. All opinions are my own.
I love coffee. No, I need coffee. And in the summer, I crave iced coffee, but don’t want to have to go to a coffee shop every time I have a hankering (that can really add up!)
Really solid iced coffee is made strong enough to stand up to the ice as it melts. I also prefer a really strong brew so that I can add sweetener and half and half to make the perfect iced beverage. So overnight iced coffee is a simple and awesome option, plus it’s ready for you in the morning!
Overnight iced coffee is cold brewed; the ground coffee “brews” in the water overnight to give a rich deep flavor, and is really easy to make. I was sent a summer beverage kit from Equal to get ready for all the delicious drinks of summer and thought this would be the perfect time to try out an overnight coffee using the kit and Equal 0-calorie sweetener!
Equal 0-Calorie Sweetener pairs wonderfully with a strong brewed iced coffee. Equal packets are concentrated (1 packet = the sweetness of 2 teaspoons sugar) while Equal Spoonful measures cup for cup. Equal is a great option to sweeten recipes without adding calories! (For more recipes using Equal, check out their recipe page.)
Cool Peach Iced Tea Recipe Card from The Diabetic Chef® Chef Chris Smith
Equal® Recipe Guide Booklet
Equal® iPad holder
I decided to use the Takeya Flash Chill Tea Maker to make the overnight iced coffee and sweetened my coffee with Equal Spoonful. The Tea Maker has a built in Tea Infuser which also works great to hold the coffee grounds. (Equal is also providing one reader with a kit of their own! Details after the recipe…)
Today (February 19) is National Chocolate Mint Day! With the cold temperatures across most of the U.S., I think we can all use a nice warm beverage to keep us toasty, and this is the perfect food holiday for such a beverage! So, I present: Spiked Mint Coconut Milk Hot Chocolate!
Blue Chair Bay must feel the same way, so I developed this non-dairy hot chocolate beverage to pair with their Coconut Spiced Rum. The coconut rum, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove is the perfect accompaniment to hot chocolate, don’t you think? To enhance the coconut flavor in the rum, I decided to use coconut milk which makes a rich and creamy hot chocolate base.
Rum always reminds me of warmer weather, and the Coconut Spiced Rum is no exception. Blue Chair Bay offers a collection of premium-blended rums inspired by multi-platinum singer-songwriter Kenny Chesney’s love of the island lifestyle. So even though most of us probably are not soaking up the sun at the moment, we can have our own little escape with this winter-weather treat!
For readers over 21 years of age, I also have an exciting giveaway! Blue Chair Bay has offered to give one bottle of Blue Chair Bay Rum to a lucky winner! Details after the recipe.
I have never been one to shy away from sharing all of the awesomeness that the Philadelphia area has to offer. I am pretty darn proud of my city, especially when it comes to our rocking food and beverage scene. So it should come as no surprise that my gin of choice is always Bluecoat Gin.
Why yes, Bluecoat IS made in Philadelphia! What sets Bluecoat’s flavor apart from others is their use of organic juniper berries, which give off a more spicy, earthy tone versus pine-tree flavors found in regular juniper berries. Bluecoat is finished off with a premium blend of organic American citrus peels and spices which adds a nice citrusy finish to the spirit.
Bluecoat must have known my affinity for them, because I was asked to develop a Valentine’s Day themed cocktail using this yummy gin. Because Valentine’s Day is all about the love, I threw in a bunch of my favorite cocktail ingredients to make the “perfect” cocktail for me! (Here’s hoping you agree)
This recipe for a Blue Rose Cocktail starts with a strawberry mint simple syrup, adds in some sparking wine, and finishes off with some pomegranate juice.
My fiance (and considerably more creative half) dubbed this a “Blue Rose Cocktail” — Bluecoat Gin + rose coloring from the simple syrup and pomegranate juice.
Hi all! I’m happy to introduce Chris from HealthSmartLiving.com! His blog is filled with tips on hydroponic gardening, healthy cooking, juicing and overall nutritious recipes. His website even includes a review of juicers. Juicing is a foreign concept to me and looking through his blog helped answer a lot of questions I had about it.
Today, he is sharing a Spicy Tomato Juice recipe make from home grown tomatoes that looks oh so tasty! Let me turn it over to Chris…
I love August in Chicago. It’s warm, sunny, and all of my gardening efforts start to pay off. Even though we live in downtown Chicago with a 400 square foot yard, we still manage to pack a pretty good fruitful garden in. This year we grew tomatoes, peppers, onions and various herbs.
You also have to be prepared to use a lot of fresh vegetables or watch them go bad. I hope to learn canning someday but it won’t be this year. Recently I made my first batch of tomato gazpacho and it was amazing. It also was really time consuming so I would call it a special occasion dish.
Another simpler way I’ve found to use a LOT of tomatoes, jalapenos, and onions is by juicing my own tomato juice. My wife and I started juicing this spring as a way to get more fruits and vegetables in our diet and to improve our overall health. We have really enjoyed it and I’ve even dedicated a section of my personal blog to juicing. It covers all the basics to get started.
