Cocktail Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...anyday

A little bit late coming to the party this week, but as I was under the weather on Wednesday night, Shay and I decided Thursday night was a good as any to enjoy a cocktail.

This week it was my pick. Moose Milk. I was introduced to this 13 years ago, I remember exactly when, because I was hooked instantly. It tasted soooooooo good. Shay was very very skeptical at first as the name didn't make her salivate and she asked me where the heck was she going to find Moose Milk in Australia. At least I think we'd have a better chance of finding that than finding some of the very strange ingredients in some of the cocktails from the good old U S of A.

There are 1001 recipes out there for this, basically it's ice cream mixed with three equal parts of any alcohol you see fit to put into it.  It's another alcoholic drink that I think works well with rum. It's strange because I didn't think I really liked rum, especially rum and coke, that's just nasty, but I've taken a liking to a few rum based drinks including this one and a Mojito.

The base recipe for this week's cocktail can be found here.  I opted to change out the Bailey's with Butterscotch Schnapps, as I don't see the point in putting a cream based drink into loads of ice-cream.  Some recipes say to add eggs, why?,  IMHO that is just plain outright weird.  

Another recipe with no quantities, so I opted for 30mls (1oz) of each and eyeballed the ice cream. Added all the ingredients into the blender together and voila a fabulous cocktail. 

This one is well and truly a 5 out of 5.   You can find Shay's take on this cocktail here.

Catch up Wednesday

It's Wednesday again.  Something special happened today, my baby came back and it's working like new. No tension issues and it's been purring it's way through some quilting. YAY!!!!!

I quilted the hexagon chevrons this evening, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it. In the meantime I've been playing with waterlogue thanks to Liz at Broderie who put some beautiful photos on Instagram. I just had to jump in and get the app too. Here's a photo of my hexies as I was trying to decide how to quilt it.

As it's Wednesday it's also cocktail time. Last week I was away and forgot to make it beforehand, better late than never, I say!

Thea's pick was a Cucumber Cosmo.

Here's the ingredients, including the cucumber water in the bowl at the front.

Here's the result.

It looks like that because I could only find standard cranberry juice not white cranberry. I'm sure it tasted the same, just looked a bit, umm, dirty. It was good, and I will make it again if and when I can get my hands on some white cranberry juice.  A 4.5 out of 5 for this one.

I'm loving this weekly cocktail education. I very rarely drink these days, and I don't drink when I go out, I have to drive as there is no public transport around here. It's a nice way to be introduced to something that I possibly wouldn't order or try if I was out, but making them at home once a week has been a real hoot. It's nice to try just one, and I'm not really tempted to have more as it's mid week, and I don't want to be feeling the after effects the next day.

This week's cocktail - I have no idea what it's called as I deleted the email that had the info. However Shay face timed me and gave me the recipe, and I still forgot to ask her what it's called.

I didn't take a photo of the ingredients this week, but it involved a copious quantity of Kahlua, some ice, milk and chocolate syrup.  Instead of having it before dinner I deemed it perfect for dessert, and I finished it off pretty quickly. It was a little bit sweet for my taste, I'd probably reduce the chocolate syrup next time, and there will be a next time because it was very yummy. 4.5 out of 5 for this one too.

I think I need to invest in some different shaped glasses, the martini glasses are lovely but it's getting a bit boring using the same type of glass each week.

I'm off on vacay this weekend. I hope I will still have time to do a blog post or two while I'm away.  I might post some clues, so you can guess where I am. I will definitely be posting photos on Instagram.   My fur babies are going to be very happy, they won't be going to the kennels or cattery as they will be looked after by a wonderful friend who has offered to house and fur baby sit for me. I hope she knows what she's in for!!!!!

Cocktail Wednesday- the first one for 2014

It’s my turn this week, and I would have loved to have chosen a Toblerone, they are so yummy, but I didn’t want to kill Shay.  You’re welcome Shay.
Instead I’ve chosen a Caipirinha, apparently the national drink of Brazil.

It’s pretty much just lime, sugar, crushed ice and a type of rum called Cachaça, pronounced Ka cha sa. If you google Caipirinha, there’s quite a few recipe variations, but I like the simple original one.  If you can’t find Cachaça, you could possibly just use a white rum like Bacardi instead, I think. (Not sure whether it would taste the same or similar, in fact I might just do a taste test this evening to check.) Edited to add, after two with the Cachaca, it's not going to happen, but you are welcome to try.  You can use raw sugar or caster sugar or anything in between. You MUST use a fresh lime, not lime juice, as you need to muddle the lime with the sugar to release the oils in the lime rind.
It’s a really great summer drink, which is perfect for today as it's damn hot  with roughly 10000000000% humidity. I kid you not.

Anyway, here's a photo of the ingredients without the ice as it would have melted by the time I'd taken the photo.

Note: The pineapple is not one of the ingredients!!!

The recipe

Ingredients:

• 1lime, quartered
• 2 tsp fine sugar
• 2 oz Cachaça
• crushed ice, not too finely crushed as it melts too fast.

Preparation:

1. Place the lime wedges and sugar into an old-fashioned glass
2. Muddle well.
3. Fill the glass with ice.
4. Pour in the cachaça.
5. Stir well.

Note: Keep the sugar mixed in the drink by stirring often. I used quite a large lime so only added half a lime not a whole one.

The first sip and possibly the second sip is a bit like drinking rocket fuel, but persevere and you will be pleasantly surprised at how mellow it is after the first couple of sips.  

Recipe from  here

Cyril the parrot eyeing my drink.

This is a 5 out of 5 for me, a perfect summer pre dinner (during dinner, after dinner, what the heck, anytime it's hot) drink.

Cocktail Wednesday

Another week rolls by and it's only one week to Christmas Day, arghhhhhh.

This week's cocktail was brought to us by Rachael at Blue Mountain Daisy.

It's a very summery and refreshingly sounding Cucumber Collins.

This is what mine looked like, very anaemic compared to Rachael's.

The verdict.  It was a tiny bit too sweet for my taste. I don't love sweet cocktails, overall this is refreshing but next time I would add only a little simple syrup or none at all. It's a lovely fresh and unusual taste in a cocktail, but who doesn't love cool crisp cucumbers in summer.  

After seeing Rachael's and thinking that mine was too sweet, I tried again. Although by now it was Thursday. My photos are not nearly as pretty as Rachael's. It didn't help that both days, I made the drink in the evening, with less than stellar lighting.

Take two.

I need to use smaller glasses. I only used half the amount of sugar, that was better, but it was still very anaemic looking, I think even paler than yesterday's, and with too much soda in it, the flavour was very subdued.  A great drink for those hot summer evenings. I will absolutely make this one again, but next time I'll use much smaller glasses.

Cocktail Wednesday

Wow the weeks are disappearing very quickly, yikes, only two weeks until Christmas.  That's a good reason to taste test a cocktail or two. I need to decide which drinks are going to make the cut and will be served on Christmas Day. That brings me to today's cocktail.

I'm not sure whether this one has a name, Shay picked it so we'll just have to ask her. I think it's called a cranberry cocktail, if not, I'm sure Shay can come up with a suitable and probably highly inappropriate name!!!! 

Anyhoo, the ingredient's for this one are in the pic below. As usual I forgot to include one of the ingredients. You'd think I was taste testing the cocktails before I took the photo, as this is the second week in a row I've stuffed it up.

A lime should be in this shot, oh and ice.

The recipe for this one: a handful of ice, a shot of vodka, I had cranberry vodka on hand, so I used that instead of regular vodka.  Topped up with cranberry juice and dry ginger ale and served with a lime wedge and a mint sprig. Oh and if I lived somewhere I could get my hands on fresh cranberries, I'd have chucked a couple into the glass too for some festive cheer.

This is it.

Not bad at all. 100000000000% better than last weeks cocktail (sorry Thea). I'd give it a 4.25. I couldn't decide between a 4 or a 4.5 so I split the difference. 

Cocktail Wednesday (on Thursday)

Another week has rolled around and it's Cocktail Wednesday again.   Well it was yesterday, but as Thea has picked this weeks gem and she lives on the other side of the world and is therefore a day behind, we have been waiting for her to give us her verdict before Shay and I posted our "results".

Below we have a photo of most of the ingredients, I forgot about the other two ingredients when I was taking the photo, although I didn't forget to add them in when it was time to make this cocktail.

An eclectic mix in this one

The recipe called for Calisaya Liqueur but as both Shay and I discovered, it is not available in Australia or anywhere else in the world except Eugene, Oregon.  After quite a bit of research, and many emails back and forth between Shay and myself, we thought that Angostura bitters would be a reasonable substitute.

The ingredients: rum, Calisaya liqueur (Angostura Bitters substituted), maple syrup, coffee, and frothed milk. I'm not going to give you the recipe. You're welcome.

The piéce de resistance, see the photo below.

Yes, that is bacon

Another shot of the bacon

The Bacon Maple Syrup Cocktail.

I  couldn't decide whether it was going to be really bad, or it might just be an interesting mix that couldn't be as bad as it sounds.  Well I'm here to tell you that I think Thea may have been trying to poison us.  In the defence of the cocktail, it possibly could have been much better if we had the Calisaya, but I'm not ever going to try it even if I miraculously find that stuff, (not that I'm ever going to look for it either.)

Thank god for the bacon. The bacon was great. It almost masked the taste of the two sips I tried. Why did I take a second sip?

On a more positive note, BP has finished university for the year and is back home for the summer break. She has found part time work locally, so I'll have the pleasure of her company for the next three months!

BP and Bailey selfies.