Sipala-tini

A local italian restaurant has made a contest to find their a signature martini. Here is my entry.

bringing a little north jersey-italian to south cackalacky...

3 parts red table wine
1 part orange brandy (like Grand Marnier)
splash sweet vermouth
---
shake well with ice; strain into a martini glass.
garnish with orange twist or cherry

Watermelon Rum Cocktail

For our Cinco de July-O party, I carved up a watermelon fruit basket.



Since I didn't want the fruit to get soggy, I poured out most of the watermelon juice as I was cutting it. Before I knew it I had almost a pint glass full of flourescent red juice which was just too beautiful to toss. I left it in the capable hands of C, the house mixologist, to come up with something tasty while I finished prepping for the party.

strained watermelon juice + cruzan white rum = C's watermelon rum cocktail



(pink sugar rimmed glass optional)

When life gives your tomatoes...

Another great Christmas gift from Mom & Dad. With a bushel of tomatoes on the kitchen counter I pulled out the box of attachments I got for Christmas for the KitchenAid mixer. One of them was a fruit/vegetable strainer. In no time we had a pot of beautiful red tomato sauce.





and when life gives you fresh tomato sauce and a little gin...

White Sangria

This weekends heat wave called for a refreshing beverage.


(Courtesy of weather.com)

Craig came up with a great recipe for a White Sangria. A bottle of pinot grigio, vodka, midori, and some grapefruit and orange slices. Delicious!