Perfect Combination - chocolate and peanut butter

For those of you that know me I am addicted to anything chocolate and peanut butter.
I came across this awesome drink - perfect for a snowy Valentine's Weekend!
PEANUT BUTTER CUP

Ingredients
1-1/2 oz Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka
1 oz Castries Crème Peanut Rum
3/4 oz Chocolate Liqueur
1/2 oz Cream

Preparation
Drizzle chocolate syrup into the bottom of a martini glass. Place the glass into the refrigerator until ready to use. Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into the chilled martini glass and garnish with a peanut butter cup.

Super Bowl Cocktails

At your Super Bowl Party serve up some fun cocktails - one for the Colts and one for the Saints!!

A Colt One

1 1/2 parts Malibu Rum
3/4 part Malibu Pineapple Rum
3/4 part blue curacao
1 3/4 parts pineapple juice

Mix contents in a shaker and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a pineapple wedge.

Hurricane

1 oz. Light Rum
1 oz. Dark Rum
1/2 oz. Passion Fruit Juice
1/2 oz. Lime Juice
Garnish with a lime squeeze, cherry, pineapple spear, and a paper Umbrella, of course. Serve in a footed vessel.

Rum Rum Rudolph

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Cocktail Recipe Ingredients
1 1/4 oz light rum
1 cubes ice
1 1/2 oz lemon juice
Fill to Top with Cranberry Juice
1/2 oz grendadine
1 lemon wedge as garnish
Directions Mix the light rum, lemon juice, and grenadine. Add the ice cubes and fill to your own taste with Cranberry juice. Add a wedge of lemon on your glass and voila! Enjoy! Then you need fun reindeer napkins to go with it!

Autumn Kiss Cocktail

Autumn Kiss-Feel seduced by cider and spice.

Ingredients:

• 1 pouch Dry Mix for about 6 oz of Apple Cider
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• 10 oz Ginger Ale
• 1 oz Spiced Rum-I like the Captain!
  

Pour Ginger Ale into a frosted mug. Add dry apple cider mix and rum and stir with the cinnamon stick. Leave the stick in the mug for more flavor.

(if you don't have dry mix use apple cider and reduce ginger ale)

Spiced

When I think of October I of course think pumpkins, halloween, turning leaves and my sons birthday but I also think of everything with 'spice'.
So I searched Spiced Cocktails!
Check these out:
Since iced tea vodka is so popular right now and I have some Appleton's Rum in my cabinet I love this!


Appleton Spiced Iced Tea

• 2 oz. Rum, Jamaican (Appleton Estates)
• 1 can (Lipton Brisk®) Iced Tea
• 1 pinch (optional) Cinnamon
• 1 pinch (optional) Nutmeg
  

  Fill glass with ice, pour 2 oz. Appleton Estates Jamaican Rum into a large glass or mug. Add Spices then add Lipton Brisk Ice Tea.

Perfect for after pumpkin picking:

Captain's Spiced Cider Drink

• 2 oz. Rum, spiced (Captain Morgan's)
• Fill with Cider, apple

Pour over ice

and lastly Spiced Pomegranate Sipper from a previous post.

Love Gin

My favorite drink is a gin and tonic with lime - can't get much better - classic and refreshing. My second favorite is a mojito - When I came across this recipe from GQ's top cocktail list I thought it sort of combined both. Very Good!

Romeo and Juliet!

2 oz Gin of your choice - I prefer Bombay!
.75 oz Fresh Lime Juice
.75 oz Simple Syrup
3 drops Rose Water
3 drops Angostura Bitters
3 slices Cucumber, peeled
6 sprigs Mint
Salt

Muddle cucumber and pinch of salt. Slap the mint. Add rest of ingredients. Let sit for 30 seconds (time allowing). Shake. Strain. Garnish with 1 floating mint leaf and 1 drop rose water on top of leaf, and 3-5 more drops of angostura on the surface of the drink.

I know most of you don't keep rose water handy but this is a great summer time drink!

enjoy

Cocktail of the Week

I have a bottle of Vanilla Vodka in the cabinet and I was trying to find something to mix with it - voila!


Wedding Cake Martini

2 oz vanilla vodka
2 oz pineapple juice
2 oz sweet n sour

Shake vigorously over ice then strain into sugar rimmed martini glass.

I have also seen another version - just swap out the sweet n sour for Amaretto (Disaronno).

enjoy!

Cocktail Reception

Guests moved to the south terrace for more surprises.
The ever famous Ice Ball from Ice Caters - Perfect for a martini or high ball glass!Raw bar - I can't believe how people flocked to this - the Country Club staff couldn't even keep it full fast enough.
And a fun lobster sautee station.
Frank Sinatra Tribute Show - Tony Sands sang great Sinatra tunes for cocktail hour and dinner hour. Guests loved this!
Linens for this area were turquoise with pink peonies!
Neat silver wire wrapped vases.

Champagne Greeting

To kick off the celebration they had a Champagne Greeting on the Terrace at Saucon Valley Country Club (the women's US Open is here this weekend).

A floral archway welcomed guests.

Her escort cards were on a lucite table top which rests on top of a ton of crystal gems.
Linens were Hot Pink on high top tables, Flowers were White peonies.


There were 4 different types of Sparkling Wine in addition to Pellegrino. Notice the cute pink straws?

Strawberry soup shooters were passed with white glove service.

Now here is where the cocktail napkin craziness begins. The wedding's theme was 'Share Our Story' - Here the staff had white napkins with 'Share Our Story' on them. The food was offered with pink napkins and a 'Did you Know' quote.

Cocktail Napkins

It seems my clients are loving the 'Did you Know' Cocktail Napkin idea. Some people say personalized cocktail napkins are not being done so much. My clients love them - I think the standard name and date thing is out but lets think outside the box a little.

Erika's mother gave me the tips - it was a surprise for the couple.
We had the pink offered with champagne, the turquoise at the bar and lastly the white at the raw bar.

Guests really enjoyed the tips and got to know the couple a little better. Another inexpensive way to personalize your wedding.

A twist on the cocktail napkin

Most brides have colorful cocktail napkins at their wedding - some with their names on it some with their new monogram.

How about taking it a step further....be very creative and give your guests something to talk about.

We originally saw this idea at InStyle Weddings but this past Saturdays bride made it her own. Stay tuned for more of her wedding this week.

You could also put song lyrics, your favorite quote or your signature drink recipe.

What is an Escort Card?

I am reposting this because I think its important.

An escort card is a card that the guests pick up during cocktail hour and it then directs them to their dinner table. A place card sits at the dinner table and tells guests what specific seat is theirs. With place cards you have to figure out who is sitting next to whom and that can be time consuming. I hear place card used all the time but remember place card and escort card are used for different things.

Typically the guests name goes on the front and the table name or number goes on the inside or bottom corner. You can use either to carry out your theme. Attach the card to a bottle of champagne, a candied apple, a candle or just adorn the card with your monogram, a flower, a knot or just your themes motif.

If you are doing only escort cards but are offering your guests a choice of entree you must put something on the card that subtly says beef, fish or chicken. I have seen different colored cards for different food choices or different adornments added to each card.

I always recommend doing escort cards over not doing anything. Guests need to be guided into the reception and feel better if escorted where to go.