Bourbon Slushie

The gift that keeps giving! (Bee tee dubs-go read the rest of her blog. One of my ultimate favorites.)

I made this at Christmas, so this is a mere 6 months late. What are you gonna do, ya know?

I can't WAIT for the weather to warm up to drink this all the damn time this summer.


1 can frozen Orange Juice Concentrate
1 can frozen Lemonade Concentrate
7 cups strong brewed Black Tea (3-4 bags)
Fifth of Bourbon Whiskey
2 liter of Sprite (Can also use 7Up, Ginger Ale, or Sierra Mist…gag)

1. Boil water and steep tea until strong (about 20 minutes)
2. In a freezer safe, sealable bowl, mix tea, all the juices (DO NOT ADD WATER), and bourbon whiskey.
3. Freeze overnight.
4. Before serving, mash it up a bit to get desired slush-like consistency.
5. Scoop desired amount of slush into glasses, and top off with Sprite.

I wish you all a wonderful and safe holiday season!

P.S. The bourbon can be completely substituted for RUM. The rum slushie is the bourbon slushie’s way sluttier cousin.

(allll of the bold is straight from her site).

Mixing the brown bourbon and the orange/yellow juices didn't exactly yield a beautiful drink. But who the EFF CARES.

It tastes like fairies. Dancing drunk fairies in poofy sparkly skirts. I basically didn't stop drinking it until it was gone. All night? Yes, please. Mimosa for brekky? Nah. Bourbon slushie, thx. Close enough.

It's delicious and wonderful...like The Barefoot Foodie herself... 

Pisco Sour

When I went to Peru for my brother's wedding to his Peruvian princess, one of my favorite things was Pisco Sours. Pisco is Peru's national booze. Sweet! When they recently brought me back a bottle, I was determined to make them myself.

2oz Pisco Brandy
1oz lime juice
1/4 oz simple syrup
1/2 egg white
dash of bitters

Throw all but the bitters in a shaker and shake the snot out of it. The egg white's froth up and make a rad foam, which you sprinkle a couple drops of bitter on. I think if I had stuck all the liquid in a blender, it probably would have frothed up better (like in that pic, which was taken in Peru). Obvious you-might-die warning: RAW EGG WHITES. Basically, you're taking your chances. Risky risky!!

Elderberry Martini

To be honest, I have no idea where this recipe came from. Oops. And I'm also writing it from memory sooo....yeah.

Edit: Just kidding! Found it!

8 muddled green grapes
1 oz vodka
2 oz sauvignon blanc (they gave a specific kind, but I can't remember. We used whatever was around and it was fine) (it was supposed to be Kim Crawford, apparently)
1 oz elderberry syrup (at IKEA)
1/4 oz lemon juice

Put all that junk in a shaker with some ice and get r done! Obviously (I hope), make sure you strain it since it'll full of grape skin and seeds. The recipe said to also run it through a tea strainer, but we kinda liked the little tiny grape pieces in it.

(since this seems to be a popular search, if you make it and have any comments/suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!)

Sangria!

Two summers ago our "drink of the summer" was watermelon margaritas. Last summer it was mojitos. This summer it's going to be sangria. My usual first stop for a recipe? Allrecipes.com. Sure enough there was one with a bazillion reviews and almost all of them raving. As yesterday was our first No Pool Pool Party (NP3) of the season to celebrate my buddies Nic and Rob's return to the mainland, it was the perfect party to test this out on. And it was a freakin success, y'all.

1/2c brandy
1/4c. lemon juice
1/3c frozen lemonade concentrate
1/3c orange juice
1 bottle of red wine (or white, probably. Right?)
1/2c triple sec
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced orange
1 sliced lime
1 sm chopped apple
sliced strawberries (basically threw in all the fruit I could think of. To me, the more fruit the merrier)
2c ginger ale

I made it the night before, everything except the ginger ale and strawberries (they were super ripe, so I was afraid they'd get mushy), and let it marinate overnight. And marinate it did. The apple chunks the next day tasted like straight liquor. Awesome. Oh, and we also quadrupled the recipe and basically served it out of a giant bucket. Heh...I'm pretty sure that this isn't going to need a whole lot of tweaking. We tried it out before putting the ginger ale in and it was super good and SUPER strong. The ginger ale just cut it down a bit and made it last longer, so I'll leave that one up to you... ;) Just know that the first option also comes with a "knock you on your ass faster than you think" warning...weeee!! Also-I know that there are totally legit, fast and easy recipes out there for sangria. This one takes a bit of time and bunch of ingredients, but it's pretty damn good...

Coconut Mojito

There's a mojito bar in San Jose that we were obsessed with for a while. They have a coconut mojito that tastes like it was made with the baby jesus's very own hands. SO GOOD. They have rum with giant chunk of fruit marinating in it and the result is fabulous. Rather than continue to spend $10 a drink on this taste of heaven, we decided to try to make them ourselves. After several test rounds, we finally came up with the perfect concoction.

2 teas sugar
8 mint leaves
1 1/2 shots light rum
1/2 shot of Malibu coconut rum
1 shot lime juice
splash of soda water

Smash sugar, mint and lime juice in a cup with one of those..uh...smasher thingies. Pour the booze mixture over it. Add a splash of soda water on top and some ice and you're good to go. The manual labor is worth the result, trust.

Nuevo Coquito

At our house, we always have a 'holiday drink'. One year it was appletinis, another year it was mojitos, etc. While flipping through my favorite cookbook (duh), Isabel's Cantina (link to the right), I found a recipe for Nuevo Coquitos. The cookbook says that "like eggnog, a coquito is a traditional Puerto Rican drink served during the holidays". Sold!! We decided to whip up a test batch last night to see if it would fly as the cocktail of the season in the Haines house, and it certainly did! I have a feeling that these are going to be preeeeetty dangerous this week...

(makes about 7 cups)
2-14 oz cans coconut milk
1-14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1.5 cups white rum
ice cubes

Throw it all in a blender!! Add the ice a little at a time until it's the consistency that you want it. I like it pretty slushy, so I put a good amount in there. It tastes kind of like a pina colada, but not quite as fruity. I served it over ice, as suggested in the recipe, but a lot of it glommed onto the ice. For maximum intake, I'm probably going to just serve it straight next time. The ice that's blended with it makes it plenty frothy and cool. It's a pretty white, so you can garnish it with a whole plethora of crap: cranberries, candy canes, etc etc...