Pink Grapefruit Margarita

I found this recipe on Pinterest - whatever did we do before Pinterest?  I have made it multiple times.  This may be my favorite drink of all time.  Or at least for now, or when I'm not drinking a Hot Toddy with Jack Daniels.  Those are pretty good, too.
 

Anyway, back to the Grapefruit Margarita. It's perfectly sour and delightfully tasty, and has to be good for me since it's mostly fresh juice, right?  (I just don't drink it at breakfast time)

Pink Grapefruit Margarita
from Cookin' Canuck

Ingredients:

• 1 Pink Grapefruit
• 1 Lime
• Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
• 2 oz. Tequila (I used Jose Gold)
• 1 oz. Triple Sec
• 1 T Simple Syrup
• Ice

Directions:

1. Squeeze the juice from the grapefruit and half of the lime.
2. Cut a wedge from the other lime half and rub the rim of a glass.  Put a small amount of Himalayan salt on a dish and dip the glass in it to coat the rim with salt.
3. Place juice, tequila, triple sec, simple syrup, and ice in blender and blend until desired consistency.  Pour into prepared glass, garnish with lime wedge, and enjoy.

Makes 1 margarita

I like my margaritas frozen, but you could also just stir everything together or shake it in a cocktail shaker and serve over ice.  If you don't have Himalayan Salt, you can use regular sea salt or margarita salt.  I've also seen people put sugar on their grapefruit, so I bet a sugared rim would be good with this, too.  I'm kinda partial to the salt - it might be my favorite part of any margarita, or maybe it just goes so perfectly with the tequila - so if you do try this with the sugar, please let me know how it turned out.

Cilantro-Jalapeño Margarita

I found this recipe a while back and knew it was for me.  It has all the good stuff - cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice and tequila!  Let me tell you, this is yummy!!!

Cilantro-Jalapeño Margarita
(Makes 1 cocktail) from cbs.com

Ingredients:

• Margarita salt
• 1 lime wedge
• 1 to 3 thin slices jalapeño (from a jalapeño that has been stemmed, halved, seeded and sliced lengthwise)
• 2 fresh cilantro sprigs (or more; sometimes I use more)
• 2 ounces tequila (I used Jose Cuervo Gold)
• juice of 1/2 a lime (about 1 ounce)
• 1 ounce Triple Sec
• ½ ounce simple syrup
• 10 ice cubes

Directions:

1. Spread the salt on a small plate. Moisten the rim of a 6-ounce glass with the lime wedge and upend the glass onto the salt to crust the rim.
2. In the bottom of a cocktail shaker, muddle the jalapeño and 1 (or 2) of the cilantro sprigs with a cocktail muddler or a wooden spoon until roughly mashed. Add the tequila, lime juice, Triple Sec, simple syrup and ice. Cover and shake vigorously until frothy and cold; tiny ice crystals will appear in the drink after about 15 seconds of shaking.
3. Pour contents of the shaker into the salt-rimmed glass. Bruise the second sprig of cilantro by slapping it vigorously between your palms to release the aroma and add to the glass.  Serve immediately.

The original recipe called for straining the contents of the shaker into the glass, leaving the cilantro, jalapeño, and ice in there.  While that may be fine, I decided I like all that stuff in my drink, so I just pour everything into the glass.  It is really good!!  Of course, if you don't like cilantro or jalapeño - or salt - then this is not the drink for you.  It's definitely the drink for me.  I've had one the last two nights!  And I'm wondering why I don't make these more often.

Bartender's notes: Jalapeños vary wildly in their spiciness (as does each person's penchant for that spiciness), so you'll want to taste the one you're using and determine what you think is the perfect amount. I really love the spicy, grassy-green freshness that jalapeño infuses into this libation, a flavor that's made all the more delicious by the bruised cilantro leaves. Salt is essential in this drink, in my opinion, because of the way it dances with the jalapeño and cilantro.

-Sometimes I sprinkle additional salt right into my drink.  This is definitely a margarita that calls for salt.  Of course, I think the salt is one of the best parts of a margarita - after the tequila, of course.

Related articles

• Blackberry Cilantro Margarita
• Jalapeño Grapefruit Margarita
• 5 Fresh Margarita Recipes

Crazy for Coconut - Rum, That Is!

I pulled these recipes off a bottle of coconut rum we had.  When I went looking for the website, I found it wasn't there anymore.  Are they not making Cabana Boy rum anymore?  The information on the back of the recipes said it was produced and bottled by White Rock Distilleries, but when I visited their page, I didn't find it either.  They do have a line of flavored rums called Jack, so I checked that out.  There are several recipes for the coconut rum, but neither one of these are there.  So I'm sharing before I lose this cute little umbrella-drink-shaped tag with the recipes.

This one sounds particularly good.  Have I mentioned that anything cranberry catches my attention?
 

Jamaican Me Crazy

• 2 oz. Coconut Rum
• 1 oz. cranberry juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. sour mix

Mix with ice and garnish with fruit.

This one sounds like a really good milkshake:

Coconut Mudslide

• 2 oz. Coconut Rum
• 2 oz. coffee liqueur
• 2 oz. Irish cream
• 1 oz. chocolate syrup
• 2 cups vanilla ice cream

Blend first four ingredients.  Mix in ice cream.

Here are the coconut rum recipes on the Jack Flavored Rums website. Some of these sound pretty good, too.

Mojito!

There's a recipe for a frozen Mojito in my Ninja cookbook.  I grew mint this summer just so I could make Mojitos, but I hadn't thought to make them in the Ninja.  I've been making them like this - without all the fancy stuff: (and I just remembered I should have bought club soda when I went shopping yesterday)

Anyway tonight I tried the Ninja recipe - only I mixed it up and then put it into the freezer to get/stay all slushy, like the Cranberry Daiquiri Slush I've been making this summer.

Frozen Mojito 

Ingredients 

• 2 Limes, Juiced 
• 10-12 Mint Leaves 
• 2 OZ. Simple Syrup* 
• 6 OZ. White Rum 
• 2 Cups Ice cubes 

Instructions 

1. Add all ingredients into the pitcher and use long pulses until well blended. 
2. Serve in 2 tall rocks glasses, garnish with mint. 

*Combine 4 Tbsp Sugar and 4 Tbsp Water in saucepan on warm stove until sugar dissolves.

I'm not sure how I'm going to serve it up - probably need that club soda to mix with the slush...

I did taste it, once it had frozen and I scraped it from the glass dish I had it in originally and put it into a plastic container with a lid - less worry that it will get knocked out of the freezer and shatter on the tile floor making a huge mess and not allowing me to enjoy my mojito!  It tasted quite good.  I think I'm going to enjoy this quite a bit!
 

Related articles

• Cranberry Daiquiri Slush (recipes.alwaysbcmom.com)

Cranberry Daiquiri Slush

Ocean Spray linked to this recipe on facebook today, and it looked so good I just had to try it. In the freezer now. Hopefully they're as good as they sound.

Cranberry Daiquiri Slush

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Ocean Spray® Cranberry Juice Cocktail
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 1/2 cup sugar (or to taste)
• 1/3 cup rum

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in an 8-inch square non-metal pan; stir until sugar is dissolved. Cover and freeze 6 hours or overnight.
2. To serve, scrape a fork over the surface of the frozen mixture and spoon a heaping 1 cup into a 10 oz. glass. Add a little more cranberry cocktail and stir to form slush. Makes 6 servings.

Cranberry Daiquiri Slush on Ocean Spray

We had some of the new Cranberry Juice Cocktail with a Hint of Lime, so I used that.  I only had 1 lime, which gave me about 1/4 cup juice, so I made up the difference with lemon juice.

Related articles

• Strawberry Daiquiri (willowandbee.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Boozer: Bourbon Slushes (emeraldowl.wordpress.com)

and some more drink recipes to try:

• Frozen Strawberry Margarita
• Cosmopolitan
• Frozen Lime Daiquiri

Apple Pie Liqueur

Last fall we bought a bottle of Apple Pie Liqueur, which we really enjoyed.  We shared some with a friend, and he said it tasted just like some he made at home - Grandma's Apple Pie.  There are several recipes for apple pie liqueur online, different variations, but they all look pretty much the same - apple cider, spices and alcohol.  Today I followed my friend Mike's recipe and finally got around to making some apple pie liqueur of my own:

Grandma's Apple Pie (Liqueur)

• 1 gallon apple cider
• 1 quart apple juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 7 cinnamon sticks

Boil all ingredients, cover and cool to room temp.  When cool, add 1 pint of Everclear.  Then you just need to bottle and enjoy.

Some of the recipes I found online say to bottle and age 1 month, so I'm not entirely sure if it's ready yet or if I need to let it sit.  But, it made a lot - I probably should have made a half recipe!  We have the original Apple Pie Liqueur bottle from last year re-filled, along with a Jack Daniels bottle, another whiskey bottle, a Mason jar - all full, and about half a pint jar.  So, even if I can't wait to get into some of it, there will be plenty that will age way more than a month.  If you've made this before, let me know how you do it.

We just drank the bottle we bought, either room temperature or slightly warmed. It was really good that way, but I hear there are some good cocktail recipes I might have to try, too.

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