Drink of the Day!

We have a shore tradition that involves coming off the beach for some appetizers and the drink of the day before dinner. This summer Mr. Lawyer and I have been stepping up to the plate and trying our hand at mixing up the drink of the day. So far we're 2 for 2! The Sunrise Margarita was a big hit (and my favorite so far) and this weekend's Paradise Cocktail wasn't too shabby either. As you can see in the picture, it looked absolutely hideous when we tried to layer it so I just ended up mixing them all up with a spoon which resulted in a purple kool-aid colored drink. Despite looking like rainbow vomit it tasted perfectly fine, kind of like a pina colada. It's definitely on the sweeter side of things so it goes down smoothly, watch out!

Paradise Cocktail

(Pinterest Find!)

Ingredients (for 1 drink):

1/2 ounce grenadine

1 ounce light rum

1 ounce coconut rum

2-3 ounces pineapple juice

1 ounce blue curacao 

Directions:

1. If you want to try to layer them, go ahead! It didn't work out well for us as you can see in the above picture. You could mix it all together for a fun purple colored drink. Serve over ice. 

A Spicy Kind of Night

As my 90 year old former co-worker use to say: this drink is hotter than the hinges of hell! I must have picked an amped out jalapeno because even seeded it was a beast! I was intrigued by the spicy citrus combination and we had a bunch of rum (leftover from our hurricane preparations) to use up so why not. It might have been luck of the jalapeno draw but the spiciness overpowered any pineapple flavor and I couldn't taste the rum at all. It's an intriguing recipe but it didn't wow me and won't be making a repeat performance! And then I spent the rest of the night rubbing my eyes with spicy jalapeno fingers. Fun times.

Pineapple-Jalapeno Daiquiris

(from the Food Network Magazine)

Ingredients:
1 jalapeno, thinly sliced and seeded (or maybe just half!)

2.5 cups fresh chopped pineapple

3/4 cup rum

3 tablespoons sugar

1 lime, juiced

1.5 cups ice

Directions:
1. Combine sliced jalapeno with pineapple in a shallow dish. Freeze until firm, about 3 hours.

2. Transfer the pineapple mixture to a blender and add the rum, sugar, lime juice, and ice. Puree until smooth.

3. Divide among four glasses and garnish with a jalapeno slice or cilantro sprig.

Gin & Pineapple!

I needed to use up the leftover pineapple juice from our Lapu Lapu adventures so I found this quick and simple (and delicious!) recipe. I won't use a good gin as the pineapple juice over powers any delicate gin flavors (especially in something like Hendricks).

Gin & Pineapple

(from the Beefeater Gin website)

Ingredients:
2 parts gin
3 parts pineapple juice
Directions:
1. Mix it up!

The Tale of Two Hurricanes

I'm not going to lie: we have gone through an embarrassing amount of rum this weekend and the hurricane isn't even over. We've killed half a bottle of Kraken Rum (my fav), two-thirds of Gosling's Black Seal Rum, and half of Barcardi 151. Not to mention I'm almost out of juice for mixing. Mr. Lawyer started to drink orange juice this morning (straight out of the jug by the way, gross.) and I quickly admonished him. That juice is for mixing and now I'm almost out of mixing juice. Now he can't have his yummy Lapu Lapu drinks. Lesson learned.

This is what a well stocked storm fridge looks like:

Milk, several bottles of Ommegang, Simple Syrup/Grenadine/Key Lime Juice/Dirty Martini Mix, Multiple Ginger Beers, three types of juice (Orange, Pineapple, and Passion Fruit), and Sweet & Sour Mix. Plus there's a full wine rack in the apartment.

In addition to the Lapu Lapu and Dark & Stormy cocktails we've tried out some Hurricane recipes. Now I'm sure that professionally made Hurricane's are delicous. The two we made were totally drinkable but I'd rather make a Lapu Lapu than a Hurricane. The first, made with passion fruit, was very sweet. The second, a slushy beverage, was not as sweet but the ice got in the way (plus it separated). I would definitely omit the blender part and just serve it over ice.

Hurricane #1

(Pinterest find!)

Ingredients:

1 ounces light rum

1 ounces dark rum

2 ounces passion fruit juice

1 ounce orange juice

Juice of half a lime

1 tablespoon simple syrup

1 tablespoon grenadine

Orange slice and cherry for garnish

Directions:

1. Squeeze juice from half a lime into a cocktail shaker over ice.

2. Pour the remaning ingredients into the cocktail shaker.

3. Shake, shake, shake!

4. Strain into a hurrican glass.

5. Garnish with a cherry and orange slice.

You can see the ice separating from the alcohol.

Hurricane #2

Frozen Hurricane, N'Awlins Style!

(recommended by my friend Nyk, a Tulane graduate) 

Ingredients:

1 ounce light rum

1 ounce dark rum

1 ounce Bacardi 151

3 ounces orange juice

3 ounces pineapple juice

1/2 ounce grenadine

2.5 cups ice

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients into a blender.

2. Add ice and blend until slushy.

3. Pour into a tall high-ball or large margarita glass.

Lapu Lapu

Yesterday I received a concerned text message from the Mother Unit asking if we were prepared for the oncoming "Frankenstorm". I informed her that yes, we had a nice stock pile of non-perishables including cereal and many cans of beans. Her exact response was "Uhm...beans? CNN says the city of brotherly love could be a direct hit. More important...got liquor?" Well, at least I know where I get it now. Thanks for your concern mom!

I have incorporated a cocktail a day into our storm meal planning for the next couple days. In honor of this insane storm we now have the ingredients to Hurricanes and Dark & Stormy cocktails. However today we pre-gamed the storm with happy memories of tropical Disney World where we sampled the wonderful Lapu Lapu.

The Lapu Lapu was a wonderful Hawaiian style cocktail we had in Ohana, the Polynesian Resort's restaurant. The drinks were amazing and the food delicious. The Lapu Lapu is heavy on rum and fruit juices and comes in a pineapple. It was the best drink I had in Disney, hands down. Also, it's dangerous. You could probably leave out the Bacardi 151.

The Lapu Lapu

(inspired by the Polynesian Resort, Disney World)

Ingredients:

2 parts Myers's Dark Rum

2 parts pineapple juice 

3 parts orange juice

1 part sweet and sour mix

1 part Bacardi 151 rum, floated on the top.

Directions:

1. Mix the dark rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and sweet and sour mix. 

2. Float the Bacardi 151 on the top.

3. Serve with ice, preferably in a hollow pineapple.

Sadly I did not have a pineapple but I did have an umbrella!

Sad Piggy

I found this Pineapple Grilled Pork Chop recipe which is extremely similar to my very favorite Pineapple Chicken Recipe and had excellent reviews. We also had two sad lonely pork chops in our freezer so I decided to give it a go even though my cute little grill is up in NY. One reviewer had baked them in the oven and it came out fine and others had not marinated the chops overnight and they were still flavorful. But not my little pork chops. The oven baking was fine although I'm sure it was missing some yummy grill flavor. However, it was severely lacking in the pineapple-soy flavor. I couldn't even tell it had marinated for 4 hours. We both resorted to some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce. My chicken recipe is always flavorful even when not marinated the whole time. So does chicken soak up marinade better than pork? Was the basting on the grill super critical? All I know is next time, I'll have to make Mr. Lawyer's favorite Modenese Pork Chops to make up for these flavorless pork chops. 

Pineapple Grilled Pork Chops

(adapted from allrecipes)

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple rings, juice drained and reserved
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
4 pork chops
1 pinch ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Mix together the drained pineapple juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, and garlic powder together in a large plastic zipper bag, and smush the bag a few times with your hands to mix the marinade and dissolve the sugar. Place the pork chops into the marinade, squeeze out any air in the bag, seal it, and refrigerate overnight. Reserve the pineapple rings.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat, and lightly oil the grate.
3. Remove the chops from the marinade, shaking off excess, and grill until browned, the meat is no longer pink inside, and the meat shows good grill marks, 5 to 8 minutes per side. Brush several times with marinade and let the marinade cook onto the surface of the meat. Discard excess marinade. While the meat is grilling, place 4 pineapple rings onto the grill, and allow to cook until hot and the slices show grill marks; serve the chops topped with the grilled pineapple rings