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. 

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.

Dark & Stormy

Oh my god ya'll, it's dark and stormy out. I'm trying to think of a time I dealt with crazier winds but I can't. The rain hasn't really been that bad, and has stopped for now, I know I've been in worse rain/flooding storms but this wind is off the hook or "out of pocket" as my students would say. I should probably find a different place to sit as the sliding glass doors by our couch is flexing and moving like crazy with each gust. The wind has opened the dumpsters at the college across from us and stuff is swirling around. The chinese restaurant's sign has been dashed to pieces and is strewn down 18th street. There have been several blueish flashes that I'm pretty sure were transformers and not lightning. We're keeping out fingers crossed that only the garage in the shore house is flooded and the upper level remains untouched. And as the news has pointed out, it smells like the ocean. I hope it's over soon and every one stays safe.
To get through the storm we have been making yummy drinks. Saturday night we made delicious Lapu Lapus, not going to lie I've switched over to them tonight. Last night we made Dark & Stormy cocktails! Because it's dark and stormy out. They were good, had a very molasses taste to them. I think it was a combination of the ginger beer and the type of rum we had. It looks pretty when you float the rum but I had to mix it in order to drink it. If you don't it's straight rum followed by ginger beer....blerg. Also, look at nicely I rimmed the glasses! Score.

Dark & Stormy Cocktail

(Pinterest find! From the framedtable.com)

Ingredients:
2 oz Gosling’s Black Seal Rum (or any dark rum)
4 oz ginger beer
lime wedge
Directions:
1. Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in the Ginger Beer, then pour in the Dark Rum over the back of a spoon to help keep the darker layer floating on top. Garnish with a lime wedge. 

2. For the optional sugar garnish shown in the photo, rub a lime wedge or some simple syrup around the rim of an empty glass, and then tip the glass over into a plate of raw sugar and proceed with assembling the drink as noted above.

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!

Hot Buttered Rum!

"I know it's bad because you're not complaining" says my darling Mr. Lawyer who surprised me with better cold medicine (where is the theraflu people?!) and pitas last night. I have a pretty high pain tolerance and powered through many sickness adventures which resulted in me winning the perfect attendance award every year for grades 6 through 12 and never missing a college class. Nerd. However, that doesn't mean that I don't dramatically and loudly announce my slow death when I come down with a cold....much to Mr. Lawyer's delight. This better be my body getting everything out of the way for this winter because between the bug I had the other week and this miserable cold I am done being sick. Plus I'm almost out of tea! On the upside Mr. Lawyer has been making me delicious warm drinks and is making dinner for me tonight!

Hot Buttered Rum

(from The Ultimate Bar Book)

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon brown sugar
4 ounces hot water or milk
2 ounces dark rum
1 tablespoon butter
Freshly grated or ground nutmeg
Directions:
1. In a warmed heat-resistant mug, combine brown sugar and hot water, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the rum, and float the butter on top.
3. Sprinkle nutmeg over the top.

Pretty Beverage Party!

I apologize in advance for the quality of these photos but it was a party and we were....distracted. You're lucky I got pictures at all! The first time I had these daiquiris was last summer down at the shore. Mr. Lawyer's mom made them and they were to die for. In an shopping adventure I would like to title: when grocery stores get *too* healthy, I couldn't find any sweetened strawberries so I just add 4 tablespoons of sugar to the mix. I also had to thaw the strawberries out a bit because my poor little blender couldn't handle them. These are the perfect treat to beat the heat!

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris

(from The Taste of Home Test kitchen)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup rum
1/2 cup limeade or lemonade concentrate
1 package (10 0unces) frozen, sweetened sliced strawberries
1 to 1-1/2 cups ice cubes
fresh strawberries to decorate optional
Directions:
1. In a blender, combine the rum, limeade or lemonade concentrate, strawberries and ice. Cover and process until smooth and thickened (use more ice for thicker daiquiris). Pour into cocktail glasses.
2. Garnish with fresh strawberries if desired. Enjoy!

Next up was some Whipped Cream Soda. Delicious. The combination of whipped cream vodka and ginger ale tastes like cream soda. We added some whipped cream for decoration but it was totally unnecessary (and looked gross once it started to dissolve). Meanwhile the boys made manly drinks like Manhattans and played with bourbon. Gross.

Whipped Cream Soda

(a friend had it in a NYC bar and I loved it)

Ingredients:

Whipped Cream Vodka

Ginger Ale

Directions:

1. Mix 1 part vodka with 2 parts ginger ale.

2. Enjoy!

but where's the rum?!

This past weekend my family came down to ship the Dork off to Washington so I made dinner for everyone. We had cheese, hot salami, crackers, olives, bread and oil, and goat cheese pesto bruschetta. 

The main course was my standby Tortellini with sausage, fennel and mushrooms because I didn't feel like experimenting with anything (but I promise not to cook it again for months!) with some NYS wine I had Dad and Melissa bring down.

Dessert was a new experiment and it came out fantastically! Of course it helped that it was heavily spiked with rum...

Rum Cake 

(The Mother Unit)

Cake Part 1: 
2 cups cake flour
1 ½ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
½ cup butter, cut into bits
3 tbs vegetable oil
Cake Part 2:

½ cup finely chopped walnuts
1 (3.5 oz) pkg vanilla pudding mix – instant type
½ cup milk
4 eggs
½ cup Vanilla Rum (Normal is fine!)
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Rum Sauce: 
½ cup butter
¼ cup water
1 cup sugar
½ cup Vanilla Rum (Normal is still fine!)

Rum Glaze:

1/2 Cup Confectioner's Sugar

1 Tablespoon Rum

1 Teaspoon Water
Directions:
1. Use an electric mixer on low speed to combine "the Cake Part 1" ingredients in a large mixing bowl until the mix is the consistency of fine gravel, and all of the particles are almost equal in size.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a large bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle the chopped nuts into the bottom. 

3. Add "the Cake Part 2" ingredients (pudding, milk, eggs, rum, oil and vanilla) in a large bowl and combine on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl halfway through. Batter should be very smooth. Pour into bundt pan and level out top. Bake until fully golden and tester comes out clean. About 55 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on rack, keep in pan until cool.
4. In a small saucepan combine butter, water and sugar from glaze recipe. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until sugar is dissolved and syrup is well combined and thicker. Remove from heat and add the rum.
5. While cake is still cooling, pour hot syrup into, on top and around the edges of the pan. Cool cake completely in pan before turning out onto serving platter. 

6. Mix confectioner's sugar, rum and water (till desired consistency) and drizzle over the cake while it is still hot.

And then as payment I put everyone to work hanging my pictures. Ha.

Cinnamon Grapefruitade

Because the Dork and the Mother Unit are planning on bringing back some rum from their Caribbean cruise I bring you this:

Cinnamon Grapefruitade

(Food Network Magazine)

Ingredients:

1.5 cups sugar (for simple syrup)

1.5 cups water (for simple syrup)

4 cinnamon sticks (for simple syrup)

2 cups fresh grapefruit juice

2 cups water

Some raspberries

Directions:

1. To make the simple syrup bring 1.5 cups of sugar, 1.5 cups water and 4 cinnamon sticks to a boil, stirring until dissolved. This will result in about 2 cups of simple syrup. Let it cool.

2. Take your 2 cups of cooled simple syrup, add 2 cups of grapefruit juice, 2 cups of water and raspberries for garnish.

When you get sick of lemonade during the summer this is a yummy alternative. It has a little unexpected bite from the cinnamon. The best part is that it is absolutely amazing spiked with RUM!

Summertime Mojitos

In order to warm up I am dreaming of hot summer days when Jen and I made mojitos on our back porch using homegrown mint from my herb garden! We played around with things and created our own little recipe using agave syrup.

J&J’s Summertime Mojitos

1 serving

Ingredients:

1.5 ounces of Rum

The juice of one lime (about 2 Tablespoons)

1 tablespoon Agave Nectar

4 mint leaves

Ice cubes

Club Soda

Mint for garnish

Directions:

1. Muddle your mint!

2. Mix in sugar and lime juice

3. Add rum

4. Strain into glasses, add ice and club soda

5. Make it pretty with some mint!

We used the agave nectar instead of superfine sugar because we had some and decided what the heck, what else are we going to use this for? (Sidenote: it's a great sweetener for plain oatmeal) It didn’t taste as sweet as the ones you can get at restaurants but I hear sugarcane syrup is key to making mojitos super yummy. Overall it was a great drink for a scorching summer day.