If you’re anything like me, when you think of margaritas, you think of a warm summer day. Last week I was introduced to a cold-weather margarita that will knock your socks off! Chef Jeff Smedstad was the visiting chef teaching at Barbara Fenzl’s Les Gourmettes Cooking School last Monday night and everyone in the class swooned when he served this luxurious (de lujo) concoction.

Chef Smedstad is the chef/owner of Elote Cafe in Sedona. Dave and I dined at Elote the first night we were up in Sedona, last month. I failed to mention it before, because back then, it was all about my sprained ankle. And that’s a shame because it was one of the best meals we’ve had in a very long time.  For a fantastic rundown (with drop-dead gorgeous pictures) on Elote go to my friend, Gwen Walter’s blog and check out her professional and spot-on review.

While you’re reading the review and drooling over the photos, enjoy this somehow “warming” cold margarita. Chef Smedstad calls for Añejo tequila. Añejo, or “aged” tequila sits in oak barrels for at least one year and up to two years, eleven months, and thirty days. On the next day (3 years), it would be called Extra Añejo. Although the Añejo or Extra Añejo really make this drink shine (see Chef’s notes at the bottom of the recipe) you may use Blanco (white) tequila or Reposado (rested) tequila, just be sure to use a high quality tequila and not anything along the lines of the dreaded José Cuervo!

Elote’s De Lujo Margarita

Base Mix
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
5 cups water
Margarita
Ice
Añejo tequila
Grand Marnier

Base Mix: Briskly whisk until sugar is completely dissolved.

Margarita: In a 14-ounce glass with a salted rim (if desired) and filled with ice cubes, pour a full-shot of Añejo tequila. Then almost fill with the base mix and top off with a half-shot of Grand Marnier.

Drink and Enjoy!

Chef Smedstad’s Notes:  “Why brown sugar, vanilla, and lemon… brown sugar and lemon are soft and rich. The name lugo means luxury and the vanilla mirrors the oak notes in both the Añejo tequilla as well as the Grand Marnier.

It is finally time to use the infused vodkas that you and I made back on July 20th.  What, you didn’t make any?!? Darn, well there is still time; click on the link above, then jump in the car and buy the necessary fruits, veggies, and vodka.  It’ll only take about week until you too can enjoy these delicious cocktails. In fact, since we used up all the pineapple vodka at the Blog 2nd Anniversary Party, I whipped up another batch this morning. Now I’ll be able to enjoy my favorite martini next weekend, here they are in order of popularity…

Hawaiian Cosmo

2 ounces Pineapple Infused Vodka
1 ounce Grand Marnier
Splash white cranberry juice*

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Shake vigorously, Strain into a chilled martini glass and serve.

Serves 1

* White cranberry juice can be difficult to find. I found white cranberry-peach juice at Fry’s. Regular red cranberry juice can be used, if you don’t mind all the cocktails you use it in turning out red or pink.

Twisted Schoolgirl

2 ounces orange juice
1 ounce Berry-Basil Infused Vodka

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Shake vigorously, Strain into a chilled martini glass and serve.

Serves 1

Seeing Double Martini

1 ounce Absolut Citron
1 ounce Pineapple Infused Vodka
1/2 ounce Berry-Basil Infused Vodka
1/2 ounce orange juice
1/2 ounce pineapple juice

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Shake vigorously, Strain into a chilled martini glass and serve.

Serves 1

Pineapple Mimosa

1 ounce Pineapple Infused Vodka
2 ounces orange juice
1 ounce Prosecco

Pour Pineapple Infused Vodka and orange juice into a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Shake vigorously, Strain into a chilled martini glass. Top with Prosecco and serve.

Serves 1

Now you can see why I need to make more pineapple vodka, most of the drinks used it, although the first ingredient I ran out of was orange juice.  I did use the Vegetable and Jalapeno Infused Vodkas too, to make a special Bloody Mary, but it wasn’t a popular choice that particular night. Don’t discount it though; I served it at Sunday brunch today, and it was a hit.

Super Veggie Bloody Mary

1  1/2 cups of your favorite Bloody Mary mix
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
Couple dashes hot sauce, such as Tabasco, or to taste
1/2 cup Vegetable Infused Vodka
1/4 cup Jalapeno Infused Vodka
Celery sticks, mozzarella balls, and olives, for garnish

Place all ingredients, except vodkas and garnishes, in a large picture. Whisk until well combined.  Add the vodkas and chill. Serve in tall glasses over ice with a stick of celery and a pick with a mozzarella ball and a couple olives.

Serves 4

Guess what that big pile of citrus that I showed you last week, looks like now? Exactly the same as it did then, except it has a blanket covering it. It’s all still overflowing in the crates, still sitting on the back patio, right outside the French doors, staring through the windows at me. Mocking me and saying, “Hey, you there – stop what you are doing and get to the work at hand; zesting and squeezing us!” But I continue to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to that pile and TRY and keep motivated enough to get all the Christmas stuff taken down and put away. I’m not getting very far on that either.

This is what our dining room looks like. And that bright light in the background, those are the French doors and they are my only defense between the citrus and my sanity! It’s coming at me from both directions!  And yes, the tree is still up, but everything else from all over the house, including the kitchen Christmas tree, is stacked on every possible surface of said dining room, just waiting for me to get the storage boxes down and pack it all up. I don’t want too! It feels overwhelming this year. I don’t know why, it just does. So tomorrow morning, when a TV film crew comes to the house to shoot a “homemade mozzarella” piece for Valley Dish, I’m just going to casually lie and say, “Oh, we always leave our tree up until after the Epiphany.  The tree comes down tomorrow and everything will get packed up and put away.”  (Epiphany – a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi). That sounds like one convincing lie to me, I think it will work. In the meantime, I will just continue to close those dining room doors and pretend the mess doesn’t exist!

The citrus is another matter, I can no longer ignore it. To get motivated on that, I have created this cocktail which has now dispensed of exactly four pieces of the fruit.  Four down, only about 600 to go!

Meyer Lemon and Blood Orange Margarita

2 Meyer lemons, washed
2 blood oranges, washed
1/4 sugar
3 ounces tequila
1  1/2 ounces Grand Marnier or triple sec
1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey
Ice

Place the zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange into the bowl of a food processor. Add sugar and process until well combined. Pour citrus sugar onto a small flat plate and set aside.

Juice all the citrus and place in a cocktail shaker, reserve the juiced citrus halves.  Add the tequila, Grand Marnier, and agave nectar to the shaker. Fill the shaker 3/4 full with ice.

Cover the cocktail shaker and shake. Shake some more. Keep on shaking, until you can’t shake anymore. Give it to someone else to shake until they walk out on you. Now you are done!

Wet the rims of 2 margarita glasses with the cut and juiced halves of the lemons or oranges. Dip rims into citrus sugar to coat.

Pour margarita into prepared glasses. Yell for that person who left you, and tell them to come back and have a fantastic Margarita with you. They will forgive you at first sip, I promise!

Makes 2

After putting up the cocktail recipe on Sunday, then posting it on the LPG facebook fan page, I found that my “followers” want and need more cocktail recipes. I am here to serve!

We have a built-in 50 bottle wine refrigerator in the kitchen. It is generally stocked about half full with everyday, drinkable, and reasonably priced bottles. My favorite summer wine is rosé. I find it to be the perfect “cool me down” hot-weather choice. For some unknown reason, my dad figures that if I like rosé, I must love Riesling and Gewürztraminer. I despise both! In fact, I find them so cloyingly sweet that I can not bring myself to serve them to others either. So what to do with the three bottles I have? Yup, that’s right, it took me three weeks to tell my dad, that I do not like these wines – and yes, it hurt his feelings. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to stop receiving bad “gifts”! What I’ve decided to do is make lemonade out of lemons, or in this case, sour up overly sweet wine with a bit of acid.

German Raspberry Wine Cooler

16-ounce bag frozen raspberries, thawed
1 750 ml bottle Riesling or Gewürztraminer
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 limoncello liqueur
Ice
Lemon slices, garnish

In a blender or food processor, purée the raspberries and their accumulated juices. Place a strainer over a bowl allow the liquids to flow through. Do not use a wooden spoon or spatula to press the raspberry purée in the strainer, this will only push the tiny seeds into the strainer holes, clogging the strainer. Instead, use the handle of the spoon or spatula to lightly tap on the side of the strainer. This allows the seeds to “jump” around as the liquids easily flow into the bowl.

(When I demonstrate this tip in cooking classes, there are “oohs and aahs” and at least one person will pipe up and say, “That tip was worth the price of the class!”  You will understand when you give it a try.) Makes about 1 1/4 cups raspberry purée.

Pour the raspberry purée, wine, lemon juice, and limoncello into a pitcher and stir. Serve in tall wine classes filled with ice, garnish with lemon slices, and enjoy. Or in my case, enjoy getting rid of the German wine!

Makes about 4 cups

Tomorrow, the previously long-promised limoncello dessert recipe will appear!  In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy a couple limoncello cocktail recipes to tide you over and enhance the long holiday weekend.

As for me – I am still trying to catch up from the exceedingly relaxing and lazy vacation. After spending a week at an all inclusive beach resort where we had our own butler to fulfill our every wish, it’s been an adjustment getting back into the swing of it. On top of that, summer kid’s class begin on Tuesday, so I’ve been turning over the kitchen and grocery shopping like crazy for the last couple days. I really could use a little cocktail for myself! Above is one last picture from our magical week – dinner at the teppanyaki style Japanese restaurant.  Aw, good times!

Limoncello Mojito

1 handful fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup chilled limoncello
2 tablespoon superfine sugar
1/3 cup chilled club soda
Mint leaves, garnish
Lemon wedges, garnish

In a cocktail shaker, put a small handful mint leaves, add fresh lemon juice and superfine sugar.  Use a muddle to mash well.  Add a large handful or scoop of ice and shake vigorously. Strain, dividing into two high ball glasses.  Add 1/4 cup limoncello to each glass and divide club soda between the glasses. Stir eachand garnish with mint and lemon wedges.

Serves 2

Italian AriZona Iced Tea

1/4 cup chilled limoncello
Ice
AriZona brand diet green tea with ginseng
Lemon wedge, garnish

Pour limoncello into a high ball glass, fill glass to the brim with ice. Top off with iced tea. Stir and garnish with a lemon wedge.

Serves 1

Two of my best friends and I had a little holiday happy hour tonight to celebrate the season. Peggy, Anne, and I have been friends since our kids were in elementary school. You know how that goes, when the kids are little, you see each other, if not daily – at least weekly, and then as the kids grow, it becomes less and less frequent. So getting together becomes more and more of a treat. Tonight was definitely a treat! Merry Christmas “besties”, love you both!

I found the blood orange sparkling drink at Costco, and Peggy said she has seen it at the grocery store as well.  If you can’t find it in your area, just use a mix of fresh blood orange juice and sparkling soda as a substitute.

Blood Orange Sparkler

1 ounce premium vodka
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
3 ounces blood orange sparkling beverage, chilled
2 ounces champagne or sparkling wine, chilled
1/2 thin lime slice

Fill a martini shaker with ice, add vodka and lime juice and shake until ice cold, strain into a large stemmed glass, add blood orange sparkling beverage and champagne. Place lime slice on rim of glass and serve.

Make 1

Peggy and I went to lunch today at our amazing mall, Scottsdale Fashion Square.  We ate at the new Fox Restaurant Concepts place called Modern Steak. Lunch was perfectly delish but what really stayed with me was a cocktail Peggy ordered called “Retail Therapy” (that name is just too cute!)  Once I tasted it, I wished I had ordered it too!  So, I came home, worked on it for awhile, and believe I have come close to duplicating it.  I’m calling my version, “Summer in a Glass” for obvious reasons.  It calls for simple syrup and for muddling, just as my Cucumber Martini did, so click here to go to that previous post if you need help with either the muddling technique or the simple syrup recipe. Thank you dear Peggy for lunch and my beautiful gift, but most of all, thank you for the gift of your friendship! xoxo

“Summer in a Glass” Martini

6 fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries, stemmed
6 large basil leaves
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) simple syrup, chilled
Ice
3 ounces (about 1/3 cup) Absolute Citron vodka
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) Grand Marnier
Strawberry slices and basil leaves for garnish
Lemon juice, optional

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the strawberries and basil with the simple syrup. Fill 3/4 full with ice and add the vodka and Grand Marnier. Shake well, strain into two chilled martini glasses and garnish with a strawberry and basil leaf.  Taste and add a squeeze of lemon juice if it is too sweet for your taste. Serve immediately.

Makes 2

Pomegranate Margaritas

2/3 cup pomegranate juice
2/3 cup premium clear tequila
1/3 cup triple sec
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, divided
3/4 cup cold simple syrup *
Crushed ice

Fill a blender with ice, pour pomegranate juice, tequila, triple sec, Grand Marnier, only 1/2 cup of the lime juice and the simple syrup over ice.  Blend until smooth

Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons lime juice on a saucer.  Pour the sugar on another saucer.  Dip the rims of margarita or martini glasses into the lime juice, then into the sugar for a “sugared rim”

Pour blended margarita into prepared glasses, garnish with a lime slice and enjoy.

Serves 4

* If you’re not sure what simple syrup is or how to make it, go to the tip index for help.

I’m wondering how long this new feeling I’m experiencing will last? “What feeling?” you ask – Guilt! It’s 11:15 PM and although I’ve worked diligently on the blog off and on all day long (setting up links and learning new things- thanks as always Cyndi) I haven’t yet posted anything for the day. I don’t bother much with the emotion of guilt, I don’t find it to be a very productive one, so this is new for me! Honestly, I really am having a great time and am so excited about this blog and in fact my horoscope – I’m a Scorpio – has been crazy dead on. Here was today’s ”
You’re feeling wonderful. Exhilarated, excited and anxious for all new things to happen. Well here’s a newsflash: just thinking about change – the way you are – means it’s already started. Everything begins as a thought – as an idea – right? So now your only job is to get the show on the road with some action. Map out a battle plan on paper and get it started.” WOW! Anyhow besides slaving away on the “inner workings” of this site, I also was messing with my cable/TiVo connection for a larger part of the morning… sometimes all this techno stuff just really ticks me off. After doing back-bends, restarts, consulting TiVo.com, and finally having to call them twice, it all came down to unplugging it all (TV, TiVo box, cable box, and VCR) waiting 10 seconds and plugging it all back in so it could all reboot and be happy again. That’s all it took! And honestly, that is what I usually think of first, WTH?! The day wasn’t a total loss though, because I enjoyed a wonderful “end of the summer ladies-who-lunch” date at Lon’s with Barbara Fenzl and Kim Howard, my “Cooking Partners in Crime”. So yeah to that! Anyhow, since we only had leftover salmon, peppers, and pesto for dinner, I will just have to put up a cocktail recipe for today! My BFF’s, Peggy and Anne, and I discovered this great drink at Ocean Prime Restaurant back in the late summer of ’08 on a girl’s night out. I served it at a Christmas party back in mid-December and then shared it with my other BFF’s, Jen and Jeff – who live in Illinois, in January. Hadn’t had it again until this month, twice now! First with Peggy and Anne a couple weeks ago and last night with the Froggatt’s at our Basil & Bay dinner. I know it sounds like a strange combo, but after serving it to more than about 3 dozen different people, I haven’t found one person who doesn’t love it- so don’t knock it till you try it!

Cucumber Martini

2 ounces Bombay Sapphire gin or any vodka of your choice- if you don’t like gin (like Peggy doesn’t!)
4 peeled slices English cucumber
1 ounce cold simple syrup
Juice of 1 large lime
Ice, and plenty of it – martinis NEED ice crystals floating on top, in my opinion
Lime wedges and/or unpeeled cucumber slices for garnish

Place the gin and cucumber slices in a martini shaker. Muddle until cucumbers are very well crushed.

Add the simple syrup, lime juice, and ice, shake well, really really well! Then, using the strainer of the shaker, strain either straight up into a chilled martini glass or over ice in a “rocks” glass. Garnish with a lime wedge and cucumber slice. Makes 1 or 2, depending on the glass you use Tips: Simple syrup is just that – simple. There are several thicknesses of simple syrup and they have different uses. Thin simple syrup -3 parts water to 1 part sugar, is used to glaze cakes and cookies. Medium simple syrup – 2 parts water to 1 part sugar, is used to sweeten iced tea and make lemonade. Thick simple syrup – 1 part water to 1 part sugar, is used to glaze candied fruits and is the basis of cocktails such as this one. Bring 1 cup water to a boil. Stir in 1 cup granulated sugar. Turn the heat to low and stir until the sugar dissolves completely, it’ll just take a minute or two. Refrigerate until ready to use. Syrup lasts about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks, covered and refrigerated. See – simple! To muddle is to combine ingredients by pressing them with a muddler before adding the majority of the liquid ingredients. A muddler is a long pestle shaped bar tool that is commonly made of wood, but can be found in stainless steel or plastic with teeth on the bottom. The wooden variety works well with more delicate herbs such as mint in a mojito. While the variety with teeth really work well for this drink and others that have fruits to be crushed. Both types are easy to find through Google or on Amazon and cost around $6 -$8.