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.