Yummy Summer Drinks Series - Mocktails Part 2

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope you enjoyed Mocktails Part 1. I would love to hear if you tried any of the drinks and how you liked them, or what you did to change them to your tastes. Today is the last of the mocktails. Starting next week I will be talking about smoothies and shakes (healthy!).

Cosmo-not

1 cup crushed ice

3 fluid oz. peach nectar

2 fluid oz. cranberry juice cocktail

1/2 oz. grenadine syrup (I used my homemade raspberry simple syrup)

1 fluid oz. lemon flavored soda

lime wedge or curl

Fill a shaker or lidded container with ice. Pour in peach nectar, cranberry juice and syrup. Strain into a glass and top with lemon soda (personally, this drink is too sweet for me and I like to top with sparkling water or leave out the syrup). Garnish with lime. Serves 1.

Raspberry-Lime Rickey

1 lime, quartered

8 oz. sparkling water

1.5 oz. raspberry simple syrup

Fill a glass with ice. Squeeze each of the lime wedges into the glass and drop in. Fill glass nearly to the top with sparkling water and top with raspberry syrup. Delicious and not too sweet. Serves 1.

Mock Champagne

4 cups sparkling water, chilled

4 cups ginger ale, chilled

3 cups white grape juice, unsweetened

Mix together and serve. Serves 10

Citrus Cooler

2 cups orange-pineapple juice

1 cup limeade

4 cups ginger ale, chilled

Orange or lemon slices for garnish

Combine juice, limeade and ginger ale in a large pitcher. Stir. Garnish with lemon or orange slices. Serves 6.

Exotic Fruit Drinks 

1 cup each of assorted fruit juices, kept separate

Sparkling water

Ice cube trays in various shapes

Pour juice into ice cube trays and freeze. For the photo above, I used pomegranate juice. When completely frozen, place in a glass - all the same flavor ice cubes, or mixing different flavors. Pour sparkling water over all.

You may also enjoy:

Introducing the series  

Simple Syrup

Lemony Deliciousness  

Presentation 

Mocktails 1

Yummy Summer Drinks Series - Mocktails Part 1

 
Some of you may feel that it's skirting the edge a bit to be making "mocktails" with a 12 year old. Maybe so. We really had a good time though. My floor is also really, really sticky. Why? I was making mocktails with a 12 year old. It doesn't help at all that he's grown about 3 inches and gained 22 lbs since December. "Hey Mom, I'll bring that drink over to the table. Oops. I spilled a little. Oops, I spilled some more." Was heard more than once. But hey, I've got a mop and I know how to use it.

That's enough chit-chat though, right? On to the recipes.

Margaritas

I went with frozen here because it's hot outside, and we like them. 

Spicy Grapefruit Margarita (adapted from bon apetit)

1 habanero chile, halved with seeds removed (if you haven't worked with hot chiles, use caution)
Kosher salt
6 cups fresh pink grapefruit juice (I used light grapefruit juice)
ice cubes

Steep habanero chile in grapefruit juice 1-2 hours, depending on how spicy you want it. Remove chile and pour grapefruit juice into blender filled with ice cubes, pouring juice to level of ice cubes. In my blender, that's ice to about the 4 cup mark. I made this margarita in two 3-cup batches.
Serve in frosted glasses, garnish as desired.

Lime Margarita

Kosher salt or salt/sugar mixture to rim the glasses

1/2 lime, cut in wedges, or desired garnish

6 oz can frozen limeade concentrate

1/4 cup orange juice

4 cups ice cubes

Frost glasses, if desired. In blender, blend the limeade, orange juice and ice cubes until well blended and ice cubes are crushed. Pour into glasses, garnish as desired.

Strawberry Margarita

6 oz can  frozen limeade concentrate

1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

2 Tbsp. strawberry simple syrup

3 cups water

3/4 cup orange juice

4 cups ice cubes

1 liter lemon-lime soda pop, chilled

Combine limeade, strawberries, simple syrup, water and ice cubes in blender. Blend until ice is  completely crushed. Freeze in a 2 quart container to use later. To serve immediately, pour 2/3 cup slush into each glass and top off with 1/3 cup soda. Stir, garnish and serve. 

You may also enjoy:

Introducing the series  

Simple Syrup

Lemony Deliciousness  

Presentation

Yummy Summer Drinks Series - Presentation

Today, I'm going to talk a little bit about decorating those yummy summer drinks.

Presentation is everything, right? It's the reason someone will choose to pick up that drink and give it a try. I'm betting that a study would show (probably has shown) that most people enjoy their food more if it looks pretty. 

There are so many ways to garnish a drink. I'm going to share a few that we thought up. If you are so inclined, please leave a comment and share any garnishing ideas you may have.

• Frosting the glass. This is always pretty, and it's easy. I use a mixture of 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp. of kosher salt. I like a little salt kick with my drink. Take the glass you're going to use and get the rim wet. You can dip it in water, or, like me, rub a lemon wedge around the edge of the glass. Then, dip it in the sugar/salt mixture.

• Fruit on a toothpick or skewer - pick a fruit that complements your drink in both flavor and color. 

• Citrus twists or curls are pretty- especially when they don't uncurl and fall in the drink before you take the photo...

• Flavored or fruited ice cubes - I use juice. Pictured are stars made of pomegranate juice and stirring sticks made of grapefruit juice. I got the trays at IKEA several years ago. 

•  Fruit, mint leaves or citrus peel frozen into ice cubes - very pretty
  

 

• Lemon or lime wedges

• Mint leaves or edible flowers

I hope you found something fun to try! Join us on Tuesday for mocktails!

Summer drinks - earlier posts

Introducing the series  

Simple Syrup

Lemony Deliciousness 

Yummy Summer Drinks Series - Lemony Deliciousness

 

Homemade Lemonade 

Simple Syrup

10-12 lemons - juiced. Should yield about 2 1/2 cups lemon juice

Make your simple syrup and cool. Add lemon juice through strainer. Taste it. If you like it this sweet, cool and chug away. If it's too sweet for you (like it is for me), then add water to taste.

Minty Lemonade Slush 

you will notice that this recipe is very similar to the one you will find on Fuzz Food. 
That's because it's where I got it...it's kind of like a slushy mint julep.

Lemonade

Ice

Fresh Mint Leaves

Fill your blender about 3/4 full with ice

Add lemonade to ice level.

Add 3 fresh mint leaves.

Blend it until ice cubes are completely crushed.

Garnish with mint leaves, serve, and enjoy! Perfect for a sunny day.

 

Pomegranate Lemonade

Lemonade

32 oz. pure pomegranate juice. 

Chill and serve. Delicious. 

Again, you can add water to dilute to taste.

Coming Thursday: Presentation (serving, garnishes, frosting glasses) 

If you get a chance to try these - comment and let me know what you think!

 

Summer drinks - earlier posts

Introducing the series  

Simple Syrup

Yummy Summer Drinks Series - Simple Syrup

 photo credit

 

Simple syrup is the most useful thing. It is mostly used in beverages, but can also be used to keep a cake moist and delicious. Why use it? Well, sugar and water don't mix well in cold drinks. To get a really smooth clear drink, the water and sugar need to be heated so that the sugar completely dissolves. It's really convenient as well, if you're making a large number of drinks. It cuts way down on mixing time.

Simple syrup is really, really easy to make. It is exactly 1 part water to 1 part sugar. Here's the basic recipe I use:

2 1/2 cups water

2 1/2 cups sugar

Bring water and sugar to a boil over medium high heat. Stir to dissolve sugar. Boil 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Use in your favorite drink mix, or refrigerate until needed. Depending on the drinks you are making, you can soak things (vanilla bean, lemon or lime slices, cinnamon) in the syrup as it cools. Once the syrup is at room temperature, remove the items you were soaking before refrigerating your simple syrup.

Next Tuesday, I will be posting a series of lemonade recipes. The lemonade is made with this simple syrup. Make sure and stop by!

Introducing the Yummy Summer Drinks Series!

Please welcome a new, regular contributor to Fuzz Food! Jenn from my lavender ave:  blogger and owner of Lavender Avenue on Etsy. She's also the executive chef in her house, and like me, she likes to keep it interesting.

I am really excited to be here - guest posting at Fuzz Food. Mrs. Fuzz always has great recipes. Love, love, love the MPM's too, don't you?

Let me tell you where I got the idea for this series. My husband and I just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. I know. Wow, right? I looked it up. It's the porcelain anniversary. Huh. It turns out that in my world, the 18th anniversary is the BlendTec Anniversary. Who knew? It's a nice change from the years (5, 10, 14) that were "baby" anniversaries. That said, I am expecting somewhat bigger things for year 20. Just saying. And not a baby.

I really like this machine. We have made tortilla soup, ice cream (with spinach in it) and many, many smoothies. It really does blend just like they say it does.

I thought it would be really fun to make a bunch of different summery drinks, mostly using the BlendTec, but sometimes not, and share them with you here. Some of them will be sweet (lemonade), some will be thick (smoothies) and some will be whole juice (think V-fusion). So join us here every Tuesday and Thursday for the next 4 weeks or so for some Yummy (non-alcoholic) Summer Drinks!

Coming Thursday: Simple Syrup

mpm: week of July 11th

for more menu inspiration or to submit your own go here

MONDAY

Southwestern Grilled Chicken with Lime Butter :: Cuban beans and rice

TUESDAY

Blueberry Cinnamon French Toast (minus the compote) :: fresh berries :: turkey sausage

WEDNESDAY

Black Bean Sliders w/ Spicy Mango Sauce and Guacamole :: sweet potato fries :: mint lemonade

THURSDAY

Veggie & Cheese Bagel sandwiches :: fresh fruit :: chips

FRIDAY

Amy's Organic Pizza (clearance sale at store-I bought a bunch) :: green salad w/ grape tomatoes

SATURDAY

leftovers day

SUNDAY

Broccoli & Bowties :: fresh fruit :: garlic bread