Martha Monday--Mojitos and a sandwich

In the July/August issue of Everyday Food, I marked ten recipes as must-do's for this month. Of the ten, six of them are for cocktails. Go figure.

Last week I made the Watermelon Mojitos on page 94. They weren't bad!

There are five cocktails featured on the "Instant Party" spread--everything from a Singapore Sling to a Painkiller. Once I've made my way through them all, I'll let you know my favorite. ;)

After the mojitos, I made the Pesto Chicken Burgers from page 13.  I didn't have any ground chicken on hand, so I simply used cubed breast meat.  The ciabatta rolls, pesto, chicken, melted cheese and tomato slice was a terrific combination--what a great sandwich!

I'm not entirely sold on the watermelon mojito (a regular mojito is more my thing) but I am smitten with these pesto chicken burgers.  I'll be making them again. Need something different for dinner? Give these pesto chicken burgers a try!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Martha Monday--St. Patrick's Day fare

St. Patrick's Day is all about the gold, the shamrocks, the leprechauns...and the corned beef and soda bread, which is what I usually focus on.  This year, I might change it up a bit and make a few other Irish-themed dishes and treats for St. Patrick's Day.  Thanks for the inspiration, Martha!

I'm liking this Irish Beef and Stout Stew:

This Cheddar-Topped Shepherd's Pie is going to be a huge hit with my family:

Irish Beef Hand Pies?  Yes, please!

After any of those hearty meals, Irish Coffee Cupcakes would be a delicious dessert:

Topped off with a Hot Nutty Irishman, of course!

What are your plans for St. Patrick's Day?  If nothing else, make sure they involve a hot, nutty Irishman. He sounds like a lot of fun!

NYE cocktails

I'm thinking ahead to New Year's Eve, cocktails, and the possibility of staying up until midnight.  Which I doubt will happen, especially if I indulge in these cocktails, but I'm totally fine with that.

Martha has some amazing winter cocktails and champagne and sparkling wine cocktails.  These in particular have caught my eye (and my mouth):

Pomegranate-Champagne Punch

The Blizzard Cocktail

Coquito

Semifreddo Bellini

Frizzante Mojito



Prosecco Sangria

Don't those look amazing?! I don't want to pick just one, so I might make all of them, get crazy drunk and fall asleep by 9:30.  Which would mostly be a repeat of last year's New Year's Eve for me.

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration!  If I can recover from all these cocktails, I'll be back bright and early on Monday morning with my New Year's Resolutions.  Happy New Year!

Vodka cranberry slush

Looking for a fun cocktail for holiday entertaining?  Let me introduce to you the Vodka-Cranberry Slush.  This is an easy make-ahead mix that everyone will enjoy. 

Start with a large can of frozen orange juice concentrate and lemonade concentrate.  Let them thaw and mix together.  Add one cup of very strong tea (I used green tea, but black tea would be fine as well).

Add 3.5 cups of water, followed by 3.5 cups of your favorite vodka.  Mix together and let freeze at least 24 hours.  It will sit quite happily in the freezer for much longer, though, so feel free to make it a week or two before you actually need it.

When you're ready to serve, scoop some frozen vodka mixture into a glass and top with cranberry juice.  An ice cream scoop works just fine for this.  This amount of slush is good for twenty drinks (each with 1.5 scoops of slush in the glass). 

You'll want to have straws or stirring sticks handy to guests can mix the slush with the cranberry juice. Enjoy!