Drinks Archives - A Golden Afternoon: Simplified Home Living

Cranberry Gin Gin Cocktail

For those lovely people who’ve been waiting, here is the recipe!

Cranberry Gin Gin Fizz
•2 oz. gin (my fave is Old Grove from Ballast Point Brewing)
•1 oz freshly pressed lemon juice
•1 oz cranberry ginger syrup (recipe below)
•Ginger beer (Fever Tree, Maine Root, or Bruce Coast. NEVER EVER use Reed’s because it will mess up the flavor!)
•Rosemary or juniper for garnish

Stir together first 3 ingredients in your cocktail glass. Add ice. Float with some ginger beer and add garnish.
For syrup: Combine 1 cup water with 1 cup organic sugar, 1 ginger root (few inches long and wide), and 1 cup cranberries. Cook until the sugar is dissolved and the ingredients are boiling. Continue cooking on low for 20 min. Cool, strain, and you’re ready to go!

List-Making Tips and Homemade Gin!

I don’t know about you guys, but I keep a list of food and drinks I’m inspired to make. I’ve used Evernote to hold my notes (thanks for sharing, Erin! ;)) for a few years now and LOVE it. It has a login so the information can never be lost if something happens to your phone. You can download it here. I no longer use my iPhone “notes” after having several years worth of lists lost twice (mysteriously not backed up). Now, I keep notes for EVERYTHING in Evernote, especially inspiration from magazines and books, including:

Places to eat in San Diego

Places to visit in Italy/Sicily/Switzerland

Things to read/look up later

Inspirational quotes to remember

Books to read/Books for Faith to read

Natural health recipes

Everyone’s birthdays

Hiking spots

Cocktail notes

Things to buy/Gifts to buy

About this time of year, I pull out my Evernote list of gift ideas I gathered from magazines over the last several months and start making decisions for Christmas gifts. I am so excited for Christmas, aren’t you?! It’s so close! This year somebody is getting some homemade gin after Uncommon Goods sent me this “Homemade Gin Kit” to try! Yay! I already gave one bottle away last week. I also got to cross “making gin” off my list of things to try. This gift works two ways: you can give the kit itself or you can make the gin yourself and give it away. Hostess gift, anyone?

I said yes to partnering with Uncommon for this post because I am a customer of theirs already. Most of Uncommon’s products are made here in the USA, HALF of those products are made by hand, and 1/3 of them are recycled or upcycled. Now, that’s a company I like to support. They have such unique and fun gifts that you KNOW you can’t find on Amazon. I would suggest starting in the under $50 gift section here, because they are always spot on. Also, I’ve found a few last minute gifts in the men’s section before here. ;)

Have you guys started Christmas shopping yet? Go check out Uncommon first and keep notes in your Evernote!

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DIY Champagne Cocktail Kit with Makr

My labeling dreams have come true.

For this project, I am beyond thrilled to be partnering with Makr to make this DIY Champagne Cocktail Kit! I fell in deep deep love with this app. For all of you who label jars, bins, boxes, gifts, and the occasional kiddo item, this app will be your dream come true too. You can make so many things- invitations, postcards, and other fun paper products for your business which is really cool. You can be your own graphic designer and customize the ready-made templates. The style of their app and products is RIGHT ON and it is super easy to use. You can find it here, for iPad only.

I really enjoy making cocktails on the weekends, when we open up our home to friends and the laughter that comes with them. Syrups and mixes and really important for quick cocktail making, especially for groups. I’m excited to have these fun labels instead of my sharpie labels or no label at all, which is how I usually roll! I get confused all the time about which flavors are in my fridge. Organizing and labels make my heart happy.

Won’t these kits also make the BEST gifts? You can have a stack of them ready and just grab and go to those wedding showers and parties! No stress involved and impressive packaging. I would be excited to receive this. Just sayin’.

In my kit, I included 1 mini bottle of champagne, 3 bottles of varying syrups, and 1 jigger or cocktail measuring tool.

Syrup recipes are coming soon!

Each champagne drink can be customized with a little pour of 1 syrup. So easy. No intense measuring while you’re trying to talk. These same labels in this project are available for YOU to use on the Makr app! Remember the app is FREE to download and you don’t have to pay anything to create! Check out my project and customize it for your style!

Download the Makr app here, These are the labels you will find there from this project (all are customizable):

“DIY Champagne Cocktail Kit” label for your box

“Champagne Cocktail” recipe card for making each drink.

“Ginger Spice Syrup” bottle label

“French 75 Mix” bottle label

“Blood Orange Blend” bottle label

“From San Diego, With Love” to/from tag for gifting

Special note for those of you who use external iPad keyboards: unplug it while using for full app use.

***Special for A Golden Afternoon readers (that’s YOU)- enjoy a FREE Makr credit and 20% off a print order! Just register with the code GAFTERNOON and enter that same code at checkout.***

This post was kindly sponsored by Makr, but all opinions about this app, the choice to support them, and the project itself are my own.

Grapefruit Ginger Refresher

Bet you guys have never been to a virtual baby shower! Well, you’re at one today! I am so excited to join with some of my online pals, The Creative Mamas, to throw a baby shower for two expectant ladies in our group of bloggers, Lacy of Living on Love and Carla of Small & Friendly! We have been friends for while now, so it is a HUGE bummer not to throw a party in person for these ladies, but a virtual PAR-TAY is a close second, right?!

I’m so excited for these friends. I miss having babies so much! The snuggles, the cute faces, seeing a little human do something for the first time, and even the diapers. I love it all. I’m hoping to have another baby one day, whether from my husband and I or a little somebody who’s out there waiting for us somewhere. We know that God blesses children to families in so many DIFFERENT ways. The promise is sure, it can just be hard to see the “right” way for our own family sometimes. Either way, waiting for a baby, filled with wonder and excitement, is a fun time. So happy for you two!

Ok, so pretend you just walked into the party, I give you a huge hug, and offer you something tasty to drink. Springtime is upon us and you’re excited for something to wake your Winter taste buds up, right?

This Ginger & Grapefruit drink is a lovely blend of fresh and energizing flavors, thanks to the slight zing of the ginger and grapefruit. These two are a power couple, people. Guests LOVE this drink. The cute straws and flags on them are from one of my favorites, Minted. I just peeled the flags off the paper and stuck them on the straws. Instant cuteness without hours of cutting.

Grapefruit Ginger Refresher

(1 serving)

2 ounces of fresh grapefruit juice

1 ounce ginger simple syrup

Sparkling water or club soda, to fill the glass

Grapefruit slices, for garnish

For the drink:

Measure the grapefruit juice and simple syrup in a glass or mason jar. Add club soda until the glass is almost filled. Add the grapefruit slice and serve.

For the simple syrup:

In a pot, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, and 1 “knob of fresh ginger, sliced. Cook until the sugar is dissolved. Cool before mixing in the drink.

Enjoy your baby shower, Lacy and Carla! ;)

For more baby shower fun, check out my friend’s posts:

imagine gnats / Casa Crafty Made / With Moxie / Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!
petit a petit and family / Rajovilla / Kids Stuff World / Elsie Marley / Buzzmills
A Golden Afternoon / My Life at Playtime / Salsa Pie / this heart of mine

Iced Chai Tea from “Handmade Winter”

I mentioned last week that I was so thrilled to have some of my recipes be a part of the “Handmade Winter” eBook put together by the incredible #creativemamas! Have you bought yours yet? As soon as I had my hands on a copy of the eBook, I KNEW I wanted to try Joya’s masala chai. It’s legit! She describes, in the book, the sweet memories of drinking this tea in India with her family. Memories and food are bonded together in such a glorious way, aren’t they? I love the coziness of winter so much. Cuddling up with the kids and our current piece of literature for school makes my heart happy. Well, it just so happens to have been 82 degrees today so warm chai was definitely NOT the best option and there were certainly no blankets happening! Not wanting to lose the season altogether, and wanting to make this recipe as SOON as possible, we opted for the flavors of Winter served over fresh over ice. So refreshing. So wintery. Thanks, Joya for the amazing recipe! Get your copy on the eBook here so you can make this recipe and many other projects from the “Handmade Winter” eBook. You’ll love it. Follow along the book tour by checking out the “Handmade Winter eBook Tour “ magazine on Flipboard!

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