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!
 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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 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 CraftyMade / 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
The whiskey sour is my favorite drink right now. I love the way the egg whites bring a touch of stability to the always battling sweet and sour elements of a cocktail. Whiskey sours are also very fun to play around with as you can try so many different flavors in the simple syrup. For this drink I went with cinnamon. I had this combo at Craft & Commerce (our best restaurant/bar for cocktails in San Diego) and I fell in love immediately. It brings a little bit of holiday spirit but can totally be served any time of the year. Plus, cinnamon is a wonderful health aid…so…bonus points!!!
For those who are wondering about the raw egg white, don’t worry. If you get your eggs from a local farm who is taking care of their chickens the way they should, raw egg whites are totally fine. If you are super nervous about this idea and still want to try the drink, then you can buy pasteurized egg whites at whole foods if you have no other options and NEED to have whiskey sours in your life. I would still recommend that you look into fresh eggs anyway, for the sake of your overall health. Did you know that America is one of the few countries who refrigerate their eggs? That’s kind of a scary thought when you beg the question why. Something to ponder…
Local Hint: San Diego, you can find amazing pasture-raised chicken eggs from farms like Spur Valley Ranch. Doesn’t get much better than them unless you are raising chickens yourself! ;) Check here for market availability.
Cinnamon Whiskey Sour:
2 ounces rye whiskey (preferably Bulleit or your favorite small batch)
3/4 ounces freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 ounce cinnamon simple syrup (recipe below)
1 egg white
a few dashes of bitters
For the syrup: Combine 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and 1 Tablespoon cinnamon bark in a small pan. Cook over medium heat until boiling and the sugar is dissolved. The cinnamon bark from Ceylon cinnamon, as opposed to Cassia, is what you’re looking for. Ceylon is known as the “true” cinnamon that was bartered and traded so long ago in the days of Marco Polo and beyond. Obviously, you can make a syrup with a cinnamon stick but I threw that little bit in there in case you are the type of person who wants to know such things and make the best cinnamon syrup possible. ;)
For the drink: Fill your cocktail shaker with ice and add all of the ingredients besides the bitters. Shake for at least a minute so that the egg white can get a nice foam in the shaker. Pour into a glass without ice and throw a few dashes of bitters on top. If you find the drink to be too sweet, try substituting all or half of the lemon juice for lime juice. Enjoy!
Best way to separate the white from the yolk is with your hands!
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Cooking with kids can be a lot of work, but the memories and experience are worth it! I have 3 kiddos. When I cook with one of my kids, I love to engage with them one-on-one…if I can. This is the most relaxing for me, the kiddo feels successful and important, and our recipe gets completed without any arguing…assuming the others stay out of the kitchen, which doesn’t usually happen!
The recipe in this post was made with almond milk but you could totally substitute regular milk. ;) I made the complete switch to almond milk a year or so ago. Before that, I drank raw milk for a while before it got too expensive and difficult to acquire without waiting out long periods of time where California was deciding how it felt about raw milk.
My littlest loves eggnog so we decided to make some together, using the most authentic eggnog style (recipe below). I love his little hands in these pictures! I hope I always have little hands in my kitchen on some level!
Eggnog is made several different ways. The most traditional way blends the egg yolks in with the milk and sugar mixture, then is combined at the end with whipped egg whites. The eggs need to be fresh because they are consumed raw in this and most homemade eggnog. Don’t worry too much about the warnings for raw eggs if you are getting your eggs from a local organic, free-range farm that operates properly or even above that or use eggs from your backyard chickens like we did! You also have the choice to make this raw, cooked and cooled, or just cooked and consumed warm. For the health fans, eggnog is supposed to be a treat so don’t be put off by the amount of maple syrup. At least it’s a more pure sweetener, right?!
Eggnog with Almond Milk
1/2 gallon almond milk or regular whole milk
1/2 cup Grade B maple syrup
2 teaspoons fresh nutmeg, grated plus more for garnish
1 Tablespoon vanilla paste (my favorite option!) or 1 Tablespoon regular vanilla
6 super fresh eggs, yolks and whites separated
1/4-1/2 cup Bourbon (note the times in each option for when to add bourbon)
For raw eggnog: Combine all ingredients but the egg whites and bourbon with a whisk. Bourbon can be added at any time. It really is an important flavor component so if you don’t desire alcohol, I suggest using the cooked method below and adding it at the beginning so the alcohol can cook off but leave the flavor. Now, whip the egg white until stiff peaks form. We use a hand blender around here so that the kids can whip things more easily instead of just watching a mixer! Slowly add the whipped egg whites to the milk mixture. Serve in a punch bowl or individual cups then garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
For cooked eggnog: Combine the milk, nutmeg, and vanilla paste in a saucepan. Bourbon can be added at any time. It really is an important flavor component so if you don’t desire alcohol, add it at the beginning so the alcohol can cook off but leave the flavor. If you desire a spiked eggnog, add the bourbon after the end product is removed from the heat or just go for the raw option above. Cook the mixture until it’s hot to the touch. Almond milk doesn’t burn like regular milk and doesn’t need to be stirred as often. So, stir the regular milk more often if you’re using it. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, beat the maple syrup and yolks until they are light in color. Combine the egg yolk mixture with 1 cup of the milk mixture to “temper” the eggs or neutralize the heat so the yolks don’t cook in the super hot mixture, then add the rest of the milk mixture. If for some reason you find yolk, just strain before you serve it and try again next time. Heat the milk/yolk mixture until it’s hot. Remove from the heat. While it’s cooling, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed (we use a hand blender for easy whipping), then add them to the milk/yolk mixture. Serve in a punch bowl or individual cups, then garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
Does anyone else collect these vintage santa mugs?! Love them!
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