Paper Airplane Martini

A little paper airplane won't hurt you, now will it?
LOL, better be careful with these, they are strong and yummy, and taste like one more!

I had this cocktail first at the Amaro Bistro in Bothell, but apparently the Paper Airplane cocktail was invented about 10 years ago by a famous NY bartender, Sam Ross.  It's said to "take the math out of mixing"- from the easy 4 equal measures.  Kind of a whiskey sour with a wonderful herbal complexity of the amaro.

Makes 1 big martini
Ingredients

1 ounce bourbon or rye whiskey (I used Bullet Rye)

1 ounce Nonino amaro (bittersweet Italian liqueur)

1 ounce Aperol (bitter orange Italian aperitif)

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

As you can see below, I squeezed two meyer lemons and got 2 ounces of juice, therefore, it was easy to add 2 ounces of each of the other ingredients (magic potions) to make a batch for two. 

In a shaker filled with ice, add all the ingredients and shake, shake, shake.  Strain into martini glasses and enjoy!

Note: On first taste, my hubby said "it's pretty bitter", which is from the two types of amaro.  Mixed with the whiskey and lemon juice it is the right amount of sweet, tart and bitter (and booze).  On second taste, he said "it's totally fine".
I agree, a paper airplane is totally fine.

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Pineapple Coconut Margarita

Summer is in full swing and there is nothing like a margarita on the deck to enjoy it to it's fullest. Here's a tasty little combination of pineapple, coconut rum and tequila.  Throw in some lime and a salted rim and you have yourself a delicious pineapple coconut margarita.

In this recipe I include some pineapple coconut water. Now, normally, I do not like coconut water, I think it tastes kind of icky, however mixed with tequila and coconut rum, it is quite yummy.  Hahaha, isn't that amazing how that works?  I realize that you may not have any of this ingredient around, and so therefore, I recommend that you use two jiggers of straight pineapple juice instead. 

Please often ask about the "jigger" that I refer to in my drinks...

A jigger is an hourglass-shaped measuring device used by bartenders to ensure that they pour accurate amounts of alcohol into every drink. Usually made of metal (and sometimes plastic), jiggers contain two different measuring amounts – one on either side of the hourglass. A jigger of alcohol refers to 1.5 ounces and 1 ounce on the other side. 

Makes 1 large margarita
Ingredients

1 jigger Coconut rum
1 jigger Tequila
1 jigger Pineapple juice
1 jigger coconut-pineapple water (or substitute another 1 jigger of pineapple juice)
1/2 jigger Triple sec
1/2 lime, juiced
10-12 ice cubes

Add everything to a blender and blend until smooth.  Serve in a salted rimmed glass with another wedge of lime.


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Chambord "Christmas" Margarita

Ho, ho, ho.
Christmas says Mexican food to me.
Actually anytime says Mexican food to me!  Hahaha.
This is a beautiful, festive drink that is tangy and tasty but not too sweet!  We had this with some simple tacos for dinner last night, but it would be a nice cocktail for a holiday get together too.

Serves 2 big margaritas (with refills)  Or, maybe 4 normal size margaritas...

Ingredients

6oz tequila

3oz fresh lime juice, plus some for garnish

2oz simple syrup

2oz chambord
2 oz cranberry juice
 

Sweet, Salty Lime margarita salt:

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup salt

zest of 1 lime

Fill a blender with about 3 cups of ice.  Add tequila, lime juice, simple syrup, cranberry juice and Chambord and blend until smooth.  If needed for thicker margaritas, add more ice. Place salty and sweet lime margarita salt in a shallow dish then run a lime wedge around the rim of 2 cocktail glasses and dunk into lime sugar. Fill glasses with margaritas, garnish with a lime wheel, or wedge, and serve.













For the salty and sweet lime margarita salt: Add sugar, salt, and lime zest to a food processor or blender then process until smooth. You will have leftover margarita salt, but it will last a long time.  I must admit, I tossed a teaspoon into my salsa too.  

My view from my chair last night.  You can see I need to buy more Christmas china, haha.

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Blood & Sand Cocktail

An intense cocktail, not for the faint of heart.

Our server at Din Tai Fung (a fantastic world wide restaurant chain known for their dumplings) cautioned my hubby that this one was one of the stronger cocktails.  Did he still want it?
Yes, yes he did. 

Makes 1
Ingredients

1 oz. scotch

3⁄4 oz. Cherry Heering liqueur

3⁄4 oz. sweet vermouth

3⁄4 oz. fresh orange juice

Pour all the ingredients into an ice filled shaker.  Shake, shake, shake.  Strain into a glass, garnish with some orange peel, or a little slice of orange.  Serve at once.

Yummy.

Strong.

Here's a copy of the drink menu at Din Tai Fung that night.  Taking a picture of the drink menu is one of my favorite ways to take note of some interesting cocktails.  I need to make that Taiwan Sunset soon.

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Honeydew Caipirissima

 A nod to the Olympics in Rio with a cocktail!

Brazil is well know for a cocktail called the caipirinha made with cachaça.

Hmmm, I am fresh out of cachaça. 
Which happens to be a booze made out of sugar cane juice, sounds nice actually, but hard to find.

Therefore, I am making this Caipirissima as it calls for good ole rum which I happen to have plenty of.  Part of this traditional cocktail always includes muddling some fruit and limes (always)..  We have plenty, plenty, plenty of fresh blackberries right now, so that's what I planned to use... except, I had this honeydew cut up and ready to go, so that's what I used.

Feel free to try this same technique with other seasonal fruit.  I also think that frozen (and thawed) fruit would work nicely for muddling too!
I'd liked it so much I am going to try it with fresh blackberries real soon!

Top it off with club soda if you'd like something to sip in larger quantities.

Serves 1 (I doubled it... because that is nice!)

Ingredients

3/4 ounce simple syrup (about a tablespoon), I used lemon 
1/2 cup of fresh honeydew
1/2 a lime, juiced 
2 ounces white rum (I used Bacardi Lemon for added tang)

In a cocktail shaker, press and mix the simple syrup, fruit and lime with a muddler or wooden spoon trying to get the maximum of fruit juice out of the fruit. Add the rum and some ice. Shake hard and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.  Garnish with a wedge of lime.

You may need a strainer like this one as the chunks of fruit kind of jam up your regular cocktail shaker.

Also, you could easily strain into a martini glass and drink it that way!

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Pineapple Vodka Tonic

So simple, I feel kind of ridiculous blogging about it. However, it is my favorite way to have a vodka tonic!
So I felt the need to share, I'm just like that.

Just a hint of pineapple flavor doesn't make it too sweet.  Still some of the refreshing bitterness of the tonic that you may like so much, with a hint of pineapple flavor.

If you wanted to really get fancy, you could freeze some fresh pineapple chunks and use them instead of ice cubes too.  I haven't tried that one, I just think it would be nice.

Serves 1
Ingredients

3 Tbsp pineapple juice
1 jigger vodka (or gin)
Tonic water
Lime wedge
A couple cubes of fresh pineapple (optional)

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"Essence" Orange Ginger Martini

Essence of ginger, and orange together in perfect harmony.  Spicy, refreshing and delicious, I recommend that you get some ginger liqueur if you don't have some. 

This one is for a friend, he knows who he is. 

You can see below, my orange is a little worse for the wear, however it was still very juicy and flavorful!  You could also use bottled orange juice too

Makes 2
Ingredients

1 jigger ginger liquor

2 jigger Vodka

1 1/2 jigger orange juice

A splash of ginger ale
A splash of Grand Marnier

Add ingredients to an ice filled martini shaker. Shake, shake, shake and then strain into a chilled martini glass.

Poor little orange.  Don't worry, we gave it a good send off.

Amaretto Sour Martini

I had never had a Amaretto Sour before reading an article in Food & Wine in the Jan 2016 issue.  It talked about how "old school" 80's cocktails were making a comeback, for good reason- they tasted good!
Well, aside from the "old school" part which kinda hurts my feelings, I felt the need to whip a couple of these up.  Yum!  Tangy, not too sweet, frothy and boozy.  We liked them!

Then a couple days later, we ordered these out at a bar while waiting for a movie to start.  Yuck... so sweet we had to ask for WAY more lemon.  Don't take this one on a bar version alone.  Give this a try.

One note- I like things SOUR, if you don't you might want to start with half the called for lemon juice and see what you think.

Note two...  don't start on me about raw egg whites!  You eat cookie dough don't you?  Also, if you have a comprised immune system, then what the heck are you doing drinking anyway?  LOL, hate to rant, but after the week I've had I feel entitled.
    
Over rocks, or strained into a martini glass, it's all good.

Makes 1 large
Ingredients

2 oz lemon juice
1 oz amaretto
2 oz bourbon (strong proof)
1 oz egg white (about 1/2 of the white from one egg)
2 Tbsp simple syrup (or 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsp water)

Fill a shaker with ice, add all the booze, ending with the egg white.  Shake, shake, shake.  Strain into a martini glass, or over ice in double old fashioned glass.