Breakfast Martini

We really love this martini and for a while we wouldnt drink any other as the fresh and citrus flavours were a wonderful wake up for the taste buds being so tasty i was asking for another before i finished drinking the first one.

Ingredients 
1 spoon orange marmalade
2 shots gin
1/2 shot triple sec
1/2 shot squeezed lemon juice

Sloe time in the meadow

We have had our first frost and we are lucky to have our own sloes growing in the meadow so no more tromping round the footpaths hunting for sloes, dragging children through nettles and thistles.   Ella is getting to an age (16 months) where she is getting to an age where she loves to help, she watches and copies and as you can see very insistent to carry the basket and pick the berries.

After the girls helped pick the sloe's we spent time pricking them before added them to our yearly few bottles of gin, a bit of mothers ruin to help sooth the day for mum and dad when the kids finally go to bed.  I know your supposed to wait till Christmas to let them infuse but hey make a few extra bottles mean we can start drinking it a bit earlier Cheers!!

A few years back we also made some slow wine which you can find out how to do below

Showbizz

Long cool and refreshing excuse me while i'll have a few of these lazing in the garden.


2 shots of vodka 
1 shot of cassis 
topped with grapefruit 
shaken on ice

Sophie Temple

So this is a virgin cocktail just for Sophie it is the Shirley temple just renamed !!

1/4 shot of Grenadine

1/2 shot of lemon juice

topped up with Ginger ale 

Jacuzzi

Another lovely Champagne cocktail great for a hot day 

1 shot Archers peach schnapps

1/2 shot of Plymouth Gin

1 shot of orange juice

topped up with champagne

Gin Fizz

This cocktail is perfect for those hot lunch time bbq's or warm eveings as pre dinner drinks as this cocktail is long cool and refreshing 

2 shots of Tanqueray Rangpur gin
1 shot of Monin gomme
juice of half a lime
1 egg white
handful of ice


take all the above ingredients and shake hard in a cocktail shaker and strain into a highball glass and top up with prosecco 

Ritz Fizz

 

We highly recommend this absolutely gorgeous cocktail great to hand out at a dinner party as pre dinner drinks to get the atmosphere going, be warned its so good your guest will come back for more.

1/2 shot blue bols curacao
1 shot Disaronno amaretto
1/2 shot fresh squeezed lemon juice
top up with Champagne

pour all the ingredients into a glass and lightly stir

Cocktail of the month Sea Breeze

This has fast become my favourite pre dinners and Ali is a dab at shaking them up.

Ingredients
theatrical double shot of vodka (shaky hand)
double shot of grapefruit juice (we use a Sanpellegrino soda)
Shake these two ingredients in a shaker with ice and pour gently on top of 6 shots of cranberry and ice so the grapefruit and vodka floats above the cranberry

Wine of the Month

I have one red and one white wine recommendation this month

The White
Zalze Chenin Blanc
A really exciting wine from the western cape of South Africa, i loved this so much i bought it 3 times in the month which is why i only have 2 recommendations and i will definitely buy this a lot more.  It was more than very drinkable and almost like heavenly nectar, it was incredible fresh, crisp and really well balanced and it tasted as if there were a complex of flavour lime and sunshine and that someone had taken a lot of care to create the wine.  It had a great long finish to it and we drank it with fish dishes, chicken salad and pasta and it went with all 3 easily.

Retails between £5.99 - £8

The Red
Domaine De La Renjarde, Massif D'Uchaux, Cotes Du Rhone Villages

A French wine and is a vineyard found in the southern Rhone area, the grapes grown here are Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and Carignan

We found this a soft fruity wine very drinkable in fact we thought maybe this would be nice at a summer BBQ due to all the light floral flavours bouncing around, but although it was light and fruity it had great legs and lingered lovingly on the pallet.  We enjoyed this twice in fact once with a tasty lamb dish and with a good sirloin and it was lovely both times.

Retails around £8.99

Cocktail of the month Grand Mimosa

This is the Grand Mimosa or the daddy killer as i call it as 2 of these and daddy is all mine!

1 shot of Grand Marnier 

2 shots of blood orange

Topped up with Champagne or Prosecco

Fizz for the New Year

Any excuse for a bottle of bubbles and New years is a very good excuse !!  This year we are supporting the British and have been looking for a bit of British Bling in our glass for a couple of years and now have found a couple of varieties to sip at the the ringing in of a New year.

However we do have a couple of Prosecco's we like to use for cocktails and warm ups to the real deals

Villa Sandi Prosecco Frizzante NV DOC RRP £8.99 Frizzante indicates that the wine is gently sparkling with small bubbles.  The taste is slightly dry but with lovely floral, honeydew melon and citrus fragrances, we really enjoyed this with a seafood platter.

The other Prosecco we got was Treviso Extra Dry NV, Pasqua RRP £13.49 this is given a special fermantation called Charmat which is fermentation in steel autoclaves which helps the wine gain spritz.  The nose has tropical fruit, peaches and pears and is very refreshing and a great drink to get people warmed up for a few drinks over an evening.

So now to our most welcome British invasion to our table.

Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs 2003 RRP £35.99 which is from England's largest vineyard and shares many of the same characteristic as the Champagne region chalky bases, shelter from bowl shaped fields and plenty of sun exposure that are characteristics of west Sussex all of this gives the perfect growing conditions for classic varieties and style in a glass.

The grape is chardonnay as denoted by the Blanc de Blancs,with golden colour perfect delicate bubbles and aromas of peach and lemon with fabulous floral notes, to taste is like a wonderful almond croissant with a twist fresh lemon.  This is our indulgent New years day celebration bottle to go with out wonderful dinner where we are starting the meal with a huge prawn platter, this wine will be perfect.

now the final 2 both from the same vineyard

Chapel Down Rose Brute NV RRP £25.00 again from the south east Kent sharing the same geological aspect as Champagne, This region being most sort after especially now as we are now experiencing a 1 degree temperature change that bring warmer weather that Champagne celebrated in their wine production 10 years ago.   With the south facing slopes capturing more of the sunshine helping to ripen the grapes given a perfect sparkle to the wine with flavours of ripe red berries of raspberries strawberries and rhubarb.  The grape is a classic Pinot Noir with a wonderful pink colour and beautiful bubbles dancing gently through the glass.

Finally the last bottle from Chapel Down and Pinot Reserve 2006 RRP £25.00 the grapes are Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Auxerrois a grape grown in Germany or Luxembourg and is a sibling grape to Chardonnay.  Although this wine has a green apple nose to it to taste has citrus lime flavours with the warmth of soft warm buttery brioche.    

 

Warped Willie shoot

Oh my days this is just the best shooter to warm up the night before drinks start and Ali is a wizz at shaking these up over lots of ice 1 gets your warmed up and 2 gets you warped for sure !!!  Just to be a little weird my husband has mixed this cocktail up in an old unused kettle we had laying about so you can imagine the quantities were very pleasing.

3/4 Vodka
3/4 Amaretto
1/4 Lime cordial

Campari Twist

With Clementines being in season this month how about this pre dinner drink to wet your whistle while you baste the goose.

Good handful of ice
Campari
Clementine juice
1/2 juice of a lime
Twist of lime

Our favourite wines for Christmas

Here is some of our selection of wine for Christmas 

We are having goose for Christmas so wanted a white Burgundy to go with it, and have chosen this Macon Villages Blanc 'Les Pierres Blanches' 2012 Cave de Lugny Retails £8.99 this is a Chardonnay grape wine so expect lots of apple, citrus and butter notes 

The Panamericana Merlot 2012 retails £7.49 is another good option to go for if your looking for a red to go with your roast goose for Christmas, another new world wine from Chili this wine is from the Curico valley and its noted to come from a cooler climate and also cool fermented this gives the wine a fresher fruity flavour however a small portion of wine has sat in oak barrels then blended in to finish of the flavours of this ample red berried ripe and warm wine   

We had a had a light and spicy curry a few days before Christmas and enjoyed a bottle of Porcupine ridge Viognier Grenache Blanc 2012 retails £8.99 with dinner the grape is a Viognier, Grenache Blanc so there were lots of spicy floral aromas and apricots as a first hit to the nose from the Viognier followed by a crisp clean taste from the Grenache Blanc

Luis Felipe Edwards signature series Syrah Reserva 2012 from the central valley of Chile, Retails at £7.99 was a wonderful wine the Syrah grape gave deep flavoured tones with intense dark fruit flavours and a peppery finish yet fresh and juice leading to a soft finish and we thought this went really nicely with some posh pizza.

I do enjoy a good Rioja and this lively red fruited wine had hits of vanilla and cherry in smacks the Rioja Crianza 2010, CVNE retails at £9.99 and wasnt out of place at our table as we enjoy cured meats and olives and hunks of fresh bread over lunch.

We really loved the Bellingham Mocha Java Merlot 2012,  retails £8.99 famed for its aromas of coffee and black cherry characteristics to taste it is extremely smooth with oak tones and a lovely long taste in the mouth We drank this with a dark chocolate torte and it was a party for the mouth. 

Finally the Yellow tail Shiraz retailing at £7.49 is one of my favourite wines that does not disappoint From Australia the grapes Shiraz and Syrah are drenched in that famous ozzy sunshine bringing out the best from the fruit,  lots of lovely vanilla, ripe sweet red berries soft yet earth and lingers lovingly on the tongue  

5 Home made drinks for Christmas

Click on the images to get the recipes


This Christmas favourite can be wizzed up in the blender  



Just love the smell of mulled wine filling the house and such a welcome warmer to come in from the cold to 














Refreshingly easy and so tasty your have to stop yourself finishing the jug, this is a great drink to use in puddings too.


   Foragers delight in a bottle

This last one may take some time, so patients as the years add flavour but well worth the wait 

Mulled wine

Just love mulled wine and we make it on Christmas eve  we don't use sachets of mulled spices but make it ourselves and then get slowly sloshed while we prep up the turkey for the big day.

Lemoncello

Fresh and lemony i like drinking this on lazy summer afternoons, but it is nice as a little Christmas after dinner tipple too.

It is so easy to do and takes very little effort

4 un waxed lemons

400g sugar

325ml of water

1/2 litre of vodka

Zest the 4 lemons and add to a pan with the water and sugar and heat but dont bring to boil, as you just water the sugars to melt and go clear.  Simmer for 15 mins to let the lemon zest infuse into the syrup.  Add the juice of the 4 lemons and leave to cool.  Once cooled add your Vodka and leave for a week so the waters and sugar is turned into alchole.

Ali thought this was eye poppingly good 

Irish Cream

Homemade Irish cream recipe to try and oh my its is delicious and loads better than a certain brand you can buy in the shop.

I am wondering which is cheaper home made or shop bought, here is the costing and ingredients to find out if it is cheaper.

The most expensive part is the whisky at £8.19 and i used the whole bottle  or 2 cups worth

Cream £2 but i used 2 cup fulls which came to £1

Carnation cream £1 for the whole tin used

1 tsp of coffee 5p

1 tsp vanilla paste 5p

total cost £10.29 but i got 2 litres of Irish cream and the branded shop bought Irish cream was £12.99 for only 70cl.  The home made Irish cream won on taste hands down.  Even Ali who kept saying don't bother making it as it wont be as nice as the shop stuff was more impressed with the home made version and was licking his lips and looking for more.

If your wondering how to make it just stick all the ingredients into a liquidiser and blitz for a few mins.

keep in sterile bottles in the fridge if it lasts that long.

Blackberry liqueur

Today i fancied making some Christmas tipples, inspired after watching super scrimpers i choose two of the drinks to make to find out how they tasted and how cheap they could actually be.

Only four ingredients make this great !

Blackberrys 2 packs for £3 

Vodka £5.49 for the bottle but i only used 1/2 a bottle so lets say £2.75

8oz caster sugar 50p

£6.27 for 70 cl of Blackberry liqueur

First i microwaved the blackberry's for 3 mins which broke down the blackberry's and made them start bleeding their juices. I then added the sugar and gave them a good mash up and returned to the microwave for 4 mins till it got to boiling point.

This made a lovely thick blackberry syrup and i gave it another mash up to squash all the juices from the fruit. After this i let it cool down and then passed it through the sieve to remove the pith.

 Now that the liqueur is cool i added 1/2 a pint of water and half a bottle of vodka.  The longer the liqueur is left apparently the stronger it gets as the vodka will turn the sugar and water added into alcohol.

I couldn't wait and had to taste it and the first immediate taste was that it did need to sit for a bit as i could taste the sugar, but the base flavours were deep and rich and wintery im looking forward to it doing its thing and re trying it a bit later on.

If this is nice i might make this in the Autumn and let it sit until Christmas and see what the taste difference will be from a few months of stooping.    But 70cl of Blackberry Liqueur for £6.27 is not to bad and i could shave an extra £3 off that price from picking my own blackberries next year.

After a two weeks I tried this drink and it was very sweet and I have now tried it 5 weeks later and it is still sweet so next time I am thinking of cutting down on the sugar as clearly not all has turned to alcohol.