Cotton Candy

Think of it as the grown-up, luxurious cousin of that fluffy childhood treat you loved, with a side of elegance. Simple, yes, it  only 2 ingredients, besides ice. But like all great drinks, it really is all about quality ingredients and the perfect assembly.

You'll need:

• 2 oz premium vodka - we like Skyy, but use your favorite high quality vodka

• 1 melon ball-sized scoop of raspberry sherbet or sorbet (Choose wisely. The sherbet’s sweet, but if you want a little tang, go sorbet.)

Directions::

1. Ice it up. Add a handful of ice to your shaker
2. Place ingredients in your shaker. Channel your inner mixologist and add the vodka and that scoop of raspberry goodness into the shaker.
3. Shake, shake, shake. Go hard, make it icy, and let those flavors mingle until everything's perfectly blended. — This is where we transform this drink from sweet and sugary to a frosty cloud of perfection. You want that "cotton candy" texture, so don’t skip this part. 
4. Strain and serve. Strain the concoction into a chilled martini glass.

Sip and enjoy. 

Who Pooped In The Pool?

Yeah, you read that right.  "Who pooped in the pool" is the newest decadent drink for island imbibement.

Inspired by a recent problem...an iguana has decided that the branch directly above our pool is his toilet seat.  Therefore, you guessed, that makes the pool the toilet bowl.  Pretty disgusting.  Had to drain the pool when we realized what was happening.  Now we have to keep it covered to protect it from iguana guano.

True story.

So anyway, Scott came up with this drink idea to serve as the cocktail for a recent Game Night.

It was a big hit!


Who Pooped In The Pool
Equal Parts:
Vodka
HPNOTIQ Liqueur
White Cranberry Juice (Mango Peach, White Grape or any mostly clear juice, but White Cran is best)

Shake over ice or stir in pitcher.  Strain and pour into cocktail glass. Squeeze a lemon wedge, but discard.
Add a Tootsie Roll Midgee.
Enjoy!

(TIP: Don't let it sit too long.  Once the tootsie roll starts to melt it kinda looks like sewage.)

Tee More Marthrinis

While we are still on the subject of martinis, I will admit that the classic and the pama are the faves, but we do like to mix it up a bit from time to time.  Here are tee more marthrini, I mean, three more martini recipes that we think you might enjoy.

#1

The Lemon Drop Martini is basically a lemon drop that is too good to shoot.  You’ll want to sip and enjoy!  Using the Limoncello liqueur, you don’t need to add extra sugar because the sugar is already in the liquor.  And remember, it is a martini, not a fru-fru girly drink so you don’t want it too sweet (not that there is anything wrong with fru-fru girly drinks.)

Lemon Drop Martini

2 shots Vodka

1 shot Limoncello

2 Lemon slices

Prepare glasses in advance by chilling and then dipping the edges in lemon juice then in granulated sugar. 

Pour vodka and Limoncello into shaker, squeeze one of the lemon slices, and add ice.  Shake well.  Serve in chilled, sugar rimmed glasses with a lemon slice for garnish.

“What a twist!”

(A nice twist on this one is to combine it with the PamaTini to make the PamaLemaTini.  Simply split the amount of Limoncello with equal parts Pama pomegranate liqueur.  We found a fun pre-made pomegranate sugar glass rimmer made by a company called Stirrings that is pretty good with the PamaLemaTini.)

#2

Another one we like is the Pear Martini.  We found Absolut Pears, and thought it sounded delicious, and so Scott had the idea for pear martinis.  We made them for a couple of happy hours and they were a big hit.  

Suzi also made them as a DIVA drink one year and they weren’t quite as big a hit.  But they sure were pretty…

Pear Martini

3 shots Absolut Pears Vodka

1 shot Goya Pear Nectar

Asian pear slice

Pour into shaker, add ice and shake vigorously.  Serve straight up in a chilled glass and garnish with an Asian pear slice.

#3

Ok, so we really got into martinis for a while there.  One night we were talking about the classic olive martini and started discussing things other than olives that would be good in a martini.  Of course there is the obvious cocktail onion, some folks like a jalapeno or chili for a little spice.  But then Scott came up with dill pickle, and Dill Pickle Martinis were born.  
This drink goes great with a club sandwich and a bag of chips. 

Dill Pickle Martini

3 shots Vodka

Threaten with Dry Vermouth

Threaten with pickle juice

Pickle slice for garnish

Pour into shaker with ice, shake vigorously, serve up in chilled glasses.  Garnish with pickle slice.

This is simply the Classic Olive Martini made dirty, but instead of an olive and olive juice, use a slice of dill pickle and pickle juice.  

Shaken Not Stirred

Martinis are a favorite around here.  PamaTinis, featured in the previous post, are standard happy hour fare, running neck and neck with the classic olive martini.  There is, without a doubt, an art to making a really great martini.  Most bars use too much vermouth or none at all.  The trick to the perfect martini is just the right amount of vermouth, vigorous shaking and good quality olives.  You want fresh vermouth too.  A bottle sits a long time on most bars and it will go stale.  Replace it ever so often even if it’s not empty.  For a while there, we were having a terrible time finding good olives.  They were hard, thick skinned, or bitter.  One drawback of living on an island is that we sometimes have limited supplies available to us.  We have settled on Iberia Spanish Olives, the small, pimento stuffed variety.  Scott is a purist and likes the solitary olive floating in the drink.  Suzi wants at least 3 olives, preferably speared on a toothpick, and if they happen to be stuffed with bleu cheese, that is even better. 

Classic Olive Martini

3 shots Vodka

Dry Vermouth … measurements can get tricky as this is really a taste thing.  You can experiment, but Scott says he gives it somewhere between “Threaten” and a “Splash.”  (Approximately ½ teaspoon at most for a 3 oz martini would be a good guideline.) 

Pour liquids into shaker, add ice and shake vigorously.  (The shaking is key here.  It is important to “bruise” the liquor, basically meaning, it becomes well aerated.)  Serve in chilled up glasses with olive(s) for garnish.

Remember, we use soup bowl glasses.  If your up glasses are smaller, you might need to cut back on the measurements or use a sidecar for the extra.

To make a dirty martini, instead of putting olive juice in the drink itself, try putting a juicy olive in the shaker along with the ice and other ingredients.

PamaTini

We were first introduced to pomegranate martinis in Chattanooga.  The girls took Suzi to lunch at a place downtown called Food Works once when she was visiting and they ordered pomegranate martinis.  If you know Suzi, you know that getting a buzz at lunch is one of her favorite things (she says, “It’s just so festive.”) 

A few months later, back in Chattanooga with Scott for her big 40^th celebration, she made the now legen- (wait for it) -dary plan of bar hopping downtown and drinking all day…the day before the BIG party.  It was a fabulous day of pomegranate martinis at nearly every bar in downtown Chattanooga.  With the benefit of hindsight, probably not such a hot idea, but a fabulous day nonetheless.

And so, pomegranate martinis became a favorite.  However, while we have tasted some very good ones in some nice bars, none of them quite lived up to expectations.  If you look up recipes, many of them call for ingredients like grapefruit juice.  It makes for a tasty drink, but just not pomegranatey enough to suit us.  Scott stepped up to the challenge and came up with the ultimate, juiciest pamatini using good pomegranate juice, and it has become a staple around our bar.  We have even squeezed and strained fresh pomegranate juice, and it was wonderful but a lot of work. 

They have been called dangerous, they’ve been called truth serum…they go down like kool-aid and they are delicious.

PamaTini

2 parts Skyy Vodka

1 part PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur

1 part POM Wonderful pomegranate juice (any quality 100% pom juice will work)

Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice, shake well and serve straight up in chilled glasses.  A pitted black cherry makes a very nice garnish.

PamaTini’s were the featured drink in the Electric Swinging Pussycat Lounge at Gary’s 60’s Flashback Party, served by Austin Powers himself. 

"Cheers Baby, Yeah!"