Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Dolls! I hope you all enjoy the day with family, friends, good food & dranks!

Holiday Cocktails Part 5

Apple Cider Cocktail

Ingredients

• 1/4 gallon apple cider
• 1/2 cup dark rum
• 1/2 cup cinnamon schnapps
• 
  

Directions

Mix together the cider, rum, and schnapps in a large pitcher.  Pour the spiked cider into glasses filled with ice.

Last Minute Gifts

STILL haven't finished your Christmas shopping? Me either SMH here's a few last minute gifts that will have a lasting impression...

Magazine subscription

Cosmopolitan

Glamour

People Style Watch

Monthly Shopping Subscription

Wine of the Month

Birch Box

Shoemint

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Holiday Cocktails part 4

Cranberry Martini 

The Traditional Martini gets festive with cranberries...

Ingredients:

• Ice cubes
• 1 cup vodka
• 1/4 cup dry vermouth
• 1/2 cup cranberry juice
• 8 cranberries, frozen
• 4 lemon zest twists (optional)

Directions:

Put 4 martini glasses in the freezer to chill for at least 30 minutes.

Fill a cocktail shaker half full with ice. Pour in the vodka, vermouth and cranberry juice. Cover with the lid and shake vigorously for about 10 seconds. 

Strain into the chilled glasses, dividing evenly. 

Garnish each glass with 2 frozen cranberries and a lemon twist. Serve immediately. 

Serves 4.

Holiday Cocktails Part 3

If your not into the rich milky cocktails such as eggnog, hot coco this punch is light and refreshing.

Citrus Champagne Punch

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup vodka
• 1/2 cup limoncello
• 2 teaspoons vermouth
• 1 (750 ml) bottle chilled dry Champagne or sparkling wine
• Ice
• Lemon twists, for garnish

Directions

Combine the lemon juice, sugar, vodka, Limoncello, and vermouth in a large nonreactive bowl and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, 1 to 2 hours. Add the Champagne and stir to combine.

Serve over ice in highball glasses, garnished with lemon twists.

Holiday Cocktails Part 2

Hot cocoa is another holiday favorite here are two amazingly rich recipes 

Polar Express Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

• 6 cups milk
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (use a quality chocolate like Ghirardelli)
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. In a large pot combine all of the ingredients over low heat. Keep mixture over low heat for 30-40 minutes whisking occasionally until chocolate is fully melted and incorporated with the other ingredients. You can add milk here to adjust to your chocolate preference. Give it a good whisking before serving to get it nice and frothy. If you have an immersion blender, that works great here
2. Serve immediately or pour into a crockpot and keep warm until ready to serve.

White Hot Chocolate

Ingredients
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine white choco chips and heavy cream. Stir continuously until chips have completelty melted. Stir in half and half, add vanilla and stir occasionally until heated through.


Garnish Hot Cocoa with whipped cream hearts. 

Simply freeze whipped cream on a cookie sheet, use cookie cutter to cut out hearts (obviously you can use a tree, star etc.) and serve with hot cocoa. 

Spike your hot cocoa with:

Kahlua
Rum
Peppermint Liquer
Bailey's Irish Cream
Amaretto

Holiday Cocktails Part 1

Last week I shared my Coquito recipe with you guys so in the spirit of holiday cocktails I'm back today with another one of my favorites - Eggnog! This I do not make from scratch but I do have three specific brands that I love: 

golden is my favorite but I would love to try caramel

make sure you get Holiday*

I personally like my eggnog spiked, you can use any of the following

• Hennessy 
• Amaretto
• Light Rum
• Whiskey
• Bourbon
• Whipped Cream vodka
• Vanilla vodka

I also found a recipe for an eggnog martini on Pinterest it sounds tasty I'll definitely be trying it

Ingredients:

2 1-2 oz Eggnog

1 oz  Vanilla Vodka

¾ oz Amaretto

Directions:

Combine ingredients in shaker and shake over ice. Strain into chilled martini glass. Dust with freshly grated nutmeg or cinnamon.

ENJOY!

Coquito

What is Coquito?? …A Christmas drink that’s most popular in Puerto Rico, it has a coconut flavor but is very similar to American eggnog,…It’s also the best thing I’ve ever drank! I made this for the first time two Christmas’ ago and I look forward to making it every year. NO I am not Puerto Rican BUT everyone who’s tasted it says my coquito is THE BEST they’ve ever had - it’s really easy to make but just like everything you have to have the touch* that perfect something...

The original recipe is from Daisy Martinez but of course I tweaked it with my personal touch. Because everyone loves it so much I decided to share my recipe 

2 jumbo eggs

3 jumbo egg yolks

14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

15 oz can  cream of coconut

12 oz can of evaporated milk

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 – 1 1/2 cups of light rum

Cinnamon sticks or powder to garnish

Here are a few recommendations

·         your eggs HAVE to be fresh, your drinking them raw for God's sake

·          use carnation condensed milk & evaporated milk

·         Coco Lopez cream of coconut

·         ¾ cup Bacardi light rum and ¾ Malibu coconut rum

In a blender, combine the eggs and egg yolks.

Blend on high until the eggs are pale yellow and very light.

One at a time slowly add the condensed milk, cream of coconut and evaporated milk. (keep the blender going while doing so)

Blend for a minute or two, then with the blender still running, slowly add the heavy cream. Blend until just incorporated.

Stir in the rum.

If your blender becomes too full while preparing the coquito pour  some of the mixture into another pitcher, then continue as directed.

Add the remaining coquito to the pitcher and stir well.

Chill for 2 to 6 hours.

Garnish with ground cinnamon or a cinnamon stick to serve.

This recipe can totally be made with less rum or without any rum at all. (IDK why anyone would want it w/o but I digress)

Holiday Help 4

Curling Wand $21.99
Target

Buddha Belly Tea Kettle $59
Vivaterra

Nikon Cool Pix S6300 $229
Best Buy

Queen B Snapback $28
Married to the Mob

Corkcicle Wine Chiller $24.95
Wine Enthusiast

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Holiday Help 3

VS Secret Angel Limited Edition  Shimmer Powder $35
Victoria's Secret

Quilted Chain Shoulder Bag $42.80
Forever 21

Faux Fur Collar $38.70
Asos

Lettered Bow Flat $49.25
Asos

Marc Jacobs Bunny iPad Case $58
Nordstrom

Current Addiction...

....Mojitos! 

Bedazzled

As I've stated before I'm obsessed with Pinterest ! Scrolling through my feed one day I came across a Bedazzled Patron Bottle  and fell in love. I automatically thought of a friend that would appreciate this as a gift as much as I would - so I decided for Christmas I would make a few batches of my infamous Coquito, (I'll share the recipe with you guys next week) bottle it and bedazzle the bottles for Christmas gifts. So I went to Michael's and got everything I needed. I thought it would take my impatient ass a long time to finish one bottle but surprisngly I finished it in a few hours *pats self on back*


                                             What You'll Need

the bottle of your choice

rubber cement

rhinestones of choice

the original bottle

I'm wearing a mask because the rubber cement is strong

my finished product

I got everything except the bottles at Michael's, they were from Home Goods, also you can use tweezers to place the rhinestones but I worked much faster using my fingers. You have to use a lot of rubber cement to secure to stones so don't be afraid to slap it on! I used a whole bottle of cement for this one bottle.

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Holiday Help 2

Here's Part two of my holiday gift guide

Lipstick Holder $6.99
Container Store

Aromatherapy Holiday Carrier $20
Bath & Body Works

Barnes & Noble Membership $25
Barnes and Noble

Flower Bomb Gift Set $110
Sephora

Perfectly Plush Brush Set $49.50
MAC