Christmas Cocktails

It’s the holiday season and that means pretty cocktails, and lots of them! Here are three easy and tasty drinks you can make up for yourself, or a group of friends that you really like.

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We were out for a relaxing Friday night when my husband Dave asked our bartender for a peppermint martini. Well, they came back with an awesome pretty pink concoction and it was wonderful. I was already enjoying a chocolate martini – dessert for me – when I tried a sip of his. That’s what gave me the idea for the chocolate peppermint martini. The middle picture is something I made up just to use up the cranberry sauce I had leftover from Thanksgiving dinner. Here’s the scoop!

First up Peppermint Martini – Makes about 4 drinks, depending on the size of your martini glasses.

• 3 oz. Peppermint Vodka
• 5 oz. Regular Vodka – Tito’s is the house vodka here!
• 1-2 oz. heavy cream
• About a 1/2 teaspoon of grenadine
• Red sugar and regular sugar to rim the glasses – optional
• Candy Canes for garnish – also optional but very festive

To rim the glasses – get 2 plates that the rim of your glasses will fit flat in. Fill one with enough water to just come up on the side of the glass. On the second plate, mix about 1 tbs of red sanding sugar with 1 tbs of regular sugar. You can adjust the amounts of sugar depending on how big your glasses are. Dip the glasses in the water, then roll in the sugar plate – super easy one you make a couple.

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Now for the drink to put in those festive glasses! In a shaker (or a mason jar like I used since I was too lazy to go find a shaker) fill it with ice. Add the both kinds of vodka, grenadine and cream. Shake until really cold and a little frothy. Strain the ice out or sever over ice if you prefer Add the peppermint for garnish – yummy! Now you are ready to tackle all that gift wrapping!

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Second – Prosecco cranberry cocktail – This is so easy all you really need to do is open the bottle! I usually put some frozen strawberries or cranberries in my Prosecco to keep it cold without diluting it. I happened to have some cranberry sauce left over from Thanksgiving so I strained out most of the solids and added it to my bubbly. Holy crap! That was good cranberry sauce with orange and cinnamon in it to start with, so all of those flavors got into the wine. Add as much or as little as you like, and if you don’t have and sauce hanging around you can also cut this with a little cranberry juice or ginger ale. Drink up!

Note: That cute framed pic is actually a cocktail napkin framed by my sister-in-law for me a bunch of years ago. I like it and get it out every year for the bar. Feel free to use that idea for your decorating – inexpensive and you can change it up for whatever fun you are having.

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Last but not least of the night is my favorite – chocolate peppermint martini. How can it not be good? Here’s all you need:

• 3 oz. peppermint vodka
• 3 oz. chocolate liquor – I used Godiva chocolate, or white chocolate would be awesome too
• 1 oz. vanilla vodka – that’s that tiny bottle in my pic because that’s all I had! 🙂
• Chocolate bar and candy canes for garnish and to rim the glass – totally optional

To rim the glasses – get 2 plates that the rim of your glasses will fit flat in, same as above. Fill one with enough water come up on the side of the glass. On the second plate, mix about 1-2 tbs. of finely crushed candy cane with 1-2 tbs. of grated chocolate bar. Dip the glasses in the water, then roll in the sugar and chocolate plate. I would also be just fine with an all chocolate rim, but I’m a chocolate lover from way back!

It’s martini time again! I think a martini gets a bad rap due to it’s famous mother-of-all-martinis in the James Bond movies. They don’t all need to be a high maintenance beverage, they can be a great desert drink if you give them a chance. Same process as above – fill a shaker or mason jar with ice. Add the both kinds of vodka and the chocolate liquor and shake, shake,shake until really cold and a little frothy. If this is a little high on the alcohol side, you could add some cream and/or chocolate syrup here too – totally up to you. You can taste drinks as you go just like in cooking. Strain the ice out or sever over ice – drinker’s preference here. Grate some more chocolate bar over for garnish – yummy! Bring on the family gatherings! You will probably enjoy them a lot more if you make these! 🙂 Happy holidays!