          
Archive for the ‘Spirited Living’ Category
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
If you’ve ever been to a large trade show, home show, or – in our case this weekend, a Food and Wine show… chances are, you’ve seen a booth hawking wine slushie mixes. “Frappe Vino”, “Wine Slush”, “Party Slush Mix”, “Vino Slush”… there are a bunch of companies offering it.
| The samples are so good, it’s easy to drop the $12 or so for the 12 oz baggie of powdered mix. Trust me, we’ve done so… twice. That second time, I took a look at the ingredients and almost had a heart attack. I couldn’t believe what I’d just paid so MUCH for!
I was reminded of that this weekend, as the D’Marie company was once again set up with their wonderful wine slush. While we all loved the slush, I decided that I would set about to “reverse engineer” it. Cue jokes about “Dis Marie” bastardizing “Dat Marie’s” recipe…
Anyway… between the ingredient listing, listed weight, nutritional info, and the unused second bag sitting in our liquor cabinet… I didn’t figure it would be hard to do.
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It wasn’t. 
The ingredients are simple, and the technique is one of those “so simple, it shouldn’t be considered an actual recipe” deals. You, too, can make homemade wine slush mix at home! While matcha powder isn’t cheap, this recipe doesn’t take much at all – your wine slush mix should cost less than $1.50/batch!
Oh, and remember the citric acid you bought for my Quick mozzarella recipe? Well if you haven’t bought some, what are you waiting for? Cheese and wine slushes aren’t the only cool things you can do with it – more citric acid recipes are coming! (more…)
Posted in Adults Only! (Boozy), Beverages, Cocktails & Bartending, Gift Ideas, Recipes, Spirited Living | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
As you may know, my husband and I are not really Valentine’s Day people. We don’t really have any need for the traditional V Day gifts (and I am SO not a jewelry person!), it ends up feeling pretty contrived, so we usually just hang out and chill. Of course, external pressures usually have us checking in with each other every year, with “do you WANT to do anything…?
It always feels like we *should*. This year, we decided that we’ll be brewing a small batch of a red, “Valentine’s Day” wine or mead. I think we’re leaning towards a sweet raspberry mead. Anyway, I digress…
| Last night we were eating dinner and discussing the various funny stuff we’d seen on the net, when I mentioned a booze bouquet I’d seen on Pinterest. The person had affixed mini booze bottles onto sticks, and made a little bouquet of it.
As we’d recently been reminiscing on how much fun we’d had doing V-day ceramic mugs for each other a few years back, the idea of making booze bouquets for each other came up. Like many of our crazy ideas, it went from “wouldn’t it be fun…” to DONE in no time flat!
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We headed to a craft supply store to pick up all kind of crazy Valentine’s Day craft stuff on clearance. Neither one of us really knew what we were planning to do as we poured over ever manner of red, pink, and sparkly V Day nonsense, discussing ideas, and ultimately purchasing our respective supplies. After that, we went to our favorite liquor store, and each bought a dozen mini bottles for each other, each not letting the other see the surprise selections.
The whole time – and on the way home – we excitedly talked about our ideas and plans, actually looking *forward* to our little V Day celebration. Neither of us could WAIT to get home and dig into the craft supplies, and seeing what we could come up with.
We had a blast. Weird crafty projects with my husband are always a ton of fun (Pi Day Pi-natas, Chocolate Zombie Easter Bunnies, and epic Pysanky using Crayons, for instance!).
Also? Men + Booze + Craft supplies are a pretty epic combination. Just WAIT til you see what he came up with!
(more…)
Posted in Celebrations, Crafts, DIY, Gift Ideas, Spirited Living, Valentine's Day | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 27th, 2012
You’ll probably recognize this cake as the cover shot of my second cookbook, Evil Cake Overlord.
| It was actually a last minute substitution for the original photo we’d planned for the cover… while our “Citrus Splendor” cake is gorgeous – and super delicious! – it just lacked the “ominous” and “evil!” look I was aiming for, for this cover.
B052 cake, on the other hand, did NOT disappoint. Look at these photos. That cake is leering at you, just daring you to make it!
B-52 cake was a favorite from my cake flavors menu back in the day, and was actually a fairly popular choice for wedding and groom cakes. It’s something that anyone can make, but it definitely involves a bit more time, effort, and dirty dishes than many of the other cake recipes on this blog, and in Evil Cake Overlord.
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The ambitious will be rewarded for their efforts though – this cake is stunning both to the eyes AND the mouth! Alternating layers of blood orange and mocha cake are filled with alternating layers of Irish cream buttercream and Blood Orange chocolate truffle ganache!
Give it a go… and be sure to send us pictures!
(more…)
Posted in Adults Only! (Boozy), Cakes & Cupcakes, Desserts, Recipes, Spirited Baking, Spirited Living | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
| Yesterday, I blogged my brand new, AMAZING recipe for Gluten-free fruitcake cookies. Today, I have a sister recipe to it!
Forget everything you’ve heard about fruitcake, and about gluten free baking. This is a gorgeous, extremely tasty fruitcake that will be loved by all – fans of regular fruitcake, fruitcake haters, people with gluten allergies, and even those who aren’t restricted to gluten free.
This cake has a wonderful texture – you’d never know it was gluten free. Trust me – I’m the BIGGEST snob about gluten free baked goods! |
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This cake, though? I’d eat this for breakfast, in addition to as a snack, or dessert. I’ll be making variations of this throughout the year, to satisfy any urge for baked goods. This is WAY too good to be designated JUST a holiday thing!
We used a mix of raisins, cranberries, cherries, apricots, and pineapple, but you can use a combination of whatever dried fruit you love. It is boozed up with Southern Comfort, which works SO well with the fruit flavors, in my opinion.
For a HUGE variety of dried fruits, there’s no beating Nuts Online. Apples, blackberries, cantaloupe – so much variety! Just go for the more natural, chewy type dried fruit. Banana chips, freeze dried, etc won’t work as well.
(more…)
Posted in Adults Only! (Boozy), Cakes & Cupcakes, Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Gluten Free, Holidays, Recipes, Spirited Baking, Spirited Living | 2 Comments »
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