Mocktail Monday: Fancy Christmas Party Edition

This Saturday we had three parties to go to throughout the day, two of which I helped to plan. More on that later. To cap off the day's festivities, we went to the squadron adult Christmas party that night. Here we are all fancied up on our way out of the house:

We thought if we pushed the table and chairs out of the way that you wouldn't be able to see them in the picture. We were wrong.

What do Todd and Jennifer drink at such occasions? More often than not, Todd gets a Coke with lime, and I get a club soda with lime. Lime takes a drink up a notch, don't you think? 

I didn't remember to take a picture until after I finished my third club soda of the night and my phone was almost dead, so no flash. (Dear Santa, I would like a new camera for Christmas.)

My drink of a club soda with lime is simple, yet refreshing and just the right touch for a nice evening out on the town (in this case, Blair, OK -- not exactly a metropolitan mecca of arts and culture, but it was still fun). 

Bottoms up!

Mocktail Monday on a Tuesday: Holiday Punch

I started writing this post last night, but then my computer died and I was super sleepy and didn't feel like plugging it in, so I went to bed instead. I'm sure you understand.  Anyway, Christmas is here, which for me this year means parties, parties, parties! Sometimes it's not feasible to bring a homemade mocktail to the festivities, but if it's in someone's home it's definitely doable. My go-to Christmas punch is so good even the drinkers will want some.

I made this Sunday night to watch my church's Christmas Devotional. I started making it earlier in the day and I was so excited for my first taste of Christmas punch of the season. On another note, the Christmas Devotional broadcast is one of my most favorite things of the season. If you have an hour to spare, you can watch it here. It is WORTH IT.

I found this recipe several years ago on All Recipes here and I'm obsessed with it. The almond extract is key, but I use less of it than the original recipe calls for.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup white sugar

1 quart cranberry cocktail

2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice

2 tablespoons almond extract

One 2-liter bottle ginger ale

Instructions:

1. Combine sugar, cranberry cocktail, pineapple juice, and almond extract.

2. Refrigerate for up to one day so flavors can combine and sugar can fully dissolve.

3. Add ginger ale when you're ready to serve. I also like to freeze some of the sugar/juice/extract mixture into ice cubes to keep the punch cold and not water it down.

I am a big fan of  drink dispensers (like the one above) as opposed to punch bowls, and this looks especially pretty in the dispenser. Sure, I get that some punches have fruit in them that can clog a spout on a dispenser, but my dislike of punch bowls was confirmed this weekend at a party when the ladle disappeared into the punch bowl and we had to fish it out. I am so NOT a germ phobe but it was seriously gross.

Merry Christmas!

For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases. And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him. And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.

--Mosiah 3:5, 8-10

Mocktail Monday: Meatloaf

I don't have a mocktail for you today. Between back to back meetings this morning, clogged plumbing, and sewage that kept coming up into my bathtub, I didn't have time for a mocktail today. 

But I did have time for this:

That is the Pioneer Woman's meatloaf, which we made tonight (this is PW's picture -- mine wasn't so pretty). Do yourself a favor and go make it right now. Except instead of just ground beef, do a mixture of ground beef and ground pork (3 parts ground beef to 1 part pork). It is the best meatloaf I've ever had (sorry Mom). And it's the only meatloaf I'm ever eating ever again.

And yes, we did grind our own beef and pork, thanks for asking. 

Mocktail Monday

Mocktails don't have to be about fancy mixed drinks. Our standard go-to drink for celebratory occasions is, of course, the sparkling juice in a variety of fruit flavors.

Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of this:

We usually go with a sparkling grape juice or apple cider for special occasions. I particularly like a sparkling pear juice, but those are a little more difficult to find. But last night we tried something new and it did not disappoint.

Welch's Sparkling Blueberry Grape Juice may be our new bubbly of choice. I don't usually care for blueberry flavored things. I like blueberries themselves, but I find a blueberry flavoring to be too delicate to really taste that good.

That was not the case in my bottle of sparkling grape juice though. Not in the least. So delicious and I kept drinking it during the course of clean up and blogging last night.

Happy anniversary to us! 

Happy Veterans Day to my husband! 

There's lots to celebrate around here!  

Mocktail Monday: Frozen Margaritas

I know, I know, where have the Mocktail Mondays been for the last month? Let me just say, October was the craziest month full of travels, event planning, and Halloween, and I.Am.Exhausted. 

So cheers to a new month! 

This week's cocktail is a virgin frozen margarita. I know, it's not very fall-ish. But I've got margaritas on the brain after a fun family vacay to San Antonio recently. We enjoyed some delicious margaritas at some amazing Mexican restaurants, so this week is a tribute to a great trip. 

I prefer frozen, Todd prefers on the rocks.

I've been known to just blend up a frozen margarita concentrate can with some ice to create my frozen margaritas in the past, but this time around I decided to actually search for a recipe and see what I could find. 

I found one that looked good from CDKitchen:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons kosher salt

1/2 lime, cut into wedges

1 lime, juiced

1 can (6 ounce size) frozen limeade concentrate, thawed

(I used half a 12 ounce size can)

1/4 cup orange juice

4 cups ice cubes

First you need to salt the rim of your glass. The recipe calls for juicing one lime in a saucer, and then dipping your rim in the saucer to get it wet for the salt. I think that's a waste of a dish. I cut a wedge of lime and then wipe it around the rim, and then dip my rim in the saucer of salt.

Next combine the orange juice, limeade, and ice in a blender and, well, blend. 

When ice is crushed to an even consistency, pour in your salted glass and finish with a wedge of lime.

YUM!

Mocktail Monday: Sparkling Pumpkin Apple Cider

This week's mocktail is a Sparkling Pumpkin Apple Cider. I've been seeing all kinds of recipes for pumpkin drinks and pumpkin cocktails, so I thought I'd try one myself. This is purely my concoction of what I had in my fridge/pantry, so it was a little trial and error.

The original ingredients were:

1 tbsp canned pumpkin puree

1/4 cup apple cider

Sparkling grape juice

To be honest, I thought I had sparkling cider in my refrigerator, and when I pulled it out, it was sparkling white grape juice. So I used the sparkling grape juice with great reluctance. When my husband tried the final product, he was like, that's gross, I'll go the store and get you some sparkling apple cider. Sweet guy.

So I started off with just a tablespoon of pumpkin and 1/4 cup of apple cider. My plan was to pour that in my glass and top off with the bubbly. But it wasn't pumpkin-y enough. After several rounds of putting in just one more tablespoon and adding just a little more cider, I gave up and dumped in the whole can of pumpkin. Here is the final recipe:

Ingredients

1 can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup apple cider

Sparkling apple cider

Instructions

Pour pumpkin and apple cider in blender. Blend until well-mixed. Add 1.5 tbsp of pumpkin cider mix to glass, and top off with sparkling cider. Stir gently. You will lose some of the carbonation but it's worth it to have a well-mixed drink.

I actually liked this drink, but after one glass I was satisfied. I don't think I could drink several glasses of this, but it would be a fun drink to serve for a fall dinner party.

*NOTE* -- I also tried using sparkling mineral water and club soda in place of the sparkling juice. Both were gross. You need something sweet or else it just tastes like watery pumpkin.

Enjoy!

Mocktail Monday: The Virgin Mary

I see all these posts in blogland about new cocktail recipes and I always think, "that's great and all, but what's in it for me?" That's because I'm a Mormon, remember? I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints seven years ago (when I was 27). I still enjoy a fun beverage when I go out to dinner just as much as the next person, but who says a fun beverage has to include alcohol? 

There's nothing worse than going to a party and finding nothing to drink except the one bottle of Coke that's supposed to be the mixer for everybody else. Just because I don't drink alcohol doesn't mean I only drink water. 

So I'm starting a new series of posts are for my teetotaler friends who want more than water at the end of the day. I'm more a fan of savory things than sweet things, so finding a good mocktail is hard because they are usually a mix of fruit juices. Sometimes that's fine, but not all the time. 

This week is the classic nonalcoholic savory beverage -- the Virgin Mary. I like to get a Virgin Mary from the bar at a restaurant when we have a long wait because it's heavy enough to practically be an appetizer. Plus there's always treats in them like celery and olives, and sometimes a pickle.

I got the mocktail recipe book several years ago but have never really tried anything in it. I've made many Virgin Maries (sp?) without following a recipe, but I thought I'd give this one a try. The ingredients are:

Ingredients:

Ice cubes

1 can tomato juice

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (I didn't have the real thing so I used the bottled kind)

2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce

2 drops of Tabasco sauce

Pinch of celery salt

Salt and pepper, to taste

Celery stalk

It is worth noting that I do not like bloody mary mixes. 

They are waaaaayyyyyy too heavy. 

Instructions:

Place a scoop of ice cubes in a cocktail shaker, then add all the ingredients, except for the celery stalk, and shake well. Strain into a lowball glass and use the celery stalk as a stirrer.

This drink was good, pretty much what I'm used to, but I usually use lime juice instead of lemon juice, and I think I might like that more, it's hard to say. I doubled the Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce, and put in a lot of celery salt, salt, and pepper because I couldn't really taste them in my drink. I also love a salted rim, so I wet a napkin with lemon juice and rolled my rim into some salt. Yum.

All in all, a success. I gave Scarlett a sip and she cried.
She practically drinks salsa so I was a little surprised. 

Cheers!