This drink is perfect for New Year's Eve wherever in the world you are. If you're craving the long days and warm nights of summer this little drink is the perfect pick me up. If you are experiencing the full extent of the summer heat and need to cool off in style, then this drink is for you. Choose your favourite fruit sorbet and pair it with Champagne or sparkling wine for ...
Drinks
Almond, Rose and Cardamom Cordial
If you know anyone in the Southern States of Australia, then you'll know it's been crazy hot here! We've had temperatures over 40°C (105°F) every day this week!! But rather than complain about how hot it is, I thought I'd make up some fancy cordial to enjoy. The drink is a lovely milky white colour and is nice and refreshing. This syrup is delicious topped with sparkling or ...
Cocktail Hour – Balalika
This drink is very similar in taste to the Blue Kamikaze, but looks more sophisticated. So if you think you're too old to drink blue drinks, give this a go. It's also a better option if you're having a drink before you head out and don't want to risk having a blue tongue.Balalikaserves 11 shot Vodka1 shot Cointreau (orange liqueur)1 shot lime juiceice cubesAdd all ingredients ...
Reusable Cotton tea bags
Ok, so you probably think I'm mad - reusable tea bags?? Bear with me though. My cup of tea usually ends up with lots of tea bits in it, and I have to leave the last mouthful or two. The diffuser/tea ball I have does a terrible job of keeping the tea in. My tea press isn't much better. In the middle of the night when I should have been sleeping I wondered if anyone has made ...
Cocktail Hour – Blue Kamikaze
I wonder if Old Mother Hubbard liked a cocktail? If she did, I know how she felt when her cupboard was bare! We had to go and stock up the liquor cabinet recently. There was no vodka, Bacardi or gin in this house. What a crime! You can tell I favour my clear spirits, can't you?After my mammoth effort sewing last week for the KCWC, a cocktail is definitely in order and will make ...
Home-brewed Ginger Beer
We all love Ginger Beer and have talked about brewing our own for a while, so one day I just decided to give it a go. I had a look around at a bunch of recipes, which were all pretty similar, but based my batch mainly on this recipe from forgreenies.Ginger Beer is made by starting a 'plant' that is fed for a week. It is then strained and added to sugar syrup and lemon juice. ...
Strawberry Iced Tea
I served this at hubby's birthday at it went down a treat. It looks really fancy, but is very easy to make. Use any fruity tea bags you like, or even plain old black or green tea would work, although you might want to squash some of the berries in that case to get more berry flavour.Strawberry Iced Teamakes 2 litres4 fruity tea bags (I used Twinings Cranberry and ...
Peach Sangria
I made a jug of this up for New Years Eve and it went down a treat! It's probably a total abomination of Sangria to add the peach schnapps, but it was a lovely addition. It's been really hot these last few days so I'm sure another jug will be chilling in our fridge soon enough. Peach Sangria makes about 2 litres 1 peach, sliced 1 orange, cut into quarters and ...
Peppermint Schnapps
Day 10 of my 12 days of Christmas...and time for a drink! Peppermint Schnapps is a lovely and refreshing aperitif and makes a nice, home made Christmas gift. I can't figure out if there is a difference between Peppermint Schnapps and Creme de Menthe, but I don't think it matters. This recipe is made using grain spirit. It's also known as Polish spirit or Everclear. You can ...
Cocktail Hour – The Bee’s Knees
This drink is great, as long as you like gin and honey. I therefore, love it. With the combination of lemon and honey, I was a bit worried it would taste like a cough lolly, but the complex flavour of the gin stops that. The lemon prevents it being too sweet, but the flavour of the honey really comes through. A surprisingly grown up drink. The Honey Syrup keeps indefinitely ...
Cocktail Hour – French Martini
The French Martini is a great beginner's Martini. Like the Appletini, it's fruity and a little bit on the sweet side. That can often be your downfall though, as the bite of the vodka gets hidden away and you don't realise how potent they are until you've had a few and then get dizzy when you stand up. But don't let a little thing like that stop you.French Martiniserves 11 shot ...
Raspberry Vodka
Raspberry VodkaMakes 1 litre450g raspberries (3 punnets)1L vodkasugar, to tasteI always use Smirnoff, as I think it's a good quality vodka and reasonably priced. You could use a cheap vodka, but if you're going to the trouble of making this, then why not use something you're happy to drink neat?I have a 2L glass preserving jar that I use for this, but any jar that will fit ...
