Drink Recipes: Cocktails, Coffee, & More | finding time for cooking

Over the past few years I’ve become enamored with making my own delicious cocktails and other drinks. From a super simple gimlet to a slightly more complex punch (or even a sour or fizz with frothy egg whites), I’ve learned to love experimenting with different flavors and spirits and have started a pretty impressive list of cocktail recipes (particularly featuring gin and whiskey).

But let’s not forget mocktails and even more importantly other types of non-alcoholic drinks…especially delicious coffee drink recipes. From my best iced coffee ever to healthy smoothies to trying out different simple syrup flavor combinations, I’ll admit that quite a bit of my caloric intake is liquid!

Not sure where to start?? Here are a few of my fave cocktail recipes to begin with…

You can see the full list in my recipe index or a more visual index here, or you can browse through the archives below.

A Different Take on Poinsettia Punch (Berry, Lemon, & Spice Gin Cocktail)

January 1, 2021

Doesn’t that just look lovely?? I was recently introduced to this poinsettia punch cocktail by a coworker, and immediately fell in love with it.

The flavor combo of berry, lemon, and warm spices is right up my alley, and the substitution of gin made it a no-brainer for me.

I hadn’t heard of poinsettia punch before, though in doing some digging apparently the more traditional version has an orange and cranberry flavor profile, and often champagne. It’s a fairly common cocktail around the holidays (hence the name)…and honestly this recipe is entirely different. So much so, I’m not sure how it has the same name!

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Best Cocktail Gifts: For the At-Home Bartender or Mixologist

December 8, 2020

It’s no secret that I’ve been in love with learning how to mix up delicious cocktails and exploring different mixology flavors and techniques. And I’ve amassed quite a few different gadgets and pretty things that make it easier and more fun.

So if you have a budding home bartender in your life, here are some of the best cocktail gifts and fun gift ideas to inspire, enable, and make them smile!

Make it happen

Every at-home mixologist needs good tools, so if you’re starting with the best cocktail gifts you have to start here.

Cocktail shaker – It seems weirdly hard to find one I like, but this one is practical and beautiful, and has become my go-to shaker. Bonus, it’s a bit bigger than most so it can very easily make 2-4 drinks at a time (DON’T JUDGE).

An all-in-one kit for the beginner – Never a bad thing, if you’re really dealing with a less experienced home bartender then this has everything they’ll need to get started!

Cocktail mixing glass – I got this several months ago for those cocktails that you don’t shake, and I think it’s so pretty. Whip yourself up some of my Rye Port Manhattans and enjoy!

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The Best Thanksgiving Recipes: 20+ Of My Family’s Favorites

November 8, 2020

Thanksgiving is a BIG deal in my family. And that includes the food…which is why I feel like I have some of the best Thanksgiving recipes around. You know, the tried-and-true ones that the family requests over and over.

See, I have a big extended family, and we spend the day before baking, cooking, and prepping. The morning of Thanksgiving is always insane—my mom’s up super early with the turkey, then leaves around 10:30 to get down to my grandma’s. I get up a little later, go for a run, finish up all the remaining dishes, and head down around noon.

We eat a huge lunch, then graze all afternoon and have leftovers for dinner. We play football, watch football, play cards, and talk. Chase the kids around.

When you’re cooking for a big crowd (anywhere from 25 to 50 in past years; usually around 25-30 these days), there are some realities in the kinds of dishes that make sense. Anything super time-intensive that doesn’t yield a lot of servings is automatically out.

So these are some of my favorite relatively easy Thanksgiving recipes that I’ve contributed over the years, and it’s all about the sides, breads, desserts, and cocktails. Turkey just…exists. Hope you enjoy and everyone has a safe, happy (American) Thanksgiving with family and friends!

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A Whiskey Cocktail for Fall: Preservation Punch

November 2, 2020

First of all, the look of this cocktail is just dreamy. Second, it’s absolutely delish and you need it in your life immediately.

What we have here is “preservation punch”, a lovely whiskey cocktail where sweet berry preserves are offset with acidic lemon juice and balsamic vinegar. The result is a balanced drink that makes me think of the transition between seasons.

Beyond how pretty it is, this is a flavor profile that really works for me. Partly because I’m a well-known lover of jam. But also just because it doesn’t *taste* like jam.

Once shaken with the other ingredients, the jam ends up providing texture and body without adding much sweetness.

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The Best Iced Coffee Ever…Using An Aeropress

September 29, 2020

I have a deep and abiding love for great coffee. But historically I haven’t had a lot of iced coffee. One here or there, but it wasn’t a habit. Until the last six months of being at home due to coronavirus, when all the sudden I became a total master at making iced coffee at home using my Aeropress.

And I somewhat accidentally discovered my hack for the best iced coffee ever…using sweetened condensed milk. Now it’s not like I’m the first person to ever think of that (in fact, it’s a staple of Thai and Vietnamese coffee and iced tea).

But I had some sweetened condensed milk sitting in my fridge from making a delicious bourbon milk punch cocktail, and wasn’t sure what to do with it. On a whim I decided to use it instead of simple syrup, and realized that it added a lovely rich velvety quality, enough sweetness, and didn’t water down the end result like milk does.

A long, long time ago I posted about the Pioneer Woman’s cold brew iced coffee recipe, and hadn’t really tried anything else until this Aeropress style. It tasted fine enough but not amazing, and was kind of a pain to make, so I just never ended up doing it often.

Just as I was about the publish this post, I found this article on Epicurious that explains why cold brew *doesn’t* give you the best tasting iced coffee, and it finally made sense to me. It creates a more deadened, kind of stale flavor, uses way more coffee beans, and gets oxidized over time. READ THE POST

Basil Gin Gimlet Cocktail

September 18, 2020

Apparently I’m not the only one with a basil gin gimlet on the brain. I hadn’t even heard of them until a couple weeks ago, when I saw an article about them that intrigued me. I created a blog post draft because I have a stupid amount of fresh basil to use.

Then I tried out an awesome new restaurant last weekend and they just so happened to have a basil gimlet on their menu. Serendipity for sure. I tried out my own recipe the next day and I have to say that I AM IN LOVE.

I’ve already talked a little bit about the gimlet cocktail in my French gimlet post…this is an herbaceous twist on the tart and boozy classic and it’s perfect for this time of year. READ THE POST

Bohemian Cocktail (Gin, Elderflower, & Grapefruit)

August 30, 2020

As someone who has a gin and tonic with grapefruit garnish as my go-to drink, I always end up with peel-less grapefruits that need thrown away. But it’s a shame to throw away all that delicious juice, so I keep my eyes out for a good recipe to use it in…ENTER THE BOHEMIAN COCKTAIL.

What is that, you might ask? I honestly hadn’t heard of it either until recently. It’s a simple gin, elderflower, and grapefruit cocktail that is totally delicious. And that you need to make STAT.

I’ve adjusted the proportions slightly, to amp up the grapefruit a bit and back off the elderflower…to me it balances out the tart and sweet better and keeps it from being too sickly sweet.

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A French Gimlet Cocktail With Gin

August 8, 2020

I distinctly remember the first time I ever had a French gimlet. I’d been visiting my BFF in L.A. for a pre-bachelorette weekend just the two of us.

We’d been shopping all day for honeymoon necessities, and her (now) husband made us homemade pizzas while we rested our weary feet.

We scarfed pizza and she made us French gimlets…strong, tart, sweet. We had one, then another, then a third.

And then she gave me a steely-eyed long look over the top of her glass, paused for a second, and said, “I can’t drive you to the airport.” Thus began my $60 Uber to LAX…they pack a boozy punch.

What is a French gimlet? It’s basically a regular gimlet, but with the addition of St. Germain liqueur…the elderflower adding a “je ne sais quoi” to the traditional gin and lime juice combo.

I can’t find an exact origin of the cocktail, but the regular gimlet is said to originate from the Royal Navy in the late 1800s or early 1900s as a way to get sailors to take their lime rations and avoid scurvy. SIGN. ME. UP.READ THE POST

A Classic “Army and Navy” Gin Cocktail

July 3, 2020

I’m obsessed with how pretty this drink is. Though I’m a gin lover, I still haven’t tried out all the classic gin cocktails. I haven’t even *heard* of all of them. But as soon as I saw a recipe for a classic “Army and Navy” cocktail, it jumped to the top of the list.

And somehow it feels appropriately patriotic for a 4th of July posting.

What is an Army and Navy cocktail?

As with many classic cocktails, there are a few conflicting stories.

It’s said that this cocktail recipe was created to honor the Army & Navy college football rivalry. The rivalry’s tradition dates back to 1890, though from what I can tell the cocktail dates back to World War II, first appearing in a cocktail book in 1948. Or conversely, that it got its name from the famous Washington D.C. Army and Navy Club. I prefer the first option.

It’s traditionally made with gin, and is a twist on a gin sour recipe. I like to think that the gin and lemon are a nod to sailors in some way, but that’s completely made up on my part 🙂

Most of the ingredients are completely run-of-the-mill, except the orgeat syrup. You can buy it on Amazon or make yourself. Not sure if liquor stores would have it, but you could look.

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“If Egg Nog Was Good” Bourbon Milk Punch Cocktail

May 14, 2020

A few months ago, if anyone had told me I’d be obsessed with a cocktail that includes bourbon and dairy (with the exception of a boozy milkshake), I’d have thought they were crazy.

But here we are…

What is a milk punch?

So apparently “punch” is from the Sanskrit word pañc, which means “five”…five ingredients, in this case. I can neither confirm nor deny but that sounds pretty cool. A milk punch is a classic but flexible cocktail formula: generally including liquor, sweetener, milk and/or cream, and vanilla, usually with a nutmeg garnish. There’s more fascinating milk punch history here.

Apparently we’re in the midst of a milk punch revival. I’d never really heard of them until recently, and then all of the sudden started to notice them on menus. I first tried a clarified milk punch (having a major moment) at George’s Bar in Louisville, and it was amazing! I am, however, too lazy to clarify milk myself…

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