Perfect Homemade Lemonade

Serves 4-6

Easy and delicious homemade lemonade. Of course wonderful by itself, but it really gets going when you add bourbon or vodka or whatever in it - you decide.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice (5-6 lemons)
• zest of 1 lemon, strained remove pips
• 2 cups cold water
• ice

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat 1 cup water then add sugar, cook and stir 2 minutes to dissolve to make basic sryup
2. Add zest to syrup, let it cool or if in a hurry, warm is ok too
3. Add syrup to lemon juice, add cold water, stir well
4. Serve chilled with lots ice

WATCH ME MAKE THIS... 

Moscow Mule

Makes 1

A great cocktail – just don’t be tempted to substitute ginger ‘ale’ for the ginger ‘beer’, because it won’t be the same. BTW, ginger beer does not contain alcohol.

Ingredients

• Ice cubes
• 1 half lime, cut into 2 wedges
• 2 ounces vodka
• 4 ounces cold ginger beer

Directions

1. Fill a copper mug (or tall glass) with ice, add vodka, squeeze in both lime wedges - and drop in one of the wedges
2. Fill with the ginger beer
3. Serve

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Mini Sriracha Bloody Mary

Serves 1

This will complete any breakfast.

Ingredients

• 2 ice cubes
• 1 small can tomato juice
• 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
• 2-3 drops Worcestershire sauce
• 1 vodka shot
• 1/4 piece lime, juice salt and pepper

Directions

1. Add ingredients to tall glass, stir well and enjoy.

Sammy-Boys Margarita

Makes 1 - go on, be selfish

The Margarita may have been born in Mexico in the 40's, but it came of age in my kitchen in the late 80's. Don't change it, just make it. And please use a decent tequila. I have this theory - crappy tequila makes a crappy Margarita. Oh, and be a little careful, they're kinda strong.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces reposado tequila

• 2 ounces Sweet & Sour - not Margarita mix

• ½ ounce Grand Marnier, plus extra for serving

• 1 splash Roses Lime Juice

• 2 lime wedges

• 2 orange wedges

Directions

1. Add ice to shaker and put in tequila, sweet & sour, Grand Marnier, Roses limejuice and juice from one lime & orange wedge

2. Place lid on shaker and shake well - you want it icy

3. Add fresh ice to a glass and pour in contents from shaker

4. Squeeze a new wedge each of lime and orange on top and drop wedges into glass

5. Then float a little more Grand Marnier over the top and voila - life is good.

WATCH ME MAKE THIS... PLUS, A BUNCH MORE RECIPES

Fresh Mango and Lime Ice

Serves 6

The perfect dessert after a big dinner. The recipe calls for rum and you can use whatever you like - but the coconut in Malibu Rum gives it a amazing tropicalness - is that a word?

Ingredients

• 3 mangos, peeled and roughly chopped - save 4 mango wedges for garnish.
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Juice from 3 limes
• 3 tablespoons Malibu Rum (trust me)

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to blender, and blend until smooth
2. Pour into 9x13 baking pan Freeze until solid - 3 to 4 hours.
3. Scrape across the top with a big spoon to make a 'shave-ice' like snow, and put into serving glasses - martini glasses work well.
4. Garnish with lime zest and a mango wedge
5. The other option is to cut the water in half, add more rum and call it a drink with a name like an Island Breeze. But then you'll need one of those little umbrellas...

French Martini

Makes 1

Chambord is raspberry liquer and a great addition to your bar - or cupboard, too - as it's great even just on ice cream.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces Vodka
• 1 ounce pineapple juice
• 1/2 ounce Chambord
• 1 lemon twist

Directions

1. Put ice in cocktail shaker
2. Add all ingredients and shake well
3. Pour into glass, add lemon twist and drink

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Champagne Cocktail

Makes 1

A classic that's perfect for New Year's - and way simple. Bitters are just a vegetable extract that's used in making a bunch of cocktails - you can find it at the supermarket. You know sparkling wine is essentilly the same as champagne - you just can 't call it champagne unless it comes from the champagn region of France.

Ingredients

• Champagne or Sparkling Wine
• 1 sugar cube
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Directions

1. Shake 2 dashes bitters on sugar cube and drop in champagne glass
2. Fill with champagne

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Pink Rum Hammer

Makes 1, but a good 1

I'm not sure the combination of rum and ruby red grapefruit juice sounds all that good, but this is one of my favorite cocktails. And on a hot summer day, it's the official drink of the Red Kitchen.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces dark rum
• 1 ounce Ruby Red Grapefruit juice
• splash raspberry liquer, like Aqua Perfecta

Directions

1. Fill a short glass with ice
2. Add rum and grapefruit juice
3. Add the splash of raspberry
4. Squeeze and drop lime on top and serve

Tequila Sunrise

Makes 1

This is definitely an old school cocktail. It reminds me of this one night we were all over at....oh never mind.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces tequila
• 1 ounce orange juice
• About 1/2 an ounce of Grenadine

Directions

1. Put ice in a glass and add tequila then oj
2. Drizzle the Grenadine over the ice and watch the sunrise - get it?

Pomegranate Champagne

Serves 6

I'm not a huge Champagne guy and even less huge when it comes to the classic Mimosa (Champagne & OJ). I find it a bit sweet. But pomegranate juice is tart and makes a very different, yet still special drink. There's really no need to buy expensive champagne when you're mixing it like this--that would just be unnecessary.

Ingredients

• Ice
• One 26-ounce bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine (by the way, sparkling wine is just Champagne that comes from somewhere other than the Champagne region of France)
• 12 ounces pomegranate juice
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Directions

1. Fill tall glasses with ice and add the Champagne and juice
2. Squeeze, then drop in the lemon wedge and serve

Sangrita

Makes about 20 ounces

Drink this along side your really good tequila. Its awesome....try it!

Ingredients

• 10 oz tomato juice
• 10 oz orange juice
• Juice from 1 lime
• 1/4 cup onion (preferably white), diced extra fine
• 1 tablespoon Cholula Hot Sauce
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• A pinch of salt

Directions

1. Mix ingredients together
2. Refrigerate
3. Serve in a small glass along side an equal amount of good tequila

Potato Vodka Cocktail

Makes One

Think vodka Mojito with mint, sort of.

Ingredients

• 2 oz potato vodka (like Chopin)
• 1 oz Ginger Beer (similar to ginger ale but stronger and non-alcoholic)
• 8-10 fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 lime, cut into small pieces

Directions

1. Put the mint and lime pieces into the bottom of a short glass and muddle (squish down with until the mint and limes are kind of mashed a bit
2. Fill glass with ice and pour in the vodka and ginger beer
3. Stir and enjoy

Bourbon Romaine

Serves me, I mean one

Named after my dear friend Romaine, this is maybe the best thing you can do with bourbon.

Ingredients

• 2 parts bourbon
• 1 part ginger ale
• 1 good splash Angostura Bitters
• 1 large lime wedge

Directions

1. Fill a rocks glass with ice
2. Add bourbon, ginger ale & bitters
3. Stir then squeeze in lime juice then drop in the wedge
4. Think about Romaine

Cranberry Marg

Makes one

I really like my regular margarita, so this is pretty much like that - but with cranberry juice added. Hey, why mess with a good thing?

Ingredients

• 2 parts tequila
• 1 part Sweet & Sour
• 1 part cranberry juice
• 1 splash Grand Marnier
• 1 lime wedge
• Handful of fresh cranberries, optional

Directions

1. Fill a glass with ice and add tequila, sweet & sour, cranberry juice and Grand Marnier
2. Add slice of lime and some cranberries
3. Stir well and drink

Shamrock Shake (for Adults)

Makes one

Could this possibly require a description? It's green, minty, a little chocolaty and delicious. To make a kid version, just leave out the last ingredient.

Ingredients

• Mint chocolate chip ice cream
• Milk
• Irish whiskey, to taste

Directions

1. Take ice cream out of the fridge to soften slightly about 10 minutes before you make this
2. Put 3 big scoops of the ice cream in a blender, and add 1/3 cup milk
3. Start to blend, and add milk as necessary until it's blending nicely, but still very thick - in fact way too thick to pour
4. Then add about a 1/4 cup of the whiskey - blend some more
5. Get it to the perfect thick/pouring point and put in a glass
6. Enjoy