MYO Bellini Bar
Greet the guest of honor with a pretty Bellini, made with Peach puree and Prosecco. Creating a Bellini Bar with juice mixes, Prosecco and garnishes served in tall champagne flutes, where guests can mix and match to make their own bellini flavors is a special way to start the celebration.
Classic Peach Bellini
- 1 oz White peach puree*
- 3 oz Prosecco
White Peach Puree:
- 1 pound of frozen white peaches or 4 fresh white peaches
- 1/3 cup simple syrup
- 1/3 cup water
- Method: Place the fruit in a blender or food processor. Add the water. Add the simple syrup. Blend until the mixture is super smooth. Taste the purée. If you need to, add a touch more simple syrup until the purée is properly sweet.
New Fashionable Bellini
Using an assortment of Stirring’s fruit juices with Stellina di Notte Prosecco or sparkling apple cider/grape juice for kid friendly beverages, to concoct the NEW Fashionable Bellinis.
- Flavors to include:
- Pomegranate
- Blood Orange
- Apple Crisp
- Watermelon
- Lemon Drop
For more of my Mother’s Day recipes and tips, click here!
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Pot o’ Gold Bar
The Pot o’ Gold Bar is the favorite station of all adults at the party. To complete this easy look, decorate the table with a gold sequin table linen, gold cups, gold ice bucket and gold garnishing tray. It is also a great trick to spray paint your liquor bottles with gold spray paint to enhance the look of the bar. Guest will have the ability to concoct their favorite cocktails with the Midas Touch!
My favorite St Patrick’s Day cocktails are:
The Lucky Leprechaun
Golden Champagne Kiss
For more of Mark’s St Patrick’s Day recipes and tips, click here!
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Halloween Downloadables
While planning setting up the bar and buffet table at your next Halloween Party, incorporate these creative and fun Bottle Labels and Tombstone Tent Cards. These create an interesting theme to capture your guests attention, allowing them to concoct their own Mad Scientist Cocktail and pick through the graveyard of yummy food!
I used these RADIOACTIVE RUNOFF and PLUTONIUM ELIXIR labels for The Mad Scientist Bar segment which was featured on Better TV. I removed the manufacturer’s labels from liquors, mixers, and wine and added these fun, toxic labels to the bottles.
You can also add them to jars and canisters of garnishes. Print these images on 8.5″x11″ label paper, cut them out and adhere them to the bottles.
I used these Tombstone Tent Cards during another Halloween segment on Better TV. These cute tent cards can be printed at home on card stock paper using your home printer and are easy to cut out and assemble.The Tombstone Tent Cards are a great way to label the food and drinks on the bar or buffet table at your party.
All you have to do is print, cut, fold, and label!
Click here to download the Bottle Labels and Tombstone Tent Cards!
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Mad Scientist Bar on Better!
If you enjoy ghosts, ghouls and goblins, then you’ll surely have a blast experimenting with some kooky concoctions at my Mad Scientist Bar. Get a hand from my Specimen Punch or try your luck taming the Galactic Serpent; but beware, side effects may include dizziness, loss of sanity and Einstein-ian white hair!
Put on your lab coat and goggles and follow me as I conduct a few experiments with host Audra Lowe on Better TV.
[Find recipes and descriptions here!]
The Thirtini, lavender infused summer re-hydrator
Herbs aren't just for tea... infuse fresh florals into your summer cocktail
The Thirtini was the signature cocktail created with SKYY Vodka for the guests this August at The Thirteen Summer House on Fire Island, NY. This is a one-of-a-kind cocktail creation that uses such varied ingredients as cucumber, lavender and citrus juices to create what we think is the number one tipple of the summer. Cucumber is a great summertime cocktail addition because it’s so refreshing and re-hydrating. I’ve always said, hydration is key when entertaining outdoors so cool your guests off this herbal infusion at your next summer party.
Ingredients:
1.5 oz. SKYY Vodka
1.5 oz orange juice
.5 lemon juice
(Santa Cruz lemon juice by the bottle is an acceptable alternative)
6 thinly sliced cucumber wheels
1.5 oz. homemade lavender syrup*
* For the syrup
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of whole lavender flowers
Tools:
Cocktail shaker
Pairing knife
1-quart saucepan
Fine metal sieve
Wooden spoon
Make the Lavender Syrup in advance:
In a small saucepan combine water the sugar and place it over medium high heat. As soon as the syrup comes to a full boil and the sugar is completely dissolved, add the lavender flowers, push them under the surface with a spoon, and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Cover the pan and let the herb steep in the sugar water for 30 minutes. Pour the syrup through a fine sieve and press down firmly on the herbs with a back of a spoon to extract any syrup that is held in the leaves. Store in a covered bottle or jar in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
Mix all the ingredients together in a shaker and add ice. Shake hard for 30 seconds until the cucumber wheels break up. Strain over fresh cubed ice and garnish with either a thin stick of cucumber or 1 sprig of fresh lavender.
The French Guillotini
The French Guillotini Cocktail
I wanted to create a playful and somewhat macabre cocktail for Bastille Day this year that was a take on a classic French cocktail. Champagne cocktails seemed very fitting especially as we were going over my friend Shalini’s house a Bastille Day dinner party, an admitted Francophile and lover of champagne.
I found my inspiration for the Guillotini in the French 75 cocktail made from gin, champagne, lemon juice and sugar. The drink was originally concocted in the Franco-American war by mixing champagne with cognac as it was readily available and the combination was said to have such a kick that it felt like being shelled with the powerful French 75mm howitzer artillery piece, also called a “75 Cocktail”, or “Soixante Quinze” in French. The gin version was popularized in America at the Stork Club.
Ingredients:
5 oz. Brut Champagne
1 oz. Fine Champagne Cognac
Superfine Suger
Maraschino Cherry w/ juice
Tools:
Cocktail Spoon
Two Shallow Dishes
Champagne Flute
One Ounce Shot Glass or Jigger
Use a tall dramatic champagne flute as it will heighten the spectacle of the presentation. Poor a small amount of the cherry juice and superfine sugar in separate shallow dishes just wide enough to dip the rim of the flute. First dip the rim in the juice then quickly in the sugar and immediately righten the glass. If done properly the sugar will melt in the cherry juice and start to drip down the edge of the glass (this is actually a good thing for this cocktail). You might need to practice once or twice until you achieve the perfect effect. Now carefully pour the cognac into the glass and slowly fill the remainder of the class with champagne. To complete the garnish slice a cherry in half an then almost in quarters leaving the two parts connected at the top. Slip the cherry on the rim and you have a gruesome but delicious French Guillotini. The sweetness of the sugar rim with the bold flavor on the cognac give this cocktail a sweet kick… ‘off with their heads’ and down the hatch.
