The Procrastinator’s Guide: Holiday Ginger Cheer Punch
Ingredients:
- 15 oz. Ketel One Vodka
- 15 oz. Ginger Ale
- 6 oz. Cranberry Juice
- 1.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
- Candied Ginger
Preparation:
- Combine all ingredients and serve in clear glass mixing bowl.
- Garnish with candied ginger. Good for 10 servings.
Ketel One is an ultra-premium vodka with a smooth crisp taste and lingering finish that makes it perfect for a holiday punch like the Ginger Cheer.
Get creative with your bowl and cups! No need for proper punch cups when you can use wine glasses, mason jars and even coffee cups.
Mark’s Tailgating Tips, Tricks and Recipes for a Successful Football Season
In the United States, a tailgating party is quite the social event which often involved consuming alcoholic beverages and grilling food. Tailgate parties usually occur in the parking lots at stadiums and arenas before and after games. Mark has some great ideas to turn the every day tailgating recipes into fan favorites!
Here are some of Mark’s Tailgating tips and tricks!:
- The Early Bird gets the premium tailgating spot! Arrive three to four hours ahead of time to claim your territory. Prime location is a hot commodity when tailgating
- Delegate responsibilities to your fellow tailgaters…who will be the grill master, bartender and clean up crew (AKA the party animals).
- Bringing two coolers is key to an organized Tailgate, one for your favorite beverages and one for your perishables.
- Take inspiration from your mascots, teams, and cities to theme your Tailgate spread.
- Take enough food for before and after the game. You want to make sure that you are tailgating responsibly and eating while consuming adult beverages. After the game is over, you want to make sure that you have enough snacks and drinks to turn a traffic jam into a terrific time.
- Bring some tailgating activities to keep your guests occupied and entertained before the big game while the grill master is preparing the food. Some favorites are sport trivia games, corn hole toss, finger football or just a classic football toss.
Click the links below for Mark’s fan favorites!
Ready-To-Go Drinks
No-Grill Grilling
Dips-On-The-Go
Tailgating Treats
Tailgating Travel Treats
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Ready-To-Go Drinks – Parrot Bay Frozen Pouches
Frozen Pouches are the perfect summer treat!
- These pouches are single, 10 oz servings that can be purchased at any local grocery, liquor or corner store.
- Easy as 1-2-3… Just freeze, squeeze and serve!
- Serve them in a hurricane glass, rocks glass, martini glass or margarita glass, which ever glass you choose, these will be a hit!
- Comes in three great flavors: mango daiquiri, strawberry daiquiri and pina colada.
Garnish these drinks with some great fruit skewers to fancy up the cocktail.
For more of Mark’s Tailgating Recipes, tips and tricks, click here!
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Yappy Hour – A Happy Hour for man’s best friend!
Parties have finally gone to the DOGS… but in a good way! My “Yappy Hour” is a great way to socialize with your dog and with other dog lovers and their respective pooches. Just like a human happy hour, make sure to have food and treats on hand for both your guests and your guest’s pets. My dog-friendly party ideas include treats and cocktails like a “Dirty Mutt-tini” or a “Whisker Sour” for the pooches and yeah… I have something for the humans too!
Yappy Hour parties are perfect way to celebrate your Dog’s birthday, as “Yard-warming” Party to introduce you and your dog to a new neighborhood or simply a great excuse for Dog lover’s to get together with their pooches!
Great your two and four legged guest with delicious beverages as the guests arrive to the “Yappy Hour”. Make the beverage fun by “pooching” them up with fun names!
Click here for my Yappy Hour recipes and tips!
Canine Inspired Cocktails
The Salty Dog
The Pink Poodle
The Pit-Blue
Hound’s Hors D’Oeuvres
Bow Wow Bites
Pooch’s Party Mix
Cana-Pup
Tail Wagging Wardrobe and Doggie Decor
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Canine Inspired Cocktails
The Salty Dog – serve in a highball glass
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Ketel One Vodka
- 4 oz Grapefruit Juice
- Coarse salt for rim of glass
- Lemon or lime juice and wedges for garnish
- Ice
Method:
- To salt the rim of the glass, either dip the rim into a small bowl filled with fresh lemon juice, or rub the rim of the glass with the cut side of a wedge of lemon
- Spin the wet rim in a bowl of salt.
- Fill the glass with the vodka and grapefruit juice and a few cubes of ice
- Stir to mix and garnish with a edge of lemon
Pink Pooch – serve in a rocks glass
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum
- 1.5 oz coconut water
- .75 oz orange juice
- 2 oz ginger ale
Method:
- Combine the first four ingredients in a shaker glass with ice
- Shake well
- Strain into a rocks glass and top with ginger ale
- Garnish with an orange slice
The Pitblue – Serve in a highball glass
Ingredients:
- .75 oz Tanqueray No. Ten Gin
- .25 oz Smirnoff No. 21 Vodka
- Blue Curacao
- 1 splash lime juice
Method:
- Add ingredients in and serve over ice in a highball glass
Pup-tini and Whisker Sour – serve in a martini glass
Ingredients:
- Water
- Wellness WellBites
Method:
- Fill a martini glass with water.
- Garnish with a Wellness WellBites
For more Yappy Hour Recipes, click here!
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One Minute Margarita
If you don’t have the time and don’t have the traditional ingredients for a Frozen Margarita… this is a quick fix to a frosty cold beverage in a flash Made with only two ingredients plus ice with optional garnishes. On your mark (pun intended) get set go!
OM Frozen Margarita –
Two lime whole fruit bars (whole fruit)
2 Oz. Quality Tequila
6 ice cubes
salt and lime wedge for garnish (0ptional)
Using the must-have immersion blender (Must-Have hand blender) and accompanying mixing cup, remove the “meat” from the popsicle stick of the fruit bars and place into the mixing cup, place the ice cubes on the top of the lime pop, then pour the tequila on top.
Using the hand mixer on high (don’t start the mixer until the blade has made contact with the ice) press firmly up and down on the mixer increasing the pressure as the ice breaks up and ultimately blends thoroughly. Pour into pre-salted rimmed glass and garnish with a lime wedge.
The Skinny B*tch Margarita
This is my super low-cal version of a Classic Margarita on the rocks without all of the sugar and so simple to make.
Start with a good quality silver tequila (Sauza pictured here) pour 3 0z over ice in a highball glass, top with Tonic water, add a dash of key lime juice and garnish with fresh lime wedges (the more the better)
Ingredients:
3 oz Silver Tequila
Tonic Water
Ice
1/2 oz of lime juice
Fresh lime wedges
It really does taste like a margarita… no really it does!
Pre-Game: Team Cocktails
As you kick off your Super Bowl party, get guests in the sporting mood with a friendly drinking competition. We’ve created two drinks in honor of the teams at this year’s Super Bowl: the All Saints and the Colt Cola 45 Cocktail.
Using a homemade scoreboard, guests can note a tally each time one of the cocktails is finished. Continue this competition through to the final touchdown. Once the Super Bowl is over, tally up your scoreboard to see which team’s cocktail is the winner. Did it match up with the Super Bowl champion?
All Saints
Team Inspiration: New Orleans Saints
1 cup ice cubes
1 fluid ounce light rum
1 fluid ounce spiced rum
1 fluid ounce coconut rum
1/2 fluid ounce Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
1/2 fluid ounce triple sec liqueur
2 fluid ounces orange juice
1 fluid ounce of lemon-lime soda
Orange slices for garnish
1 maraschino cherry for garnish
Fill an ice shaker with ice. Add light rum, spiced rum, coconut rum, Chambord, triple sec and orange juice. Shake vigorously, strain into a cocktail glass, top with lemon-lime soda and garnish with a cherry and orange slices.
Colt Cola 45 Cocktail
Team Inspiration: Indianapolis Colts
1 ounce Gin
2 ounces Jagermeister
5 ounces Energy Cola
Fill a highball glass with ice, add gin, Jagermeister and cola, garnish with lemon wedge.
Mark on "Better"
Mark recently taped a “Super” segment on “Better” with Host Audra Lowe to infuse his super style into Super Bowl Parties that have something for everyone whether they are there for the love of the game or just for the commercials – “We’ve all been to those Super Bowl Parties where we huddle around the TV, drink beer and eat chips & dips… not so Super!”
Mark Addison with Better TV Host Audra Lowe
Airing Monday, February 1st on “Better” in select cable markets. Log onto www.BetterTV.com for local listings or stay tuned for a link to the online video.
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.
