Celebrate Bartender Day Jorj’s way with these easy DIY cocktails, perfect for your home entertaining this holiday season! Grab these essential home bar recipes.
Looking to get in the Bartender Day spirit (hee!) but don’t feel like heading out to the bar? No problem!
With these easy, delicious cocktail recipes, you can easily make your own cocktails right at home. Whether you’re looking for something fruity and refreshing or something boozy and decadent, celebrate National Bartender’s Day, Jorj’s way!
Champagne Cosmo Cocktail
Ingredients:
12 ounces pomegranate juice 2 ounces Chambord raspberry liqueur Juice of 1 large lime, about 2 tablespoons 1 (750-ml) bottle Champagne Fresh pitted cherries
Stir together the pomegranate juice, Chambord and lime juice in a pitcher. Pour about 1 ounce of this mixture into the bottom of a champagne flute. Top off the glass with Champagne. Garnish with fresh cherries.
Doreen’s Dirty Martini
Ingredients:
2 ounces vodka ½ ounce olive juice Whiff of dry vermouth 2 to 3 colossal size olives
Fill a cocktail shaker half full of ice. Pour in the vodka and the olive juice. Shake well and set aside. Add a touch of vermouth to a martini glass.
Strain and pour the mixture into the glass. Garnish with olives.
Simple syrupis the traditional sweetener in cocktails. You can buy simple syrup in a bottle and keep it in the fridge, or you can make it yourself by combining equal parts sugar and water and boiling until the sugar dissolves. Voila! Simple Syrup!!
Orange pinwheel 1 tablespoon super fine sugar 2 ounces bourbon Club soda
Place two cherries and orange slice into the bottom of a cocktail glass. Sprinkle with sugar and stir with the back of a wooden spoon to blend flavors. Pour the bourbon over top. Fill the glass with ice. Top it off with club soda. Garnish with the third cherry.
Oyster Shooters
Ingredients:
12 shucked oysters with oyster juice 1/3 cup ketchup 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish Juice of 1 medium lime (about 1 tablespoon) 12 ounces tomato juice 12 ounces cold Vodka Drops of Hot Pepper sauce
Place each oyster, with its juice, into the bottom of a tall (6-inch) shot glass (or martini glass).
Mix together the ketchup and horseradish. Place a dollop of this sauce on top of each oyster.
Pour in 1 ounce of tomato juice and 1 ounce chilled vodka over each oyster. Season with additional hot sauce (if desired). Serve cold.
Hair Of The Dog Brunch Cocktail
Ingredients:
12 ounces tomato juice 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce ½ teaspoon prepared horseradish 2 to 4 drops (or more) hot pepper sauce 1 whole lemon, cut into wedges 1 tablespoon celery salt 2 (12-ounce bottles) beer Celery stalks with leaves
In a pitcher, stir together the tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish and hot pepper sauce. Rub the rims of the cocktail glasses with lemon wedges. Dip the rims into a saucer containing the celery salt. Fill each glass with ice cubes.
Fill half the glass with beer and top it off with the tomato juice mixture. Garnish with celery stalks.
Happy #NationalCoffeeDay! Perk up with these delicious coffee dessert ideas, perfect after dark.
Irish Coffee Recipe
The drink literally flew into the United States when a travel writer from the San Francisco Chronicle brought the recipe with him on a return flight from Shannon Airport. The belly-warming bar favorite, made with a frothy whipping cream, loads of sugar, piping hot coffee and 2 parts Irish whiskey, is based on a rather romantic story.
The necessity of Irish coffee’s fortifying ingredients were clear on a frigid winter night in Ireland in the 1940s, when a group of weary American passengers disembarked from their flying boat Pan AM flight (these were the precurosor days to the Shannon airport) and asked the guy in charge on the dock, Joseph Sheridan chef of County Limerick, if he had anything to remedy dampened spirits. The answer turned out to be a history-in-the-making yes when he concocted Irish coffee for them; about a decade after that, it was all the rage in the Emerald Isle’s Shannon Airport, where the American journalist with the very fitting name of Stanton Delaplane fell in love with the drink and popularized it at California’s world famous Buena Vista café in the fall of 1952.
Irish Coffee Recipe
Ready In:
10 minutes
Servings
8 Cups
Dip 8 tall, glass coffee mugs first into cold water and then into granulated sugar. Use a cooking torch to carefully brown the sugar on the glass.
Whip the cream with confectioner’s sugar.
Divide the whiskey among the 8 mugs. Pour in the hot coffee. Top with whipped cream.
8 cups brewed coffee
1 cup cream
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
¾ cup Irish Whiskey
Mexican Coffee Recipe
The drink literally flew into the United States when a travel writer from the San Francisco Chronicle brought the recipe with him on a return flight from Shannon Airport. The belly-warming bar favorite, made with a frothy whipping cream, loads of sugar, piping hot coffee and 2 parts Irish whiskey, is based on a rather romantic story.
The necessity of Irish coffee’s fortifying ingredients were clear on a frigid winter night in Ireland in the 1940s, when a group of weary American passengers disembarked from their flying boat Pan AM flight (these were the precurosor days to the Shannon airport) and asked the guy in charge on the dock, Joseph Sheridan chef of County Limerick, if he had anything to remedy dampened spirits. The answer turned out to be a history-in-the-making yes when he concocted Irish coffee for them; about a decade after that, it was all the rage in the Emerald Isle’s Shannon Airport, where the American journalist with the very fitting name of Stanton Delaplane fell in love with the drink and popularized it at California’s world famous Buena Vista café in the fall of 1952.
Mexican Hot Chocolate Recipe
Ready In:
10 minutes
Servings
8 Cups
Add the cinnamon stick and cocoa powder to the pot of brewed coffee. Allow the flavors to infuse for 5 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and pour the coffee into cups. Garnish with whipped cream.
Add dark chocolate liquor with a splash of cinnamon schnapps to make it more fun!
8 cups brewed coffee
1 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons instant cocoa powder
Whipped cream
Dark Chocolate Liqueur (optional)
Cinnamon Schnapps (optional)
Tried it? Tag it!
I would love to see what you did with this recipe. Share your creation by tagging #inthekitchenwithjorj and with Scrumptious Possibilities With Jorj, my free private home cooking group.
Can you believe that it’s Labor Day 2021 already? Whether you’re cooking for one or many, there’s never been a better time to let your creativity shine with these tried-and-true backyard recipes!?
Labor Day 2021 has long signaled that Summer is winding down to a close and Fall will soon be ushered in.
We’re not letting our tasty backyard celebrations slip by just yet. What better way to celebrate than with these Labor Day recipes?
Check out these delicious party ideas that are perfect for any outdoor celebration!
All of these recipes can be made in under an hour and most have ingredients you may already have in your fridge.
I always find ways to let cheese creep into my recipes, slowly but surely.
Take a walk on the cheesy side with a few of my favorite dishes that answer the call of your Cheese Day cravings!
WATERMELON MARGARITA
I concocted a cocktail that turned out to be a BIG hit at a backyard BBQ!
You might want to serve this easy and tasty festive, summer drink at your Labor Day picnic.
We use our fruit-flavored tequila to make this “Watermelon Margarita”:
THE RECIPE:
Prepare the base for the cocktail by emulsifying the inside of a seedless watermelon.
We mushed up (this is a highly technical culinary term – not used by Julia in any of her 700 pages)two large watermelonsfor our outdoor party.
Addtwo or more large cans of lime concentrateto the watermelon slush. You can prepare this base in advance. Pour it into a large container and refrigerate.
For Watermelon Margaritas, take alime wedgeand run it around the rim of a margarita glass.
Combinemargarita salt with a bit of granulated sugarand place onto a small plate or into a shallow bowl.
Dip the rim of the glass into the salt/sugar combo.
Pour the slush mixture into the glass. Top with adrizzle of Triple Sec Liqueurand agenerous splash of fruit flavored tequila. Top with afresh, pitted cherry.
STREET CORN CAESAR SALAD
Hand salads open the doors to your creativity. Yes, this is salad you can eat with your hands. Think lettuce cups and endive spears filled with salad ingredients.
Create your own custom craft cocktails with these easy seasonal infused simple syrups, suitable for happy hours of one or more. Click to skip to the recipe
My BFF and I were asked to be “celebrity bartenders” at a meet and greet for pals and neighbors. We were invited to create our favorite cocktail.
This was a bit daunting, as we both prefer wine. However, we rose to the occasion. BFF infused vodka with fresh pineapple and cherries. A shot of this topped with club soda and garnished with the vodka soaked fruit turn out to be a quite the “Ridge Refresher”!
I decided to take a page from the Golden Age of Cocktails (the period between 1860 and Prohibition when most cocktails were invented) and update a few of the classics.
To do this, I focused on simple syrup. Simple syrup is the traditional sweetener in cocktails. You can buy simple syrup in a bottle and keep it in the fridge, or you can make it yourself by combining equal parts sugar and water and boiling until the sugar dissolves. Voila! Simple Syrup!!
The star of my cocktails was my Old Fashion made with a really, really good bourbon, a dash or two of bitters, and a splash of blood orange and sage-infused simple syrup.
Everything was placed into an ice-filled cocktail shaker, and then mixed for several seconds. The liquid was strained into a rocks glass over a huge cube of ice. The drink was garnished with bourbon-marinated fresh cherries and strips of candied blood orange. Yup, it was good!
Here are a few other ideas for simple syrups and their use. Bottoms Up!!
Easy Infused Simple Syrups
Makes: 1 cup of simple syrup
Time: 5 minutes to assemble and several hours to infuse
Ingredients
Blood Orange-Sage Simple Syrup:
1 cup granulated sugar
Juice from 4 blood oranges
1 bunch sage leaves
1 cinnamon stick
Blueberry-Thyme Simple Syrup:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 pint blueberries
1 bunch thyme leaves
Meyer Lemon-Lavender Simple Syrup:
1 cup granulated sugar
Juice from 4 Meyer lemons
1 bunch lavender
Lime-Lime Spearmint Simple Syrup:
1 cup granulated sugar
Juice from 4 limes
1 bunch lime spearmint leaves
For each syrup, place 1 cup sugar into a deep pot with a lid. Pour in 1 cup water. Add the fruit (and in the case of the juices, add in a couple of the squeezed peels) and the herbs and spices. Bring the mixture to a boil to let the sugar dissolve. Put the lid on the pot and reduce the heat to let the syrup simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the syrup sit on top of the stove for several hours.
Pour the syrup through a fine-mesh colander and into a jar with a seal. Refrigerate for up to several weeks.
Things to Note:
These syrups are perfect for cocktails and mocktails. Use the blood orange-sage syrup to create a super Old Fashion or Manhattan cocktail. Blueberry-thyme updates a traditional Gin Fizz. And lime-lime spearmint takes your next Margarita to new heights!
You can also use simple syrups to sweeten cold drinks like lemonade and iced tea. The Meyer-Lemon Simple syrup is terrific in pink lemonade!
Another Thing to Note:
You can also use these syrups to sweeten cakes. Poke holes into a pound cake, douse in syrup, and see what comes out!! You can also mix them into your sorbet or ice cream recipes.
Make it My Way:
Anything and everything go into your simple syrup. Don’t stop with these combinations. Create your own!!
Last Thing to Note:
If you want to add a garnish to your drink, try candying the citrus peel. Before you squeeze, use a vegetable peeler to cut thin strips from the peel. Take these strips, place them in a pot and cover them with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and repeat this boiling procedure two more times. You are doing this to soften the peel while retaining the color. Next, place the strips into the pot and add 1 cup sugar and two cups water. Bring this mixture to a boil and reduce for about 30 minutes.
There will be some liquid left in the pan, but not much. Cool to room temperature. Transfer the strips from the pot to a wire rack placed over a piece of parchment paper. Let the strips dry overnight, the longer the better!
At this point, you can douse the strips in sugar again if you like and eat them like candy. But I use them as they are to garnish the drink. Sooooo good!!
The Kentucky Derby is this weekend and it’s time to prepare your party provisions! Share these on Saturday in a small backyard soiree or savor them television side with the hubby.
We all know and love the term, “Spring is in the air,” but imagine, too, the divine way it smells, beckoning us to our backyards with the promise of barbeque with the fixin’s….And with Kentucky Derby right around the corner, we can really pull out the Southern stops for a safe and delicious outdoor gathering. Whether you’re setting an elegant table or wearing a Kentucky Derby hat as you graze an outdoor buffet, consider these your go-to Kentucky Derby party plans:
The Kentucky Derby doesn’t have to be a marathon if you play host this weekend. A simple charcuterie board elevated with Southern-style taste and ingredients will come to the rescue! This board’s arranged with deviled eggs, spiced crackers, pimento spread, pickled okra, millionaire’s bacon, my special cilantro shrimp recipe, and an assortment of turkey and ham roll-ups. Serve with Kentucky Derby’s infamous Mint Juleps and you’ll have yourself a party: The Savoy Cocktail Book, Harry Craddock, 1930
4 sprigs fresh mint
½ tbls powdered sugar
1 glass bourbon, rye, or Canadian whisky
Use a long tumbler and crush mint leaves and dissolved sugar lightly together. Add spirits and fill glass with cracked ice. Stir gently until glass is frosted. Decorate on top with 3 sprigs of mint.
From family to family, here in the South, there is debate about how to make a traditional hand pie. But one thing is for sure: This recipe makes for a delicious peach pie! This recipe yields a pie that looks like a puffy, jelly doughnut and is over-the-top delicious. Top with confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon and serve with vanilla ice cream for a delicious Southern treat.
This Southern recipe was made from my Farmer’s Market opening day bounty and pulls together a few of my favorite farmer’s market finds: Tender collard greens, paired with rich pork belly. This dish is perfect if you’ve just had a stash of your greens in your drawer that you’ve been looking to work into a dish or perhaps bought a bushel too much from your local farmer’s market trip. This dish makes for a lovely first course or a wonderful side dish.
My chilled soup adds farm-fresh sweet strawberries for a cool and refreshing treat.This recipe features both ways of making a gazpacho – you have the option to seed the tomatoes or you don’t. Either way, you’ll still have a great batch of gazpacho!
Like pickles? You’ll love this recipe, and you’ll be delighted to discover that there are so many ways to create a delicious batter for your fried pickles. I personally like the combination of seasoned flour and buttermilk for a tangy topping. You can fry them whole or sliced, fried in vegetable or peanut oil – Whatever floats your boat! The comeback sauce featured in this recipe is definitely to die for.
I’ve always considered that my recipe for hush puppies is TOO GOOD…Try it and you be the judge. This recipe is my own version of that South Carolina fisherman’s special recipe. The great thing about it is that you don’t have to follow it precisely to get a tasty result. If you’re looking for a recipe that you can get creative with, this is it! Pick and choose your add-ins and sauces.
There’s nothing like nursing a Moscow mule on a really hot day. You don’t need a copper mug – it just makes it extra tasty if you do happen to have a set of these glasses on hand. I’ve seen them for sale everywhere – at cooking stores and kitchen gadget places in the mail. The idea is, a copper cup keeps the drink extra cool.
When my youngest son, now a college professor, mixes one for me (it’s Jon Morgan’s favorite drink), the ice is chipped finely – but this drink tastes good over a quartet of fat ice cubes too. You can add a twist of any citrus fruit to make it better – from key limes to naval oranges. I got something extra special, considering it’s only July…BLOOD ORANGES!
While they’re not supposed to be in season yet, I keep seeing sacks of ‘em at the grocery store and that’s what I used this cocktail hour. Sooooo good!
So where does the Moscow Mule come from? If you’re thinking Russia, you’d be wrong. In 1941, bartenders at the Chatham Hotel in New York City concocted the drink. Jack Morgan (no relation), had a ginger beer product he decided to bring in by train from Los Angeles. It was called Jack Morgan’s Cock ‘n’ Bull ginger beer. He also owned the Cock n’ Bull Restaurant in Hollywood.
Anywho…Jack and his friends met up at the Chatham bar one day, with the President of Smirnoff Vodka and dreamed up the Moscow Mule. As Jack Morgan tells it:
“We were quaffing a slug, nibbling an hors d’oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius.”
A week or so after their experiment of mixing a two-ounce shot of Vodka with Morgan’s ginger beer, and squeeze of a lemon, the drink was christened the Moscow mule. Bottom’s up, my friends!
Blood Orange Mule
2 ounces Vodka
½ ounce blood orange juice, freshly squeezed
– 4 ounces ginger beer
– Mint and blood orange wheel for garnish
Mixing instructions:
Pour vodka and blood ornate juice into a copper mug. Add ice cubes and ginger beer. Stir to combine. Drop a lime wedge and mint leaf into the mug for a garnish.
There’s nothing like nursing a Moscow mule on a really hot day. You don’t need a copper mug – it just makes it extra tasty if you do happen to have a set of these glasses on hand. I’ve seen them for sale everywhere – at cooking stores and kitchen gadget places in the mail. The idea is, a copper cup keeps the drink extra cool.
