| Cocktails, Wine & Chocolate |
~Cocktails~
*A GREAT BOOK: The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale Degroff*
Nigella Lawson's Watermelon Daiquiri
Cuban Mojito
Looking for NOLA Mardi Gras Cocktail Recipes? Click HERE!
T.G.I Friday's Ultimate Sugar & Spice Margarita (totally addictive!):
1 Part Jose Cuervo Gold Tequilla
1/2 Part Triple Sec Liquor
2 Parts Margarita Mix (without alcohol added)
1/2 Part Gingerbread Syrup*
1 Lemon Squeeze
Ice
Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes in it. Shake for about
30 seconds, pour through strainer into a margarita or martini glass rimmed with
red & white sugar or a cocktail rimmer made for cosmopolitans or margarita.
Garnish drink with a small wedge of lime and a strip of orange peel.
*You can purchase Gingerbread syrup at coffee/tea houses (the flavored syrups
they use in specialty coffee drinks), or online direct at Monin.
*Non-Alcoholic beverage? Pour a can of lemon-lime soda (like 7-up, Sprite) over
ice and stir in 1-2 oz. gingerbread syrup.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pomegranate Cosmopolitan:
1 cup vodka
3/4 cup pom wonderful pomegranate juice
1/2 cup Cointreau liqueur or triple sec
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
limes, twist for garnish
pomegranate seeds, for garnish
Combine vodka, pom juice, Cointreau & lime juice in a container.
In small batches, shake mixture with ice in a cocktail shaker, then strain into
chilled cocktail glasses. Garnish with lime twist, and a few fresh pomegranate
seeds if desired.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Wine~
My Favorite Wines:
*Did you know: Only wine crafted in the Champagne region of France
is allowed to carry the title of "Champagne", any wine not from this
region of France is considered "Sparkling Wine".*
For Bubbly:
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut *My Favorite Champagne*
Domaine Carneros Brut by Tattinger. A local and prestigious Carneros Napa Valley
Sparkler
Spanish sparkling wine by Cristallino. Inexpensive great tasting sparking wine for
special occasions!
Italian sparkling wine called Prosecco. Another great tasting inexpensive sparkler
for special occasions!
Mumm Napa Valley. Sparkling Wine. Inexpensive local sparkler.
Domaine Chandon Sparkling Wine. Local sparkler from prestigious French
Winemakers Moët & Chandon.
Non-Bubbly:
Any Chardonnay by Clos du Bois Winery
Mirassou Winery:
I am completely enamoured with Mirassou Winery's 2005 Riesling! It goes with
E_V_E_R_Y_T_H_I_N_G. It's from a region I do not normally like too Monterey,
Ca. But Andrea said, "come step out of your box a try some new wines..if you like
Chardonnay try a Riesling." And this one was the first one I tried. Wow. Wow.
Sweet, but not sickly sweet. Goes with spicy food.
Geisen Sauvignon Blanc:
I tried it at a wine tasting, it is EXCELLENT for Summer! Tastes like fresh green
bell peppers or even jalapeno (without the heat). You want the 2006.
Brutocoa Cellars:
I have a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from Brutocoa that I am cellaring for my son
for his 21st b-day! It was one of the first wines I ever tried, and since it is
sentimental for us I just had to keep one for him. Fingers crossed that it
survives..I also bought a pinot noir just in case it doesn't.
Forest Glen Winery: Any pinot noir, or chardonnay, and the "Forest Fire" (a white
merlot!) is awesome with spicy foods.
Bogle Vineyards: Chardonnay
Rodney Strong Vineyards: Merlot. We had (I can still taste it) the 1994 Merlot at
our wedding in 1997. Unfortunatley I didn't save any. It tasted like CHOCOLATE.
Loved it. We've just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary in 2007, and I
bought the 2004 Merlot. I'm cellaring it for the next anniversary.
Shopping & Links:
Wine.com
Stirrings of Nantucket (Cocktail rimmers, mixes, etc.)
St. Helena Visitor Info
Napa Valley.com
Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food, and The Arts
The Napa Valley Expo
The Napa Valley Mustard Festival
Sonoma Lavender Festival
Balloon Rides Above The Napa Valley
The Old Bale Mill
Silverado Brewing Company
Yountville, St. Helena & Calistoga Area Wineries:
Baldacci Vineyards
Chateau Boswell Winery (SO romantic!)
Chimney Rock Winery
Clos du Val Winery
Cuvaison Estate Wines
Duckhorn Wine Company
Dutch Henry Winery
Hartwell Estate Winery
Meadowood
Miner Family Vineyards
Signorello Vineyards
Quintessa Vineyards
Robert Sinskey Vineyards
Silverado Vineyards
Stag's Leap Winery
Pine Ridge Winery
ZD Wines
Rubicon Estate (Niebaum-Coppola)
Napa Cellars
Domaine Chandon
Mumm Napa Valley
Carneros Region Wineries:
Madonna Estate
Kirkland Ranch Winery
Domaine Carneros by Tattinger
Alexander Valley & North Coast Wineries:
Clos du Bois
Geyser Peak Winery
Jepson Winery
Jeriko Estate
Parducci Winery
Brutocao Cellars
Rodney Strong Vineyards
Sausal Winery
Murphy Goode Winery
Hanna Winery
Alexander Valley Vineyards
Silver Oak Cellars
Wine Storage:
I have a counter top cellar I bought in SFO last year from Crate and Barrel. I like it
EXCEPT one thing: it has memory pre-sets for temperature control based on what
you've got in it. Type of wine. It can do C* or F* temp. In a power outage, it
resets itself and if you don't catch it, your temp goes down. It has happened to
me several times already. It is a little noisy and you cannot mount it in cabinet, it is
meant to be stand-alone. I think next Summer I will find a home for it out in the
garage.
Some Wine Vocabulary:
Terroir
Sommelier
Tannin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Chocolate~
"Hello, my name is ElvenHippieGypsy..and I'm a choco-holic."
Ghirardelli Chocolates I always feel like I am being true to my locality when I buy
Ghirardelli chocolate..I use the baking chips in my chocolate chip cookies all the
time and I like the single squares allot. Someone I know lloves their sundaes.
The Mendocino Chocolate Company
If you visit Mendocino, Ca. You must stop by the Mendocino Chocolate Company
and have some fudge!
Fran's Chocolates Oh wow, Fran's almond gold bars are the type of chocolate you
hide from everyone because you want it all for yourself! Her salted caramels are
out of this world. I've always wanted to try her chocolate filled/dipped figs.
Amazing quality. Worth every penny. I also have a book of chocolate recipes by
Fran, "Pure Chocolate". I've tried a few recipes from it and I like it so far. Labor
intense, but then chocolate, by it's nature, wouldn't be so alluring if it was easy,
now would it?
Serendipity 3: Another GREAT chocolate cookbook: "Sweet Serendipity" by Steven
Bruce. The restaurant "Serendipity 3" is in NYC and was featured in the movie
"Serendipity" with John Cusak and Kate Beckinsale. They also have a web site
where you can order the "Frrozen Hot Chocolate" mixes and make it at home!
Yummy.
Vosges Haute Chocolat
This chocolate is really interesting, unique and intense in flavor. My favorites so far
from this company are the chocolate bars. I ordered some of the truffle
chocolates from them and I was a little disappointed in the size of the portions,
very tiny. But then again when you are a total choco-holic it's never enough! If
you are an adventurous person you will love the interesting flavor combinations
here. I recommend the Red Fire chocolate bar and the Naga chocolate bar.
Scharffen Berger Excellent quality chocolate to eat or to bake with, one of my
favorite baking chocolates.
Godiva Chocolate The name says it all! Decadent, but sometimes a little pricey.
Worth the splurge now and then.
Chocolate Heaven at Pier 39 SFO. Chocolate extravaganza, I recommend the
gigantic chocolate peanut butter cups and the chocolate dipped cherries (my
favorite!)
Cow Girl Chocolates Yee-haw! Chocolate with attitude and spunk, just what we
need.
Seattle Chocolates I really like the espresso chocolates and the mint chocolates
put out by them. You can find this product allot of places these days.
Mrs. Beasley's Chocolate Truffle Cookies Ok, Mrs. Beasley's really ought to be in
the cooking links page, but I tell you these little cookies are so chocolate decadent
that I had to put the link here. They are called Chocolate Truffle cookies. They are
like, little balls of what seems like uncooked cookie dough, but they are cooked I
am sure, Chunks of chocolate inside them, and covered with white powdered
sugar! Holy crap, they are insane! I got a hold of a small batch because no one at
my hubby's work wanted them and they were left in the break room post-xmas
last year. WOW. I ate them all gone. Unfortunately, and you should know this
before attempting to order them, Mrs. Beasley's is one of those cater to
corporations businesses where they sell company logos on the boxes and large
baskets of goodies for company parties, so to get a hold of JUST those cookies
you really don't have allot of options..there are a couple different places on the
site where you can buy them alone but they have to be sold in the gift containers,
and of course that costs allot more than what you're used to spending for a small
batch of cookies. I just wanted to share that with you up front, because I didn't
know either, until I went on the fiending for them.
Moonstruck Chocolates Wow. That's all I can say. I got a tiny 2 truffle box of
Moonstruck Chocolates for Xmas from a friend. I thought the truffles were very
good. Inside the box was a giant pull out of all the available truffles and things
from this company. I went online and ordered some. I got a box of the Ice Cream
Cone Truffles and a box of the Cupcake Truffles. I don't know HOW they did it,
and I wasn't expecting this but there was not only a great taste there in flavor but
the textures were different between the outer layer and the inner layer of filling
so that when you ate a cone truffle for example your mouth/brain was fooled into
thinking it's really eating ice cream? Crunchy on the outside and whipped and soft
on the inside. Same sort of thing with the cupcake truffles. They were all delicious!
I recommend!
*P.S. There are several companies on the market today with Chocolate Perfumes.
Serendipity 3 for example has one out there called Serendipitous. I use a perfume
called AMOUR DE CACAO by Comptoir Sud Pacifique and it is WON-DER-FUL! When
you first put it on, you smell like cocoa puffs. Then an hour later you smell like a
chocolate orange. Then vanilla spice. yum-o. I love it.
*A GREAT BOOK: The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale Degroff*
Nigella Lawson's Watermelon Daiquiri
Cuban Mojito
Looking for NOLA Mardi Gras Cocktail Recipes? Click HERE!
T.G.I Friday's Ultimate Sugar & Spice Margarita (totally addictive!):
1 Part Jose Cuervo Gold Tequilla
1/2 Part Triple Sec Liquor
2 Parts Margarita Mix (without alcohol added)
1/2 Part Gingerbread Syrup*
1 Lemon Squeeze
Ice
Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes in it. Shake for about
30 seconds, pour through strainer into a margarita or martini glass rimmed with
red & white sugar or a cocktail rimmer made for cosmopolitans or margarita.
Garnish drink with a small wedge of lime and a strip of orange peel.
*You can purchase Gingerbread syrup at coffee/tea houses (the flavored syrups
they use in specialty coffee drinks), or online direct at Monin.
*Non-Alcoholic beverage? Pour a can of lemon-lime soda (like 7-up, Sprite) over
ice and stir in 1-2 oz. gingerbread syrup.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pomegranate Cosmopolitan:
1 cup vodka
3/4 cup pom wonderful pomegranate juice
1/2 cup Cointreau liqueur or triple sec
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
limes, twist for garnish
pomegranate seeds, for garnish
Combine vodka, pom juice, Cointreau & lime juice in a container.
In small batches, shake mixture with ice in a cocktail shaker, then strain into
chilled cocktail glasses. Garnish with lime twist, and a few fresh pomegranate
seeds if desired.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Wine~
My Favorite Wines:
*Did you know: Only wine crafted in the Champagne region of France
is allowed to carry the title of "Champagne", any wine not from this
region of France is considered "Sparkling Wine".*
For Bubbly:
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut *My Favorite Champagne*
Domaine Carneros Brut by Tattinger. A local and prestigious Carneros Napa Valley
Sparkler
Spanish sparkling wine by Cristallino. Inexpensive great tasting sparking wine for
special occasions!
Italian sparkling wine called Prosecco. Another great tasting inexpensive sparkler
for special occasions!
Mumm Napa Valley. Sparkling Wine. Inexpensive local sparkler.
Domaine Chandon Sparkling Wine. Local sparkler from prestigious French
Winemakers Moët & Chandon.
Non-Bubbly:
Any Chardonnay by Clos du Bois Winery
Mirassou Winery:
I am completely enamoured with Mirassou Winery's 2005 Riesling! It goes with
E_V_E_R_Y_T_H_I_N_G. It's from a region I do not normally like too Monterey,
Ca. But Andrea said, "come step out of your box a try some new wines..if you like
Chardonnay try a Riesling." And this one was the first one I tried. Wow. Wow.
Sweet, but not sickly sweet. Goes with spicy food.
Geisen Sauvignon Blanc:
I tried it at a wine tasting, it is EXCELLENT for Summer! Tastes like fresh green
bell peppers or even jalapeno (without the heat). You want the 2006.
Brutocoa Cellars:
I have a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from Brutocoa that I am cellaring for my son
for his 21st b-day! It was one of the first wines I ever tried, and since it is
sentimental for us I just had to keep one for him. Fingers crossed that it
survives..I also bought a pinot noir just in case it doesn't.
Forest Glen Winery: Any pinot noir, or chardonnay, and the "Forest Fire" (a white
merlot!) is awesome with spicy foods.
Bogle Vineyards: Chardonnay
Rodney Strong Vineyards: Merlot. We had (I can still taste it) the 1994 Merlot at
our wedding in 1997. Unfortunatley I didn't save any. It tasted like CHOCOLATE.
Loved it. We've just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary in 2007, and I
bought the 2004 Merlot. I'm cellaring it for the next anniversary.
Shopping & Links:
Wine.com
Stirrings of Nantucket (Cocktail rimmers, mixes, etc.)
St. Helena Visitor Info
Napa Valley.com
Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food, and The Arts
The Napa Valley Expo
The Napa Valley Mustard Festival
Sonoma Lavender Festival
Balloon Rides Above The Napa Valley
The Old Bale Mill
Silverado Brewing Company
Yountville, St. Helena & Calistoga Area Wineries:
Baldacci Vineyards
Chateau Boswell Winery (SO romantic!)
Chimney Rock Winery
Clos du Val Winery
Cuvaison Estate Wines
Duckhorn Wine Company
Dutch Henry Winery
Hartwell Estate Winery
Meadowood
Miner Family Vineyards
Signorello Vineyards
Quintessa Vineyards
Robert Sinskey Vineyards
Silverado Vineyards
Stag's Leap Winery
Pine Ridge Winery
ZD Wines
Rubicon Estate (Niebaum-Coppola)
Napa Cellars
Domaine Chandon
Mumm Napa Valley
Carneros Region Wineries:
Madonna Estate
Kirkland Ranch Winery
Domaine Carneros by Tattinger
Alexander Valley & North Coast Wineries:
Clos du Bois
Geyser Peak Winery
Jepson Winery
Jeriko Estate
Parducci Winery
Brutocao Cellars
Rodney Strong Vineyards
Sausal Winery
Murphy Goode Winery
Hanna Winery
Alexander Valley Vineyards
Silver Oak Cellars
Wine Storage:
I have a counter top cellar I bought in SFO last year from Crate and Barrel. I like it
EXCEPT one thing: it has memory pre-sets for temperature control based on what
you've got in it. Type of wine. It can do C* or F* temp. In a power outage, it
resets itself and if you don't catch it, your temp goes down. It has happened to
me several times already. It is a little noisy and you cannot mount it in cabinet, it is
meant to be stand-alone. I think next Summer I will find a home for it out in the
garage.
Some Wine Vocabulary:
Terroir
Sommelier
Tannin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Chocolate~
"Hello, my name is ElvenHippieGypsy..and I'm a choco-holic."
Ghirardelli Chocolates I always feel like I am being true to my locality when I buy
Ghirardelli chocolate..I use the baking chips in my chocolate chip cookies all the
time and I like the single squares allot. Someone I know lloves their sundaes.
The Mendocino Chocolate Company
If you visit Mendocino, Ca. You must stop by the Mendocino Chocolate Company
and have some fudge!
Fran's Chocolates Oh wow, Fran's almond gold bars are the type of chocolate you
hide from everyone because you want it all for yourself! Her salted caramels are
out of this world. I've always wanted to try her chocolate filled/dipped figs.
Amazing quality. Worth every penny. I also have a book of chocolate recipes by
Fran, "Pure Chocolate". I've tried a few recipes from it and I like it so far. Labor
intense, but then chocolate, by it's nature, wouldn't be so alluring if it was easy,
now would it?
Serendipity 3: Another GREAT chocolate cookbook: "Sweet Serendipity" by Steven
Bruce. The restaurant "Serendipity 3" is in NYC and was featured in the movie
"Serendipity" with John Cusak and Kate Beckinsale. They also have a web site
where you can order the "Frrozen Hot Chocolate" mixes and make it at home!
Yummy.
Vosges Haute Chocolat
This chocolate is really interesting, unique and intense in flavor. My favorites so far
from this company are the chocolate bars. I ordered some of the truffle
chocolates from them and I was a little disappointed in the size of the portions,
very tiny. But then again when you are a total choco-holic it's never enough! If
you are an adventurous person you will love the interesting flavor combinations
here. I recommend the Red Fire chocolate bar and the Naga chocolate bar.
Scharffen Berger Excellent quality chocolate to eat or to bake with, one of my
favorite baking chocolates.
Godiva Chocolate The name says it all! Decadent, but sometimes a little pricey.
Worth the splurge now and then.
Chocolate Heaven at Pier 39 SFO. Chocolate extravaganza, I recommend the
gigantic chocolate peanut butter cups and the chocolate dipped cherries (my
favorite!)
Cow Girl Chocolates Yee-haw! Chocolate with attitude and spunk, just what we
need.
Seattle Chocolates I really like the espresso chocolates and the mint chocolates
put out by them. You can find this product allot of places these days.
Mrs. Beasley's Chocolate Truffle Cookies Ok, Mrs. Beasley's really ought to be in
the cooking links page, but I tell you these little cookies are so chocolate decadent
that I had to put the link here. They are called Chocolate Truffle cookies. They are
like, little balls of what seems like uncooked cookie dough, but they are cooked I
am sure, Chunks of chocolate inside them, and covered with white powdered
sugar! Holy crap, they are insane! I got a hold of a small batch because no one at
my hubby's work wanted them and they were left in the break room post-xmas
last year. WOW. I ate them all gone. Unfortunately, and you should know this
before attempting to order them, Mrs. Beasley's is one of those cater to
corporations businesses where they sell company logos on the boxes and large
baskets of goodies for company parties, so to get a hold of JUST those cookies
you really don't have allot of options..there are a couple different places on the
site where you can buy them alone but they have to be sold in the gift containers,
and of course that costs allot more than what you're used to spending for a small
batch of cookies. I just wanted to share that with you up front, because I didn't
know either, until I went on the fiending for them.
Moonstruck Chocolates Wow. That's all I can say. I got a tiny 2 truffle box of
Moonstruck Chocolates for Xmas from a friend. I thought the truffles were very
good. Inside the box was a giant pull out of all the available truffles and things
from this company. I went online and ordered some. I got a box of the Ice Cream
Cone Truffles and a box of the Cupcake Truffles. I don't know HOW they did it,
and I wasn't expecting this but there was not only a great taste there in flavor but
the textures were different between the outer layer and the inner layer of filling
so that when you ate a cone truffle for example your mouth/brain was fooled into
thinking it's really eating ice cream? Crunchy on the outside and whipped and soft
on the inside. Same sort of thing with the cupcake truffles. They were all delicious!
I recommend!
*P.S. There are several companies on the market today with Chocolate Perfumes.
Serendipity 3 for example has one out there called Serendipitous. I use a perfume
called AMOUR DE CACAO by Comptoir Sud Pacifique and it is WON-DER-FUL! When
you first put it on, you smell like cocoa puffs. Then an hour later you smell like a
chocolate orange. Then vanilla spice. yum-o. I love it.