Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today's guest: My friend Chris Gardner, fellow denizen of the Midwest, and managing editor of the rad DIY site Curbly. He also writes a blog called ManMade DIY, and he's sharing some great cocktail recipes from there today. Enjoy!
I love discovering new cocktail recipes and original ways to experience different, unique flavors with classic spirits. But, these days, discovering "new cocktails" on the internet usually means "new fandangled drinks that use a bunch of specialty liqueurs and spirits you don't have and aren't gonna buy a whole bottle of to try a new drink."
So, with that in mind, I decided to come up with five tasty, holiday-ish cocktails using stuff you can find in an average liquor cabinet.
Of course, that varies from home to home, but these stick to spirits you've heard of, I promise. Plus, each features a bit of festive pomegranate flavor courtesy of our homemade grenadine recipe.
• Get Chris's homemade grenadine recipe: How To Make Homemade Grenadine at ManMade DIY
These'll work for Christmas, New Year's Eve, and, frankly speaking, Tuesday afternoons if you're feeling festive. These are all tested and approved recipes from the ManMade kitchens and friends...that was a fun day at the office.
Shall we?
Arsenic Sauce
For consumption with a three-decker toadstool sandwich.
1 1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. homemade grenadine
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
3 dashes angostura bitters
Soda water
Garnish: Lemon twist, wedge, or pomegranate arils
Combine the first five ingredients in a shaker with ice, and shake until cold. Strain into an iced highball glass, and top with soda water. Add garnish. Best consumed through a thirty-nine and a half foot straw.
Sparkling Pomegrita
Makes two cocktails; perfect for New Year's, especially with appetizers, and a great way to make less expensive sparkling wines more enjoyable. To make for a crowd, multiply by six, and use a whole bottle of sparkling wine.
2 oz. silver tequila
1 oz. Cointreau or Gran Marnier
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. homemade grenadine
Sparkling white wine - try a cava from Spain
Combine the tequila, orange liqueur, lime juice, and grenadine in a shaker with ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into two iced and salted martini glasses, and top with 2 oz. sparkling wine.
Salty Old Saint Nicholas
Lean your glass this way, you dear old man!
1 1/2 oz. vodka or gin
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. homemade grenadine
3 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
5 dashes angostura or orange bitters
Shake the ingredients and strain into a highball glass filled with ice, and whisper what you'll bring to me.
You'll Shoot Your Rye Out
It's like a Manhattan, but there are BB guns involved.
2 oz. rye whiskey or blended bourbon
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. homemade grenadine
Pour the ingredients over ice, and stir 50 times. Yes, since there are non-spirits, tradition says to shake it, but the grenadine is heavy enough to make this work, and the texture is amazing. Garnish with a fake icicle that you worked up to explain your broken glasses.
Lasso the Moon
A bit of prep, but worth every second. Consume while wearing bathrobes and singing "Buffalo Girls." Swallow two of these, and the moon will definitely all dissolve, see... and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair.
Prepare the festive salt by mixing 3 parts coarse salt to 1 part brown sugar, 1 part sweet paprika, and 1 part ground ancho chile powder. (Don't worry, it's not spicy) Make as much as you want: you'll want to keep this stuff around.
2 oz. tequila - blanco or añejo
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. homemade grenadine
Shake the ingredients with ice, then pour into a glass rimmed with lime juice and festive salt.
• See more Holiday Guest Posts here
(Images: Chris Gardner)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Oh come on - every single one of these uses home-made grenadine? I don't know about you, but I don't normally have pomegranate juice in my house. I think I have maybe bought it once? So...to make these "make with what you have at hand" cocktails I have to go out and buy something rare and that I would normally never have at home? I like the idea of home-made grenadine, but the title of this article is totally misleading.
These look **amazing**! And while I don't (yet!) have homemade grenadine, I think I may make some so that I can try the Arsenic Sauce and the Salty Old St. Nicholas.
As for the complaints that these don't include "ingredients you have on hand", if you read the article it's clear that he is making cocktails that don't rely on buying $100 worth of speciality liqueur. There's a clear difference in buying a $3 container of grapefruit juice or making homemade grenadine with a $5 bottle of POM juice and a $40 bottle of Domaine de Canton or $45 bottle of absinthe. And I would say that an average liquor cabinet -- especially of the sort of person who likes to try new cocktails -- would have both bitters and vermouth.
Yes, I agree that vermouth and bitters are pretty basic cocktail cabinet items, and he does state that he's assuming you have a basic cocktail set up. But to me it doesn't matter if I have to go buy a bottle of elderflower liquor, or a bottle of pomegranate juice. Both require some kind of special trip to get one item I would never otherwise use and might not like. Neither are "at hand." The only difference is cost.
This post is interesting, but would be much better titled "5 simple and inexpensive cocktails you can make with the purchase of only one special ingredient."
I love this. Vermouth, triple sec, bitters, grenadine, POM, and grapefruit juice are cheap and readily available. And useful in so many cocktail recipes. Unlike many specialty liquors which are hard to come by, expensive, and often too specifically applied.
When I go to make cocktails and I have very little in the house I like to make a strong pot of herbal tea and chill it for a little while with ice. I mix it up with fresh lime juice, or a little cane sugar. Mint tea and Whiskey are especially nice, but I've never had a miss!
Well, since all I've got "on hand" is Kool-aid... I guess it's Drunk Bucket time yet again.
I totally just tried the You'll Shoot Your Rye Out, and it's fantastic. Sweet, but it keeps the earthy, strong flavors of the rye whiskey.
Going to try the Arsenic Sauce later, and I'm absolutely sure it's just as good. Great recipes!
Reporting back: Arsenic Sauce is FANTASTIC. Seriously people, try that one. It's like a grown-up soda, and deadly too (you don't get a lot of the alcohol on the palate, but you get all of the flavors.) Again, great recipes!