Cocktail Recipes & Ideas

At our house we entertain — a lot. Asian-inspired dishes like Thai curry, Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches, and sushi are often on the menu. Sriracha is our condiment of choice, and while we enjoy cold beer to tame its heat, the search for the perfect cocktail to pair with it has finally come to a very happy ending with this week’s drink. Cilantro is one of those flavors you either love or you vehemently despise. I happen to love it.

Are you a fan of Game of Thrones? Were you thrilled when the new season kicked off on March 31? If you’re enjoying your fresh helpings of sword ‘n’ sorcery fantasy goodness as much as we are (yes we are fantasy geeks around here!) then you have to see this lavish lineup of cocktails designed to be sipped with Game of Thrones. From Tyrion to Ygritte, there’s a cocktail here for your favorite character.

The art of the 3-ingredient cocktail is perhaps the best way for a budding home mixologist to get into the act. We love our complicated cocktails, infused and smoked and shaken within an inch of their icy little lives, but we leave them to the bar experts; the simplest drinks are the best ones to make with a limited home liquor cabinet, especially on a casual Friday night at home.

With the temperatures starting to rise, our gardens are starting to take root. Although you might not have tomatoes just yet, we’re willing to bet your herbs are going great guns! If you picked a few too many to use in dinner, we have an alternate way to put them to use: In simple syrup for cocktails and mocktails.Herbs are great in all sorts of situations.

Now that Downton Abbey season 2 is over, we’re all waiting with bated (pun intended) breath to see what will happen in season 3. Until then, enjoy a little break from the action…and enjoy one of these cocktails inspired by characters from your favorite British drama. It was my ambition to create cocktails for all three Crawley sisters (because original cocktails for the whole cast, while admirable, might be a bit daunting).

Valentine’s day is just around the corner, and if you have a special someone in your life (or even if you don’t), you may want to make a few drinks. These gin and tonic variations are labeled ‘his’ and ‘hers’, but don’t let yourself be limited. I enjoy a nice manly cocktail every now and then – and the pretty pink ‘hers’ variation is so delicious that men might find themselves reaching for it by the end of the night.

With this post, the Toddy Project reaches its delicious, boozy conclusion. Herein: gin gets the toddy treatment, and vanilla warms up a plain old whiskey toddy. Can’t get enough hot toddies? Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the Toddy Project. Nancy Mitchell has had a very good week. You can find more of her recipes and writings on her blog, The Backyard Bartender.

The toddy project continues with two delicious combinations of tea and booze – whiskey and black tea to perk you up, and chamomile and bourbon to send you off to sleep. I couldn’t stop drinking this. It’s so many things I love, mixed into one: whiskey, tea, spices, honey. I can see myself drinking this après-ski in front of a roaring fire, or just après-work at the end of a long day. Go ahead, make one: you’ve earned it.

pumpkin butter Alcohol always warms the body, and hot alcohol doubly so. Delight your guests, and warm your insides, with this tweak of an old recipe. Now, if you have never had hot buttered rum before, you may be a bit skeptical. Alcohol and butter? Believe and do not doubt. Butter adds a certain richness to this drink, as well as a bit of flavor. Imagine drinking a warm glass of boozy pumpkin pie. Don’t you love fall? Nancy Mitchell loves a hot drink on a cold day.

Labor Day weekend always seems like the last gasp of summer before fall begins in earnest. Everyone scrambles to make the most of it — one last vacation, one last trip to the lake or the beach. And, for those of us taking the simpler route and staying home — one last summer cocktail. The beauty of this cocktail lies in its simplicity.

Hops are famous in the world of beer, but did you know you can also cook with the stalks, leaves, and flowers of this easy to grow vine? Over at the Bon Appétit blog, Ian Knauer has some tips for growing and cooking with hops.Knauer was told not to expect any hops within the first year of planting cuttings, but vines burst to life in the rich soil and ample sun of his family farm, and he was able to harvest a gallon of hops.

Here’s a funny thing about an egg cream: It contains neither eggs nor cream. What it does offer is a sweet yet light way to end a meal. And, if you’re so inclined (I am) you can slip your booze in at the same time. Bonus! The egg cream is a soda shop classic. In the old days of drugstore soda fountains, kids and teenagers would belly up to the bar for a rich glass of milk, fizzed up with soda, and sweetened with a thick stir of chocolate syrup.

What happens when you combine the flavors of roasted cranberries with fragrant cloves and rich brown sugar with clementines? A festive homemade gift to inspire the cocktail lover in your life.These holiday inspired cocktail mixers are fun, flavorful, a bit unexpected and begging for a chance to toast salud! with loved ones. The technique to make them is simple and can be easily adapted to personal taste by swapping out any of the spices, citrus and fruits.

We talk a lot about pairing wine and beer with food, but what about cocktails? Do you sip cocktails with snacks or with meals — or do you just drink them alone? If you drink them with a bite of food, do you have pairings that you love? Here are a few ideas for pairing cocktails with delicious snacks.What makes a good pairing of cocktail with appetizer? Do you look for complementary flavors, colors, or textures?

The other day, I posted about Japanese ume plumsThis sweet, fruity liquor is super easy to make, requires few ingredients, and when it’s ready to drink, you can eat the plums, too! It’s terrific on its own, on the rocks, or mixed with a little sake or sochu.Rock sugar is used because it dissolves more slowly than table sugar, and it flavors the alcohol more proportionally.

Pudding – the dessert many of us grew up on – has made a big comeback as a trendy treat. If the occasion calls for something a bit more impressive, we have the perfect fancy pants solution – bake your pudding in a water bath and call it pots de crème.OK, so the recipe and process is a bit different, but pots de crème are quite similar to the puddings we all know and love.

It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of Rose Gray last week. Rose was the co-author of the iconic River Café Cookbooks as well as co-owner of the River Café restaurant in London. In the early nineties Rose was my icon – my Alice Waters. She may not be as well known on this side of the Atlantic but in the UK and Ireland she and her partner Ruth Rogers were possibly the first of the great modern chefs where simplicity and good ingredients were everything.