Ok, ok… so it’s not actually a martini because there’s far too many ingredients in it to make it a classic, but it is a perfect cocktail for Christmas. My grandmother always baked a pile of gingersnap cookies for the holidays (along with every other Christmas-oriented cookie known to man) so this is a great cocktail to add to the holiday tradition as an adult, whether I’m actually eating a cookie along with it or not.

The Gingersnap Martini

1 oz pear-flavored vodka
½ oz amaretto
½ oz simple syrup
½ oz molasses
2¼ slices of fresh ginger
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of clove
Pinch of allspice
Crystallized ginger or sugar, for garnish

In a cocktail shaker, put your fresh ginger slices, molasses, simple syrup and spices. Muddle like your life depends on it. Fill halfway with ice and add your pear-flavored vodka and amaretto. Shake well and strain into your cocktail glass, rimmed with crystal ginger or sugar. Enjoy!

TAGS [ COCKTAIL RECIPES | CHRISTMAS COCKTAILS | GINGERSNAP COCKTAIL | GINGER SNAP MARTINI ]

My calendar is chock-full from now through New Years, with tons of holiday parties to attend and I wouldn’t dream of showing up to any of these events empty handed. I’m actually a pretty good cook and while I enjoy trying new things, I have a few stand-by recipes that I use for party offerings. I make a mean artichoke dip but my most recent mastered appetizer actually involves chicken wings.

I enjoy cooking with beer whenever possible, so when I came across a recipe for Spicy Brown Ale Brined Wings on BeerCook.com, I was intrigued.

The recipe calls for:

½ cup brown sugar
½ cup kosher salt
24 oz brown ale
5 pounds chicken wings, cut into three sections, small tips removed
1 cup butter
2 tbsp minced garlic
¼ cup minced fresh jalapeños (or a mix of habaneros and jalapeños)
½ cup (or more) hot pepper sauce
½ cup Sriracha or Asian sweet-hot chile sauce
Pinch ground cinnamon
1 tsp finely ground black pepper
24 skewers at least 10 inches long
2 tbsp black or toasted sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

I’d just heard friends raving about Sriacha sauce (which I hadn’t yet tried) and I already had a huge jar of sesame seeds that I wanted to use.

I decided to try my hand at these interesting wings and I must say, I’m glad that I did. Buffalo wings tend to reign supreme around here and as delicious as they are, I think we tend to forget that there are other types of sauces out there.

The sweet, tangy, garlic, spice flavor was really delicious. I used Dogfish Head Brown Ale and I was surprised how much the flavor of the beer really came through. I plan on making another batch for my book club next week and I might have to try Newcastle and see how it differs. The recipe says to make these on the grill and although they did fine in the oven, I can’t help but imagine they’d be even better if I did grill them. Damn the freezing temperatures and pesky snow.

Regardless, if you’re looking for an easy and unique dish that’s sure to impress your friends, I highly suggest trying it out for yourself. The best part is, you end up with a bottle of Sriracha Sauce – which is seriously incredible on just about anything. If you’re a Red Hot junkie like myself, you’ve gotta try it - even if you don’t make the wings. Maybe I can convince our purchasing guys that we should sell it on the site…

TAGS [ BEER CHICKEN WINGS | BROWN ALE WINGS | BEER WINGS RECIPE | COOKING WITH BEER ]

Kevin Sintumuang over at GQ wrote a great article on winterizing your bar. He makes an excellent point in his intro, "You dress and eat seasonally, so why not drink seasonally, too? For colder days, what you need are drinks with depth and complexity, ones that pack a punch and warm you up but with a subtlety that won’t leave your throat on fire" and then goes on to recommend five fantastic liquors that put you well on your way to better winter drinks. He’s inspired me to compile my own list of winter warmers to help you stay nice and toasty through the cold weather months. Here they are:

1. Hot Toddy
A toasty classic!

• 1 oz brandy or whiskey
• 1 tbsp honey
• ¼ lemon
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 tea bag

Coat the bottom of a mug with honey and then add the liquor and the juice of the lemon quarter. On the side, heat water in a teakettle and add the tea bag to make hot tea. Pour the steaming tea into the glass and stir!

2. Hot Buttered Rum
A spicy, sweet, cozy cocktail you’ll love to cuddle up with. The easiest way to make it is combine Hot Buttered Rum Mix with 2 oz of your favorite dark rum and boiling water.

3. Bloody Mary
Sure, it’s made with vodka but the hot pepper sauce and spices give it enough oomph to warm you up. For a classic flavor we recommend using Zing Zang’s world famous Bloody Mary Mix but if you really want to kick up the heat, nothing beats Demitri’s Chilies & Peppers Bloody Mary Seasoning Mix.

4. Emerald

• 2 oz Irish whiskey
• 1 oz Italian vermouth
• 1 dash orange bitters

This delightfully smooth and mellow drink is served cold but it’s sure to warm you right up. Stir well with cracked ice then strain into a chilled cocktail glass, settle in and enjoy.

5. Cocoa Raspberry Heaven
This one was aptly named. It’s full of the kind of warmth only berries and chocolate can bring.

• 1 oz plus 1 tsp raspberry liqueur (Chambord is nice)
• 1 oz white crème de cacao
• 8 oz hot chocolate
• Whipped cream
• 1 fresh raspberry (optional)

Pour the raspberry liqueur and white crème de cacao into a cappuccino mug and then add already mixed hot chocolate and stir. Top with a dollop of whipped cream, drizzle an extra teaspoon of Chambord on top and finish it off with a fresh raspberry.

TAGS [ DRINK RECIPES | COCKTAIL RECIPES | WINTER COCKTAILS | WINTER DRINKS | HOT COCKTAILS ]

The first accumulative snow has hit Buffalo, which has my winter cocktail wheels spinning in the slush once again. For today’s treat, I turn to my favorite standby brew, Guinness (really? me?), to create yet another stellar stout concoction, the Dandy Shandy.

This classic beer cocktail can actually be made with any stout or porter of your choice, but I recommend Guinness, whose nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixed air won’t over carbonate your drink, once combined with the ginger ale.

Dandy Shandy
8 oz Guinness, or your choice of stout or porter
8 oz Premium ginger ale or ginger beer

Fill a pint glass halfway with Guinness or the stout of your choice. Carefully pour your cold ginger ale or ginger beer on top, being careful not to let the now-extra-foamy head spill over. Enjoy and repeat!

Make sure to check out our other great Guinness cocktails, too!

TAGS [ GUINNESS COCKTAIL | GUINNESS COCKTAILS | BEER COCKTAIL | BEER COCKTAILS | COCKTAIL RECIPES | GINGER ALE COCKTAIL | GINGER BEER COCKTAIL ]

My sophomore year of college, I’d moved out of the dorms and into an off-campus house with five other girls. Unsure of how often I’d be eating at school, I advised my parents to sign me up for the Flex meal plan. Instead of a certain number of dining hall meals, I had a flat $600 to spend at any campus eatery. My student ID card functioned as a debit system and I only paid for what I ate. As it turned out, I didn’t eat on campus very often. By the end of the first semester, I’d only spent $100.

This wouldn’t have been a bad thing, except my parents had already paid my tuition bill for second semester without examining the charges. They had unknowingly added an additional $600 to my flex food plan and I didn’t realize this oversight until after it was too late to make changes. So, there I was with over $1000 of non-refundable cash that could only be spent on college campus food.

My darling mother informed me that there would be serious consequences if I didn’t "eat every damn meal on campus" and spend "every damn cent of that money" so I decided to get creative. One of my roommates had returned from a trip home raving about Wapatoolie (also known as Wapatuli/Wapatoola) that she’d had at a party. None of us in Buffalo had ever heard of this drink, so she explained that "Wapatoolie" is simply the proper name for a whole ton of bite size fruit pieces soaked in booze.

It sounded pretty delicious to me, so we set out on a mission. For a week straight I bought every overpriced fruit cup that the school’s dining service made. We scheduled a party, dumped all of our succulent fruit into giant buckets, then added generous amounts of rum, vodka, whiskey and gin (it’s really too bad I couldn’t buy those on campus too.) The fruit marinated for two days and we couldn’t have been happier with the results. The Wapatoolie was tasty and boy was it potent. I must say – the fruit pieces make it a much better mixture than its amateur cousin, Jungle Juice (and it’s quite a bit classier too.)

While home for Thanksgiving last week, I shared this story with my mom as we discussed punch options for the next holiday party. Although she was less than thrilled to hear the details of how I went about spending my extra food money, she did agree to make a less lethal version of Wapatoolie for the next family get together.

As we get into party season, I’d suggest that you do the same. Everyone loves fresh fruit and when you add alcohol, it’s even better! I recommend using fresh pineapple, apples, oranges, melons, grapes and berries with vodka. Make sure you let it soak overnight. Yum!

TAGS [ WAPATOOLIE | WAPATULI | WAPATOOLA | LIQUOR SOAKED FRUIT | COCKTAIL RECIPES | DRINK RECIPES | LIQUOR FRUIT RECIPES ]

Any regular readers know that, besides being a Guinness lover, my liquor of choice is almost always whiskey. And although I love a great number of whiskeys out there, including Canadian and Irish, my true favorites are the bourbons. (Yes Maker’s Mark, you’ll always hold a spot in my heart, and in my Manhattan, perfect, on the rocks).

The question is though, what makes a straight bourbon whiskey? How is bourbon different from other whiskeys? Dave shot me a link to William Litton’s article today, which did a rather good job of explaining key factors.

As Mr. Litton explains, bourbon is a corn whiskey that is aged in charred white oak barrels. This aging process, in these specific barrels, is what gives bourbon its distinctive coloring and tasty notes of honey, spice and floral, earthy complexity. There is however, a bit more to it than that.

In order to be labeled as an official straight bourbon whiskey, according to US federal law (it’s that big) whiskey needs to meet all of the following requirements:

• It must be distilled within the United States
• It must be made of grain mixture that is at least 51% corn
• It cannot be altered in any artificial way; no coloring, flavoring or special filtering allowed
• It must be aged for at least two years in new, charred white oak barrels
• It must be distilled to no higher than 165 proof, and introduced into the barrel at no higher than 125 proof

Bourbon brands’ tastes are as varied as their names, from sweet to fiery and everything in between. My favorite, Maker’s Mark, tends to be on the sweeter side but still with enough fire to know you’re drinking bourbon. Basil Hayden’s is a bourbon that I liken more to candy than any other. If you’re looking for pure heat and the classic whiskey-face, try Knob Creek—it may be the tastiest fire water you’ve ever thrown back.

Looking for a classic bourbon cocktail recipe? The Manhattan or Old Fashioned always do me well, but here’s something we haven’t posted yet… the Kentucky B & B.

Kentucky B & B
2 oz bourbon
½ oz Benedictine

Pour bourbon and Benedictine into a snifter and stir. Drink and repeat.

TAGS [ BOURBON | WHISKEY | BOURBON WHISKEY | KENTUCKY B & B | KENTUCKY BOURBONS | COCKTAIL RECIPES ]

Coffee and beer have so much in common. They’re used to either wake you up and keep you going during the day or to help you relax in the afternoon. According to this article, they even have a similar history. I found it quite interesting. More people choose beer over wine. Similarly, coffee is a definite beverage of choice in the morning.

For a few years now many brewers have been trying to create coffee stout. Coffee stout is a beer brewed with coffee added either during the boil or the fermentation. Dark roasted malts can give a bitter coffee flavor to dark beer. Some brewers will even add ground coffee and chocolate…sounds good.

I like the combination of beer and coffee. In fact it’s recommended that if you want to try this combo together, just pour a tasty stout into a beer glass and add fresh coffee (wait until it cools down). Try an equal ratio of one to one. Beer is fun to experiment with the possibilities are endless!

Cheers!

TAGS [ BEER | COFFEE | STOUT | COFFEE STOUT ]