Life Laid Bear

The best frozen margarita

I can honestly say that this is the best frozen margarita recipe that I have ever tried! And I am a margarita girl through and through. It is easy, natural, and so tasty. I have this crazy obsession with Mexican food, I could eat it everyday if needed. So when I became old enough to drink, margaritas were the first thing I fell in love with of course. This recipe will not give you traditional green/yellowish margaritas.  (I have no beef with green margaritas, they are all great. I promise).

the mister whipped these up last Saturday and I think this might just be a new tradition in our house come summertime. Saturday's are now margarita days! Who agrees? This recipe will serve 3 large margaritas.

4 ounces (1/2 cup) tequila

2 ounces (1/4 cup) Orange Patron (You can use Triple Sec or Cointreau)

2 1/2 ounces fresh lime juice

4 ounces (1/2 cup) honey (You can use simple syrup if you don't have honey)

12 ounces of ice. 

We have this really cute little blender that we bought to make smoothies in. Well, we haven't made smoothies but as a small margarita blender.... it ROCKS! We had to split the recipe in two to fit it in the blender but it worked great. 

If you can't tell, we love these glasses. We use them for everything. They have been around the block a lot, but most recently here. Purchased at Marshall's.

Public Service Announcement: Saturday is National Margarita Day! This holiday is special in my book, so I hope you celebrate. If you try this recipe this weekend, let me know what you think. 

Guest cocktail recipe - White rose hot tea cocktail

I am so excited to have Ella from Paper Umbrella back today to guest post about a new cocktail recipe. You may remember her from here. If not, head over and read a little more about her. She is absolutely adorable and her blog is so inspiring to read.

When Jessica asked me to do a guest post I thought this would be a great opportunity to experiment with some hot cocktail recipes for Fall/Winter. I love me some G+Ts, but they just aren’t going to cut it in this cold, rainy Portland weather. Of course, hot coco + peppermint schnapps, cider + bourbon, or coffee + bailey’s are all great boozy winter drink options, but I wanted to try something a little different.

Recently, I went to a teahouse nearby that makes tea cocktails, including a few hot ones. I was a little skeptical at first, but I actually loved all of their drinks! Here is my take on one of their rose drinks – this can be served hot or cold and is great either way. 

You will need: 1 cup of white tea (I used a rose peony tea, but any kind of white tea will do – the rose in mine wasn’t a very strong flavor), ¾ to 1 oz of gin (you might want to add a little more if you plan on drinking this cold), ½ oz St. Germain liquor (or a cheaper alternative would be elderflower syrup), and ¾ oz rose water simple syrup (heat 1 part rose water, one part sugar in a pan until all of the sugar has dissolved).

Mix all of these ingredients together and drink hot or cold. This drink is a sweet treat, so it would be fun to serve in lieu of dessert next time you have friends over for dinner!

I cannot wait to try this recipe out this month as the weather cools down in our neck of the woods. Jump over to Ella's blog to read more of her cocktail recipes. She is a cocktail genius. 

 

 

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Mini Pumpkin Pies are most certainly my favorite thing to bake. Let me step back a little. It is among only a handful of things I can make. My guy is the chef around these parts, and a darn good one at that. I am proud to call him mine. So pumpkin pies have slowly but surely made their way into my heart over the years. I married a Northerner, so I have to make them. A little known fact is that I had never had one until I met him. I am still trying to get him to warm up to Pecan Pie. 

This recipe is very old. I got it from my grandma right before I got married and have cherished it since then. I asked her if I could have some pie recipes and she surprised me when she brought this one out (she never cooked it for me). It is pretty simple but the dough is not homemade. Sorry. I also split this pie into mini pies, because who can't resist something sweet and cute. 

Mini Pumpkin Pies, makes 24 mini pies

1 package Pillsbury pie crust (comes with two rolled up)

1 can pumpkin

1 package cream cheese

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup regular sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 stick)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

For the filling: In a bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add in your pumpkin and beat until they are both combined. Add all sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the salt, eggs and melted butter. Continue to beat until combined. Last add the vanilla and cinnamon. By this time, you should be an expert at beating until combined. You should not see any lumps left. If you do, continue to beat with the hand mixer. 

For the crust: Roll out the dough, and decide what you would like to make your circle with. I think our glasses are the perfect size for these mini pies. So I go with that. 

Once you have your circles cut out, put them in a lightly oiled muffin pan. Then add your filling. Go ahead and fill almost to the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. 

* I cut the little gingerbread men out of the excess dough. Again, just for a extra cute factor. 

Let them cool and enjoy. Add some whipped cream if you are feeling festive. 

Guava - St. Germain - Champagne

St. Germaine is hard to find in our neck of the woods. We ended up having to buy it from out of town. The only question I had after I jumped up and down in the store was "what in the world are we going to make with it"?

We are not master cocktail creators, we are not even close. But I have had this on hand for a while and we decided to try to find something to go with it. 

You will need...

A shaker

1 part Guava juice (We used Goya brand)

1 part St. Germain

Dry or extra dry champagne

This was so easy to make, and is too perfect for summer nights. We mixed 1 part guava juice and 1 part St. Germain to the shaker with ice. We then topped the glass with extra dry champagne. You can use any kind that you like. 

So very sweet, and so pretty in color. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Stir Friday

My husband is an pretty great cook, thank goodness, because the extent of my cooking stops at cereal. I am a great helper in  the kitchen but I tend to over cook everything else. So the mister asked for my help one night recently as he made what he calls Yakisoba. Don't ask me what it is, I don't know. This dish is pretty easy to make and is very tasty. You can add mostly anything you like but we made it with chicken, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli. Mostly because that is what we had on hand. 

• 10 baby carrots
• 1 small crown broccoli
• 1 large zucchini
• 2 Inches fresh ginger
• 1 lb Chicken
• 2 packages ramen noodles (seasoning packets discarded or saved for a rainy day)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp ketchup 
• 1 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce

We chopped the vegtables, ginger and also some garlic. Everything is better with garlic! Then we added our vegtables to the wok and let them fry up with the garlic. Kyle started the noodles and chicken while the vegtables were going. We used ramen noodles, there is no secret that I eat like a college kid. Ramen noodles are amazing at any age. We made the noodles the same way that the package instructions tell you. Boil for 3 minutes. 

The sauce is what makes this dish! For the sauce mix the ketchup, Sriracha, soy sauce, and worcestershire sauce. Add your noodles to your wok and then mix your noodles, vegtables, and sauce together. Heat up for a couples minutes and enjoy! 

Sneaky Tequila (Or not so much)

I found this recipe on HGTV, they did a great article on 14 quick and easy cocktails found here. So I thought why not, I already have all of the ingredients! The article was only right on one account.... it was easy, but it was not sneaky at all. In fact, I had to add extra pineapple and cranberry it was so strong. But then again, I am a wimp. I like my alcohol to be hidden in fruity flavors. Here is my adaptation on the HGTV recipe for a Sneaky Tequila. 

4 ounces tequila 
4 ounces coconut rum 
2 ounce peach schnapps 
6 ounces pineapple juice 
4 ounces cranberry juice

Let's just say if you are a tequila person who likes a drink that packs a punch, this is right up your alley!

 

fish bowl drink

This drink is one of my favorites for when it gets toasty outside. We made it for the first time last August when we were sitting by the pool, and it is one that we have kept around. I made this for the 90's themed party that we had this past weekend. This drink is meant to be served in a fish bowl and then shared but I thought it looked cute in mason jars instead. Here is how you make it. 

The fish bowl drink serves 2 in half pint mason jars

1/2 cup nerds
5 oz vodka
5 oz dark rum 
3 oz blue curacao
6 oz sweet and sour
16 oz pineapple juice
16 oz sprite
two swedish fish in each glass
   - This recipe calls for coconut rum, but I feel like this makes it too sweet. If you like your drinks sweet, give it a try.

In a large container mix the vodka, rum, blue curacao, sweet and sour, pineapple juice and sprite. In the mason jar, add the nerds to the bottom and then the two swedish fish to the side of the jar. Add your ice and then pour your misture over the nerds. I always add a couple slices of lemon and lime to the top for garnish.

• For those that do not drink or kids, just take the alcohol out and add more sprite. 

 

 

Infusing Vodka

When I first starting looking into how to infuse vodka, I read this article and it made it seem so easy. So I knew I had to try it first hand. We already had vodka and mint, so I started with a small batch and just went for it. I was pleasantly surprised! Here is what I did for all of those brave enough to give it a go. 

- Choosing your flavor will definitely be the hardest deicision that you will have to make. You can do berries, mint, fruit, or even peppers if you are feeling daring. I used two handfulls of mint and this worked great for me, you can always add more if you want a stronger batch.

- I wanted to try a small batch so I used the smallest size mason jar that I had on hand which was a half pint. I grabbed the mint from the garden and rinsed it before adding it to the bottom of the mason jar. I then added the vodka right over the mint. Easy enough!

- Seal your jar, and then all you do is wait. I recommend leaving your batch for 48 hours and then open it and give it a try. My batch was perfect after 48 hours, beginners luck of course. Make sure that you store it out of direct sunlight. I added a piece of cardstock to the top of mine and then used letter stamps to label my jar. Not necessary, but very cute! 

The mister had some friends over around the same time that I wanted to test my new mint infused vodka out, so I made them all my version of a mojitos to test it out. Mojitos are not usually made with Vodka, but why not right? Here is how I made my vodka mojitios

2 parts infused mint vodka

1/2 part lemon juice

1/2 part lime juice

4-6 leaves of mint

2 teaspoons brown sugar

a splash of soda water

The boys loved it! If you have tried something similar or had a great experience with infusing vodka, please let me know. 

homemade icecream

Let's talk about homemade icecream for a second. I am just really not a fan of icecream, throw some frozen yogurt in front of me and it will be gone, but icecream....just not a fan. Kyle on the other hand, loves it really just any kind! 

We got a homemade icecream maker at one of our wedding showers in 2011, and we just now used it. I apologize to whoever bought this for us if you are reading this. But we decided to give it a try this week. This was such an easy and quick process, and we will definitely be using it again this season. We made vanilla icecream and of course added some sprinkles for flare. 

1-1/2 cups whole milk
1-1/8 cups sugar
3 cups heavy cream
1-1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

We left the freezer bowl in the freezer overnight, and then just mixed the ingrediants together and poured it in. 15 minutes later we had delicuous tasting icecream, ours tasted like whipped cream so it doesn't get much better than that. 

This weekend I want to try frozen yogurt!