Last night we celebrated New Year’s Eve family style.  My husband and I invited my brother’s family and our best friends, and two of our children invited two friends each.  There were more kids than adults, with 8 children, ages 12 and under, and 6 adults.  Being creative kids, they wanted to make their own beverages.  My daughter Sam created her own special mix.  As my co-author, she shared her thoughts on this drink:

“I designed the Knock Your Socks Off, a cranberry creation.  It is tart with a hint of sweetness and a dash of sour.  With the color of a deep burgundy, it looks gorgeous.  I would put it in a fancy cocktail glass.  For kids, ask your parents if you can use that glass.  If they say yes, ask if they can get it down for you.  It is delicious and refreshing.”

Knock Your Socks Off

3/4 glass cranberry juice cocktail

3 Tb. grenadine

5 dashes lime juice

ice cubes

maraschino cherry

lime rind

Pour cranberry juice into glass.   Add grenadine and lime juice, and stir.  Add ice to fill, and garnish with cherry and lime rind.

I have to confess that I have a slight bit of an addiction to. . . smoothies.  If you had told me a few years ago that my daily breakfast would be a smoothie, I would have laughed.  Not that I ate big breakfasts, but a bowl of cereal usually was my thing.  So, to go from a breakfast that involves chewing to a breakfast of drinking only seemed like it couldn’t be very filling.

I was wrong.

When I first tried smoothies as a breakfast, I would have a few sips of my husband’s smoothie and then make something for myself.  But the more that I tried these drinks, the more that I discovered I enjoyed the taste and felt full.  This led to me making smoothies for myself, which I now do daily.  In fact, although I enjoyed all of the indulgent breakfasts while we honeymooned in Hawaii, I was ready to return to my regular breakfast at home.

About a year ago I shared my recipe for Peanut Butter & Banana Smoothies.  However, if you dislike or are allergic to peanut butter, there are plenty of alternatives.  One of my favorites is a Banana-Berry Smoothie, which can be made with an assortment of berries.  When berries are in seasons, choose the ripest.  However, for the rest of the year, frozen berries work.  (My personal choice is blueberry.)

As a note, a blender can be used for this recipe.  However, if you have a Magic Bullet, it works very well.

Banana-Berry Smoothie

1 ripe banana

1/3 cup skim milk

1 Tb. flax seed

1/2 frozen unsweetened berries

3 ice cubes

Break banana in half, and place in blender or Magic Bullet mug.  Add milk, flax seed, berries, and ice cubes.  Cover securely, and blend well.  Enjoy!

Putting away Christmas items and “undecorating” the tree today has put me in a reflective state of mind.  In the last six and a half months, I have shared daily events and recipes.  Each recipe about which I have written is part of a memory of this year.  There have been new foods tried, new family members added, and the adventure of writing a blog.

In the coming year, there will be new memories created.  With my love of food and cooking, I am sure that some food or beverage will be part of these memories.  I would venture to guess that some of the memories will even be based on new recipes that I try.

As you prepare to celebrate this New Year’s Eve, I hope it is an evening spent in the company of those you hold dear.  To compliment the closing of 2007 and arrival of 2008, I offer a simple recipe for you to enjoy.  I know that when the clock chimes midnight I will be sharing this recipe with the one I love.

I wish all of a you a new year filled with happiness.

Black Raspberry Bubbly
1 oz. black raspberry liquor 2 Tb. pink decorating sugar	3 oz. black raspberry liqueur 6 oz. champagne
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Place 1 ounce of black raspberry liqueur in a small bowl.  (The bowl needs to be wide enough to fit the rim of a champagne flute inside it.)  Place pink decorating sugar in similarly sized bowl. Dip rim of champagne flute in liquor-filled bowl to coat edges.  Then dip rim in sugar-filled bowl.  Set right-side up.  Repeat with second champagne flute, and let them dry. Pour 1-1/2 ounces of black raspberry liqueur into each flute.  Add 3 ounces of champagne to each flute.  Serve immediately.

On a recent evening, we decided to stay home and have homemade appetizers. When the appetizers were prepared, I peered into our liquor cabinet to see what unique beverage I could make. Keeping our mixer options in mind, I toyed with ideas. I considered some shot drink recipes but thought a martini recipe would be better.

After a moment’s thought I decided to use orange vodka and orange juice. However, I didn’t want it to be a plain orange beverage. It needed an additional ingredient to give it a more diversified flavor. I had an “a-ha” moment when I spied the vanilla vodka. I was hopeful that the combination would produce a taste similar to the vanilla ice cream & orange popsicle treat of my youth.

Preparing a shakerful of martinis, I crossed my fingers, hoping this would be a success. I poured the drink into 2 martini glasses (Waterford crystal, of course) and took a sip of mine. Much to my delight, this drink tasted just like that frozen treat.

Vanilla Orange Martinis
2 ounces orange vodka2 ounces vanilla vodka6 ounces fresh-squeezed orange juice, pulp-free	1 cup ice cubes2 orange slices
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Put ice into martini shaker. Add orange vodka, vanilla vodka, and orange juice. Put on cover, and shake well. Pour into 2 martini glasses. Garnish each with an orange slice.

With the holiday season upon us, many of us let our good eating habits fall by the wayside.  There are temptations everywhere you look:  cookies, eggnog, fried latkes.

To balance these tasty munchies, I try to make meals using more healthy recipes.  Quite often I do that by having a high protein breakfast, such as an egg wrap or smoothie.  A smoothie is one of my favorite breakfasts, all year round, for many reasons.  The smoothie can be made quickly and is a very filling breakfast.  Also, it is portable, which is useful when trying to get everyone else in the house ready for the day.  Plus, if I make a peanut butter smoothie, I know what a healthy food it is from reading peanut butter nutrition data .

As the holiday season continues and food-based events fill up my calendar, I will keep plenty of bananas in stock.  I will be prepared for a morning-after breakfast item to help improve my diet.

Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie
1 ripe banana2 Tablespoons flax seed2 Tablespoons peanut butter, creamy or crunchy	1/2 to 3/4 cup skim milk6 ice cubes
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Cut banana in half and place in blender.  Add flax seed, peanut butter, such as Skippy, and 1/2 cup milk.  Top with ice.  Place lid on blender and combine on high  setting until no chunks of ice remain.  More milk can be added to make a thinner smoothie.

The girls’ sleepover was a huge success the other night.  My friend arrived at 6:00, and we enjoyed a yummy dinner of salad on my deck.  It could have been a very leisurely dinner, except that a downpour arrived at the end of the meal, quickening our return to the house.

After our hasty retreat, it was time to make some beverages for our evening.  Being that it was a warm summer evening, lemonade seemed like the beverage of choice.  Of course, we’re both adults and neither of us needed to drive, so something with a little more kick seemed appropriate.  Thus, we created our own lemonade recipe.

Between our lemonade, espinaca, and great conversation, the night rushed by.  Before we knew it, Wednesday had ended, and we were a few hours into Thursday.  There had been many good stories, some that made us laugh and some that made us blush.  Definitely a successful girls’ night!

Ladies’ Lemonade

ice

raspberry vodka

lemonade (made according to directions and chilled)

marachino cherries

Put enough ice into a highball glass to fill it halfway.  Pour 3 ounces of raspberry vodka into the glass.  Add enough lemonade to fill the glass.  Place one or two cherries (and a little juice) into the glass.  Stir well.  Enjoy!