Cooking with Cocktails

Because who wants to cook without them?

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but once I start cooking the more I enjoy a cocktail. I'm not sure if it's the food itself, the enjoyment of cooking, or just something about standing in my kitchen, but as my kitchen gets messier the more I look forward to a refreshing cocktail.

Often as not, the cocktail turns into a glass of wine - perhaps sneaking a glass from the bottle that will later be served to whoever is dining with me. But sometimes I want the cocktail itself. So here are three of my favorites:

(Clearly I do not measure anything, so just experiment and go with what tastes good!)

Appletini
Ingredients: vodka (roughly a shot or so), apple schnapps (a little less than the vodka), apple juice (just a splash)
Shake the three together in a martini shaker or just two cups stuck together. Strain into a martini glass and enjoy!

Margarita
Ingredients: PATRON (there is no other tequila), cointreau, lime juice
Optional ingredient: chambord
Shake the primary ingredients together, strain, and serve. If you are adding chambord float a splash of it on top.

Lemon Drop Martini
Ingredients: vodka, limoncello, lemon juice (and a splash of lemonade if you want it less strong)
Put sugar on a plate. Lightly wet the rim of a martini glass and turn it upside down into the sugar, coating the rim. Then shake all of the ingredients together and pour into your sugared glass.

I promise you - the sugar glass is important! Just doesn't taste the same without it! You can also salt a rim for your margarita but I enjoy mine non-salted.

These will taste much better with better vodka, but feel free to buy a basic apple pucker for the schnapps in the appletini. I actually enjoy it more than many of the expensive schapps options!

The best part about this? No matter how hot your kitchen may be or how tired you are, you'll already be in a great mood by the time your guests show up!

....just make sure that while you're cooking you can still tell the difference between the salt and sugar bottles....