Mango Chile Margarita

This Mango Chile Margarita is made with fresh pureed mango and freshly squeezed lime juice.

I've been a little obsessed with experimenting with the recipe for this Mango Chile Margarita after visiting a local Mexican restaurant. The cocktail was so good, I had to try to duplicate it.

Watermelon Salad with Mint and Lime

This watermelon salad with mint and lime is such a refreshing summer salad. 

This watermelon salad with mint and lime juice is so juicy and fresh. It is the perfect salad for picnics, barbecues, and tapas parties.

Strawberry Papaya and Blood Orange Margaritas

This Strawberry Papaya and Blood Orange Margarita, with pureed strawberry papayas, blood orange juice, and lime juice is such a refreshing cocktail, perfect for welcoming the coming spring and summer. 

You can serve this papaya margarita either straight up like I did, or "on the rocks."

Beer Braised Carnitas

These carnitas are braised in a broth of beer flavored with garlic, bay leaf, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and chiles.

Carnitas, cut up pork shoulder braised with chiles and other spices, and then fried until crispy in their own fat, are a favorite Mexican dish, especially here in California.

The Last Word Cocktail

The Last Word Cocktail is reputed to be an old-timey cocktail, originating in Detroit, and dating back to pre-Prohibition. All I know is, it's pretty tasty. 

Evidently, The Last Word Cocktail, after languishing in obscurity for about 80 years or so, enjoyed a sudden resurgence when a Seattle bartender recreated it and began serving it around 2006. According to folklore, he discovered the cocktail in a book that was written in 1951.

Margarita Sour Cream Muffins

These Margarita Sour Cream Muffins are light and fluffy....  and flavored with tequila!

Sometimes, cocktails are appropriate. At cocktail hour for example. They may not exactly work for breakfast. That's why you need Margarita Muffins! Do they contain tequila you ask?

The Siesta Margarita for Cinco de Mayo

This Siesta Margarita combines the wonderful sweet aged flavor of a good reposado tequila with the sweetness of lemonade, the sourness of lime juice, and the bitterness of grapefruit juice and Campari.

Stork Club Cocktail

I made this Stork Club Cocktail to celebrate the opening of the final season of Mad Men, which begins April 5. I've been watching the show since the beginning, and have so enjoyed the historical stories in the background.

The setting is a Madison Avenue advertising agency. The series begins in 1960, and ends in 1969. Many of us "of a certain age" know what pivotal years those were.

For those of you who haven't indulged in watching the show, the themes include drinking at work, alcoholism, smoking, adultery, sexism, and racism. Fun, right? It's actually a pretty amazing period piece.

If you haven't watched the show yet, I highly recommend binge watching it this week in preparation for the final half of the final season.

The Stork Club was described by Walter Winchell as New York's "New Yorkiest" place. Don Draper, the show's main character, visited the Stork Club in Season 2, Episode 7, with his former model wife Betty to celebrate a client's new television show. The relationships in the episode are, as they say, "complicated."

This cocktail was supposedly enjoyed by New York City's rich and famous.

To honor the period, I also made the daiquiri featured in Season 3, Episode 3. Evidently it was President Kennedy's favorite cocktail, and became all the rage. It consists of 1 1/2 ounces of white rum and 2 tsps of limeade concentrate.

The stack of coasters on the right are my mom's crystal horoscope coasters. How 60s is that?

Stork Club Cocktail

Ingredients

Dash of lime juice

Juice of half of an orange 

Dash of triple sec

1 1/2 ounces of gin

Dash of Angostura bitters

Instructions

1. Add all of the ingredients to an ice filled shaker.
2. Shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

This cocktail is from The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook.

The book is filled with retro recipes, including cocktails, appetizers, salads, main courses, and desserts. Besides the great retro cocktails, some of my favorites include deviled eggs, rumaki, the wedge salad, and beef Wellington.

Check out the Mad Men Finale Party for more ideas!

Pamplemousse Ginger Martini

This pamplemousse martini so refreshing! 

"What the heck is pamplemousse?" you ask. It's French for grapefruit! 

There is actually a Crème de Pamplemousse liqueur, and as you can tell by the bottle on the right, I've taste tested it... a few times. It's quite wonderful. It's not as strong or syrupy as limoncello, and has an aromatic and citrusy flavor. It definitely tastes like grapefruit. 

This martini combines the flavors of herbal gin, ginger, grapefruit, and lime. Seriously tasty. 

Pamplemousse Ginger Martini

Ingredients

1 1/2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce ginger liqueur

1 ounce pamplemousse rose liqueur

1/2 ounce lime juice

lime wedge

Instructions

1. Add the gin, ginger, pamplemousse, and lime juice to an ice filled cocktail shaker.
2. Shake for about 30 to 60 seconds, and strain into a chilled martini glass.
3. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Enjoy!

Lime Meltaways

These Lime Meltaway cookies are super easy to make. I made the dough in advance, and baked the cookies the next day. You can also make the dough and freeze it, then slice and bake the cookies when "needed," making them the perfect cookie for gifting.

What is a meltaway cookie, you ask? It's a butter cookie made with powdered sugar and cornstarch (you could also use tapioca). The cookie is incredibly crumbly, so when you take a bite, it kind of "disappears" in your mouth, in a tasty "what was that wonderfulness?" sort of way.

I know there's a bite missing. Someone had to make the sacrifice so you could see the interior of the cookie. It's a tough job.

While these were made with lime, you could substitute lemon. orange, or grapefruit, or any combination of citrus. You could also just go with vanilla or chopped pecans if you prefer. We're flexible around here.

There are many ways to coat the cookies with the powdered sugar. You can place the cookies in a plastic bag with the powdered sugar and shake to coat them, dredge them in the sugar in a bowl, or sift the sugar over the cookies. I ended up dredging the cookies in a bowl, and then sifting more sugar over them.

If you're wondering about the little cups, I used these.

This post is part of the Secret Recipe Club Cookie Carnival. Sixty (yep, sixty!) of us have been randomly assigned another blog from which to make a cookie recipe (big thank you to Sarah of Fantastical Sharing of Recipes for putting this together). I was assigned Grandma Loy's Kitchen.  She has three children and three grandchildren, and has been married to the love of her life for over 50 years. Just like me, she enjoys reading cookbooks like novels. I'm with you, Loy!

After the recipe for this cookie, you will find links to dozens of wonderful cookie recipes.

Lime Meltaways Recipe

Adapted from Grandma Loy's Kitchen, adapted from Martha Stewart.
Makes 48 cookies

Ingredients

12 T unsalted butter
1 C powdered sugar, divided
Zest from 3 large limes
2 T fresh squeezed lime juice
1 T vanilla
2 Cups minus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using a hand mixer, cream the butter and 1/3 C powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add the zest, juice, and vanilla, and mix until smooth.
2. Whisk the flour, cornstarch, and salt together, and add to the mixing bowl. 
3. Mix on low until the flour is just incorporated. 
4. Divide the dough in half, and shape into two 1 1/4 inch diameter logs. Wrap the logs in wax or parchment paper, and then wrap in plastic wrap (see note above about paper towel holders).
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour, and up to 24 hours. The dough can also be frozen and used up to two months later.
6. Preheat the oven and line two baking sheets with parchment.
7. Slice the logs into 1/4 inch disks and place them on the parchment, about 1 inch apart. 
8. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 15 minutes.
9. Let the cookies cool slightly on a wire rack, and then dredge, shake, or dust with the remaining powdered sugar while they are still warm.
10. Keep in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

An InLinkz Link-up

Bittersweet Martini

The basis for this Bittersweet Martini is Aperol, a low alcohol Italian digestif made from bitter oranges, sweet oranges, rhubarb, and other root vegetables. It is somewhat like Campari, but with half the alcohol, and a much milder flavor.

It is best know as an ingredient in "The Spritz," an Italian cocktail with Aperol or some other bitter liqueur, procecco, and soda on the rocks.

This cocktail is so refreshing, with just enough bitterness to give it an "adult" flavor, but just enough sweetness to make it easy to sip on a warm evening.

Bittersweet Martini

Adapted from A Cocktail Life, makes one cocktail.

Ingredients

2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce Aperol

1/2 ounce tangelo or tangerine juice (you can also use orange juice)

1/2 ounce lime juice (I used Bearss lime juice)

1 1/2 tsp frozen lemonade concentrate

Grapefruit, tangelo, tangerine, or orange twist

Instructions

1. Fill a shaker with ice and add the gin, Aperol, juices, and lemonade concentrate. 
2. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 
3. Twist the zest over the cocktail and drop it into the cocktail.

Enjoy!