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!