Archive for the ‘Lifestyle & Entertaining’ Category

Say I Do to the Pegu

The day before Christmas while reveling in the sparkle of Christmas lights and the anticipation of good times to come, I shared our love of Christmas cocktails with Carolyn.

Christmas in Australia is somewhat of a mish-mashed affair. With many cultures living here, there is everything from a traditional turkey feast, to a buffet of fresh seafood. There is plum pudding, but it’s often a travesty to not have a meringue pavlova with fresh passion fruit drizzled over it.

I suppose in some ways it is very much the same with all of our entertaining – we love traditional touches but we embrace the weather, the produce and the deliciousness of our own melded culture.

Are signature cocktails passe? Not in Australia. Here we’re still embracing the love of a good drink and for us, there‘s no better excuse to toast than Christmas, New Year or even a wedding. So in the spirit of sharing, here are a few of our favourite cocktail recipes that are perfect for summer.

Lychee Caprioska

1 shot of vodka

1 shot of lychee liqueur

1 shot of cranberry juice

2 lychees

1 lime

sugar syrup and lychee juice to taste.

Lychees are easiest from the can, especially at Christmas time, plus the oozy sweet juice makes an otherwise strong cocktail a little easier for the oldies to handle. We always have lemons but limes are a little harder to come by, so a dash of lemon is used. As we want quick drinks fast, we make this in a jug, putting all the ingredients in, muddling with a rolling pin and using a shot glass for measurements. Eager we are, accurate we’re not. Taste test before serving over ice!

Original recipe from RecipeZaar http://www.recipezaar.com/Lychee-Caprioska-244201

Lychee Mule

6 large lychees

2 limes cut into wedges

Handful of fresh mint sprigs

1 cup vodka

1 litre chilled ginger beer

We love to make jugs of cocktails in our household, it’s easy and a great way to have everyone help themselves. This recipe is great for taking to the beach (as they recommend) with the ingredients muddled and thrown into a sealable container and adding ginger beer at the last minute (use a good ginger beer, we use Australian Bundaberg ginger beer because it actually tastes like ginger).  Again we use canned lychees and make use of the juice!

Originally from Real Living Magazine January 2010

Pomegrante Caprioska

½ lime cut into wedges

50ml, vodka

30 ml Pomegranate Juice

1sp sugar or sugar syrup

Place two wedges of lime in a cocktail shaker with vodka, pomegranate juice and sugar on top. Muddle the ingredients together and then add plenty of ice and shake well. Strain into a lowball glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with the remaining two lime wedges.

Pomegranate is traditionally cold weather fruit. But like most Australian Christmas traditions, we don’t seem to care! Pomegranate juice has a brilliant tart flavour, which cuts through the strength of the vodka.

Our approach to Christmas cocktails is relaxed- we add a little bit here and add as little bit there because if it’s paired with fine cheese, amazing food and good company, it’s simply a case of toasting to moments to come.

Originally from Gourmet Traveller December 2007

About Polka Dot Bride

Polka Dot Bride is Australia’s premier wedding blog and is read by thousands of brides worldwide. Polka Dot Bride is ranked within the top 20 Australian Women Bloggers and #53 out of the Top 100 Australian Bloggers as of June 2009. Polka Dot Bride has a passion to provide information on the latest trends in weddings, and inspirational and creative ideas for the Australian bride.
Ms Polka Dot’s aim is to create a fun, informative, and stylish blog that is engaged with, and inclusive of, its readers. She writes a daily feature on the blog that includes new ideas, real weddings, fabulous finds and the beautiful and the inspirational. Polka Dot Bride readers are stylish and savvy; they want to make their wedding stand out from the crowd. Ms. Polka Dot’s aim is to inspire brides and grooms to create the wedding of their dreams.

Photo by Barbloke: Stuart Webster

Double your pleasure, double your fun.

Besides swirling, sniffing and sipping wine there is another, more adorable way to utilize wine for a wedding: custom-designed wine infused cupcakes! Amber Vandervliet, pastry chef and owner of Enjoy Cupcakes located in the heart of Santa Barbara’s Wine Country was inspired by local produce, flavors and wines and has found a creative way to combine a couple’s favorite wine with their favorite dessert and make their wedding just that more extraordinary.

Amber suggests using the cupcakes as a non-traditional tiered wedding cake, a conversational treat on the dessert table or as a delectable wedding favor for guests. She says it’s a marriage of sorts developing compatible flavors for a cupcake around a specific wine. Wine cupcakes are a necessary detail for a Wine Country wedding, and add another special detail to personalize a wedding. Amber not only creates a customized cupcake for a couple on their big day but she also sells them at Saarloos & Sons Tasting Room in the picturesque town of Los Olivos. Most days they sell out before the afternoon crowds show up to taste wine.

If you have a special wine that commemorates your first date, first kiss or the perfect proposal this is an original way to embrace the purple grape. The result will be a mouth-watering experience.

Below are some of Amber’s best selling wine-infused cupcakes:

Chocolate Blackberry Syrah – Chocolate, syrah infused cake, filled with dark chocolate Belgium fudge, topped with blackberry frosting and a wine soaked blackberry that’s rolled in sugar crystals.

Citrus Sauvignon Blanc – Sauvignon Blanc soaked cake, with fresh grapefruit, lemon curd center and frosted with a wine, cream cheese frosting that’s speckled with citrus zest and topped with wine soaked sugar crystals.

Cherry Vanilla Merlot – Merlot vanilla cake, soaked with cherry puree, vanilla cream filling, topped with vanilla frosting and a merlot soaked cherry.

Pomegranate Chardonnay – Chardonnay cake with a meyer lemon pudding filling, cream cheese frosting, topped with pomegranate seeds, lemon zest & candy pink pearls.

Caramel Pinot – Pinot cocoa cake with a gooey caramel filling, topped with a swirled caramel cream cheese frosting.

Olallie Berry Rosé – Rosé infused cake, with a creamy olallie berry core, topped with fresh olallie berry frosting.

Bubbly Strawberry Champagne – Champagne cake, filled with strawberry curd & topped with fresh strawberry frosting and secret surprise.

About Autumn

For more on Autumn Millhouse and her book Romantic Napa Valley, An Insider’s Guide for Couples, click here.

Autumn Millhouse is an award-winning travel writer who specializes in wine, food and romantic getaways. She is also an international trekker who has wined and dined across the globe from Barcelona to Beijing . A self-proclaimed “hopeless-romantic” and author of Romantic Napa Valley: An Insider’s Guide for Couples, Autumn also has a bi-monthly column called Love Vines published in Napa Valley Life Magazine. She resides in Napa Valley where she cultivates her wine and food relationships with top chefs, winemakers and a slew of other foodies. Besides, sniffing, swirling and sipping wine daily, Autumn is currently working on her next travel book Romantic Sonoma Valley: An Insider’s Guide for Couples.