No meal recipes today

Okay, today lets skip the dinner recipe, skip the side dishes, skip the dessert and go straight to the drinks!  LOL  These are a few that I found while reading some email articles from Better Homes and Gardens and The Food Network on summer drinks.  They sounded yummy to me.  Now if I could just find that cabana boy to serve them to me while I lay out next to the baby pool.  Oh yeah baby! 

The first two recipes are from BHG and the rest are from The Food Network.

Mojito Sparkler 
Crush 6 mint leaves in the bottom of a glass. Pour in 1 1/2 to 2 jiggers gold rum, 1 teaspoon lime juice, and 2 teaspoons super fine sugar. Add ice, stir, and top with soda.

Chi-chi 
Cream of coconut, pineapple, lime juice, and vodka meld together for a lovely summery treat. For a coconut milk shake, just omit the vodka.
 
Makes 2 (7-ounce) servings
Start to Finish: 10 minutes

Ingredients
1/4  cup vodka
2  tablespoons cream of coconut
2  tablespoons unsweetened pineapple juice
2  tablespoons sweet-and-sour drink mix
2  tablespoons half-and-half
1  tablespoons lime juice
   Crushed ice
   Pineapple wedges (optional)
   Maraschino cherries (optional)

Directions
1. In a blender container, combine vodka, cream of coconut, pineapple juice, sweet-and-sour drink mix, half-and-half, and lime juice. Add 1/2 cup crushed ice; cover and blend.
2. Pour into two glasses. Fill glasses with additional crushed ice. If desired, garnish with a thin pineapple wedge and a cherry. Serve immediately. Makes 2 (7-ounce) servings.

Mai Tai

4 ounces light rum
2 ounces Triple Sec
8 ounces passion fruit juice
Ice cubes
2 ounces dark rum
Lime wedge

Mix first 3 ingredients together in a cocktail shaker. Place ice in glasses. Divide mix among glasses and float 1 tablespoon of dark rum over each glass. Garnish with lime wedge.

Long Island Iced Tea

2 cups ice cubes
1 ounce vodka
1 ounce gin
1 ounce white rum
1 ounce white tequila
1/2 ounce Triple Sec
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup cola, or to taste
2 lemon wedges

Sea Breeze

Ice cubes
2 fluid ounces vodka
2 fluid ounces cranberry juice
2 fluid ounces grapefruit juice, preferably freshly squeezed
Lime wedge

Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour the vodka, cranberry, and grapefruit juice over the ice. Stir gently. Squeeze the lime into the drink, then drop it into the glass. Serve.

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour the vodka, gin, rum, tequila, Triple Sec, and lemon juice into the shaker. Cover and shake vigorously to combine and chill. Pour the mixture, ice and all, into 2 glasses or beer mugs and top off with the cola. Garnish with lemon wedges. Serve.

And of course, one of my favorites....Gin and Tonic.  Actually they call this...
The Perfect Gin and Tonic

4 to 5 tonic water Ice Cubes (recommended: Schweppes) (see Note)
3 ounces gin (recommended: Plymouth Gin)
4 ounces tonic water (recommended: Schweppes)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
Lime wedge for garnish

Place the ice cubes in a tall, narrow, chilled glass (the cubes should come near the top.) Add the gin, then the tonic water, then the lime juice, stirring well. Garnish with lime wedge, and serve immediately. Note: To make the ice cubes, simply fill an empty ice cube tray with tonic water, and let the cubes freeze. It takes just a few hours. Covered well, the cubes will remain fresh-tasting in the freezer for at least a few weeks.

Here is an interesting little tidbit that The Food Network provided with this recipe: The consumption of Gin and Tonic was originally used as a preventive measure against illness. During the British occupation of India, soldiers consumed quinine water (tonic), lime, andgin to combat malaria and scurvy. Hardly consumed for those reasons today, you can always use that as an excuse to have another one.

I remember my ex-mother-in-law made Chi-chi's once.  I think she mixed all the non-alcoholic ingredients, put them in a container and froze them.  Then as she made the drinks she would mix that with the alcohol.  I thought she made it with rum though.  Mmm, rummmmmmmmm.  I love it, lol. 

I used to love to mix coconut flavored rum with Ginseng tea, or coke with a lime.  Of course these days, I rarely have a chance to do much drinking.  And if I do, like this past weekend, I buy one of those little 4 packs of flavored drinks and maybe drink one or two.  Then I'm ready to go night-night, lol.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Hugs,