Candy Cane Martini

Ho Ho Ho! It's Thirsty Thursday! And the last one before Christmas! Last week, we got straight to the point with Candy Cane Jello Shots.  This week, we're sipping it slow (some may chug) with the Candy Cane Martini.


Sprinkling some Peppermint into your life is bound to make anyone's day that much brighter.  Peppermint freshens your breath, makes your tongue red, and tastes so smooth.  You can package all of these actions into one when drinking the Candy Cane Martini.


Here's what you need to know.


Ingredients

• 1 candy cane, crushed, for garnish
• 2 ounces strawberry vodka
• 4 dashes white creme de menthe
• 2 1/2 ounces cranberry juice
• Ice cubes
• 
  
• Instructions
• 
  
• Crush candy canes and place on a plate.  Wet the outside rim of a chilled martini glass with water.  Coat the rim with candy.  Combine vodka, creme de menthe, cranberry juice, and ice in shaker and shake, shake, shake! Pour into prepared glass and drink up!

'Twas the Thirsty Thursday before Christmas and Candy Cane Martinis were served all aglow, with Ugly Sweater partiers sipping their martinis and even merlot.  All the partiers were stirring their martinis with their candy canes, even the mouse!  Merry Christmas to all! Enjoy this festive drink!

Thanks to http://www.marthastewart.com/318807/candy-cane-cocktail?czone=entertaining/cocktail-hour/cocktail-recipes&backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/winter-cocktails & http://disney-clipart.com/christmas/Minnie/Christmas-Minnie-Mouse-Candy-Canes.php for recipe/photos

Mystery Smarties

Calling all sleuths!  Do you love solving mysteries?  Do you love eating candy?  Well here's a mystery that needs to be solved asap!  It's circular, king size, colorful, tart, sweet, and even sour!  Give up?! Okay, we'll tell you, introducing Mystery Smarties!

Why they are so cool:

They are 6x the size of an original Smartie
19 come in a roll
Includes Original flavors, X-treme Sour (get ready to pucker up!), and Tropical Flavors all in one pack!
Perfect Stocking Stuffer
Sure to be a game night favorite!

Although these Smarties LOOK like they are the original flavor except jumbo sized, your tastebuds will be completly thrown off once the X-treme sour or Tropical flavor hits your tongue.  There's a whole slew of flavors in each roll, ranging from coconut, banana, grape, and other sour or citrus flavors.  Each flavor was extremely potent, but the whole mix was a great variety!  This candy is very refreshing, and keeps you on edge because you never know when you're in for a sour treat.  


Fun Candy Game Idea: Keep game night alive by playing Smarties connect four with your friends.  Whoever gets the most amount of similar flavors out of four wins! And don't forget to tell me who wins!

A huge thanks to the candy makers at Smarties for letting me on on this mysterious new product that will be sure to sell millions! Eating Mystery Smarties is like playing Guess Who with candy.  Pop it in your mouth and take a guess as to which flavor it is.  Who doesn't love solving a mystery while consuming sweets?  

Candy Cane Jello Shots

Happy Thirsty Thursday!  Cheers to Christmas being right around the corner!  This week, we're turning it up a notch and making Candy Cane Jello Shots.  Peppermint is the flavor of the season.  Time to fulfill that peppermint need deep down inside that appears annually from Nov 1st-Dec 25.  Let's do this!

Ingredients

2/3 cup water

1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 envelopes plain gelatin

3/4 cup vanilla vodka

2 tbsp white chocolate liqueur (or white creme de cacao)

3 tbsp peppermint schnapps (or to taste - up to 4 tbsp may be added)

10 each small peppermint candies, or candy canes, crushed, for garnish

Instructions

Pour water into a small saucepan. 

Sprinkle with the gelatin and allow to soak for a few minutes. 

Heat over very low heat, stirring constantly, until gelatin is dissolved (about 5 minutes). 

Stir in sweetened condensed milk. Remove from heat.

Add the vodka, liqueur and schnapps, stirring well to incorporate. Pour into pan and refrigerate until fully set, several hours or overnight.

To serve, cut into 1 inch squares.

Immediately before serving, garnish with crushed peppermint candies.

The presentation is amazing and the idea is even smarter! Show up to your Ugly Sweater Party with these in hand, and you will be golden, like the star on top of the Christmas tree!  Candy Cane + Jello = Dangerous but Wonderful! Ho Ho Ho Happy Thirsty Thursday!

Thanks to http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/candy-cane-martini-jelly-shots-recipe/2/ for the photo/recipe & http://4iphonewallpapers.com/christmas-candy-canes-iphone-4-wallpaper.html

Gingerbread Martini

'Tis the Season for Thirsty Thursday and for Christmas drinks!!  Today's holiday drink is the Gingerbread Martini.  It's the perfect, festive, cookie turn liquid martini.  It's time to cheers to decking the halls, trimming the trees, and eating sugary treats! Here's what you need to know:

Ingredients

• 1 oz. ginger beer
• Ice
• 1 tsp. ginger juice
• 1 1/2 oz. dark rum
• 1 tsp. cinnamon schnapps
• Pinch of ground cloves
• 1 egg white
• Cinnamon stick
• Crystallized ginger square
• Finely ground gingerbread cookie

Instructions

Pour enough ginger beer into a saucer to cover and dip a martini glass into the saucer to coat the rim. Dip into a saucer with ground cookie. Fill martini shaker with ice and add ginger juice, rum and cinnamon schnapps and shake, shake, shake! Add a pinch of ground cloves. Separate an egg and add egg white to shaker. Shake for 20 seconds until drink is frothy and foamy. Add ginger beer and stir slightly. Pour into glass.

Garnish with a cinnamon stick and crystallized ginger square, and sprinkle the top with finely ground gingerbread cookie.

It's not the quickest drink to make, but the presentation and festiveness makes it worth it.  It's sweet and ginger snappy, so if you like gingerbread and ginger snaps, this drink is for you! 

The holidays are here! Ho Ho Ho it's Thirsty Thursday!

Thanks to the Food Network for a great recipe/photo and http://www.livinthefitlife.com/tag/gingerbread-cookies/!

Sour Cotton Candy

Picture yourself at a carnival.  What's the first treat that comes to mind?  I know you're thinking none other than the fluffy melt in your mouth goodness of Cotton Candy.  They usually come in pink and blue, but other colors are possible as well, even green and purple!  


Most cotton candy is sugary and sweet, but have you ever tried Tear Jerkers Sour Cotton Candy?  If you're a sour lover, you're in for a mouth puckering, tear jerking experience!


I just recently tried Sour Cotton Candy for the first time, when Philly Sweet Spot sent some my way.  As soon as I popped it in my mouth, my eyes started to water because the sourness was extremely intense!  I really did not think that the sour impact would be that great, but it truly was.  

Don't get my wrong, the Sour Watermelon and Sour Grape taste still was delicious, despite the tears.  No wonder why it is called Tear Jerkers!  I love sour anything, so of course I loved this extreme sour cotton candy.  Both kinds were filled with flavor and definitely melted in your mouth, as all cotton candy should.  


If you're ready for the extreme sour challenge, buy yourself a bag and make a bet with your friends.  The one who is able to escape the tears wins!  Thanks to The Sweet Spot in Philly for giving me such a mouth puckering experience!

Pecan Pie Martini

Happy Thirsty Thursday!  One more week until Turkey day!  If you haven't noticed, we're keeping up with the Thanksgiving theme here for the candy cocktails.  This week, Pecan Pie Martinis are being whipped up!

This sweet candy cocktail will be a festive favorite for all candy lovers and non candy lovers.  With some sweet, decadent caramel cream mixed with PECAN liqueur, and combined with brown sugar, it's like a drinkable pecan praline!  Don't be afraid to drink your delicious sweet Pecan Pie!

Ingredients

2 oz. Praline Pecan Liqueur

1 1/2 oz. Caramel Cream Liqueur

1 1/2 oz. Bourbon

1/2 oz. Torani Caramel Syrup

1 ounce heavy cream

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 oz. Praline Pecan Liqueur

2 Pecan halves

Garnish

1/2 cup turbinado sugar

1/2 ounce praline pecan liqueur

2 pecan halves

Instructions

Pour the praline pecan liqueur onto a plate. Pour brown sugar onto a plate.  Dip the rim into the the plate with the pecan liqueur then dip them into the plate with the brown sugar. Place pecan half in each glass. Fill cocktail shaker up with ice. Add all liquid ingredients into the shaker, and shake, shake, shake!  Pour and enjoy!

Happy Thirsty Thursday! Thank you to DayDreamerDesserts.com for this fab Fall recipe!

Pumpkin Pie Martini

The holidays are officially here!  Halloween is ova and Thanksgiving is now right around the corner!  And today is.....Thirsty Thursday! To be festive, we are making Pumpkin Pie Martinis tonight! Yummers!

To me, what makes Fall official is the red cups coming back to Starbucks.  Their holiday favorites are the pumpkin spice, peppermint mocha, and gingerbread latte.  Everybody especially loves them some pumpkin spice, so why not add a little alcohol to this fan favorite and call it a night!

Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks, family, friends, turkey, and pie!  Whether it be pumpkin, apple, or sweet potato, you absolutely need to have a pie at the Thanksgiving dinner table!   If for some reason someone forgets to bring the pie when that was the only thing you requested they bring, this Pumpkin Pie Martini can take its place!  One sip tastes like you are taking a bite of pumpkin pie.

Ingredients

1/2 cup ice

1 oz. vanilla vodka

1 1/2 oz. creme liqueur

1/3 cup half and half

3 tablespoons pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

cinnamon and sugar

Instructions

Combine ingredients into a martini shaker and shake, shake shake!  Coat martini rim with cinnamon and sugar.  Pour and enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of www.lifesambrosia.com.

Chocolate Covered "Martini Olives"

Are you a fan of dry martinis?  If so, I'm proud of you, because they are way too strong for me to stomach.  The only part I like about them is the green olives because they add a little flavor to a bland taste (in my opinion!).  So for me, this treasured find was the perfect alternative. Introducing,  Chocolate covered martini olives.

They aren't actually olives, but look just like them!  They come in the cutest baby martini shaker and each "olive" was created to fulfill all of your sweet and salty needs.  It's an almond, covered in chocolate, the first layer of chocolate is dyed red and the outer layer of chocolate is dyed green.  There is even a red dot on the side to represent a pimento!

What a fun, creative, and unique creation!  They are crunchy and smooth and taste super scrumptious.  It's the perfect gift to give your girlfriends whether it be for a bachelorette, cocktail, or bunco party.  Thanks to Lola's Sugar Rush for bringing this delicious snack onto my radar screen.  I would strongly suggest you try them yourself.  So feel free to ditch the dry martini and just eat the chocolate covered martini olives instead!

Skittles Vodka

Happy Thirsty Thursday and Happy Halloween!  Hope you had a great week full of treats and no tricks!  I'm sure all of you are scrambling for last minute costume ideas and are stressing out.  Here's an idea, make some Skittles Vodka to spook up your hectic Thursday!

This is the first Thirsty Thursday "How To", so cheers to that!  We wanted change things up with how you to concoct your Spooky Thirsty Thursday drinks!  

No need to list the recipe or instructions because this lovely video from Social Media Chef has it all! Thanks Social Media Chef!  Now all you need to do is click play, sit back, relax and enjoy!

BOO! Happy Halloween!

Halloween Sweet Skewers

Halloween is all about yummy treats and no tricks right?  Well let me tell you, that Halloween Sweet Skewers are the yummiest treat of all!  And no, I'm not tricking you!  If you take a look at the photo above, you can tell these Sweet Skewers are picture perfect!

These sweets were sent over by Marie at Sweets Indeed sweetly sent over these Sweet Skewers for me to sample.  If you have read my blog, you know that Sour candy is my absolute favorite, and sourness makes up 95% of these skewers.  Soooo good!!

Okay so here's what they are made of:

Orange Peach Flavored Sour Belts-taste just like a sour Georgia Peach, but in a good way! YUM!

Sour Apple Flavored Sour Belts

Green Apple Sour Rings

Sour Peach Rings

Gummy Frogs

Licorice

What I loved most about the Sweet Skewers:

Of course, that everything except two ingredients were sour!

They are so cute, festive, unique and fun-anyone would get a huge kick out of them!

Did I mention I loved all the sourness? ;)

These treats get an A+ in my book!  I honestly ate one in less than 4 minutes.  They were delicious!  But to be honest, I am not really a black licorice fan, so I shared them with my friends and I ate the rest!

Definitely order these for your Halloween parties!  The design and idea is so cute.  Thanks for sharing Sweets Indeed!

Trick-or-Treat Martini

Yo yo it's Thirsty Thursday!  It's finally that time of the week!  Happy Spooky Thirsty Thursday, I bet you are all in need of a drink after this long week, I know I am!  Let's cheers together to the Trick-or-Treat Martini! 

Halloween is getting extremely close and I bet all of you are deciding on costumes, and there's no better way to spice things up than by inviting all of your friends over and drinking this yummy Trick-or-Treat Martini!

This drink is fruity, gummy, tropical, dangerous, and fun!  It reminds me of the "witch doctor" drink I have gotten at the Voo Doo Lounge in Las Vegas. (Hmm, that may be another Halloween featured drink! ;))

Get ready to mix this cocktail up!

Ingredients

2 1/4 oz. Light Rum

2 1/4 oz. Dark Rum

1 1/4 oz. High Proofed Rum (Bacardi 151)

2 1/2 oz. Pineapple Juice

2 1/2 oz. Orange Juice

1 1/4 oz. Sour Pucker

1 1/4 oz. Grenadine

Gummy Worms

Instructions

Buy a big goblet glass from the store.  Fill the whole glass with ice then add all of the ingredients over the ice.  Throw in some Gummy Worms (preferably sour!), get some fun straws, and share with your friends!

So throw an early costume party this weekend and feature Trick-or-Treat Martinis as the signature drink. Cheers!!! 

Photo and recipe courtesy of http://www.nochelatina.com/Articles/7858/Halloween-2010-Cocktail-Recipes and http://viphalloweencostumes.com

Candy Corn Martini

Happy Halloween Thirsty Thursday! As you know, we are featuring cocktails every Thirsty Thursday until Halloween, so you have a bunch of choices for your Halloween party!  This week's drink is a Candy Corn Martini.


This particular recipe from Yum Sugar tastes and actually looks just like a piece of candy corn. Yum! Can't get more delicious than that!  No other drink is this perfect for the Halloween Holiday. 


Here what you need to know.

Ingredients

1 Part Coconut Cream

1 Part Tangerine Flavored Mixer

1 Part Banana Liqueur

Splash of White Rum

Instructions

Chill ingredients in the freezer before making.  After they are chilled, pour the first three ingredients, in the order above, slowly over the back side of a spoon into a martini glass. Remember to pour super slow to prevent mixing layers.  Top with a splash of white rum.

Have a spooooooky Thirsty Thursday!!!

Recipe and photos courtesy of http://www.yumsugar.com/Happy-Hour-Trick--Tini-736016 & http://www.stacymakescents.com/candy-corn-week-candy-corn-suns/candy-corn-5

X-Treme Sour Smarties

When I was little, Halloween was just about getting as much free candy as possible in a short amount of time.  I'd run with my siblings from house to house, packing candy into my pillow case until it got so full that I needed to empty it out at home and go out for some more.  

My sister and I would always sort our candy out all over the living room floor.  One thing I always remembered about my pillow cases of sweet loot was that I always got a lot of Smarties.  Those button sized pastel colored treats, all stacked up into a twisted wrapped roll were a favorite for the candy passer outers.  And just so you know, I enjoyed eating them as well.

I have always known the tart taste of Smarties was enjoyable for the tastebuds, but what I never knew was that Smarties came in X-treme Sour Flavor.  Until recently. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of them for my review.  The lovely folks over at the Smarties factory sent some my way.

When looking at the X-treme Sour Smarties, they look just like the classic Smarties.  Mini pastel circles that are easy to pop in your mouth.  But tasting them is an extremely (SOUR) different story.  As soon as I popped one in, my mouth was in for an extreme surprise.  I love sour everything, so I loved these Extreme Smarties.  They were super sour, flavorful, tart, crunchy, and fabulous!  Not as sour as a Warhead, but close!

Definitely a great way to throw a party in your mouth! An X-tremely Sour Smartie party!  Try them today to get the party started!

Thanks for sharing your amazing product, Smarties! And the coolest part about their company is that it is family owned in my home state of NJ! Doesn't get better than family and NJ! :)

Ghost Martini

It's Week two of Halloween Thirsty Thursdays!  Hope you all had a great week.  Look how cute this Ghost Martini cocktail is!  Bet you never thought a ghost could be sweet!  This drink is spooky, sweet, and yummy all at the same time!

Here's the instructions.

Ingredients:

2 ounces Pinnacle Whipped Vodka

1 ounce vanilla vodka

1 ounce Godiva White Chocolate liqueur (you can sub white creme de cacoa)

2 scoops of very melty vanilla ice cream— almost pourable

Instructions:

Put ice into martini glass to chill. Put a handful of ice and all of your ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake well. Remove the ice from the glass and pour. Garnish with a marshmallow ghost “Peep” or a dollop of whipped cream decorated with eyes and a mouth. You can use black sprinkles or candy for the eyes and mouth.

These are definitely the cutest Halloween drinks around.  Such a great recipe that you can concoct as your own festive creation! Have fun and Happy Thirsty Halloween Thursday!

(Recipe and photos by Martie Duncan of MartieKnowsParties.com.)

Caramel Corn on the Cob

I don't know about you, but I am definitely enjoying this Fall season!  I love getting into the Fall spirit by wearing sweaters, putting on my boots, and of course, eating fall inspired candy!

Take a look at these Caramel Corn Cob treats I received from Blair Candy for my review.  If you love caramel and popcorn, you are going to love this fall treat.

Blair Candy sweetly sent over two types of Caramel Cobs.  The Classic Caramel Cob and the Peanut Caramel Cob.  Both were absolutely great!  

Here's what I loved about them.  When first opening the package, I immediately smelled a potent caramel scent which was absolutely delicious!  When I tasted both of them, I was so surprised that my first bite was soft and chewy and not hard and crunchy, as popcorn usually tastes.  Such a shock, but I was loving it!  

The smooth treat was smothered in caramel and there was even a string of caramel that formed from my mouth to the cob to prove it!  YUM!  It almost tasted marshmallow-y because of the soft, chewy, and somewhat fluffy texture.  

The only difference between the Classic Caramel Cob and the Peanut Caramel Cob was of course, the peanuts!  The peanuts gave the Peanut Caramel Cob a bit more of a crunch, but still the same great taste!  If you are a peanut lover, I'd recommend the Peanut Caramel Cob.  If you are not a huge peanut lover, stick with the Classic Caramel Cob, and you will be in for quite the treat!  

It's such a cute idea and very festive for Fall.  Supply them at a Fall party, and your guests will be happily satisfied with these fun and unique treats.  Thanks to Blair Candy for another great product!

Happy Fall All!