When I was only about four feet tall, I thought there was nothing greater than a beautiful Summer day with Dad at the mini golf course. There was an ice cream stand right next door, so we always finished each match with fizzy root beer floats. As an adult, I couldn’t remember the last time I had enjoyed a root beer float, so during our family vacation this past Christmas, we all decided to make some floats during movie night. The warm waves of nostalgia washed over me as I sipped my root beer float, but then my thoughts inevitably turned to how I could make an adult variation come Summertime.

Well, Summer’s here, and so are my boozy root beer floatsicles! And let me tell you, they’re every bit as delicious as my beloved childhood treat. Check out how I made them below!

I played around with the proportions a bit to make sure the popsicles still freeze, despite the alcohol content. Each 3oz popsicle I made contains about as much alcohol as half a shot. You definitely don’t want to pour the alcohol any heavier than what I’ve laid out below, and cranking up your freezer wouldn’t hurt either.

• 4oz* of root beer
• 4oz* of vanilla vodka, divided (or add 1t of sugar and 1t vanilla extract to regular vodka)
• 2oz* of half & half
• 2oz* heavy whipping cream
• 1t sugar
• measuring cup
• whisk
• popsicle mold with sticks

Step One: Measure out the cream portion of the popsicle. Your proportions of vodka, half & half, and whipping cream should be equal.

Step Two: Combine above ingredients into a large measuring cup, add 1 teaspoon of sugar, and whisk until ingredients are combined. The mixture will not fluff like whipping cream, so don’t worry about whisking too hard!

Step Three: Pour the cream mixture into the popsicle molds.They should be about halfway full.

Step Four: Measure out the soda portion of the popsicle. The ratio should be 1:2 for the vodka:root beer.

Step Five: Combine the root beer and vodka in the measuring cup and fill half of the remaining space in the molds with the mixture.

Step Six: Freeze the popsicles for a couple of hours, then insert sticks (if you don’t have lids with sticks for your mold). Top the semi-frozen pops with the remaining soda mixture. Splash in some more root beer from the bottle if you need more liquid. Freeze until the popsicles are completely solid.

Step Seven: Dip the frozen mold into a bowl of warm water to loosen the popsicles. Gently wiggle the popsicles by their sticks to remove them from the mold. Be careful— the alcohol content will make the popsicles more fragile than usual, so handle with care! I laid my popsicles on plates and put them back in the freezer for a bit before serving.

My friends stopped over for a visit just as I was pulling my boozy popsicles out of the freezer. Great timing, eh? (You probably figured out that’s not my hand in the photo above!) The three of us gave these root beer floatsicles 6 thumbs up! Just make sure you have some napkins standing by as you enjoy your frozen treat.

The sweet burst of juice from a cute little clementine almost makes this rough winter worth it. For without winter, we wouldn’t have citrus season! Before we say goodbye to clementines for a while, I wanted to share with you the fresh citrus martini recipe I’ve been developing in my kitchen.

Recently I was surprised to find myself enjoying gin, which I had only welcomed into my bar cabinet for the sake of my friends. But what happens when the vodka unexpectedly runs out? You turn to gin. And well, now I get it. A vodka martini just doesn’t have the same sense of sophistication as one made with gin. While I’m certainly not ignoring gin’s existence any more, I still can’t tolerate too much herbal notes in my adult beverages, so I thought I’d balance out a gin martini with the juice of a sweet clementine. I’ll be honest, I only threw in the bitters because I had just ordered the bottle, and wanted to see how it tied in with the gin and vermouth. Well, folks. I think we have a winner!

• 2-3 oz gin
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• splash of orange bitters (I used this kind.)
• 2-3 clementines
• 2 ice cubes

Using a citrus reamer, squeeze the juice from two clementines into the cocktail shaker over two ice cubes. If you want your martini to be less strong, use 3 clementines. Add a three ounces of gin (or two if you prefer a less strong martini), one ounce of vermouth, and splash of orange bitters. Cover the cocktail shaker and shake vigorously until the ice is almost gone. Pour through a mesh strainer into your glass.

Garnish the drink with two floating slices of the clementine. The thinner the slices, the less obtrusive the garnish.

This drink really hits the spot that starts to itch this time of year- you know the one. Where you’re dying for the freshness of Spring… You’re staring through the frigid windows at the sun pretending it’s actually warm out there. And the biggest burst of warmth you get inside is from the shipment of clementines that arrived from Florida. It’s okay. Spring’s almost here. But in the meantime, we have the clementini! 

One really blessed night a few years ago, one of my best friends invented a creamy chocolate drink we so eloquently dubbed The Lovely Awesome. There really was no other name for it. Nothing else described the lovely awesomeness of the creamy chocolate drink. Occasionally since then, I’ve worked on tweaking the recipe to include ingredients I can actually keep on hand, since the original called for things like dark chocolate almond milk and creamy liqueurs that have a short shelf life. My mission ended in this project- making my own chocolate liqueur.  I made some to keep, some to give, and a little creamy version to keep around for sweet cocktails during the next week.

I’ll share with you my updated version of The Lovely Awesome soon, but for now, I thought I’d share this great gift idea to give to friends, coworkers, or hostesses this holiday season. I found these great liqueur bottles here, and designed a label that I printed, cut out, and spray mounted to the finished chocolate liqueur bottles. The recipe I used is from Creative Culinary, and it is scrumptious! I only slightly adapted it to make for a quicker and easier process.

P.S. This recipe is not for créme de cacao, but you will see a bottle labeled that way in these photos.

Chocolate Liqueur

2013-12-07 15:55:30

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Ingredients

1. 2 Cups water- divided
2. 1/2 Cup 141 proof vodka
3. 1/2 Cup sugar
4. 1/4 Cup cocoa

Optional for creamy version

1. 1 small can evaporated milk

Instructions

1. In a small sauce pan, boil 1 cup of water with the sugar to create a simple syrup. Remove from heat and add cocoa powder, stir to dissolve, then add remaining 1 cup of water. Once cool cooled, add vodka to the mixture. Using a funnel, pour mixture into bottle. Original author recommends leaving it refrigerated for 1 week before using. Shake well before pouring.

Notes

1. I had excess liqueur that did not fit into the large bottle, so I combined it with one small can of evaporated milk and bottled it for creamy cocktails. This mixture will only last for a week, so it's not ideal for gift giving.

Adapted from Creative Culinary

Adapted from Creative Culinary

Making Nice in the Midwest http://makingniceinthemidwest.com/

If you want to make a creamy liqueur with any leftovers like I did, but you’re dairy intolerant, you can probably find evaporated goat’s milk at the grocery store which might work wonders for you! If you are vegan, I would try coconut milk in place of the evaporated milk.

If you double this recipe, it should split nicely between four of these bottles. You can print out one sheet of these labels I made onto sticker paper, then peel and mount them to the bottle. I didn’t have sticker paper, so I used nice presentation paper, but out the labels, and sprayed the back with permanent spray mount to adhere them to the bottles.

For some immediate post-cooking satisfaction, I poured some of the chocolate liqueur over ice and topped it with the evaporated milk. It hit the spot! In between sips, I cut some ribbon and tied a bow on the bottles so they’ll be all ready to give as gifts to my family! Finally- a homemade gift that people will actually want to receive- no doubt about it!