Mom’s Day Continues All Month with Spa Giveway

Happy Mother’s Day to all the hardworking mothers out there who sacrifice a lot. Spa Week, Smarter Travel’s SniqueAway and Shoptiques.com  have teamed to help honor moms throughout the month of May with a Shop. Spa. Stay. Giveway.

Throughout the month of May, you can enter for a chance to win this ultimate prize package by visiting the Spa Week website.  The Shop. Spa. Stay. Giveway will continue throughout the month of May.  

The winner will be announced in June and receive a $1,000 shopping spree to Shoptiques to pick up a new wardrobe, $200 in hotel credits from SniqueAway for a well-deserved vacation and 1 $1,000 spa & wellness gift card to use to be pampered all year long at your choice of 7,500 spas.

Complete rules are available on the website and you do not need to purchase anything to win. 

Follow the Spirits to Cinco de Mayo

It’s funny how my favorite holidays seem to be based around food and drink. Cinco de Mayo is no exception. While I am perfectly happy with a shot of tequila or a mango margarita, I also welcome some new uses for the Mexican spirit.

Here’s some recipes to try in celebration of the fifth of May…

To start your day:

Bloody Maria

1 oz Tequila

6 oz Tomato juice

Horseradish, tabasco sauce, worcestershire sauce, lime juice, celery salt and pepper to taste

Celery stick

Pour ingredients into a shaker.

Shake and strain into a tall glass filled with ice.

Garnish with a celery stick instead of a stirrer.

For the afternoon on the porch:

Blue Lagoon Margarita

1 1/2 oz

3/4 oz Blue Curacao

1/2 oz Pineapple juice

Splash of Lemon/lime soda

Splash of Lime juice

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.

Shake well and strain into a rocks glass.

Before dinner:

Mojito Lamaica

2 oz Casa Noble Crystal Tequila

2 oz Hibiscus simple syrup (see below)

3 Mint leaves

½ oz Lime juice

½ oz Lemon Juice

Lime wheel for garnish

Hibuscus Simple Syrup-

2/3 cup Sugar

2/3 cup Water

¼ Cup Dried hibiscus flowers

In a saucepan, combine water and sugar and cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves.

Remove from heat and stir in dried hibiscus.

Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Strain into a glass jar and cover.

Refrigerate until needed (for up to two weeks).

Fill cocktail shaker and double rocks glass with ice and mint sprigs.

Add tequila, hibiscus syrup, lime juice and lemon juice and shake vigorously.

Strain into glass and garnish with lime.

For dessert:

Brave Bull

2 oz Blanco Tequila

1 oz Kahlua

Pour tequila into an old fashioned glass filled with ice.

Add Kahlua and swirl to mix ingredients.

If for some reason you aren’t a big tequila fan, try this:

South American Margarita

1.5 oz KAPPA Pisco

0.5 oz Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge

0.5 oz Agave nectar

1 oz Lime juice

Lime wheel for garnish

Pour ingredients into a shaker with ice.

Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.

Garnish with lime.

Just Gin and Dessert Vodka

I’ve been sampling and mixing again. This time it was some unusually flavored vodkas. It involved some creativity, but it was worth it in the end.  Before I get to that, I’d like to share a piece of news that came across my inbox.  It looks like my favorite spirit is getting more popular in the Big Apple.

The New York City restaurant Oceana has unveiled a “Just Gin” program, created in partnership with Simon Ford. The former ambassador to Plymouth & Beefeater Gin put together a list for the restaurant that includes 40 varieties of gin.

Ford made sure the list included a selection of gins, including London Dry, Navy Strength and Genever. He also worked with Oceana to create four types of house-made tonic waters.  To make get more people to try the spirit, the restaurant has also put together a five-course tasting menu that is also available with gin cocktail pairings.

I’ve enjoyed almost all of Van Gogh’s vodkas, finding their flavors to be quite realistic. This was definitely the case with the PB&J. While peanut butter and jelly vodka may sound quite odd, it really wasn’t. I sampled it straight and with some grape juice. Both were very good and not overly sweet. If you’d like to get more creative, here’s a few recipes to try:

PB&J Frappe

Created by Cooking Channel’s Nadia G, Star of “Nadia G’s Bitchin’ Kitchen”

½ oz Van Gogh PB&J Vodka

1 cup of milk

½ cup of your favorite vanilla ice cream

½ banana

1 heaping tbsp. of smooth peanut butter

1 heaping tbsp. of raspberry jam/or fresh strawberries

Blend all ingredients together.

Serve in a tall glass with a banana slice or raspberry garnish.

Salted Chocolate Peanut Shooter

Created by Jonathan Pogash, The Cocktail Guru

¾ oz. Van Gogh PB&J Vodka

½ oz Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate

½ oz. Chocolate Milk

Shake ingredients together well with ice.

Strain into a shot glass.

Garnish with whipped cream and salt.

To drink, moisten surface of your skin, add salt, lick the slat and shoot the shot.

I also received two bottles from Three Olives, one Cake Vodka and one S’mores Vodka. I honestly didn’t find these flavors great straight, but I did try some recipes with them. The Campfire Martini was my favorite with the S’Mores.  

Campfire Martini

3 parts Three Olives S'mores Vodka

Crushed graham crackers

Chocolate syrup

Marshmallows

Dip the rim of martini glass in chocolate syrup and coat with crushed graham crackers.

Pour Three Olives S'mores into martini shaker filled with ice.

Shake and strain into martini glass.

Garnish with a skewer of three toasted marshmallows!

As for the Cake Vodka, it was not enough to stand on its own, but did add a bit more flavor to the S’mores in the Want S’more Cake recipe.

Want S’more Cake

1 Part Three Olives S’mores Vodka

1 Part Three Olives Cake Vodka

Whipped cream

Graham cracker

Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice.

Shake vigorously.

Strain into a shot glass.

Garnish with whipped cream and a graham cracker.

Photos of Oceana by Paul Johnson