Category: Weekend Water

All the weekend water and bad judgement juice you can drink and still stand at the end of the evening.

What am I Drinking Tonight? A Purple Rain Cocktail!
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What am I Drinking Tonight? A Purple Rain Cocktail!

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…I only wanted to see you bathing in the purple rain…

Today, vodka was my friend. We hung out together for the entire evening. We we did that. We bathed in a Purple Rain cocktail, oops…a couple of Purple Rain cocktails!

It was great. For vodka.  I was amazed at the number of variations of this drink. My Purple Rain cocktail ended up being a loose interpretation of a few recipes.  One recipe called for grape juice (that seemed to make sense visually, but I didn’t want it to taste like Koolaid), another called for cranberry juice and most all called for Blue Curacao. 

Blue + Red, Right?

In elementary school we learned that blue and red makes purple, so I swapped out the grape juice for grenadine to create the perfect purple and because honestly, I was freestyling, it took a little time to get the purple I wanted.

I tried one with pineapple juice.  It tasted great but aesthetically, it looked like a royal hot, muddy mess.  So, I played around until I landed on the clear, royal purple.  If you try it and don’t care so much about looks, try it with the pineapple juice,. I have to admit, it’s tasty. Although it’s not a fruity drink, it kind of reminds me of the Berry Vodka Smash.

I also happened to have blue sanding sugar (seriously, who has blue sanding sugar hanging around in their cabinet?). I tinted the blue sugar with a few drops of grenadine and got a shade of purple close enough to match the drink that was a beautiful royal purple. It was so pretty, I didn’t want to drink it. Ok, that’s not true and boy I’ll tell ya, for a vodka drink, it was really good!

Homemade Food Junkie created a stunningly beautiful Purple Rain cocktail. Here’s my version of the Purple Rain cocktail.

Ingredients

2 oz. vodka
¼ oz grenadine
½ oz. blue curacao
2 oz. club soda
Juice of ½ small lime

Optional to rim glass:
3 TBSP White sugar
1 TBSP Simple syrup
Few drops of grenadine
Few drops of blue curacao
Lime wheel

Mix sugar, grenadine and blue curacao well until you reach the desired shade of purple.  Dip the rim of a glass in simple syrup and roll the rim in the sugar until the entire rim is coated. 

In a cocktail shaker, fill halfway with crushed ice, add vodka, grenadine, blue curacao, club soda and lime juice.  Shake until well chilled.  Pour into glass garnish with a lime wheel and sip slow!

What I’m Drinking Tonight: Angel’s Delight
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What I’m Drinking Tonight: Angel’s Delight

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I guess the only downside to blogging for Retta Cooked It is that eventually, I’m going to wind up becoming a fat, drunk.  

I have to taste everything I cook and every cocktail I mix to be sure I’m posting the best recipes. I enjoy that. A lot. And, I like playing with my bar tools.

I haven’t posted in a good while, but when I ran across this drink it was so pretty I had to give it a try.  I won’t lie, I’m not a fan of white liquor so I am always skeptical of cocktails that include them.  But, not everyone is in love with whiskey and while I like living on the dark side  sometimes you have to go to the light. So, I gave it a try.

If you like gin and creamy drinks, you’ll like Angel’s Delight. Gin pairs well with hard cheeses, and chocolate and if you want to try Angel’s Delight, in my opinion, you’ll want to try it with an appetizer. Because of the cream, Angel’s Delight is a thick, dessert-like cocktail. I don’t recommend having it during dinner, that’s too much. 

One tip, don’t overdo the grenadine! More than two or three dashes is more than enough to get the pale pink hue characteristic of this drink.  Any more and it will look like a glass of Pepto-Bismol and who wants that!

Angel’s Delight

Ingredients:
  • 1/4 oz Triple Sec
  • 3/4 oz Gin
  • 1 oz Cream
  • 2-3 Dashes Grenadine
Directions:

Combine all ingredients into a shaker with ice. Shake well, strain into chilled martini glass. It doesn’t get any easier than this.  Check out other great drink recipes in the Weekend Water section of Retta Cooked It. Sip slow!

What am I Drinking Tonight? Berry Vodka Smash!
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What am I Drinking Tonight? Berry Vodka Smash!

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Boy, was this a week for a drink!  With the COVID-19/coronavirus stressing out and scaring the bejeezus out of everyone, I say it’s high time for us to gather our bearings, gain some perspective, count our blessings and take a moment to exhale.

Most of us are on coronalock-down and some of us are beginning to go a little stir-crazy. By now many of us know someone that has been touched by this horrible pandemic in some way. And for those that have lost a friend or loved one, I am deeply sorry. My prayers are with you.

Although an adult beverage won’t solve the ills COVID-19 is wrecking on the entire world, it may momentarily help put a bit of mental distance between us and the insanity that has been upon visited us.  Let’s just call it a temporary respite to kind of even out recent unsettling times.

Raise a Glass in Thanks

Also while we are reflecting, let’s raise a glass and express our sincere gratitude for those essential workers that, day in and day out, continue to serve and protect us. Workers that provide critical healthcare services, food to the needy and hungry, and deliver our mail deserve our thanks. Along with every one of the workers who, unlike many of us, are employed in jobs where they cannot just walk inside and safely close the door against the virus until it goes away. We appreciate you. Thank you and sip slow (just not on the job).

If you like a fruity, slightly sweet drink, this one is for you.  It pairs well with a savory dish like crab cake beignets. It is so deliciously refreshing, if you’re not careful, it can sneak up on you!

Ingredients:

3 large strawberries
4 large mint leaves
1 TBSP simple syrup
2-½ jiggers of vodka
⅛ lemon
4 ice cubes

Slice and place strawberries, lemon, and lemon in a cocktail shaker.  Using a muddler, muddle fruit and mint being careful not to mash the mint to a pulp. If you don’t have a muddler, you can use the handle of a wooden spoon. 

Add vodka, simple syrup and ice cubes. Shake until cocktail shaker is cold.  Strain into a glass pouring over a couple of ice cubes or crushed ice, if desired. Garnish with a lemon wheel, strawberry and or mint sprig.

What I’m Drinking Tonight – New York Sour
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What I’m Drinking Tonight – New York Sour

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I thought I was setting myself up for disappointment with this drink but then, I thought it’s got bourbon in it how bad can it be?  So, I adventured on and pulled out the cocktail shaker.

A little bit about the New York Sour (which I highly recommend, by the way).  According to Whiskey Tango Globetrot, www.whiskeytangoglobtrot.com. The New York Sour dates back to at least the mid-1800s.

The original recipe called for:

1 table-spoon (1 tsp) of sugar
¼ of  lemon (juice of)
½ a wine glass (1 tbsp) of water
1 wine glass (2 oz.) of spirits

The standard spirit then was brandy, rum, gin or whiskey, though whiskey was added on much later.  Somehow the sour cocktail became America’s cocktail. The sour cocktail was actually originated in Chicago and was called a Continental Sour or Southern Whiskey Sour with a claret snap.The snap was red wine that floated on top of the drink.

No one really knows how a drink originating and popularized in Chicago inherited the name New York Sour or how it stuck.  It’s got a cool, sophisticated look and it is refreshing although I got a little carried away with the rocks. And you can try it, but the egg white was a hard pass for me. The cool part was floating the wine on top.  I thought I was going to ruin it and create a disaster. Turns out I’m a pro!

There are a number of variations of course, but this is the one I thought I would like best and it comes from liquor.com

Here is the modern day recipe:

2 oz. Rye whiskey or bourbon
1 oz. lemon juice
¾ oz. simple syrup
1 egg white (optional)
½ oz. dry red wine

Add all ingredients except the wine into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until the shaker is cold.  Strain into a rocks glass over a few cubes of fresh ice.

Slowly pour the wine over the back of a bar spoon so that it floats on top of the drink.

Sip slow and enjoy!