Skinny POM Vodka Mojito

 Photo by Sheila San Juan                            

It has been a Pleasantville type of week here in Orange County, CA.  Everyday I envision the news segment in the Pleasantville movie, "It's another beautiful day in sunny Southern California."  Seeing how it is 75-95 degrees on a daily basis, who couldn't go for a day at the beach with some refreshing cocktails?!

I shop at Trader Joe's on a pretty regular basis, I've noticed that they sell, what I assume are discontinued Stoli Vodkas.  I've purchased a regular size bottle of Stoli Gala Apple and Stoli White Pomegranate for only $5.99 per bottle in the past.  I've seen this a few times and whenever there is a flavor that entices me I say, hey why not at that price.

At first attempt with my new Stoli White Pomegranate I tried to create a Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Martini recipe.  I had purchased some mint at Albertsons to try and infuse into my martini, they only sold one type of mint and it had a root attached so that you could plant it after using the mint you need.  I got home and played around with my martini concoction, however it was not to my standards to be confident enough to share the recipe.  Do not fret though, I really like this idea and will still continue to play around with this idea.  Once I believe it cannot get any better I will share my recipe with you!

Going back to that mint that I purchased, my husband planted it in a pot and put it on our balcony.  The first few weeks the mint was started to get pretty paltry and I thought she might not make it.  However, my husband moved the mint to our staircase, which gets direct sunlight, and that mint just started taking off.

Now that I have some serious mint action going on, mojitos have been on the mind and my friend Sheila inviting me to hang out at her beachside pad and go play at the beach was the perfect excuse for some mojitos.  So I put together a little Mojito Kit to take over, which included - limes, Stoli White Pomegranate, my muddler, Hansen's Club Soda, fresh mint of course, POM juice, and the most ab fab Penguin Martini Shaker.

Typically your traditional mojito would consist of lime and mint muddle with some pure cane simple syrup, using rum and club soda.  My recipe excludes the simple syrup and uses fresh pomegranate juice to add a little natural sweetness.  It is my personal preference to enjoy vodka rather than rum, you can use either one to make your mojito and they will both taste great.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Stoli White Pomegranate (can use a limon vodka, or if you want a traditional style mojito, I suggest Bacardi Limon)
• 3 Slices of Lime
• 5-10 Mint Leaves
• POM Juice
• Club Soda
• Mint Sprig (optional garnish)

Before going any further you will also need a muddler preferably, you could MAcGyver kitchen items if need be, but I cannot guarantee this will work.  Also a martini shaker is needed for best results.

Directions:

1. Take your Lime Slices and Mint Leaves and toss into bottom of shaker, splash in a little bit of POM Juice.  Muddle together until well mixed.  
2. Fill the rest of shaker tin with ice.
3. Add 2 oz. of  Stoli White Pomegranate.
4. Shake vigorously for 10 seconds.
5. Pour contents into glass of choice, I absolutely love the way they look in a mason jar.
6. Add ice to glass until full and top off with Club Soda to the brim of glass.
7. Add Mint Sprig to edge of glass for a garnish, if you wish.

Sit back and enjoy!

Shhhh...don't tell, we snuck some on the beach (aqua fresca style)

DIY - Wine Cork Place Card Settings

So, I'm ready to get back to my blog after a year or so of wedding planning and stress....whew! Every girl dreams about having her big day and having this glorious day that's all about you.  Well that day does not come easy, you have to set your date, find your vendors, pick the "perfect" dress, pick out specific flowers your want, and so on and so on, I'm getting a headache thinking about it again.  Of course once you get all your beautiful pictures back from the photographer, all of those small details, that you stressed out about and didn't even notice during the dang day of the wedding, come into place and are commemorated forever in picture.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the details from the wedding, my husband, family and I made these Place Card Settings from hand within the last week of the wedding, talk about procrastinating.  I used a Place Card Template from Michaels and saved the corks from the bar I worked at so all I had to pay for was the Paper Templates which I used a Michaels coupon for, of course.  All and all these only cost me about $10.00 to make and I had close to 100 guests at my wedding.  

Supplies Needed:

• Synthetic Wine Corks 
• Box Cutter or Paring Knife
• Place Card Templates
• Butter Knife

Directions:

1.  Begin cutting slits into the middle of the Synthetic Wine Corks using a sharp knife like a paring knife, box cutters or something similar.  

     *I say to use synthetic wine corks because the regular corks will fall apart as you start to cut into them unless you pre-treat them first, like by boiling them in water for 10 minutes.  So by using the synthetic corks you can save time, they'll be easier to cut, no risk of falling apart when you put in the place card.

2.  Using Place Card Templates directions print out your guests names with table numbers on the bottom, using the fonts of your choice.

3.  Now this is the tricky part, put your Butter Knife into the slit you cut earlier to separate slit, then quickly place the place card inside.  This took some trial and error at first, but once you got into the groove they went in easier.  It is okay if at the beginning you ruin some of the place cards and are forced to reprint, it happens to the best of us.

This is definitely an easy way to put a little of your personality into your wedding, and doesn't cost much to make and you can recruit your friends, family or maybe favorite bartender to save corks for you to save money.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and check back soon for my Wine Cork Monogram Tutorial, which you can use your regular or synthetic wine corks for.

Berry Punchtini

Ingredients:

• 8 Fresh Blueberries
• 2 Fresh Strawberries (sliced)
• 5 Fresh Raspberries
• Stoli Razberi Vodka
• Stoli Blueberi Vodka
• Stoli Strazberi Vodka
• Simple Syrup
• Lime cut into 6 slices

Tools Needed:

• Martini Shaker
• Muddler
• Frozen Vintage Champagne glass/Martini glass

Directions:

1.  In Martini Shaker pour in 1 oz. Simple Syrup and toss in Fresh Berries.

2.  Muddle the Simple Syrup and Fresh Berries thoroughly, until berries are well blended and juiced out.

3.  Pour in the flavored Stoli Vodkas.

4.  Squeeze in two slices of Lime tossing them into the mix, so when you shake up the martini you will get some extra lime pulp into your drink...mMMmm lime pulp!

5.  Shake vigerously for about 10 seconds.

6.  Strain into frozen glass, sometimes I will use an extra strainer, as seen in ad below, that I hold above the martini glass while pouring.  This will make it so you don't get any big chunks of fruit residue and will really give the drink a professional feel.

7.  Garnish with a lime, and now the best part....Enjoy!

Skinny Strawberry Lemondrop

Continuing on the fresh fruit journey of summer cocktails we have a Skinny Strawberry Lemondrop.  Made only with vodka, strawberries, and a whole lemon.  Tastes like strawberry lemonade, but then when you get to the bottom of the drink there is a strawberry that has been muddled so it soaks up all the vodka and whoo that's a kick at the end :)  I hope you enjoy!!

Ingredients:

2.5 oz Vodka (I used Grey Goose because it was around, but I think it would be better with Absolut Citron)
1 whole lemon
3 strawberries (diced)

Directions:

1. Slice up the three strawberries, put one inside martini glass and the other two in martini shaker.
   

   

    
2. Slice the lemon into six slices.
3. Put the other two strawberrries into martini shaker and muddle into bottom, also muddle the strawberry in martini glass (if you do not have a muddler, just use a fork that was what I did.)
   

   

   
   
4. Fill martini shaker half way full with ice, add vodka and squeeze in lemon juice.  Go ahead and toss in a few of the lemon rines as well it will help get more lemon flavor into your drink when your shaking. 
5. Strain drink into martini glass and garnish with a sliced strawberry if you'd like to be fancy pants :)



Flower Smashing Fabric

I saw an blog on BurdaStyle that was all about Eco-Dying Fabric.  They showed one about flower smashing to "stain" the fabric and I loved it!  This is my process of going through the Flower Smashing Technique. 

Supplies Needed:

• Flowers/leaves of your choice (make sure they are fresh and still moist)
• Fabric (100% cotton preferably a lighter color, white will work best)
• Duct Tape
• Shears
• Hammer/Mallet

Directions:

1. Prepping Fabric:  If you want to get vibrant colors from the flowers you're going to want to set/fix the fabric.  I did this by mixing 4 parts water to 1 part vinegar.  Bring to a boil in a large pot and put fabric in pot, let simmer for 1 hour.  It will smell so open some windows or you can try this website for other ways to Fix Fabric.  Let hang dry.
2. Once your fabric has dried set on a flat surface (you want this to be a space you don't care about, or have it covered with plastic) and begin to spread out your flowers in the design you would like.

3. Now begin putting duct tape strips over the flowers to hold them in place.

4. Now with flowers facing down put plastic over fabric, you can cut up a trash bag, I didn't do this the first time and when I began to hammer the color of the flowers got onto the hammer and I begin spreading that and made it look spotty, so this will make it cleaner, but if you want a more abstract look you can choose not to  cover the fabric with plastic. Begin smashing your flowers with a hammer or mallet.  You will instantly be able to see the colors seeping through the fabric.
5. Take tape off and remains of flowers.  Let dry for about an hour.
6. Now to set the colors in the fabric with an iron press for about 5 seconds, the areas that were smashed.  Now your fabric is ready to use for your sewing projects.

I made 3 insulated tote bags with a pattern I found here for Christmas gifts.

Grapefruit Martini

  

Continuing on my journey of making fresh fruit incorporated drinks I have concocted up a refreshing Grapefruit Martini.  Made with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, vodka and a dash of pure cane sugar simple syrup.  This reminds of when I was a kid and thought grapefruits were just way too tart and would sprinkle sugar on top and bite right into the grapefruit with that sweet and tart flavor.  I hope you enjoy as much as I did!
Tools Needed:

• Martini Shaker
• Martini Glasses
• Measuring Tool (Could be a jigger, or I used a measuring cup that had ounce measurements on the side)
• Juicer (Optional)

Ingredients:

• 1 Grapefruit (Any type will work, makes two martinis)
• 2.5oz. Absolut Citron
• 1/4-1/2oz. Pure Cane Sugar Simple Syrup
• Cane Sugar

Directions:

1. Put your martini glasses in freezer to get them ice cold while you are making your drinks.  It only takes about 10 minutes for the glasses to get frosty, but you can put them in earlier to get them extra cold.
2. Cut your grapefruit in half or quarters, dependent on what type of juicing tool you have available.  When you have the fruit cut in half cut off a small sliver to be able to use as a garnish if you want.  I used a juicer where where you twist the halves to get your juice.  If you don't have a juicer available to you though you can just cut into quarters and squeeze the juices on out, this is going to be just as good, so long as it's fresh squeezed juice. 

3. Fill your martini shaker full of ice, measure out 2.5oz. of Absolut Citron Vodka, 2oz. Grapefruit Juice, and 1/4-1/2oz. simple syrup (dependant on how sweet you would like it to taste). 
4. Shake vigorously for about 10 seconds, I like to see very small ice flakes in my martinis, it's sort of your way of knowing that someone put some extra time and care to make sure your martini is going to be ice cold and enjoyable.  No one likes a warm martini...ewww.
5. Dip top of martini glass into grapefruit juice and then dip into cane sugar.  Strain your martini into the glass and top with your garnish.  Ready to sit back and enjoy :)

DIY - Convert Pants to Skinny Tutorial

So I have these pair of white pants that I loved the fit of when I first bought them, they were nice and long and made the butt look good ;-)  However once I washed them it was shrinks-ville.  I am about 5'7" and have run into this problem quite a few times after a few washes.  For bell bottoms or bootleg pants it especially becomes an awkward length.  However, for skinny pants right at the ankle is a perfect length to show off your cute shoes.  Here is a tutorial for converting those old pants into some cute upcycled skinny pants.  Hope you enjoy :-)

Supplies Needed:

• Sewing Machine
• Shears
• Washable Fabric Pencil/Pen
• Matching Thread
• Old/Used Pants
• Pair of Skinny Jeans/Pants that you like the fit of

Directions:

1. First iron the Pants that you will be altering and the Skinny Jeans that you already like.
2. With both pants inside out fold the pants in half like so, the back of the pants facing eachother.

   

3.  Place the Skinny Jeans on top of the pants you want to alter, making sure to align the crotch and seam that goes down.  You can already see where you will be sewing off.

4.  With a washable pencil/pen begin to draw a strait line down the pants you are altering.  Now it was a little difficult to keep the pants underneath flat, but try your best it doesn't have to be perfect, so long as the width is correct. While you are drawing the line press the Jeans down flat so your sure to get the whole width, it tends to bubble with a little air.

5. Now get to your sewing machine and sew up the line you just drew for your new seam.  If you would feel more comfortable you may pin right outside the line you just drew to make sure the pants stay put and don't move, but I don't think it's necessary.  I just tried to make sure there were no folds where I was sewing the new seam. I recommend using a zig zag or overlock stitch since they are skinny style they will most likely be under some stretching pressure. I started at the top so I could start with the old seam and then worked my way down.  By starting where the old seam is your preventing any air bubbles from forming and making your pants look amature.  This will make your seam look clean.  Since you are starting at top and going down, the hem may end up uneven but we can fix this at step 11.

6. After sewing up the seam, I went ahead and turned them right side out and tried it on to make sure I liked the new fit.

7. Now that I know I like the new width I took them off and went back to inside out and folded them back to the way we started and lined up the crotch seam to the other leg.  This way both of the legs are the same width.  Rather than if I used the Skinny Jeans again I could end up drawing a new width for the other leg.  Draw up new line, I did trim the leg that I already sewed so it would be easier and then lifted up access fabric to align the seam and not the extra fabric too.

8. Go ahead and sew up the other leg using the zig zag/overlock stitch again.

9.  Try on the pants again to make sure both legs look even, before we cut off the excess fabric.  Then there's no going back...

10. Now trim off your excess fabric about 1/4" away from the new seam. Add a finishing seam to the edge, I just went ahead and did another zig zag stitch along the edge.  This is important because it will take care of fraying fabric and like I said earlier since they are Skinny we will be putting some pressure on the seam a lot so just in case anything rips or tears you got a back up...there will be no bare leg flashing :)

11. Now this last step is optional, but I think it gave off a better finished look.  And since your aligning the crotch seam you may end up making the bottom hem uneven.  So fold over the hem halfway up, press, repeat.  Sew up new hem, I used just a strait stitch for bottom, an overlock double needle stitch would be prime though just seemed like too much work..hah.

Now your all finished and have a cute and stylish new pair of pants :-)