Serves 2-3 people:
1/2 mango + a little extra to cut into juice toppers as pictured
1/2 cup crushed ice
1/2 cup + 1 shot carrot orange immune refresher from Whole Foods
3 strawberries
1/4 banana
1/4 cup preferred milk
Hold one shot of immune juice off to the side. Crush and blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. Pour into cup. Add mango topper. Grab the shot sinker to complete your palette once the smoothie is all slurped up. Enjoy! xo RCN
If it's not Happy Hour, let's pretend! I love a good cocktail. In the Summer, the fresh and fruitier, the better. Frosé? Hell yay! This sweet, frozen fizz is not frosé, but surely as tasty. It's for anyone that loves lemonade, a little bubble, cold to the sip, and well... lychees. I fell in love with lychee cocktails the first time I tried the ginjo lychee cocktail at Morimoto, one of my all time favorite sushi restaurants. If you've never tried a lychee, because after all, they are a little more rare in American cuisine, I highly recommend. Lychees have a consistency similar to the inside of a grape and they are sweet. Here is my super simple recipe for this Summer's creation of a lychee lemonade. Cheers! xo RCN
Makes 2 cocktails:
2 cups ice
10 lychees (they usually come in a 20oz can in liquid which is about 20 lychees)
1 can of sparkling lemonade, I used Lemon Lemon blackberry flavored
2 shots Vodka, I use Grey Goose
1/2 fresh lemon + 2 small lemon wedges for garnish to each glass
Crush ice in blender until frosty and snow-like and you just can't crush it anymore. Then add 8 lychees and continue to blend and crush (pulse too) for about 30 seconds or so until all combined and lychees are chopped up into very small pieces. Remove pitcher from blender and give the snow cone textured ice/lychees a mix with a spoon before scooping about four big spoonfuls into each glass. Then add one shot of Vodka to each glass (maybe 1 1/2 if you like your cocktails a little stronger) followed by a 1/2 cup of the sparkling blackberry lemonade (or reg. sparkling lemonade). Pour slowly, or the drink will fizz over the rim. Squeeze a quarter wedge of fresh lemon into drink and stir. Drop one whole lychee into each drink, and complete with a small lemon wedge on rim of glass. Sip with a straw and voilà!
Blend & Crush The Following Ingredients In A Blender, Serves Two People OR serve as smoothie shots for the kids and their friends, just for fun!
1 Cup Pina Colada Yogurt
6 Ice Cubes
1/2 Cup milk
6 Strawberries
10 Raspberries
1 Cup cubed pineapple
Garnish with a raspberry on the rim and all the pink drink stirrers and straws you have handy. Serve to only those you love berry much! xo RCN
Holiday Happy Hour Alert! This drink is actually perfect for dessert as well. A little peppermint flavor always has me feeling ready for Christmas. Cheers & enjoy! xo RCN
By the glass:
1.25 oz Vanilla vodka
1.25 oz Creme de Cacao
.75 oz Peppermint schnapps
Crushed candy cane for rim of glass, one mini cane for garnish
To serve, begin by dipping the rim of the martini glass in water. Slowly motion the rim of the glass through crushed candy cane pieces on a flat surface. Hold glass horizontally, sometimes that works best! After the glass looks divine, mix all other ingredients in a martini shaker (with a 1/2 cup crushed ice, if you like your drinks really cold). Pour into glass and sprinkle a little crushed candy cane at center of drink. It will sink to bottom of glass and create a pretty red-clear gradation of color in your drink. Done, serve for the partay!
