Drinky poos, darling? Take II

Love is in the air.
Not because Valentine's Day is fast approaching. (Ugh. I hate Valentine's Day, a day that seems designed to play on teenagers' insecurity - at least it did on mine when I was 14).
No, love is in the air because it was my boyfriend's birthday yesterday.

I love birthdays, especially other people's and most especially his. I love being given the opportunity to show him just how much I appreciate having him in my life. (Soppy, but true.)

I made all sorts of delicious treats but we started off with these:

Raspberry Champagne Cocktails

(Or to be more precise, Raspberry Prosecco Cocktails)

Here's what you need to make them:

100g raspberries
3tbsp creme de cassis (a blackcurrant liqueur)
1 bottle Prosecco/champagne/fizzy wine of choice
Grenadine to taste

• At least 30 mins before you plan to drink these ruby-red beauties, put your raspberries in a small bowl and pour over the creme de cassis.

(Don't they look lovely?)

• Place two or three raspberries and some of the raspberry-infused liqueur in a champagne flute.
• Fill with your fizzy wine of choice.
• Add a few drops of Grenadine to taste.
• Make a toast and enjoy.

I had a few too many of these so my head is a little wobbly today. But we all have to suffer a little for love, don't we? Anyway, they were worth it.

Drinky poos, darling?

I've been humming Dean Martin's 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' to myself all day long. We've got the tail end of a storm here in West Kerry. The wind is howling. The waves are bashing against the shoreline. All any sensible person would want to do is curl up in a duvet by an open fire.

Wouldn't you want to do that too if it looked like this outside?

I've resisted the lure of the sofa and the oh-so-warm duvet all day long. I've been a good girl working at my computer. I'm now about to cook dinner for everyone (which, in my house tonight, means four people). In fact, I've been a good girl all week long and now that the weekend is FINALLY here, I think that merits a drink.

Because it's so cold and dark outside, I think something warming is in order. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart's website, tweaked it a little to suit my mood and the contents of my fruit bowl/alcohol cabinet and created this:


Drinky poos, darling!

It's ever so easy to make.

Here's how I did it:
Serves 1

Ingredients:
4 pears
1 cup(approx 250ml) of cider
1/4 cup measure of whiskey




I juiced the pears (and made approximately the same amount of pear juice as cider).
I added this to the cider, then poured in the whiskey.

(If you don't have a juicer, you could just buy pear juice - as Martha Stewart recommends in her recipe.)

It's a little bit early but it's been a long week. I'm going to light the fire, curl up on the sofa and enjoy this deliciously fruity drink with a kick before everyone comes home. Cheers!

Addendum: when my boyfriend came home, I made him one of these. He thought it was a little too weak and added in more whiskey. (Dipso!) You can obviously modify your drink to suit your own taste.