More Holiday Cocktails for More Fabulous Donors!

Friday means happy hour here at the Kitsch-en and this week we have four cocktails for you, all created for fabulous donors to our Feeding America fundraiser! There will be even more this weekend, since we have more wonderful donors to serve!

We're so grateful for everyone's generosity in helping this fabulous cause - thank you all!

North Pole: After Hours

North Pole: After Hours (created for Steve)

2 oz rye

1/2 oz Art in the Age Ginger Snap liqueur

8 dashes of molasses bitters

A twist of lime

Serve on the rocks.

Stardust

Stardust (created for Julie)

2 oz gold tequila

1/2 oz vanilla liqueur (I used Xanath)

1/2 oz cherry liqueur (I used Rothman & Winter Orchard Cherry)

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

A dash of Angostura bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a pink cherry.

Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice (created for Robert and featured in last Tuesday's episode)

2 oz amber rum

1/2 oz cherry liqueur (see above)

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

3/4 oz blueberry juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass with a coconut rim. Create rim by dipping the rim of the glass in light corn syrup, allowing excess to drip away, then dipping in shredded coconut.

Des Yeti

Des Yeti (created for Kristy and Geoff and featured in today's episode)

2 oz gin

1/2 oz raspberry liqueur

1/2 oz elderflower liqueur

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

2 oz pineapple juice

5 dashes of cranberry bitters

Shake with ice and pour into a yeti or tiki mug. Garnish with a festive sprig of rosemary.

Cheers and have a fabulous weekend!

Oh, Cocktail Tree!

You may have heard the rumors that I'm addicted to Christmas trees. It's absolutely true. I never met a Christmas tree I didn't want to adopt. That's why we have, according to a friend's count on Saturday, 47 of them. I'm not kidding. Of course, most are small, but five could be considered full-sized and several more fall into the "medium" category. "You must have a really big house," you might be thinking. Nope! Our house is quite cozy (read small). We just evict furniture to make room for all the trees! Who needs to sit down, anyway? I love sharing our trees, so I will be doing so here, starting with a vintage tree we inherited from some friends who were moving away. This one has a vaguely cocktail theme*:

Those "cocktail tickets" are from Continental Airlines, 1960s-70s. My aunt was a flight attendant who, happily for me, saved everything. And since, as far as I'm concerned, everything is fair game in the ornament department, they now live on the tree!

More trees coming soon! And I'd love to see yours!

*Actually, this is only one of our cocktail trees. We have two others, to be featured soon. ;)

Holiday Cocktails For A Few Fabulous Donors!

Our fundraising campaign for Feeding America is underway and, as promised, we're starting to deliver customized cocktails for our fabulous donors! Here is the first batch. We'll have many more over the next week, so stay tuned!

Sophisticated Santa

Sophisticated Santa (created for Lisa)

1 1/2 oz gin

1 oz Pimm's No. 1 liqueur

1 oz orange juice

1/4 oz fresh lime juice

4 dashes of chocolate bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass! Garish with a candy fruit slice and cherry.

Jetsetter's Holiday

Jetsetter's Holiday (created for Angie)

2 oz Bacardi 8 year old rum

1/2 oz Ancho Reyes liqueur

1/4 oz Cappelletti Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro (rhubarb amaro)

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass!

Pink Christmas

Pink Christmas (created for Alice)

2 oz vodka

1/4 oz pomegranate liqueur

1/4 oz hibiscus liqueur

1 oz pink grapefruit juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass! Garnish with a candy fruit slice.

Christmas by the Fire

Christmas by the Fire (created for Teri)

1 oz vodka

1 oz Cabernet Sauvignon

1/4 oz triple sec

1/2 oz pomegranate juice

1/4 oz fresh lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a wine glass and stir. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Thank you again to all of our wonderful donors! If your drink isn't here it will be soon! Also, if you missed Tuesday's "Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en" episode, click here to watch and see the cocktail we created for Robert - the Winter Solstice!

If you'd like to donate to our fundraiser, click here for the link to our fundraising page. Thank you!

Happy Repeal Day!

December 5, 1933 was the happy day when the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, repealing Prohibition, the "noble experiment" gone wrong. That calls for a drink! Click here for two easy recipes that celebrate booze in honor of this auspicious occasion. Happy Repeal Day!

Out of the Tub cocktail

Cocktails For A Great Cause!

I'm very excited to announce that the "Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en" has a new fundraiser underway, this one benefitting Feeding America, one of the nation's top hunger charities! And we're creating special, holiday-themed cocktails for our donors! Donate $25 or more and we'll create a custom holiday cocktail for your party, celebration, or just to imbibe all by yourself! Donate $50 or more and we'll feature your cocktail on an episode! Click here to donate and for more information. And thank you! Let's put those lovely libations to work for a great cause!

This time we're drinking for a good cause!

Napkin Folding for a Fancy Thanksgiving

There are nothing like cloth napkins to make a dinner table really fancy (or to distract from some non-fanciness on a fancy table). Take those napkins a step further with a festive fold! These illustrations are from 1978's Napkin Folding, by Irena Chalmers. If you're anything like me you might need a few tries to master these folds, but it will be worth it when you see the looks of awe (or disbelief) on the faces of your guests! Happy folding!

Big Thanksgiving Dinner, Small Kitchen

I just moved the turkey from the freezer to the refrigerator to begin the defrosting process, so Thanksgiving is feeling very close! I'm doing all of the cooking this year, so fortunately I have a spacious, luxurious kitchen in which to prep all of the fabulous dishes. Ha ha ha! Good one! In reality our kitchen is pretty darned small and counter space is practically nonexistent. I'm used to it by now, so I thought I'd share a few of my workarounds for creating a holiday meal or big party in a small kitchen.

1. Do as much as you can ahead of time and freeze. I've already got the corn pudding, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, an apple tart and half of the stuffing done and I plan to do more later this week. I have the luxury of an auxiliary freezer in the basement (which is lucky, since our ice maker just broke and lovely libations require a lot of ice) and getting these things done ahead of time means I won't be scrambling for space to prep those dishes later. If you have room in your freezer, freeze!

That freezer is about half the size of our kitchen!

2. Co-opt space. I just watched the Thanksgiving episode of "That Girl," in which Ann tried to make many more dishes than her kitchen would allow, and she cleverly borrowed her neighbor's oven to get it all done. Of course disaster ensued, since "That Girl" is a comedy, but the idea is sound. If you can borrow oven or refrigerator space, do it! 

Poor Ann

3. A solid cutting board is your friend. We have a Corian cutting board that I can lay over the stove to create counter space. The stove should, of course, be off - you don't want to set yourself on fire! And make sure that it's resting evenly, so it doesn't move around. But it beats using the floor!

What I wouldn't give for those cabinets!

Do you have a small kitchen? If you have any tips you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them!