strawberry

Super Bowl Party Ideas

January 24, 2018 by Natalie 2 Comments

I’m so excited to be teaming up with Bai for this post to bring you some fun Super Bowl Party Ideas. If you’re hosting a Super Bowl gathering or heading to a friends house, these DIYs and recipes should be a part of your goodie bag of tricks. I’m breaking down some fun, totally easy ways to gussy up that Sunday football fest in style!

Bourbon Caramel Popcorn

6 cups popped popcorn

cooking spray or parchment paper

6 tbsp. butter

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

3 tbsp. corn syrup

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 tbsp. bourbon

Preheat the oven to 300°. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper. Pop the popcorn and transfer it to a large bowl. Heat the butter, sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Once the mixture starts bubbling, cook for one minute more. Remove from heat and add the bourbon and vanilla. Stir and pour over the popcorn. Stir until popcorn is nicely coated and then transfer to the baking sheet, spreading out to an even layer. Bake for 35 minutes, stirring halfway through. Let cool and serve in a bowl or cute football snack bags. Store leftovers in a sealable container — if you have any leftovers.

Football Snack Bags

brown paper bags

white paint

paint brush

Simply paint line on a brown paper bag to resemble a football. Let dry and use to serve your Bourbon Caramel Popcorn or to send guests home with a Super Bowl goodie bag.

DIY Football Field Tray

clear lucite tray

astroturf

white duct tape

white number stickers

scissors

hot glue gun and glue sticks

Cut the astroturf to the size of the inside of your lucite tray. I found my lucite tray onsale at HomeGoods for $12.99! Cut a strip of duct tape to the width of your tray and fold it lengthwise so it is smooth on both sides. Repeat until you have enough strips to fit your tray. My tray was small so I only did four. If you have a larger tray you can do five or six strips. Lay out each of the strips on the astroturf until they are evenly spaced to form the yard lines. Hot glue in place. Lay out the yard line number stickers. My stickers weren’t very sticky so I secured them with hot glue too. Place on either side of the yard line on both sides of the tray.

Your tray is Super Bowl ready!!

Fizzy Bourbon Strawberry Lemonade

2 oz. Bourbon

3 oz. Bai São Paulo Strawberry Lemonade

top with club soda or champagne

chocolate covered strawberry football for garnish

I kept the cocktail easy peasy because I know hosting for game day can be tough. These can be made easily to order, built right in the glass or you can toss all the ingredients in a punch bowl for easy self-service.

If you want to take this cocktail a step further you can add the bourbon, Bai Sao Paulo Strawberry Lemonade, fresh strawberries and mint to a cocktail shaker then muddle and shake with ice. Strain into a highball glass over ice and top with club soda. If you’re feeling lucky you can swap out the club soda for champagne and kick the ABV up a notch.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Footballs

strawberries

dark chocolate melting wafers

white cookie icing

Fill a coffee mug with the dark chocolate melting wafers and put in the microwave for 10 seconds. Take out, stir the chocolate, and return to the microwave for another 10 seconds. Repeat this until all chocolate has melted but be careful not to burn the chocolate. Take your strawberries by the stems and dip into the mug of chocolate. Place on a piece of parchment paper and let the strawberries set in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Remove from the refrigerator and pipe the white cookie icing on to resemble footballs. Now you have the cutest and most delicious garnish for game day!

I’m so happy with how my Super Bowl Party Ideas turned out. Super bowl and super cute tend to not go hand in hand usually, but I feel like I totally scored with these! There is no better day to nosh on popcorn than on Super Bowl Sunday and the fact that it’s boozy popcorn makes it all the better. The fizzy bourbon strawberry lemonade is easy, delicious, and that chocolate covered strawberry football garnish is a win in my book! Serving in style is key and the DIY football field tray is a cute detail that pulls everything together. I hope this inspires you to make your game day festivities a little more fun. Ethan’s team (The Eagles) are going to the Super Bowl so I can’t wait to recreate these ideas for Super Bowl Sunday. xo

Frozen Strawberry Negroni

June 4, 2017 by Natalie 2 Comments

The negroni is by far one of my favorite classic cocktails. It doesnt hurt that it’s super easy to make as well (equal parts gin:sweet vermouth:campari). This coming week is Negroni Week, which is presented by Imbibe Magazine and Campari in efforts to raise money for charities around the world. There are so many variations on this drink but one that sticks out to me the most is by a co-worker of mine, and it’s the bicycle thief. This is a collins spin on the negroni, excluding the vermouth and adding grapefruit, lemon, simple and topping it with club soda. It still fits the bill – bitter, sweet, and herbal. So I took it a step further and threw it in a blender to make this Frozen Negroni. Because why not? I also added strawberries because they’re in season which compliment the campari and gin perfectly.

Frozen Strawberry Negroni, serves 1

1 oz. Gin

3/4 oz. Campari

3/4 oz. Sweet Vermouth

1 oz. Grapefruit Juice

1/2 oz. Lemon Juice

3/4 oz. Simple or Demerara Syrup

3 strawberries

Add all your ingredients to your blender pitcher, add ice, and blend on smoothie setting. Pour into desired glassware and garnish with an orange wedge and whole strawberry.

This Frozen Strawberry Negroni was really delicious and easy to make. I always wonder why people are so afraid of blenders? They totally take the work out of making cocktails. You can make yourself a negroni at home or your favorite variation but don’t forget to go out to your local bars and support them for Negroni Week! Participating bars donate a portion of their negroni sales to charity. The only thing better about drinking is drinking with a cause! You can find bars near you participating here. Happy Negroni Week everyone!

Strawberry Rhubarb Caipirinha

April 29, 2017 by Natalie Leave a Comment

Hello everyone! I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. It is officially rhubarb season, so it’s safe to say whenever I can get my hands on some, I’ll be making cocktails with it! I made rhubarb syrup for another post on A Beautiful Mess and I couldn’t let it go to waste. The syrup turned out so good and you can easily replace simple syrup in most recipes for this stuff. The possibilities are endless! A winning combination is to pair rhubarb with strawberry, so I did a Strawberry Rhubarb Caipirinha. They are super easy to make and are so refreshing. Perfect for this time of year!

The main ingredient here is Cachaça. This spirit is called the rum of Brazil and rightfully so. The main differences between Cachaça and Rum are that most rums are made from sugarcane by-products like molasses. Cachaça is made from fresh pressed sugar cane, so the end result is a much more fresh, earthy, and grassy tasting spirit. My favorite Cachaça is Avuá Amburana which is a Cachaça that has been aged in Amburana wood that is indigenous to that part of South America. Resting it in this wood gives the Cachaça baking spice flavors like cinnamon, allspice, vanilla and fresh sugarcane. These flavors go so well with the rhubarb and strawberries that we’re adding to our Caipirinha. It’s like we’re eating delicious boozy rhubarb pie! You can also use a non-aged Cachaça like the Avuá Prata as well.

Strawberry Rhubarb Caipirinha, serves 1

2 oz. Avuá Amburana

3/4 oz. Rhubarb Syrup**

3 lime wedges cut into half (quarters)

2 small strawberries cut in half

1 sugar cube

Add sugar cube, lime quarters, strawberries, and rhubarb syrup to your tin and muddle. Add the Cachaça and then add cracked ice.

Do a quick shake, back and forth 6-8 times. We will be using the same ice we shook on, which is common in “peasant” style drinks, so after shaking open your tin and dump the cocktail into a rocks glass.

Rhubarb Syrup

Add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water to a pot on the stove with 4 cups of chopped rhubarb. Let simmer on the stove until all sugar has dissolved and the rhubarb is cooked, about 20 minutes. Strain the syrup into a bowl using a fine mesh sieve. Discard the rhubarb solids, or you can save them to use like a jam. I did and used it to spread on toast. Yum! This syrup will keep refrigerated for 2 weeks to a month.

This cocktail is super easy to make at home and I could totally enjoy these all summer long. The flavor combinations in the Cachaça and the fruit go so well together, this is certainly my most favorite Caipirinha that I have ever had.