Recently, I posted a blog about non-alcoholic Halloween drinks for kids but as we all know, Halloween is just as much a holiday for adults as it is for kids. Instead of bringing spooky cupcakes or Halloween truffles to your Halloween gathering this weekend, mix up some creepy cocktail concoctions to share with your adult guests.

Dressing up? Bring a special potion that goes with the theme of your costume. For example, if you are going as Don Draper, you should probably bring the ingredients to make an Old Fashioned. Going as a vampire? A Bloody Mary is more than fitting. Want to bring enough for a crew? Here is a list of  Halloween cocktails that are to die for!

More Cocktail Inspiration
Cocktail Culture- Absithe Cocktail
Sloshed!- Hard Pumpkin Cider
Nightschool-Professional bartenders share their secrets
Vintage Cocktails on Facebook

Above photo by TangoPango

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Categories:	Beverages • Entertaining • Holiday • Uncategorized • cocktails	Leave a Comment
Tags:	drinks • Halloween cocktails • Halloween party beverages

While growing up Halloween trumped Christmas as the holiday I looked most forward to. It wasn’t so much the candy that had me counting down the days, but the costumes. My mother would indulge my dress-up desires and help me brainstorm what I could be for Halloween months in advance. Now even today, I look forward to Halloween and fall is one of my most favorite times of year, but besides costumes, I indulge in festive drinks and dishes. Because I associate Halloween with my childhood, it’s only fitting to post some frightfully delicious drinks for kids.

Perhaps you can think of ones I may have missed?

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Categories:	Beverages • Holiday • for Kids	1 Comment
Tags:	halloween • halloween drinks • non alcoholic drinks • October

Normally I don’t enter a ton of cooking contests, mostly because I don’t make the time,  but  PAMA Liqueur sent us an email about about “Cooking with PAMA Contest” with the Grand Prize winner receiving a trip for 2 to the 2010 FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen. Which, if any of you have heard about the Food & Wine Classic, it’s pretty foodie-tastic.

If you are feeling ambitious and like pomegranate liqueur-here is the nitty gritty:

-Create a recipe of your own using at least 3 tablespoons of Pama pomegranate liqueur. It can be in an appetizer, dessert or drink.

-Get official rules and submit your recipe and photo to Pama Pomegranate Liqueur on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pamaliqueur

-Enter by November 16

Above Photo by Joe M500

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Pumpkin beer: beer geeks love it or hate it. “Liquid pumpkin pie”, say the detractors: sweet and overly-spiced- hardly beer at all. However, many take pumpkin beer seriously. Very seriously. The Elysian Brewery in Seattle devotes an entire weekend to the Great Pumpkin Beer Festival every October; for this year’s event, they brewed not one, not two but nine different varieties.

The pumpkin beer category encompasses any style of beer brewed with pumpkin and/or pumpkin pie spices; the base beer can range from a lager to a brown ale to a stout- whatever the brewer desires. The best pumpkin beer is a fine balance between pumpkin and beer, allowing the two flavors to coexist in harmony. These are the money beers, the ones that prove pumpkin beer is more than just a seasonal novelty or pie in a bottle.

Pumpkin beers are quite enjoyable on their own, but when combined with food are a delightful celebration of autumn. Don’t throw out the usual beer pairing rules with pumpkin beers. Look for ingredients that will either compliment or contrast the flavor of beer, not compete with it. The sweetness, texture, and style of beer will dictate what recipes will work best with which foods: lighter beers tend to work well with lighter fare, while richer beers can stand up to heartier meals.

However, pairing completely contrasting flavors can also create a wonderful effect. For example, salty foods will enhance the sweetness of a sugary beer. This contrast should be a playful debate, not a fist fight: the flavors should not be grappling for dominance on your tongue. The differences between the beer and the food will coax out flavors in each that otherwise might go undetected.

While it’s tempting to couple pumpkin beer with foods containing pumpkin or winter squash, the similarity in taste will generally cause the pairing to fall flat. Instead, consider other fall favorites. Try a lighter beer with turkey, poultry and root vegetables, or darker, richer beers with stews, brown butter, sharp cheese and lamb. Adding a hint of nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice to a recipe can make an otherwise unsuitable dish pumpkin beer-friendly.

For a sharp, strong beer like Dogfish Head Punkin Ale or Elysian Night Owl:

For a sweet, strong beer like Southern Tier Punking Imperial Pumpkin Ale:

For a lighter beer like Shipyard Pumpkinhead:

Need to find pumpkin beer? Beer Advocate has a good list.

(image from Flickr user euart)

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Categories:	Beverages • Holiday • beer	4 Comments
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Once again, the Foodista team will belly up to the bar for another Drinking Lesson, this time the teacher is Erik Hakkinen, a bartender at Seattle’s infamous  Zig Zag Cafe , the same bar you will also find legendary Murray Stenson shaking things up.  Hakkinen will be stirring, muddling and mixing to a sold-out crowd tonight at the Sorrento Hotel’s Hunt Club bar. He may be young, but he has already made quite the name for himself. Check out why bar nerds are taking notice of Hakkinen.

Follow us tonight on twitter, the hash tag #drinkinglessons and we’ll also be posting on the Night School blog: http://www.foodista.com/nightschool/

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Categories:	Beverages • cocktails	Leave a Comment
Tags:	bartending • Erik Hakkinen • night school • Nightschool • sorrento hotel

In Seattle, now that fall is here, it means it starts raining. The days grow increasingly darker and the clouds rarely take a break from hanging out above the city. As a native, of course I’m sad to see the sun go for months on end, but honestly there is a big side of me that is excited to spend all evening roasting winter vegetables and drinking red wine, while a game is on in the other room. The wind and cold rain whipping leaves from the trees forces me to stay inside and convince me that it’s okay to not do anything, but cook comfort food, feed it to my favorite people and not feel guilty about staying in my sweats all day long.

Cheers to Autumn!

Here are 10 Fall Dishes We Can’t Wait to Cook

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Categories:	Baked Goods • Beverages • French • Holiday • Soup • Vegetarian • desserts	6 Comments
Tags:	autumn food • comfort food • fall food

Drinking Lessons, a Night School event continues this Sunday, September 20th with Robert Hess behind the bar at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle. At 6 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. Hess will mix, muddle and stir for 24 lucky attendees sitting around the smooth mahogany bar at the Hunt Club that is inside the swanky Sorrento Hotel.

Seattlite Robert Hess is founder of the Chanticleer Society, author of The Essential Bartender’s Guide: How to Make Truly Great Cocktails and operator of Drink Boy.com.

Want to go? Email nightschool@hotelsorrento.com for reservations.

Can’t go but want to follow via the virtual bar? Go to http://www.foodista.com/nightschool/ on Sunday night!

Cheers!

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Categories:	Author • Beverages • Events • cocktails	Leave a Comment
Tags:	drinking lessons • night school • Robert Hess • sorrento hotel

It’s a change in the seasons. Labor Day weekend is upon us. Families are packing up the car for one last road trip, final camp out or mini-vacation before comfortably settling into school and work routines. Are you planning to go out with a bang and savor all that there is left of summer? Or are you already thinking of cool harvest nights and (gasp!) thumbing through holiday cookbooks!?

I say fire up the grill and roast those weenies with gusto! Hit the trail with a summery picnic and relish every last bit of summer that you can, because before you know it, you’ll be pulling out the sweaters from the winter clothes box and wishing for sweet summer sun. Of course for all you die-hard grillers who choose to grill in the snow, wind and rain, the changing of the weather doesn’t mean then end of grilling, it only means one thing- it must be tailgate season! Here are some recipes to take with you camping, to make for lounging in the hammock or for the back yard barbecue.

Off to the campground!

Laying in a Hammock all Weekend

Summer Barbecue Tributes

What are you planning to cook this weekend? We’d love to hear about it! Here’s what some other folks are preparing for this Labor Day weekend:

RecipeGirl Labor Day Menu

Delish Labor Day Sticky Ribs

Martha Stewart’s Perfect Grilled Veggie Kebabs

Above photo by Cape Cod Cyclist

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Categories:	American • Beverages • Holiday • Uncategorized	Leave a Comment
Tags:	barbecue recipe • camping food • end of summer • Labor Day food • Labor Day Recipes

What do you get when you puree a delicious, succulent peach and marry it with a lovely dry Prosecco? A glorious tasting Fresh Peach Bellini, the perfect complement to a warm summer evening. We kept our puree a bit thick (not unlike the consistency of baby food – in fact, the puree itself would make great baby food!) as we wanted to retain all the sweet and juicy flavors of the fruit. The result was an almost smoothie-like beverage (for an adult, that is!). Frothy and refreshing! Just another great way to use all those scrumptious peaches that are now in season.

Other tasty peach recipes to tickle the tongue:

Dana McCauley’s Food Blog: Peach and Tomato Salad
Julie Jam’s Delicious Summer Peach Crisp
Whisk’s Honey-Peach Ice Cream
Cafe Fernando’s Peach Tart With Almonds and Maple Syrup
Patty’s Pantry Peach Salsa

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Categories:	Beverages • cocktails	2 Comments
Tags:	alcohol • bellini • beverage • cocktail • drinks • Fruit • peach • peaches • prosecco • sparkling wine

I am addicted to Mad Men. The first few episodes though I found myself yelling at the men’s chauvinist behavior and encouraging the women to stop biting their tongues (”Tell him to kiss off!”). If I had been an adult during that era I’d like to think I’d have been a bra burner, or maybe just have had the courage to deliver a proper tongue lashing to a sexist fool. I’d love to travel back in time and tell a handful of them where they can stick their 11 a.m. Scotch.

But I am mad about Mad Men. I love the show. Now my yells are at the end of each episode – “More! More!” It’s brilliantly written, the costumes and coiffed hair are fabulous, and the cocktails (swilled with reckless abandon) I believe are creating a stir (pardon the bartending pun) amongst the vintage beverage-loving set. I include myself in that category.

To celebrate another episode (yes, it indeed is worth celebrating) we mixed up some Don and Betty favorites. For him, an Old Fashioned, for her a Gimlet. Did you know the Old Fashioned was the first drink to be called a cocktail?  And the Gimlet was named after a naval surgeon, Gimlette, who encouraged his sailors to drink the concoction to prevent scurvy. Tough medicine! Both are counted amongst the six basic cocktails.

Here’s to the Drapers, and here are the recipes:

Photo: thebittenword.com

Others as mad as I about Mad Men:

The Food Librarian: Mad Med Dutch Cinnamon Apple Cake from 1963 New York Times
Ezra Pound Cake: Mad Men Premiere Party Menu
Brokelyn: Scary food from the Mad Men era

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Categories:	Beverages • cocktails	Leave a Comment
Tags:	Betty Draper • Beverages • cocktails • Don Draper • drinks • Mad Men • retro cocktails • vintage cocktails