Friday, December 30, 2011

New Years Eve party drinks

Just sneaking in one more post for 2011;) I've been meaning to share some party drink recipes I've come across lately and today's Herald had some more so I thought I'd share them in case you are wanting to make some party drinks for tomorrow night.  Some have rather fancy ingredients but I guess a good liquor store should stock them ?! I prefer recipes where you make it all in a jug/pitcher so there are some of these and some where you make them in each guests individual glass.

Cocktails
White Wine Sangria
from Womans Day magazine Dec 12
1 cup apple liqueur
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 cups pineapple juice
1 pomegranate, seeded
1 pear, cored and finely chopped
1 green apple, cored and chopped
1 lime, finely slices
750ml bottle chilled white wine
ice to serve

1. In a jug, combine liqueur and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Add juice and fruit, chill. Top up with wine and serve over ice.

For a red wine sangria recipe check out this one here (there are lots more cocktail and mocktail recipes on here too www.thebartender.co.nz)

Pimms Jug
From NZ Herald Dec 30 - recipes by Frankie Walker from The Mix (lots more recipes and tips on this website)
Take a jug or long drink glass, fill it with ice. Mix in one part Pimms No 1 cup with three parts chilled lemonade. Add some mint, cucumber, orange or strawberry.

Summer Breeze
Recipe is for either glass or jug
1 and a half parts vodka
half part elderflower cordial
2 parts apple juice or apple cider
2 parts white grapefuit juice
grapefruit wedge to garnish

1. Fill a highball glass with ice and squeeze in a wedge of grapefruit. Add vodka, elderflower cordial and apple juice and top with grapefruit juice. Stir well and serve.

Passionfruit Mojito
Recipe is per glass
20 ml Monin Passion fruit puree
60 ml white rum
100ml perrier lime
Half of a fresh lime
10 mint leaves
crushed ice
Muddle lime wedges, lime and passion fruit puree in the bottom of a glass. Add crushed ice. Top up with rum, stir gently and add Perrier lime water. Top up with more crushed ice and decorate with fresh mint sprig

Champagne Cocktail
Recipe is per glass
15 ml gin
10 ml lemon juice
5 ml sugar syrup
30 ml fresh pomegranate juice
Build the ingredients in a chilled champagne flute, top with champagne and garnish with lemon zest.

Russian Spring Punch
12 shots of vodka
3 shots of Creme de Cassis
1 bottle of champagne or sparkling white wine
Ice

1. Fill glasses with ice
2. Mix vodka and creme de cassis in jug
3. Add champagne to jug just before serving to retain the fizz
4. Serve in glasses and garnish with lemon slice or raspberries


Cosmopolitan cocktail
Recipe is per glass
half of a lime, chopped
30 mls of vodka
60 mls of cranberry juice
10 mls of lime juice
crushed ice
orange zest

Muddle chopped lime in glass (I'm guessing that squeezing lime into the glass will suffice for those without 'muddlers'!), pour vodka, cranberry juice and lime juice into glass. Top with crushed ice and orange zest.


Mocktails


Vanilla Apple Dry Mocktail (serves 8)
from Womans Day magazine Dec 12

4 limes, cut into wedges
2 cups apple juice
2 tablespoons vanilla syrup
Ice
1 litre ginger ale
Green apple slices, to serve

1. Squeeze half a lime into each glass. Add quarter of a cup apple juice and 1 teaspoon syrup to each. Stir to combine. Add ice and top up with ginger ale. Serve with apple slices

Raspberry Watermelon Crush (serves 8)
from Womans Day magazine Dec 12

1 kg seedless watermelon, rind removed, chopped
500 g frozen raspberries
1 bunch of mint leaves, plus extra to serve
1 litre lemonade, chilled

1. Cover watermelon with plastic wrap and freeze for 30 minutes
2. In a bowl, mix watermelon, raspberries and mint together until well combined. Spoon evenly into glasses. Top up with lemonade and serve with mint leaves.

Have a great night and Happy New Year!
Megan

Thursday, December 15, 2011

my creative space: crocheted christmas balls

For this years Kiwi Christmas Ornament Swap after much deliberating I decided to make some crocheted christmas balls. Luckily I started ages ago as life has been pretty crazy lately (Jack's tonsilitis lasted 2 weeks and he was one very grumpy baby) so I only just finished the last one on the day we were meant to be sending them! Am pleased I stuck with them though as I do like the look of them and I really enjoy making these balls- crochet is very relaxing and a great de-stresser as any of you into crochet will understand! I followed the pattern at Kate from Greedy for Colour's crochet ball tutorial but added a few more rounds to make the ball bigger and then made a chain for the loop and added the bow and bell.  
(When I first started crochet I didn't know why my balls had the striped look on them like the red and green ones below but crochet queen Kristy from Paisley Jade and a couple of other helpful bloggers figured out I was only going through one stitch instead of both when doing each 'Single Crochet' stitch.  So for these balls I did some with stripes and some without.)
And I've just had a look at Kate's blog to link to the tutorial and great minds think alike hehe - she has made the most gorgeous crochet baubles using gold thread to make little toppers so they just like a bauble! And they look so divine all together in the box. Kate has written a tutorial for them too being the lovely crafter she is :) Making a crochet ball is a great thing to start with if you want to get into crochet and it gives you lots of skills to make other things like an easter egg, an apple and other stuffed shapes- crochet is a great portable project for the holidays too!
I've received some lovely ornaments from the swap so far thank you ladies- it's been so much fun opening up the little parcels. And thanks again Dione for organising another great swap- you can check out more of the swap ornaments at Dione's blog 'Sew Funky' here.
Megan x

Thursday, December 1, 2011

A Mousehouse Christmas Giveaway

Happy 1st December! To say a BIG thank you to all of you that read my blog and follow mousehouse on facebook  I'm having another Christmas giveaway... here's what you could win...
  • a mousehouse waterproof 'Babushka' purse (I bought the fabric for the purse from Stitchbird and I think it's my most favourite fabric yet which is saying something!)
  • a Cath Kidston notebook
  • 20 metres of red/white bakers twine
  • set of 6 gift tag stickers
  • fat quarter of christmas fabric

I've really enjoyed my second year of writing this blog and I so appreciate the feedback and comments I receive and being part of this awesome crafty / mum blogger community.  Thank you for the emails, the comments on my posts, the feedback and answers to my questions on my facebook page, and for reading my blog- the connections made from my kitchen bench are just fantastic.

For my christmas giveaway last year I asked readers to comment with their Christmas family traditions and have added quite a few to my list of things I would like to do this year- even if I get a a few done I'll be happy as there's quite a list now! So this year if you are like me and haven't done a whole lot of present making/buying yet I thought it would be great to share some ideas for presents- either homemade or store bought.  So to enter... leave a comment telling us something(s) you'll be making or buying this year for someone in your family or a friend.  
For extra entries (if you'd like to) you can...
*follow my blog 
*like my facebook mousehouse page (you can also enter the giveaway on my facebook page by leaving a comment below this post on my page.)
*follow me on twitter or share this giveaway @megsmousehouse
*share this giveaway on your blog or FB page

 Just leave a comment telling me for each extra entry. Giveaway closes Thursday December 8th and is open to all so international entries are welcome.

Good luck and thank you again for reading 'mousehouse' :)
Megan x
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