Hot Whiskey

When we were in Ireland, Erica came down with a cold and wasn’t feeling too great. One night, we were staying at Declan’s great aunt and uncle’s house and they made Erica a delicious drink that was supposed to help clear her cough and make her sleep through the night. Well… it worked! Erica slept like a baby.

Since being back in the States, we’ve made this drink a few times and it’s a great night cap on a cold night! So what is this magical concoction you ask???

Print this recipe!

Just in time for flu season!

• Servings – 1 drink
• Cook/Prep time – 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup hot water (preferably heated in a tea kettle, but a microwave works too!)
• 1 shot (1.5 oz) whiskey (preferably Irish whiskey, like Jameson or Bushmills)
• 2 teaspoons sugar (Note: Erica’s sister often uses honey instead when her throat is sore!)
• 2-3 lemon slices
• About 8 whole cloves (number is up to you!)

Protocol

1. Add your shot to a nice mug and fill up the rest with the hot water. Stir in the other ingredients.

2. Snuggle up and enjoy!

-D&E

Apple Cider Sangria

We hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We were lucky to be able to spend the day with both Erica and Declan’s families.  We ate way too much food, as everyone probably did, and Erica’s Dad’s turkey was delicious as always!

We came back Saturday to go to our final Pitt football game as undergrad students. For five years we have attended nearly every home game (the majority that we missed were this year because of wedding planning!), parked in the same garage, bought the same Starbucks coffee before the game, and sat in the same seats: row  “P,” section 130, seats 1, 2, and 3 (Declan even engraved his initials in the seat). It was a perfect, cold, snowy day for football. Needless to say, we were sad.

However, it was quite a memorable game: not only did we dominate Rutgers, the 18th ranked team in the nation, we finally got a picture with our mascot Roc:

Declan didn’t want to let go:

We even sang Pitt’s version of “Sweet Caroline” (a tradition started our freshman year) for the last time between the 3rd and 4th quarter. This is our favorite part of every game, we even had our DJ at the wedding play it!

It is really strange knowing that this part of our lives is coming to an end and that pretty soon all of our friends will be starting new jobs across the country. Declan is graduating in a couple weeks and will start working full time in January, Erica is graduating in May and will be attending pharmacy school next fall (don’t worry we are still going to keep up with the blog). College has gone by so fast!

But anyway, here is a really good sangria recipe to cheer you up! We served it during a brunch we hosted for a few of our friends and it was a hit and so easy to make.

Print this recipe!

• Servings – 8 people
• Prep time – 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 3  apples, chopped (we used honey crisps – yum!)
• 3 pears, chopped
• 2 1/2 cups apple cider
• 1 bottle (750 ml) pinot grigio
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 1 cup club soda

Protocol

1. In a large pitcher, mix all of the above ingredients together and let chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.

2. Serve in a wine glass and enjoy!

-D&E

Hot Caramel Apple Cider (for grown ups!)

It’s starting to get a bit chilly here in Pittsburgh! The leaves are finally starting to fall and mid-terms are right around the corner – fall has arrived. So to celebrate and warm up a little, today we have a really simple drink recipe for those of you who are at least 21 years old – Hot Caramel Apple Cider!

We got our apple cider for this recipe from the Amish country in Lancaster, PA. We took a little “mini-moon” after the wedding and drove up to Lancaster for a few nights. As for the caramel vodka, we got that at the wine and spirits store. We’re not sure of any other brands other than Smirnoff that make caramel vodka, but if you know of any please leave a comment. We also want to give credit to Erica’s friend Megan for introducing us to this drink!

On another note, happy 225th birthday to Pitt! This past weekend was homecoming and we got to go onto Heinz Field to help celebrate. The band formed an outline of a “P” and students holding balloons filled inside of it. Then, we sang “Happy Birthday” and released the balloons. It was so much fun! Here are a few pics:

We’re on Heinz Field!

We stood in the bottom right portion of the “P”

Hot Caramel Apple Cider

Print this recipe!

Nothing says fall is here like hot apple cider (with alcohol!)

• Servings – 4
• Prep time – 1 minute

Ingredients

• 4 mug’s worth of apple cider
• 1 mug’s worth of caramel vodka
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Protocol

1. Mix all of the ingredients above in a large pot.

2. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until liquid just begins to steam (don’t over heat or else the alcohol will burn off).

3. While cider is warming up, take your mugs or glasses and rim them with brown sugar.

4. Pour cider into your rimmed glasses, serve and enjoy!

-D&E

Hosting a Mad Men Party

Today’s post is dedicated to our good friend and original “Mad-Men-Watchin’-Buddy” Karin 🙂

Caption Contest! Write what you think Don is thinking in the comments below!

If you are like us and love AMC’s Mad Men then you already know that this Sunday night is the season finale. We could probably write an entire post on our thoughts about this season but alas we are a food blog. Now, if you are like us and love Mad Men enough to throw a Mad Men viewing party, this post is for you!

Back when we were getting our friends caught up with the first four seasons of Mad Men, we would usually have someone bring/make a specialty drink. However, now that we are stuck watching this season at 10pm on Sunday nights, we’re all a little tired by then so our viewing “parties” have been a little lack luster. But not this week!

Luckily for us we found this awesome guide provided by AMC which has everything you need to plan a Mad Men party. Luckily for you we picked out the good stuff!

Food

If you want to serve authentic time-appropriate food, check out this menu to see some great options.

Of course, we already have some great options so try some of ours too!

• Corn Cake
• Fried Pickle Chips
• Pasta Salad
• Goat Cheese Dip

Drinks

We’ve posted a few cocktails, and they’re all easy and yummy! Now remember, you must be at least 21 to make/consume these!

• Berry Blue Moon
• Key Lime Pie Cocktail
• Pineapple Upside Down Cake Martini

Or if you want a true 60’s inspired drink menu, try out some of these:

• Old-fashioned (Don Draper’s go-to!)
• Dirty Martini (Want to be witty like Roger Sterling?)
• Whiskey Sour (Actually one of Erica’s favorite drinks)

And don’t forget to dress in your best Mad Men chic!

There you have it folks, everything you need to host your very own Mad Men party! Have fun on Sunday and let us know what you thought about the finale!  Be safe and don’t over do it with the drinks!

But first, a quote from one of our favorite characters. Any thoughts?

“My generation, we drink because it’s good, because it feels better than unbuttoning your collar, because we deserve it. We drink, because it’s what men do.” — Roger Sterling

-D&E

Key Lime Pie Cocktail

Are you ready for a second cocktail recipe in a row?! We’ve been wanting to try this drink for awhile, and finally got an excuse to try it out on Saturday! We kind of combined a lot of different recipes for this, but it turned out really well! Use a good jigger to accurately measure out the liquids – we love our OXO jigger!

Print this recipe!

Makes us wish we were in Florida…

• Servings – 1 drink
• Prep time – less than 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 shots (2.25 oz) vanilla vodka
• 1/2 shot (0.75 oz) lime juice (try Rose’s sweetened lime juice!)
• 1 shot (1.5 oz) pineapple juice
• 1/4 shot cream or half and half
• Limes cut into wedges
• Crushed graham crackers (2 or 3 crackers is plenty)

Protocol

1. Pour a little lime juice onto a small plate, and dip the rim of the glass in the juice. Use a wedge of a lime to help spread the juice around the rim.

2. On another plate, put the graham cracker crumbs.  Dip the rim of the glass into the crumbs.

3. In your shaker, add a few ice cubes, and the vodka, juices, and cream.

4. Shake a few times and pour (no ice!) into your rimmed glass.

5. Garnish with a lime wedge and enjoy!

-D&E

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Martini

Last Friday, we went and saw Pittsburgh Ballet Theater’s Coppélia downtown for our birthdays.  We went to dinner at Olive Or Twist for dinner beforehand and tried some great cocktails. So, when we were thinking of things to make for a little birthday get-together with friends Saturday night, we had to make the one Declan had ordered.

Print this recipe!

Wow. Tastes just like the cake.

• Servings – One drink
• Prep time – 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 shots (2.25 oz) vanilla vodka
• 2 shots (3 oz) pineapple juice
• 1/2 shot (0.75 oz) coconut rum
• Grenadine
• Maraschino cherry

Protocol

1. Fill your shaker with ice.  Add the vodka, juice, and rum.

2. Shake gently and pour the liquid (no ice) into your martini glass.

3. Hold a spoon just over the surface of the liquid, and pour about a shots worth of grenadine gently onto the spoon. It will sink down to the bottom of the glass.

4. Garnish with a cherry and enjoy!

-D&E

Spring Break!

Whew, it is finally spring break for us students at Pitt! This semester is flying by and has been CRAZY hectic for us both. February was nothing but midterms (5 for Declan, 4 for Erica), wedding planning, and trying to keep up with butt-loads of homework. That’s why we weren’t able to post as many recipes as we had wanted to. But don’t worry, even though we’re on spring break we will still be posting more delicious recipes!

So now it is March! Oh and by the way, today’s post is just us rambling with a mini recipe. We have a lot of exciting things going on both in our regular lives and in our super blogger lives as well. The wedding is now less than 7 months away and we have finally sent off our save the dates!

We are approaching our 100th post (this is #90) on Cooking in College and are planning on doing something really special for all of our readers! Trust us… it’s going to be good.

Let’s see what else can we ramble about… Oh yes the contest! We’re so pleased with all those who entered our give-away contest during the month of February. We had so much fun with it and will DEFINITELY be doing another contest this year!

So really that is about it. Just kidding, we’ll post a recipe for you! And since it is spring break, why don’t we share with you one of our favorite drinks to make! For readers under the age of 21, divert your eyes now! Go away! Okay, you can look but you can’t make this yet.

Blue Moon Cocktail

Yes this is a cocktail made with beer and yes it is delicious!

Ingredients

• 1 bottle of Blue Moon
• 1 shot of Chambord (this is a good investment – it’s a delicious raspberry liquor)
• Small handful of frozen or fresh berries

Protocol

1. In a tall glass, pour your beer, add the Chambord and berries and mix gently.

2. Relax and enjoy!

-D&E

P.S. – Who has good spring break plans?