Jessie on the Rocks

Week 11 - The Grand Gold Margarita Many of you already know that I grew up in Western New York.  Much of my family, including my parents and sister still live there and I love it with my whole heart.  Some days, it feels like I just left New York to start a new adventure in Florida.  However, today marks my 5 year anniversary of moving to Florida.  I miss home something awful sometimes, but Jacksonville also suits me and as each year passes, it feels more like home.  It also helps to have some pretty great new Florida friends and a steady stream of NY visitors:)  My parents have been enjoying the snowbird life the last few years and spend a few months during the dead of winter down in Florida with me.  While they are down here, they enjoy doing something I simply can't wrap my head around - Flea markets.  I tease them mercilessly about flea markets being a past time for old people:)  They remain totally unphased by my teasing and happily visit different markets all over Fl

Week 10 - The Grapefruit Margarita One of my college roommates came to visit me from New York this weekend.  I love company and I was so excited to see her.  She has been following my margarita making adventures and requested that we make the Grapefruit Margarita when she comes to visit, because it is her favorite. Who am I to deny a drink request?  Megan, This Grapefruit is for you and my week 10 drink! I realized that though I confidently agreed to make this drink for her, I have actually never tasted a grapefruit margarita and have certainly never made one.  As the weekend drew closer, I got a little nervous.  What if it doesn't taste like she expects it to?  Will she tell me if it doesn't or just politely sip the drink and dump it down the sink the minute I leave the room?  Just some new drink jitters I told myself!  I've been doing this long enough now, that I have the basics down. I can also follow the recipe to the letter. It will just be the right ratio of gr

Week 9 - The Midori Margarita It's National Margarita day and I have officially hit 9 weeks into the new year.  How is this Possible?  Time sure does fly by when you are having fun.  I also have a house full of northerners fleeing the snow, so I have an audience for this week's drink!  The more the merrier:)  I decided to try the Midori Margarita for Week 9.  I have never had Midori and was not familiar with anything about it, so I had no idea how this drink would turn out.  In addition, this drink can be made frozen or on the rocks.  Since I had quite a few people participating in the taste test this week and given my tumultuous past with frozen drinks, I decided to make the drink both ways and see what happened! This drink was pretty simple to put together.  The usual ingredients with the addition of Midori.    Bonus - I was able to use my new straws again!  I added salt to the rim of the regular margarita and sugar to the rim of the frozen margarita. 

Week 7 - The Cosmo Rita   For weeks people have been asking me how they can follow my blog.  I have searched everywhere for a "follow" button on the blog.  I absolutely could not find it.  I even asked a few friends, no one could figure out how it worked. You'd think this would be a standard feature right?  Who has a blog that they do not want people to follow?  Recently, while I was looking through the stats section behind the scenes, I finally came across a toggle button to activate the follow section!  Eureka!  This should not have been this hard:)  If you would now like to follow my actual blog, you can do so!  Better late than never, right?  The more I get into drink making, the more I realize that it is absolutely an art.  This is most notable when I follow others on Instagram and as I research drink making recipes and styles.  The photos inspired me and I decided that I needed to get better at garnishing my cocktails.  It's really quite impressive what

Week 8 - The Mojito Rita I have been really excited to make this drink. It is one I've been eyeing since I received the book. This drink combines two of my most favorite drinks, the mojito and the margarita.  I decided to make week 8 the Mojito Rita.  It did not disappoint! I was nervous to make this drink because I needed to use a muddler which I have never used before.  However, thanks to my Amazon-gone-wild purchase craze of the last few weeks, I'm now the proud owner of a brand new, shiny muddler.   This drink also gave me the opportunity to use my new drink swivel stir stick (See Week 6 ).   Using two new items in one week, I felt like such a fabulous home bartender.  Keep reading to find out how WRONG I was:) Side note - I also stocked up on some fun new straws recently.  This drink gave me an opportunity to use one.  See photo below to check out my straw arsenal!   The drink had a bit of prep work involved, but it was a lot of fun, so it didn't real