Jessie on the Rocks

Week 24 - The Strawberry Margarita Tomorrow is a big day.  I'm getting ready to visit my 46th state!  If you have read any of my previous blog posts, it will not come as a surprise to you that I travel a lot.  Some travel I do for work, but I also genuinely love to visit new places and see as much of the world as I possibly can.  Every new place I see leaves an imprint on my life and I think, makes me a better person.  I was very fortunate as a child to have parents that  showed me as much of the country as they could.  We drove all over the Northeast, to Florida and back and one crazy summer, we drove all the way to Texas and back.  By the time I had graduated high school, I was half way through the list of states.  Since then, I have chipped away at the other half of the states and feel pretty proud of where my travels have taken me.  As I sit here awaiting my next big adventure, I thought a cocktail would be a gre...

Week 23 - The Disaronno Margarita Believe it or not, I have made it to the half way point in my year long margarita journey!  It has gone by shockingly fast and it has been a lot of fun so far.  Cheers to how far I have come and here's to the next six months!  Today was a much needed lazy Sunday.  I ran some errands, caught up on laundry and most importantly, made margaritas!  This week's drink of choice was the Disaronno Margarita.  Disaronno is an amaretto liquor that tastes like sweetened almonds.  This is the first time I have used an amaretto liquor, though I did go through an Amaretto Sour phase in college a while back - probably father back than I'd like to admit.  I really enjoy an almond flavor, so I was looking forward to putting this drink together. The drink itself was one of the easiest drinks I have made so far.  It only calls for three ingredients - tequila, Disaronno and lime juice.  The drink onl...

Week 22 - The Orange Delight Margarita Have you ever experienced one of those days where absolutely nothing goes right.  I mean nothing.  This was my entire week.  Every. Single. Day. I was never so excited to see a weekend in my life. Life is unpredictable and pulls us in so many directions sometimes.   The good news is, that this too shall pass and I am going to start to leave this crazy week behind with my week 22 margarita - The Orange Delight Margarita. This drink gave me the opportunity to use orange sherbet along with the traditional margarita ingredients.  I really enjoyed making this drink and found that the consistency of the sherbet made the frozen drink a lot easier to make.  Where was this ingredient when I was struggling a few months ago?!?!  It added consistency to the frozen part of the drink and made it thicker.  It looked absolutely perfect when I poured it into the cup. I made a quick tr...

Week 21 - The Caribbean Margarita Florida enjoyed a very nice, long and cool winter/spring season this year.   For someone like me, who hates being hot, it was glorious.  I know, I live in the wrong state to not like being hot, but that's a whole other blog discussion (or therapy session!) for another day.  However, all good things must come to an end and summer arrived this week with a vengeance.  The humidly was so high today, I swear you could cut the air with a knife.  It definitely feels more like island life.  It put me in the mood for my week 21 drink - The Caribbean Margarita.  This drink was simple and refreshing and exactly what I needed for my lazy Saturday at home.  It had island flavors of pineapple mixed with coconut rum, which I love.  Added to that was tequila and a splash of grenadine that gave it a fun beachy color.  This drink was a breeze to put together.  It only too...

Week 20 - The Hurricane Margarita Since moving to the great state of Florida, I have had to learn to appreciate a few things that were not on my radar before life in the south.  I say "life in the south" because Jacksonville is very close to the Georgia boarder and some could argue (me) that it's basically south Georgia.  I was not prepared for the amount of "ma'aming and Ya'lling" that came my way when I moved here.  However, as the time passes, I have learned to find it endearing and comforting.  I just might be cut out for life in the south after all:)  Kidding, I'm still an opinionated New Yorker, but I like to think I have learned to also appreciate what the south has to offer.  I will however, NEVER understand why people put tires on trucks that are so big you need a ladder to get in the vehicle, but that's a discussion for another day. The biggest change to living in Florida, is learning to both appreciate and have a healthy fear ...

Week 19 - The Fruit Cocktail Margarita Something fabulous and unexpected happened this week and I have to shamelessly brag about it for a minute.  I surpassed 500 followers on Instagram!  How cool is that?  Who knew that my silly drink making adventure would grow into this?  I remember hitting 75 followers and thinking I had "arrived" lol.   Life is certainly an unpredictable adventure.  Thanks to everyone for the support.  Cheers! 10 years ago this week, my best friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Megan and dubbed me "Aunt Jessie".  It has been one of my life's greatest joys to be a part of Megan's life and watch her grow up.  I also rock at being an auntie, so win-win!  Last weekend, Megan had a sleepover with 11 girls for her 10th birthday party.  I volunteered to travel to Charleston and help chaperone the party - what on earth was I thinking?  I kid, I kid.  It was a fun weekend, ...

Week 18 - The Kiwi Margarita One of the best parts of living in Jacksonville, is the second weekend in May, when The Players Championship comes to town.  Even if you don't like golf, it's a pretty fun event to attend and the whole city gets excited.  I planned my whole Sunday around watching the last round of the tournament on TV.  This is why I find it most ironic that today, of all days, my cable decided to go out.  Seriously life!?!  I have called Comcast no less than 5 times - great news, it should be fixed by 9:00 pm tonight.  Insert eye roll here as the tournament ends by 7:00 pm.  I was able to unplug and re-plug in the cable box every 20 min or so and I could watch between the moments the TV froze.  It was just like being there...except that it wasn't and I definitely had to check my red headed temper a few times.  To take my mind off the annoying cable mishap, I decided to put my energy into margarita ...