Stay At Home Cocktails

**My favorite prosecco – Mionetto – in a Redbud heart.**

#Stayathome means I can stay at home and play with my food! I’ve been creating cocktails and cocktail garnishes and taking photos of them in my garden in the beautiful sunshine.

My friends at Ladles and Linens Kitchen Shop have a facebook cooking school group where I am finding lots of fabulous recipes and cooking tips. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ladlescookingschool

Here’s a new favorite cocktail from my friends at Ladles and Linens Kitchen Shop (ladlesandlinens.com):

The Fiesty Homeschooler

Serves approximately 4 – 6

6 strawberries

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

dash cayenne

Champagne

3 sprigs mint

Wash and core strawberries. Combine berries, water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in vanilla and add 2 sprigs of mint. Reduce heat to simmer, about 15-20 minutes until strawberries are very soft. Strain mixture well. Allow to cool. Once cooled, add vanilla extract and cayenne. Stir. Pour simple syrup into a glass container or Mason jar and cover tightly. Refrigerate.

Place 2 tablespoons strawberry simple syrup in a flute (add more if you like a very sweet cocktail). Pour champagne over the simple syrup and give it a little stir. Garnish with a fresh strawberry and a sprig of mint.

I’ve been having fun making cocktail garnishes for Bourbon cocktails. The garnish above is made by thinly slicing apples (with peel) and placing them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle the slices liberally with granulated sugar. Broil the slices until the peels are brown and crispy. Watch carefully because they will smoke and burn. You will need to change the baking sheet at least once because the sugar around the slices will start to smoke. It is worth it for the end result! Take apple slices out of the oven and allow to cool. Pour 1 tablespoon bourbon over each apple slice. Using a spatula, place apple slices on a plate and pour any bourbon left on the baking sheet over the apple slices. Cover with aluminum foil and chill. Tastes like a bourbon baked apple!

I used the same method to make blood orange, naval orange and pineapple cocktail garnishes. All of the peels are edible except for the pineapple.

**Bourbon Cocktail Garnishes – Blood Orange, Navel Orange, Pineapple and Apple Slices**

**Navel Orange Bourbon Cocktail Garnish**

Most any fruit or vegetable can be made into a fan cocktail garnish. I made the strawberry fan with a cocktail pick sticking through it, then laid the pick across the top of the glass. The apple fan was made with a cocktail pick going through the ends of the apple fan, but then I pulled out the cocktail pick and laid the apple fan in the glass. The celery fan was made by slicing a celery stick into thin slices, almost all the way to the base, then plunking it into ice water for a few hours. The celery opens up into a fan shape while it is in the ice water.

Find delicious recipes on the Behind The Page Blog: theroanoker.com

Recipe column: Southern Spoonful ~ The Roanoker Magazine

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