Leftover Cranberry Sauce Mimosa

You can eat cranberry sauce, or you can drink cranberry sauce.

Every holiday should involve a good brunch that includes some version of a mimosa. Since our tummies are reserved for turkey on Thanksgiving day, my brunch occurs the morning after (and/or the day after that, and/or the day after that).

Not only does the recipe below meet one’s daily mimosa requirement, it also provides a creative way to consume some Thanksgiving leftovers. I’ve only tried it with homemade cranberry sauce (which in our house is chunky, and typically includes fresh grated ginger and a dash of Grand Marnier or orange zest), but I’d be curious to know if canned jellied cranberry sauce also dissolves in sparkling wine.

Now if someone can only find a way to get leftover turkey into a cocktail….

Leftover Cranberry Sauce Mimosa

5 ounces sparkling wine or champagne

1 teaspoon cranberry sauce

orange wheel

Place cranberry sauce in a champagne flute. Sloooowly add sparking wine (or it will bubble over!) while stirring.  Garnish with an orange wheel.

Doorbuster Cocktail on Black Friday

I'll need one of these if I shop like a locavore; six if I have to go to Walmart.

Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year. Fortunately, I’m eating at someone else’s house so I don’t have to prepare to do anything other than eat and drink. The gift-giving season that follows, however, leaves me feeling like I should have started shopping months ago. I need a drink, a massage, and chocolate, STAT! And a wreath! And a muffin.

Leah and I lost our minds this year and decided to open Felicia’s at 10AM on BLACK FRIDAY, November 23, with morning cocktails, breakfast sandwiches, housemade cranberry nut muffins, chair massages by Rasa Spa, chocolate tasting/sales with Preliminaires Chocolat, handmade soap and hemlock/sage wreaths made by Tree Gate Farm, and raw honey and jam from Red Tail Farm. Last year, I bought Preliminaires Chocolat for every woman on my gift list; I think the pastry chef might indeed be God if one exists. This year, everyone is getting yummy scented handmade soaps (the men, too, which they can use should they choose to bathe in the coming year). We’ll also have Felicia hoodies, martini glasses, pint glasses, T-shirts, and gift certificates for sale. 

Call me lazy, but if I can buy it all in one place then my loved ones are much more likely to find something other than brown pine needles under their Xmas trees. 

And where else can you drink mimosas, holiday spiked coffee, Cranhattans, and eggnog martinis while conveniently completing your holiday shopping?

Here's my favorite drink to have before I hit the stores: The Doorbuster.

Doorbuster

1 ounce tequila

1/2 orange wheel sprinkled with cinnamon

Drink shot. Bite cinnamon-sprinkled orange wheel. Shop 'til you drop.

The Wiggins Cocktail

I'll have a Wiggins Cocktail or three.

Congratulations to the Wiggins family, the innovative owners of La Tourelle Resort and Spa in Ithaca. This week, they received the Howard Cogan Tourism Award for their contributions to tourism in our community.

You probably haven't heard of the Wiggins family, unless you live in Ithaca. I've met them, and they are lovely. But I admit I've never visited the spa. When I have time to relax, I get as far away from town as I can. Preferably somewhere with no cell service, and no people. And lots of booze.

Howard Cogan, on the other hand, is practically famous worldwide. He's the guy who created the slogan "Ithaca is Gorges," now plastered on our cars' bumpers and across our green T-shirt chests, allowing us to find like-minded individuals when we are traveling in other parts of the country. Don't wear your "Ithaca is Gorges" T-shirt outside of this area unless you want to make friends with other displaced Ithacans who will run up to you and hug you, leaving their patchouli aura on your Ithaca clothing.

The Ithaca Visitor's Center commissioned Felicia's to make a cocktail in honor of the Wiggins family, with the only guideline being red wine as one of the ingredients. Leah created a red wine syrup with cocoa, cinnamon, mustard, and orange zest, which was slowly added to a glass of champagne. I know, mustard? Really? Really. A festive cocktail with a delightful and delicious complexity. The drink will be on our Lounge menu at least through the holiday season.

Election Day Cocktails: Vote Wisely, Drink Heavily

Felicia always says: You can't complain if you don't vote!  $1 off a drink if you come wearing your 'I Voted' sticker tonight. We'll be streaming the election results via projector starting around 7:30pm. And we're definitely going to need to drink to get through this one. Join us to celebrate with a toast, or to cry in your beer with a hug chaser. Vote wisely and we'll hope for a victory toast.

And a locavore shout out to someone who also deserves national attention because he's so awesome: The elderberry juice in the Mormon Elder is from berries that were cultivated, picked, and pressed by Amelia's dad. Thanks, Pop!

Try our election day cocktails today only: President's Punch, the Baracktail, The Nutty Fruitcake, and the Mormon Elder Cocktail!