Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Holiday Cocktails -- #Christmas #recipes by @Leslie Budewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Sometimes our characters have different tastes than we do. I prefer wine and champagne to mixed drinks, but since my girl Pepper, from the Spice Shop mysteries, loves a good cocktail, several of the books include a cocktail recipe. For Peppermint Barked, 6th in the series, we tested two recipes with a holiday flair and loved them both. Only one, the Sleigh Ride, appears in the book, but our variation of the pomegranate martini was too good not to share.

By the way, if you have any spiced cognac left over, it's delish all by itself. 

Consider this a Christmas gift from my in-house mixologist, aka Mr. Right, and me.   

The Spiced Sleigh Ride

The color of firelight on a chilly evening, Kristen and Eric’s variation of the classic sidecar uses homemade spiced cognac for a warming winter cocktail that can also be made with brandy or bourbon. 

For each drink: 
1 tablespoon white sugar 
lemon wedge
1.5 ounces spiced cognac (recipe follows) 
1 ounce Triple Sec or Cointreau 
½ ounce lemon juice 

Spiced Cognac

4 cardamom pods 
1 cinnamon stick 
1 star anise 
2 slices fresh, peeled ginger (each about the size of a nickel) 
6 ounces cognac 


To make the spiced cognac: 
Lightly bruise the cardamom pods with the flat side of a meat mallet or the flat of a chef’s knife. Break the cinnamon stick. Add cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, and ginger to a large glass measuring cup and add the cognac. Infuse 30-45 minutes, tasting after 30 minutes; allow to steep another fifteen minutes if you’d like. Strain to remove spices. 

To make the drink: 
Pour the sugar on a saucer. Rub the lemon wedge around the rim of a small coupe or martini glass. Dip the rim into the sugar. Pour the spiced cognac, Triple Sec, and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker; fill with ice and shake well before straining into the frosted glass. Garnish with the lemon wedge. 




Mrs. Santa's Pomegranate Martini


Fun and festive. No seeds in my version, only because we didn't have any at the moment, but they are a nice touch.  

For each drink: 

1-1/2 ounces gin

1 ounce pomegranate juice

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup

pomegranate seeds and sliced lime to garnish

To make the drink: 

Drop a few pomegranate seeds in the bottom of your martini glass. Set aside.

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add the gin, pomegranate juice, fresh lime juice, and simple syrup. Shake vigorously.

Strain into martini glass. Garnish with a fresh lime slice.

Cheers! All the very best to you and yours this holiday season, from Mr. Right and me!



If you're a fan of holiday mysteries, I've got a pair for you! Peppermint Barked, 6th in my Spice Shop series set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles, 5th in my Food Lovers' Village mysteries! More about it on my website.


PEPPERMINT BARKED: A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books)

From the cover: 
A Dickens of a Christmas turns deadly…

As the holiday season lights up Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece’s beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition—a peppermint bark-off—along with Victorian costumes for this year’s Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend’s brother for the first time.

But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny’s wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper’s mind. Who would want to hurt Beth? Or were they looking for Vinny instead?

The vicious attack upsets everyone at Pike Place, but none more than Pepper’s own employee, Matt Kemp. At first, Pepper is baffled by his reaction, but his clandestine connection to Beth could hold the key to the assailant’s motive. Or perhaps it’s Vinny’s ex-wife who knows more than she’s letting on . . . and what about the mysterious top-hatted man with whom Pepper saw Beth arguing that morning?

As the secrets of the market come to light, long-held grudges, family ties, and hidden plans only further obscure the truth. Is it a ghost of the past rattling its chains, or a contemporary Scrooge with more earthly motives? As Pepper chases down a killer, someone is chasing her, and in the end, the storied market itself may hold the final, deadly clue.

A cozy holiday mystery full of culinary delights and a rich cast of characters, the sixth installment in the Spice Shop Mystery series will keep you turning the page . . . and reaching for another piece of peppermint bark. 


Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries, and the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories. Death al Dente, the first Food Lovers' Village Mystery, won Best First Novel in 2013, following her 2011 win in Best Nonfiction. Her first historical short story, "All God's Sparrows," won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. Peppermint Barked, her 6th Spice Shop mystery, came out in July 2022, and Blind Faith, her second standalone suspense novel (written as Alicia Beckman), was released in October 2022. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.


5 comments:

  1. Lovely choices. A sidecar is one of my favorites.
    I recently got whacked with pnuemonia and lost my usual sense of taste. Wine tasted terrible! It's been three weeks and I just had a glass Sunday and it tasted right! Those simple pleasures.

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    1. Oh, gosh, Libby -- how awful! I didn't know that could happen from pneumonia. Glad you're back on your feet and enjoying a little vino!

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    2. It was quite a relief to have the wine taste right again. My husband, bless him, was thinking we'd both have to quit drinking wine if I couldn't taste it correctly!

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  2. thanks for popping in today. thanks for sharing your recipe Merry Christmas to you and your family

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