Thirsty Thursday: Whiskey Cranberry Slushies!

It's safe to say that it's officially the "Holiday" season.  We just passed Halloween, Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and then the whole December fiasco follows right up on its heels.  There a more holidays in the last quarter of the year than we quite know what to do with.

I know, however, what makes those holidays go down a little easier - ALCOHOL!  That's right, kids, I'm endorsing imbibing to help keep those holidays bright.  It's with that in mind that when I saw Food Network Magazine's recipe for Whiskey-Cranberry Slushies, I knew we had to jump right in.  It's November 3rd, and there's no time like the present, right??

Super simple, just grab your ingredients...

Mix all the liquids (only 3 cups of cranberry juice) together, including your juice from the limes, and put in a large, shallow tuperware container.

Take out some cranberries and chop them up.  Do you know I've never tasted a fresh from the store cranberry before??  Wow, are they bitter!  I cringe to think how much sugar is added to make these even palatable!!

Then, shove it in the freezer, taking it out to stir evey half hour or so to keep it from truly solidifying. Give it a good five hours, depending (I suppose) on how potent your freezer is vs. how much whiskey you added.  This step seemed to take forever.  The slush took a long time to form, but then BAM!!!  It was ready right on schedule.  Who knew, right?

Once you have a nice slushie formed, fill up your glasses, top up with chopped cranberries, and a sprig o' mint go garnish.  Now, because I was having slush issues, and was concerned about having enough, I did some chopped ice too.  Couldn't hurt, maybe helped?  Doesn't matter.  The drinks were delicious!  I didn't add the remaining cranberry juice as the recipe called for, just filled with the slush and these drinks were amazing!  So much so that I'll be making them again for a big party.  The honey whiskey really helped, too.  I think that was Thomas' favorite part!

After a few, I'm sure you'll be racing the angel to the top of that Christmas tree!

On a PS note, remember how bummed I was about my mini caramel apples?  Well, we tried them again for our fancy dinner, and served them straight out of the pot.  Result?  Caramel still fell off the apple and more stuck to the plate than was actually eaten.  At least they looked cute, right??

Because everyone is doing it!

So, about a month and a half ago, towards the end of August, I was planning my appetizer/dessert menu for my October wine social at work. I know that's ahead of the game, but I wanted time to find recipes, practice (as necessary), and revise at will. The menu is pretty extensive, but one thing I've been super excited for, are these...mini caramel apples! The looked amazing, sounded easy enough to make (for 50+ people) and I figured they'd get the point across without being obnoxious, right?

Cue my first problem - I couldn't find the correct caramel.  I did find some dip and some wraps.  The website said wraps should work if cut down to size, so no problems there.

I started with one apple, not to be to anxious, and before you know it, I was ballin' out of control.  It was super easy, and I loved eating the leftover apple pieces.  I could get 7-8 of the "big balls" giggles out of each apple, and three teensy ones.

The dip was a long shot.  You can see my first attept on the top of this picture.  The dip was too runny for my purposes, although it did taste amazing.

The wrap was another bust.  The air/apples were too moist and the wrap wouldn't stick to the apple itself.  What little bit did stick, didn't do so for long.  Certainly not long enough to sit on a two hour buffet.

Gross.

The, I decided to wrap from the top down.  In this manner, I could only cut each wrap into four pieces, and then I would sit there and cajole the living caramel out of each wrap until it coated the apple.  With this method, I had the issue of the flat (peel) side being on the bottom, and it was way too labor intensive to make 150+ of these. 

So, I got my office slave assistant to make some phone calls.  She found the Kraft Caramel Squares at the local Walmart.  I beat some granny who was trying to buy her Halloween candy early to get them!

I melted the caramels with the tennsiest bit of water and dipped the apples right in.

Success!!  They looked (and tasted) exactly the way I wanted them too.  Now, the recipe said if humidity is high, (and when isn't it when you're next to the ocean?!) try freezing the apples for a couple of minutes to help solidify the caramel.  I figured if this worked, I could easily just take a few out at a time for my work buffet.

Alas, after ten minutes, they looked melted and gross - and the caramel stuck more to my non-stick pan than to my apples! 

Super bummed.  I'd be interested to see these work, though, because I've since read two different magazines that are featuring them for October, and they say nothing about humidity or issues with the caramel sliding off the apples.

Regardless, this recipe has been scratched from my menu, leaving me with only pumpkin cheesecake and dark chocolate pots de creme for dessert.  I might find a new recipe, but something tells me it's going to come in bulk from Costco!

Keep the faith, my work party is Thursday, so I will start sharing my fall/Halloween recipes as soon as I have pictures of them all.