Recipe of the Week

I’ve had a crush on Margaritas my whole life!

Ever since my parents used to let me sneak a taste of theirs at the local watering hole (GeJo’s) when I was in high school!  I thought maybe it was the forbidden fruit but 30 years later and I still LOVE Margaritas. I  have gotten pickier through the years, however.. I used to drink any margarita, $1 Marg night… I’m IN! But now I prefer real ingredients in my Margs.

Clean Margarita Recipe

Directions:

• Combine tequila, lime juice, Orange Liquor of choice (Cointreau or Triple Sec), and ice in the blender.
• Blend until it is the way you like it.
• Run cut limes around the Margarita glass and dip in salt or sugar. I have two of these rimmers one with salt and one with sugar
• Pour Margaritas into the glass and use these fun reusable silicone straws.

If you’d like to make up the margarita mixer in advance, this is another option.

CLEAN MARGARITA MIXER

• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons honey or agave syrup

SIMPLE SYRUP RECIPE

You have two options

1. Quick & Easy – 1:1 Sugar and Water… Shake until completely dissolved. The superfine sugar you bought to use for a rimmer works great.
2. Bring the water to a boil.
3. Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water, stirring constantly.
4. Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat. (Note: Do not allow the syrup to boil for too long or the syrup will be too thick once it cools.)
5. Allow to cool completely and thicken, then bottle and refrigerate if you aren’t using it right away.

Margarita always makes it feel like a party!  Why not have a few fun variations at your next social distancing driveway party!

The best Margarita’s have fresh ingredients like homemade sweet and sour, simple syrup, and fresh fruit. Fresh peach margarita’s in the summertime are my absolute favorites!

Homemade Sweet & Sour for Margarita’s

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Homemade Sweet & Sour Prep

Directions: Stir together water and sugar in a large saucepan. Stir until the sugar dissolves over medium heat, bring to a boil, and cool syrup. Combine water and sugar in a large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, remove from heat to cool syrup while you squeeze your fresh citrus fruit. Keep this mixture refrigerated until your party. It can be made a week ahead. This is SO much better than store-bought sweet and sour that it’s worth a little extra effort.

Christmas Pomegranate Margarita

• 1 -1/2 parts Tequila
• 2 parts POM  Juice
• ½ part Sweet & Sour mix
• ½ part triple sec
• Pomegranate seeds for top garnish
• Rim glasses with red & white large sugar crystals

Prickly Pear Margaritas

(A Frozen Pink Drink)

• 3 1/2 cups crushed ice
• 3 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 3 oz. frozen limeade
• 6 Tequila
• 4 1/2 oz. Cointreau
• 3 oz. prickly pear cactus juice
• 3 T. sugar
• Lime wedges and kosher salt for garnish

Area’s like Arizona and California might have Prickly Pear Cactus juice on the grocery shelves but if you don’t you can buy it online at Amazon here. 

Blend all ingredients until the desired consistency of pink frothiness. Cut lime wedges and use them to wet the rim of your margarita glasses, dip in kosher salt and pour in the frozen margs. YUM!

Watermelon Margarita

Ingredients:

• 2 parts, watermelon juice
• 1 part, orange liquor
• 1 part, tequila
• squeeze 1/2 a fresh lime into the shaker.

Watermelons are so easy to liquify, just pop it in the blender and pulse, if you want this to be a frozen drink add ice to the blender or use the pulpy juice with the liquors. Rim with green or red sugar depending on your holiday and garnish with a lime wedge or a chunk of melon.

Watermelon Margarita variation

INGREDIENTS

2 cups crushed ice
1 cup chopped watermelon
6 oz. tequila
4 fluid ounces frozen limeade concentrate
2 oz. Triple Sec

INSTRUCTIONS

Fill a blender with ice and crush. Add remaining ingredients and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth. Add ice if needed for desired consistency. Serve in margarita glasses with the rims dipped in margarita salt or sanding sugar.

Cadillac Margarita

• 2 oz. Reposado tequila (Our other top shelf favorite)
• 1/2 oz. orange liqueur
• 2 oz. lime juice

This is a classic clean margarita that’s all about the top-shelf tequila and nothing to get in the way of that other than the orange liqueur. Pour ingredients over ice into a tall mixing glass, shaken briskly, strained into a chilled cocktail glass with a salted rim (optional). Garnish with lime wheel.

The Presidential Margarita

Chili’s knock-off recipe 

• 1 1/2 oz Tequila
• 1 1/2 oz Brandy
• 1 1/2 oz Cointreau Liqueur
• 1 (Juice of) Lime Fruit

Best served in a hurricane glass. Pour each ingredient into a shaker and add ice. Rim a margarita glass with lime and salt, fill with ice, and garnish with a lime slice. Carefully pour the contents of the shaker into the salted margarita glass, leaving salt undisturbed.

Jalapeno’s Revenge Margarita

• 4 oz of Jalapeño infused Cuervo Silver
• 3 oz Blood Orange Juice
• 1 oz Lime Juice
• 2 oz Orange Liqueur

Fresh jalapeños and orange slices for garnish

Add fresh jalapeños to tequila and steep for 2-4 hours depending on how hot you want your margarita to be. Combine with other ingredients in a shaker and strain over ice. Rim the glass with Kosher Salt or Bloody Mary Salt. (Photo and recipe credit Jose Cuervo)

Serve with chips in case you got it too spicy!

Spiced Pear Affair Margarita

• 1 1/2 oz of Tequila
• 3/4 oz of Pear Brandy
• 1 oz lime juice
• 3/4 oz spiced simple syrup

Combine in shaker and pour into a martini glass (Optional – rim with sugar)

Chocolate Margarita’s

•  1 1/2 ounces of Tequila
• 1 ounce Godiva liquor
• 3/4 ounce cream or half & half
• 1 tablespoon Hershey’s syrup
• 2 ounces orange juice

Combine in shaker with ice, pour into pretty glasses rimmed with crushed Oreo’s.

Blue Agave Margarita Recipe

• 1 1/2 oz Silver tequila
• 1/2 oz Triple Sec
• 1/2 oz Blue Curacao
• 1/2 cup Sweet and Sour

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice, pour into pretty margarita glasses rimmed with kosher salt and garnish with lime.

Super Easy Beer Margaritas Recipe

Check out this simple and deceptively powerful margarita recipe. It goes together quickly and it is fun to share on a hot summer night on the deck or patio or with a crowd of friends during the holidays.  (These will warm you from the inside out!)

(Recipe adapted from the bartender at The Brown Palace)

BeerRita Ingredients:

• 1 lime, cut into 8 wedges
• 1/4 cup coarse salt
• 2 (12-ounce) bottles of your favorite beer, chilled
• 1/2 cup frozen concentrate limeade, thawed
• 1/2 cup chilled tequila
• Ice cubes

BeerRita Instructions:

Rub lime wedges around the rims of 4 margarita glasses.
Dip rims into salt to coat lightly.
In a medium pitcher, combine beer, limeade, and tequila.
Fill prepared glasses with ice, then with margarita mixture.
Garnish with remaining lime wedges.
Serve immediately.

Share with friends!

The one that can still stand after the first pitcher gets to make the 2nd batch.

This recipe was passed on from a bartender at the Brown Palace in Downtown Denver CO.

More Margarita Gear

Need even more margarita recipes? Entire books have been devoted to the topic, check the selection here.

Every Margarita fanatic needs to have a rimmer, the best price we’ve found is this one on Amazon.com, It has a spot for the lime juice and 2 options of salt or sugar or colored sugar.

If you like beer margarita’s you might need these CoronaRita drink clips.

Margarita’s in festive glasses just seem to make them taste better don’t you think?

Amazon has the biggest selection by far here. We really love these Margarita giant goblets you see in all your favorite Mexican restaurants. I got some very similar when we went to Mexico.

Or for a little more economical option use these for your favorite frozen or on the rocks margarita’s Libby Party set of 12 glasses

Of course, happy hour at Los Dos Patrillos and a house margarita is always a good option if you don’t feel like making your own.

After visiting your local Farmers Market you should be able to have all of the ingredients for a fabulous Grilled Corn Salsa with a little California twist.

Summer grilling of fresh vegetables bringing your family together.

Visit your local farmers Market this week and purchase:

• 6 ears of Olathe Sweet Corn,
• 2 Poblano Peppers,
• 1 Jalapeno or Anaheim Pepper (optional)
• 1 bunch of cilantro (optional)
• 1 red pepper (optional)
• 1 red onion
• 1 Tbsp local honey
• Juice of one fresh lime juice
• 2 avocado’s (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Corn on the Cob Directions

1. Turn your grill on to medium to preheat.
2. Leave the husks on the corn and soak them in water. Remove the silks but leave the husks on. The water trapped inside the husks steams the sweet corn for the most amazing results. . it’s ok if they look burned.. it will be fabulous!  Grill on medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Place your peppers on the grill for 15 minutes or until they are blistered.  Take them off the grill and immediately put them in a plastic bag. This makes it much easier to take the outside skins off. After a few minutes in the bag, peel the skins off, pull off the stem and the inside membranes and chop.
4. Chop the red onion and cilantro finely.
5. Shuck the cooled corn and hold either on the top of a bunt pan like the video shows or with a smaller bowl inverted into a bigger bowl and slice the kernels off of the corn cob.
6. Into the bowl of corn, combine all of the ingredients of choice above. If you love avocado chop it in the skin into cubes and add at the last minute so it keeps its shape.
7. Spread tortilla chips on a baking sheet and heat at 400 for 3 minutes. Even if your chips are a little stale this will make them taste fresh, crispy and hot.
8. You can even eat this with a spoon it’s so wonderful.
9. To round out your meal brush olive oil and season salt and pepper your protein of choice and grill it after you take the corn and peppers off.

Roasted Corn on the Cob with Cilantro Lime Butter

Alternative Recipe courtesy of Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh

6 ears corn, shucked
Cilantro Lime Butter, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Coat each ear of corn in 2 tablespoons of the cilantro lime butter and wrap individually in foil. Roast until hot and steaming, about 25 minutes. Serve with extra butter on the side.

Cilantro Lime Butter:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Put the butter in a mixing bowl and, using a rubber spatula, mix in the cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, salt and cayenne.
• Use immediately or refrigerate.

Yield: 3/4 cup

If you are looking for a great side dish for grilling, in the oven or for Meatless Monday, this stuffed Portabello Mushroom recipe could be the perfect thing for you.

Spinach Stuffed Portabello Mushroom Recipe

I’ve made this recipe several times, and have adapted it from “The Daniel Plan Cookbook” to work for me. The original recipe calls for frozen spinach. I don’t usually have that in the house so I substituted fresh baby spinach. I also add whatever other fresh herbs I happen to have like Basil or Parsley and I cut the amount of cheese in half. So if it’s not creamy enough for you feel free to double the amount of cheese.

[Read more…] about Grilled Stuffed Baby Bella Mushroom Recipe