Halloween Cocktail Night!

Halloween Cocktail Night -- something of a 'ladies' night' this week. With so many Hallowwen parties and events happened over the weekend, Arjen and I had only 2 (but 2 excellent) cocktailers. The theme was classic Halloween; its legends, lore, history... ingredients such as lizard's gizzards, eye of newt, bottled skunk fart, bat whiskers, troll teeth, mummified toenails were all welcome...

Having only 4 cocktailers made it possible this week to play a game... the only possible choice was 'Witches of Salem' which we lost miserably (a cooperative game) but which was very atmospheric considering the occasion!
The first drink was Arjen's Gluhsangria. Halloween, being the evening during which the threshold between world's is the thinnest. In between summer solstice and winter solstice, all Hallow's Eve is the perfect time to blend the idea of a snowy, winter evening in Germany with a lazy, warm summer evening in Spain. Hence, Arjen created a drink that was a mixture of German holiday Glug and Spanish sangria. The result was a delicious, spiced red wine with notes of both Christmas and summertime!

Gluhsangria:
- put a clove in a wineglass
- 1/2 ounce of Calvados
- 1/4 ounce of orange curacao
- fill the rest of the glass with red wine
- garnish with a slice of orange and a lemon zest

Naturally, Lunchbox Lissenberg was in attendance at the party-- searching for laps and as much attention as she could garnish.

A little apple tart never goes amiss on these Fall evenings. 

Astrid made a cocktail in memory of sweet little Mama-- her sweet white rat who passed away last Wednesday.

This is little Mama at a party at Astrid's last year.

Mama's Cocktail:
-2 parts spiced rum
- 1 1/2 part yoghurt liquor, shaken over ice.
- decorate with fresh vanilla (for a tail)
- or otherwise add a bit vanilla extract. I sprinkled some cocoa on top.

RIP sweet, little Mama!

Lunchy meeting the Mama doll-- not initially a happy
union...





 But how quickly hatred can turn to love.... and other things.

My drink was next--- although as always I needed Arjen to do the hard work. The idea was to create something that looked like candy corn-- in the absence of having REAL candy corn. It would be a sweet, dessert drink, non-alcoholic - that I could drink too.

We used food coloring to make the bottom layer orange. Because of the thickness of the drink,the layers sat atop each other and really did look like candy corn. If we were in the U.S. we certainly would have finished the drink by laying a few pieces of candy corn on top.

Tah-dah... four festive Candy Cornucopias!

The Candy Cornacopia:
- choose a flavor of sorbet (we used pear, and was light yellow in color)
- take a handful of ice cubes and crush them (or put them in a blender)
- add a 1/4 pint of the sorbet
- add a glass of apple juice
- add orange food coloring if the sorbet isn't already orange
- spoon into bottom of the glasses
- prepare the yellow layer the same way except use orange juice instead of apple juice. Add yellow food coloring unless (like our pear sorbet) it already is yellow
- top with whipped cream

Really fresh and fruity-- and the flavors will depend on the sorbet, so there's a lot of room for play. 

Of course you could always add vodka to make this slushie into a proper cocktail.

 So to wrap up, it was a quiet, and lovely, very festive Halloween cocktail eve. We were defeated by witches, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely in the meantime.

These quieter nights make for a nice, cozy atmosphere-- very sleep-inducing. 

Some of us were over-relaxed, but isn't that what autumn is for... slowing down a little?

Next week--- the theme to be announced!

20th Century MONSTERS!

This week was the third monster-themed cocktail night--- bringing us nearly up to Halloween!
This time the theme was 20th century monsters. We got away from literature a little-- although it is impossible to ignore H.P. Lovecraft in this category-- and tuned our creative brains into concocting cocktails for more modern monsters.
The first drink of the evening was mine. In the end, I used the old, terrible film 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon' as the inspiration. The main feature, of course, is the black lagoon and the suggestion of a creature. This drink is basically an autumn smoothie with some special October touches. Doing a smoothie allowed me to creature something murky-- capable of hiding a creature.

We gathered around to watch the old 1950s movie trailer for the film. As with most old monster movies-- once you've seen a 5-minute trailer there is really no point in watching the film itself.

The Creature From the Black Lagoon
(for 6 people)
- yogurt ( 4-5 plops)
- dash vanilla aroma
- couple dashes  of rum aroma
- a liter apple juice
- 1/2 liter hard cider (optional)
- rum (splash in each glass) (optional)
- tinned pears (1 tin - 4 halves) drained

- black coloring for drink - not the same as food coloring, I don't think. This is specifically for coloring beverages.
Preparation:
- Find 'creatures' and freeze them into ice cubes pre-party
- the creature should be floating in a most menacing way when the drink is served

In my case, the creature sank to the depths of the cocktail in a most obliging way (not great for pictures), but the bodies of the creatures emerged when the lagoon was drained. 

Terrifying.

The next drink was Arjen's The King in Yellow, borrowed from a story Robert W. Chambers-- later used by H.P. Lovecraft. This imaginary play provided the inspiration (and the color) for the cocktail. It was a fruity, refreshing, still powerful drink. In the story, the play made the people who watched it crazy. This cocktail has the same capability. 

Here is someone going crazy.

Note the demonic glimmer in the eyes. Crazy. 

Maarten is not QUITE crazy yet, but he will assuredly unravel before the evening is out. 

Lost cause. 

Borderline crazy. 


The King in Yellow
1/2 ounce creme de cacao
1/2 ounce lemon juice
2 ounces gin
2 dashes orange bitters
2 ounces orange juice

The next drink was Wouter's creation. A masterpiece based on the 'Candyman'. I don't dare even write it 5 times. At the bottom of the drink, there was a collection of dead bees. Pulling from the film (in which the future Candyman (the son of a slave) is punished for his love of a white woman by having his hand cut off and replaced with a hook, and then being smeared by with honey and chased by a swarm of  bees who eventually kill him). Obviously, he then becomes a monster-- what else?

In preparation for this drink you must 1st prepare the honey.
- one part honey
- one part water
- heat in a pan until honey dissolves
- cool

The Candyman
- 1 part honey
- 1 part dark rum
- 1/2 part scotch whiskey
- dash Marasquin
- shake over ice
(make dead bees with raisins soaked in rum)
(can add lemon)

Still crazy. 

A couple of vicious games of Zombie Dice helped to keep things on a spooky, uneven keel.  

Maarten's drink was next. He claimed mutants early on, and created a drink called Meta Luna, based on the mutant from the movie of the same name.

Although it was a hair strong, the recipe has already been refined and, assuming you like mint flavoring, this will be a lovely, fresh, minty, and appropriately green drink. 

Meta Luna
- 2 parts whiskey
- 1 part creme de menthe (pr less, depending on your taste)
- a squeeze of lemon
- fill to top with fizzy lemonade

Meta Luna on Mystery Science Theater.

We sorely missed Judith and Astrid this week! Nice to have Agnes and Wouter though!!

Next week is Halloween weekend, so our theme will be traditional Halloween--- witch's brews, potions, anything one might find in a bubbling cauldron. Anything related to all Hallow's traditions and lore, as well.

19th century MONSTERS!

 This week's cocktail night was inspired by 19th century monsters. The idea was to choose a monster from a literary work and read part of the inspiring passage in conjunction with serving your original cocktail. We claimed our monsters early in the week, since monsters are (I hope) finite. The result was one of the most creative and clever cocktail nights yet!

Arjen chose the tale of Jekyll and Hyde as his inspiration.

In true Dr Jekyll style, he created his 'Potion' in a series of test tubes. 

The result was instant.
He apparently lost his mind.

The Potion:
- a drop of grenadine
- a teaspoon absinthe
- 1/2 ounce lemon juice
- 1/2 ounce blue curacao

 

Incidentally, this is the first time I've seen my husband wearing more make-up than me. A novelty, but not part of our future repertoire. 

Remco drained his with Hyde-ish speed. 

Next, Astrid unveiled an alcoholic jello concoction  inspired by Jane Eyre's Madwoman in the Attic. We listened to the passage in the classic Gothic tale wherein the madwoman sets Mr. Rochester's bed curtains on fire. Startling and festive!

The cocktail is tropical after the location where the madwoman and master met and married. It's sweet, (because women always are). The cocktail has a nut, resembling the nutter living on the top of the tower. Hello madwoman on the attic.

The Madwoman in the Attic (for 8 jello shots)
- three quarters of a package orange flavored jello.
-Three quarter cup of hot water
 -Mix according to package instructions
- mix it either in small portions or keep the bowl in a bigger bowl with warm water while preparing your cocktail.



The virgin version:
- Nut flavoured sirup (normally used for coffees)
- Diet coke
- Coconut milk (2 layers)
- A nut (same as the sirup flavour you used)

The alcohol shots contain:
- Nut flavoured sirup
- Coconut milk
- Coconut rum or malibu
- Cream
- A nut
- To make the layers, mix the cold ingredients as mentioned above in a 1:1 ratio with the warm jello mixture. Prepare a small quantity each time, just for that specific layer only. Pour a small layer in your shot cup. Leave to set in the fridge until ready for the next layer. The nut is hidden in a white layer (with cream or coconut milk). Just add it immediatly after adding the white layer in your cups.
- When all layers are done, leave the.jello shots in the fridge for another three hours before serving.

Even the non-alcoholic version was fabulous!

'Shot' time!

Using the tale of Dracula as inspiration, Judith created a highly-inventive and visually exciting piece of art. She first read us an excerpt in which Mina find Lucy draped over a garden bench in the dead of night, which the ghoul crouched over her.

After presenting the cocktails, complete with shot glasses and syringes, she read the second excerpt -- a description of Lucy's blood transfusion. The idea was to use the syringe to infuse the pale, flesh-colored  drink with its red counterpart--in effect giving life back to it and transforming it from pale and wasted to a healthier color.

Transfusion in progress. Most pleasant one ever. 

Shot can also be administered directly to the tongue. (although not recommended) 

Lucy's Secret Lover:
For the fake blood heat some cranberry juice in a pan and add some cornstarch to thicken it slightly to resemble blood (I used about 3 teaspoons of dissolved cornstarch to about 200 ml cranberry juice). Leave to cool in the fridge and remember it get be thicker as it cools, so don't add too much cornstarch.
For the pale drink:
1 ounce of vodka
juice of half a lime
top up with pear juice

For the virgin version:
replace wodka with tonic.

Serve the blood in a shotglass with a syringe (you can buy these at the pharmacy).

Pale cocktail pre-transfusion

Same cocktail looking infinitely healthier. 

My drink was next. Based on Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  I combined the story of the lanky, superstitious schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, with a classic, traditional and very early American drink... flip.

To garnish the drinks, I painted conkers to resemble pumpkins in honor of the headless horseman. 

After distributing the basic drinks, we heated up forks (in place of loggerheads) over the stove. As in colonial American taverns, a person would doctor their mug of flip by stirring it with a red-hot poker.

The result is instant froth (overflowing) and gives the drink a toasted flavor. While you might add a number of ingredients (milk, cream, eggs, cinnamon, more booze, etc;) to your drink, this is the recipe we used:

Icabod's Pumpkin Flip
- beer
- pumpkin
- rum
- grate nutmeg on top of foam

 Remco created a drink based on Frankenstein.

Blood of Frankenstein:
1 ounce Sloe Gin
3/4 ounce Dry Vermouth
1 tsp Triple Sec and 
a firm splash of O.J. 

It's basically a Frankenjack with Sloe gin instead of Gin and OJ instead of Apricot brandy.

Delicious!!!

At the end of a night of storytelling and black eyeshadow, everyone was ready for a long sleep in the coffin. 

But some of us don't need a coffin to get a good night sleep.