The perfect summer cocktail – the watermelon martini!

This is everyone’s new favorite summer cocktail! I bought a sugar baby seedless watermelon from the farm stand north of Yuba City this week. The 4th seemed like the perfect time to try a new cocktail so I juiced the watermelon in my juicer and ended up with the perfect cocktail starter!

 Ingredients:

8 ounces fresh watermelon juice

3 ounces Absolut vodka

2 ounces simple syrup

juice of one lime

granulated sugar, for rimming the glasses

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled half full of ice. Pour into chilled martini glasses that have been rimmed with sugar. Top with a basil sprig. Serves two, but you will need to make more….

Kauai’i mango lama pa’ipa’i

Well it didn’t take long before Courtney invented our “official vacation cocktail” – and it is amazing! The best thing about being in Hawai’i for a foodie is all of the wonderful fresh tropical fruits and vegetables.  When I am here it is winter back home, and even in California there are not a lot of exciting choices in January. I love the taste of all of the tropical fruits – but fresh ripe mango and fresh pineapple are my favorites. This is the first cocktail Courtney made as soon as we unpacked from the market – and it will be hard to top.  She used local juice from Meadow Gold – Passion Orange Nectar – which you can find in the grocery store here locally – but you can use orange mango juice if you are not able to find/make it. This drink is really refreshing – fruity but not too sweet, with a great citrus taste. This really has a nice little punch – perfect to kick back and reset your clock to “island time”…..with your new favorite inu…

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango

4 ounces dark rum (we used Maui dark rum – because we wanted to buy local)

4 ounces fresh passion orange nectar (its local but you can sub orange mango juice in a pinch)

2 ounces club soda or sparkling water

juice of 1 lime

Muddle three slices each of peeled mango in the bottom of  two 10 oz glasses. Pour 2 ounces rum, 2 ounces juice, juice of 1/2 lime and 1 ounce club soda in each glass. Stir well and top with ice. Garnish with slice of mango and a twist of lime.  Find a nice quiet spot to relax and kick back – because you really shouldn’t drive anywhere after having one or two of these….