Happy holidays everyone! Life is getting a little hectic for all of us right now, but it's all all so fun for us this year with our little ones getting excited seeing all of the decorations and lights, baking cookies, santa (well not all of our kiddos are loving the big guy!), and having all of their extended family spending visiting. 

I am super excited about my new Kailo Chic confetti cocktail shaker that Amy gave me as a Christmas present, and I couldn't wait to use it! With New Year's Eve on the horizon, I felt like we needed a super fun celebratory champagne cocktail to share with all of you today. To make this drink "super fun," I took some inspiration from the pink champagne cotton candy that I came across in the candy shop. Keep reading below for the recipe.

How pretty, righ?! At this point, it's the start of a French 75 cocktail  (non traditional though, as I substituted vodka for gin).

I'm in LOVE with this shaker! As if I needed an excuse to shake up more cocktails, now I have this fun new toy to play with.

So enough suspense...here is the recipe you've been waiting for!

Ingredients
2 oz vodka 
1 oz lemon juice
Champagne 
Cotton candy

Directions
Fill your cocktail shaker with ice, add vodka and lemon, and shake until icy cold. Pour into a coupe style glass or a champagne flute. At this point, you are going to want to take your cotton candy and suspend it ABOVE your cocktail. You can use a long cocktail skewer through it or you can see in from our picture, we just used 2 pretty paper straws and sat the cotton candy on top of them. For a party, stop at this point, and place all of of your glasses on a serving tray or display table. When people arrive or when you plan to hand them all out, top them all with a pour of the champagne, and watch the cotton candy disappear into your drink leaving your cocktail sweetened and pink! 

If you are having a New Year's Eve party, we highly recommend you giving this beautiful drink a try; it's a show stopper! 

If you try this drink, please let us know how it turns out for you. Till then, please relax, take time for yourself and your loved ones, and enjoy the true spirit of the season.

Sending you much love from The Boastful Host.

XOXO
​Adrienne


*Here's the link to Kailo Chic where you can buy your own confetti shaker http://www.kailochic.com/bar-cart-supplies/19444-Confetti-Cocktail-Shaker
Please note, we have no affiliation with Kailo Chic, we just love sharing awesome things that we find with you!

Well, we made it through another week! We've been busy with lots of new party opportunities over here, while still working our way through the immediate holiday celebrations ahead, and now it's time for a cocktail to sit back and relax with.

My original game plan was to have my relaxing cocktail, and then head out with the hubby for an all too infrequent date night, sporting my freshly colored and blown-out hair, but instead, we have yet another snowy day on our hands, so it's looking like a night in for this mama. Big giant bummer. 

So now you're all stuck now with a rare selfie, because I'm not wasting this blowout at home with no one seeing it except the fam!

But now back to the important stuff that you came here to read! The same snow that put a damper on my date night, was also the inspiration for today's warm decadent cocktail, a Bourbon Chai Tea with a Maple Spiced Bourbon Whipped Cream. OH YES! You heard that right!

There are plenty of great recipes out there for homemade chai, and I totally encourage you to give one of them a try, but for today, i'm going to focus in the topping for this hug-in-a-cup!

To make this deliciousness, you're going to need to steep a cup of your favorite chai tea, sweeten it with a teaspoon of real maple syrup, and get it nice and creamy with your milk of choice (half and half or almond milk would both be equally good choices). Make sure you leave room in your mug for a shot of the good stuff - Spiced Cinnamon Bourbon!

You would have one really tasty drink if you just stopped there, but I suggest you splurge and make the maple spiced bourbon whipped cream and put a big ol' dollop on top of your drink!

Ingredients
1/2 pint of heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp confectioners sugar
​3 Tbsp Spiced Cinnamon Bourbon (maple bourbon would be delicious as well)
Drizzle of maple syrup

Directions
Pour heavy cream into the bowl of a mixer at a fairly high speed, using the whip attachment (as long as it's not splashing, it's fine!). While it's whipping, add in your other ingredients. Stop when the whipped cream has begun to stiffen up. Give it a taste, and adjust if necessary. Top off your bourbon chai, top your ice cream, or just eat it with a spoon...we won't tell anyone!

We hope you give this one a try! Make it tonight, snuggle up with a mug of it, and stay warm and out of the snow!

XOXO
​Adrienne

This week's post is especially for all of the SAHM out there (and the SAHD too!). Here at The Boastful Host, we typically try to avoid the cliche "mommy needs wine" type of comments. Let's be realistic, we'd be drinking nonstop if we drank because of the kids! The reason we like to highlight a cocktail each week, is because they are celebratory, fun, and tasty (we hope you agree!), and those things are what The Boastful Host is all about. This week though, I'm getting personal! If you follow us, you likely know that I have a 2 year-old daughter, and as adorable as she is most of the time, today, she is just driving me crazy! Along with the just the general "terrible twos," we are also a couple of weeks deep into potty training. She's exhausted my patience. I've screamed. Naps have been skipped. And yes, while typing up this post, we've even had a glass vase break that I had to go tend to! I know it's just one of those days, and tomorrow will likely be back to normal, but today I would do just about anything for peace and quiet. Right now, if I was told there's a trip waiting for me, I could be packed and ready to go in less that 5 minutes! 

With that in mind, our drink today is usually called a Hawaiiantini (that I borrowed from a restaurant that no longer exists), I'm upgrading that name to a "I Need a Vacation Right Now 'tini" for my mood today! This refreshing drink tastes like a vacation in a glass, and I hope, if even for a second, it will allow me to sit back and take a vacation in my mind.

Read below to see how to make this for yourself.

As you know, we like to keep our cocktails easy, and this one is no different. When you're having a rough day, it needs to be quick and easy!

The "I Need a Vacation Right Now 'tini" only has 3 ingredients - vodka, pineapple juice, and fresh orange juice.

Ingredients
2 oz vodka
1 oz pineapple juice
squeeze of fresh orange

Directions
Pour all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice, and shake until frothy and cold. Pour into a martini glass or coup and garnish with an orange wedge. 

During a small window of calm, I was able to get this picture. Hopefully this post will act as a good reminder to really appreciate those fun  days we have normally. To all of my fellow mommies out there, I send you calming vacation thoughts fueled by tasty vacation-like cocktails!

Much love to all!
​Adrienne

It's December 1st and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here! Tree is up, stockings are hung from the mantle, and as for all of the little decorations, well I'll probably tinker with those for the next 24 days! We are officially in the holiday spirit and want to share some of that spirit with all of you. 

For me personally, I love to give gifts that are handmade, or personalized in some way, and I know many people, and probably a lot of you, like to do this by baking up a ton of cookies to gift to all of your loved ones. I'm not much of a baker though, so I do what I do best, by giving the gift of cocktails! For the past few years (along with my husband too; I don't want to take all of the credit!) we've been making homemade Irish cream, and it is delish!

Even if you're not prepared to be making numerous batches of this, consider making even just a half a batch and storing it in a mason jar in your fridge. It's a nice touch to be able to offer it with coffee or hot cocoa when guests visit all season long.

Those are the ingredients you are going to need. You'll see there's nothing too crazy in there and much of it, you may even have in the house if you do some baking. There are a number of recipes floating around out there on the interwebs, but after some experimenting and taste testing (and lots of positive reviews from friends and family!), this one is the winner!

The best part about this recipe, is it's so easy...just dump everything in a pitcher and stir. 

Ingredients
2 cups Irish whiskey (it does not need to be expensive high-end stuff!)
2 cups light cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon chocolate syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant espresso, dissolved in 2 tablespoons hot water
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

​Directions
Combine all ingredients in a pitcher and stir well. Refrigerate until ready to drink. If you're planning on gifting it to friend, pick up a case of mason jars at your local grocery store, pour into jars, and add a cute little bow or tag.  

Serve over ice, add it to coffee, shake with vodka and coffee liqueur to make a white Russian, or just pour some over ice cream. You can do no wrong with this delicious adult beverage!

We would love to hear about your holiday traditions. Leave us a comment with your favorite cookies, holiday dinners or cocktails you like to serve (or just like to eat/drink!).

xoxo
​Adrienne