With just over a week to go to St. Patrick's Day, we figured let's start thinking about how to celebrate. The parades have already begun here in NJ, and unfortunately it has not one of those beautiful​ spring like months so far. We figured let's give you a drink that will warm you up from the inside out, especially if you're planning on standing outside to watch all of the bagpipers and step dancers! 

It's supposed to be a chilly one again this weekend so we're giving you a big batch recipe for homemade Irish cream - perfect for those delightful Irish coffees! 

If you follow our blog each week, you may find the recipe ahead to be familiar, and that's because we shared with you our Irish cream recipe at Christmas. In case you haven't seen it or forgot about it (it's ok, we understand you're kind of busy!), we wanted to share it with you again today. 

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. ​

This little beauty above is an Irish coffee. Stir your fresh Irish cream into your hot coffee, top with fresh whipped cream if you're feeling ambitious, or just go ahead and use the stuff in a can if you're in a hurry, and sprinkle a little cinnamon or nutmeg on the top. 

Have fun as you begin your St. Patrick's Day celebrations, stay warm and stay tuned till next week when we'll bring you more Irish cheer to celebrate with!

Slainte!
​Adrienne 

Ever have those days when you just wake up feeling motivated and you want to just start checking things off your list? Well that was this morning for me! A couple of week's ago, I made Lobster Fra Diavolo (a special little Valentine's dinner), and decided that some fresh basil would be a nice touch to brighten it up at the end. I hate buying a bunch of basil because it always goes bad too fast, or I just don't need all of it and the rest just goes to waste. So instead, I like to buy the little potted basil plants. The last one i had grew out of control! I had it sitting around on the counter after that though, and on it's own, it's not very pretty and I kept telling myself "I need to find a little pot for it." As it continued to sit out on the counter, we used a can of crushed tomatoes and the can was sitting out on the counter next to the basil, and I had a little inspiration!

I figured for the price of some rope a the craft store (where I find myself at least once a week anyway), I could create a super simple pot for my basil. So with my used aluminum crushed tomato can, my trusty hot glue gun and some rope (I was hoping one length of rope would be enough, but of course i needed just a little bit extra!), I created something cute and functional.

So to get started, all you need to do (after removing the label and washing your can out), is to heat your glue gun, and starting with the end of your rope, glue down the end and then start winding the rope around the can tightly, gluing it to the can as you go. When you reach the end of the rope, and start with a new length, just be sure to glue them very close together trying to minimize the visual seam that you create. After you've wound the rope all the way to the end and there's no exposed can left, cut the rope, wrap the end of the rope with clear Scotch tape or craft tape tightly so it doesn't fray and glue it down securely to the can. That's it! 

It's really that simple. I squeezed in this little 15 minute craft in between grocery shopping and running out to hunt for some interesting new dessert table displays for an upcoming baptism. You can see I added a cute little chalkboard sign to label my basil, but the options are endless.

This would be a great project to mimic to create centerpieces for a party; use different size cans and fill with cut flowers or potted plants. Use the chalkboards to label the plants or for table numbers and give them away at the end of your party. Or use the same technique around the bottom 1/3 of a dollar store glass vase, fill with some sand and a candle, and glue on a starfish or shell and you're one your way to some fun and inexpensive party decor!

If you give this a try, please share your pictures with us. We'd love to see what you were inspired to do. You can post them to Instagram and tag us @theboastfulhost

Happy crafting!
​Adrienne

Happy Friday! I hope everyone is wrapping up their work for the week, and has a fun weekend planned. We have a fun little brunch to set up for tomorrow which we're excited about, so expect to see pictures of some of the yummy goodness! 

For our cocktail this week, we are taking a little help from one of my dear friends...Trader Joe! Come on, who doesn't love Trader Joe's? We totally get that we are all leading crazy busy lives just trying to fit everything in. Sometimes we just don't have time to pull together 5 different ingredients, with fresh herbs, and fancy liqueurs just to make a tasty cocktail with a couple of friends. This is when we do a little "cheating"! 

When my friend alerted me that Trader Joe's carries these tasty sodas, and suggested using them for one of our cocktail's of the week, I jumped on in. While I'm not a big fan of your typical super sweet big name brand sodas, I was quite intrigued by this Lemon Elderflower Soda. It's not too sweet, it doesn't taste "fake", and I'm a big fan of Elderflower liqueur, so this seemed to be a natural fit. Let me be clear, this is not a sponsored endorsement. I'm just sharing something tasty that I was happy to find (Trader Joe's, if you're reading this though, would love to work something out!).  

So how do you make this yummy beverage? Fill your glass with ice, add a shot (or two) of your favorite vodka, and fill your glass with Trader Joe's Lemon Elderflower Soda. Done. If you are like me, you always have lemons in the house, so if you do, add a wedge and serve. No one needs to know you didn't squeeze a bunch of lemons or use the fancy St. Germain. Just say cheers and enjoy!

xoxo
​Adrienne

Are you ready for Valentine’s Day? With the “big day” tomorrow, hopefully you already have your menu all planned out or your reservations are booked. If not, shoot us a message ASAP and hopefully we can provide you some last minute guidance! 

​While we hope you have your plans fairly set , we thought we might be able to offer a little something extra with a simple yet elegant cocktail. A little pre-dinner or post-dinner cocktail can definitely help to set the right mood. 

That said, we thought we'd bring you our Feelin' Fine Cocktail Time Friday, a little early this week. We wanted to keep the ingredients minimal, but special, and maybe a step up from your typical Wednesday night happy hour cocktail, and of course we felt it had to be pink! 

3 simple ingredients – Rosé Champagne (or sparkling wine), Chambord, and fresh raspberries.

You really only need a tiny drizzle in the bottom of your champagne flute to make this cocktail. You want to add just a hint of that sweet black raspberry flavor, but you do not want to detract from your champagne. 

Ingredients
Rosé Champagne (or any sparkling wine of your choosing)
Approximately 1/4 oz. Chambord per glass
Fresh raspberries 

Directions
Add a small drizzle of Chambord to each of your champagne flutes. Slowly add your champagne to each of the glasses, being careful not to waste any of it by having it bubble over. Top with a beautiful fresh raspberry or two to enhance the flavor of the Chambord (and it just looks so pretty too!). 

Simple, beautiful, pink, and impressive...what more do you need in a Valentine's Day cocktail? 

We hope that you are inspired to make a little cocktail to start your Valentine's date night, or your night out with the girls, or your night in binge watching your favorite show! 

Happy Valentine's Day!
xoxo
​Adrienne

​Do you love the Olympics? I’ll be honest, I’m definitely more of a summer Olympics fan, but I still enjoy watching all of the figure skating and the glitzy costumes (on the guys!), bobsledding teams from countries with no snow, and maybe even a little sled dog racing. But what I can get behind even more, is having an excuse to snuggle up at home, with a group of friends on my couch, in front of the fire to cheer on our country with a fun, themed cocktail in hand…because really, that’s why you’re here, right? 

In the shaker it just looks like an unassuming jar of milk! But we wouldn't just serve you up some plain milk, now would we?!

I looked into traditional drinks from Korea, and no offense to them, nothing was really winning me over. I considered the Olympic rings and the different colors, but all of those colorful drinks were just so artificial. And then I thought this is the winter games, an event full of snow. And considering that the opening ceremony is on later in the evening, I thought why not a dessert drink with a “snowy” feel to it? 

​I’m calling today’s drink “Let it Snow” in honor of the winter games. It’s sweet but not too sweet, and if instead of thinking about snow, this drink is all about the coconut, so it may actually make you feel like you’re watching the opening ceremony from a private Caribbean island!

Ingredients
1.5 oz. Whipped Vodka
1.5 oz. Coconut Rum
2 oz. Half and half (if you happen to have coconut milk instead, I think that would be delish!)
Sweetened flaked coconut
A few drops of good vanilla extract

Directions
Before you begin making your drink, prep your glass by rimming the edge in agave and then dipping it into the coconut flakes. You'll need something a little stickier like agave or honey to be able to hold the coconut (I tried simple syrup and it just all fell off). Next, fill your cocktail shaker with ice, add your remaining ingredients, and shake well. Pour into your prepared glass, and it's time to get snuggly and cheer on the U.S. as the 2018 Winter Olympics get started!

We've been trying to mix up the types of drinks that we highlight for you to appeal to everyone, but we would really like to hear what you want to see! Let us know in the comments here (or on Facebook or Instagram) what your favorite types of cocktails are. We'd love to do something special just for you!

Enjoy the winter games...go U.S.A.!
xoxo
​Adrienne

We were trying to come up with a drink for this week, and we didn't have to look far for inspiration; the Grammys are this Sunday! While not always the biggest fan of awards shows, the Grammys however are my favorite to watch. It's always exciting to see what everyone is going to be wearing, who will be performing, and if there is going to be any crazy celebrity drama.

What we don't get to see though, are all of the afterparty festivities. Luckily, if you want a little taste of what they'll be experience, you don't have to look much further! US Magazine shared some of the delicious drinks and dishes that will be served at the official Grammy Awards afterparty and we're sharing the cocktail recipe with all of you!

You're now probably wondering, "so what is the signature cocktail of the official Grammy afterparty?" As you can see above, the ingredients above look pretty simple, and you may be thinking those look like the ingredients for a margarita. You would be really close, but the liquor in this drink is vodka. 

This signature drink is an "Absolute Vodkarita"  

Ingredients:
2 parts Absolute Lime
1 part fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 part agave
1 lime wheel 

Directions:
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wheel. 

If you happen to like your cocktails served up instead of on the rocks, we've got that covered too! See below.

If you're wondering what food is being served so you can tailor your whole menu to match, think paella and peanut butter cake pops. Yummy!

How do you enjoy the awards shows? A big viewing party with friends, or a little more low key like I do (think snuggling on the couch in PJs)?

Happy Friday!
xoxo
​Adrienne

​​It’s Cocktail Friday again…and now that it’s not feeling like it’s 20 below-zero outside anymore, I’m finally feeling ok about suggesting an icy cold cocktail again! 

If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that we like fun, often colorful cocktails (maybe even in our signature pink), that we like to pair with fresh, seasonal ingredients. We do try to balance it out by including some classics along the way as well. These “classic” types though, do not mess around. They are strong, and they highlight the main ingredient making it the true star of the show. Because of that, you will want to focus on high quality products, getting the best you can afford, because flavor will not be masked by fruit juice, soda, or flavored simple syrups. 

Today I’m going to share with you my favorite classic cocktail, the Gibson. Everyone is familiar with the “shaken, not stirred” James Bond vodka martini, or the more traditional gin martini. Both typically served either with a twist or with olives. Being the olive hater that I am though, you will not see this girl ever ordering a dirty martini. I do however LOVE the briny sweet flavor of these “Tipsy Onions” that are soaked in vermouth, which I think make a Gibson even more delicious. 

​You may be wondering, gin or vodka? Gin is the traditional option here, but vodka is equally acceptable and equally as common in martinis these days. Rather than making the decision myself though, I took it to our Instagram story with a poll and let our followers do the choosing. Vodka wins by a landslide! For the record, I was the ONLY one that chose gin. No hard feelings here! I was happy to take one for the team, and made a couple Grey Goose Gibsons so you can all see how it’s done!

Ingredients
3 oz premium vodka
1 oz dry vermouth
Cocktail onions (if you can find these vermouth soaked onions, get them!)

Directions
Place 2 or 3 cocktail onions on a toothpick and place in a chilled martini glass. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add your vodka and vermouth. Shake vigorously until it's icy cold. Pour and serve immediately.

So just look at this beauty. Pure, delicious, simplicity. 

How do you prefer your martini? Vodka or gin? Shaken or stirred? We want to know what you think! Have a great weekend and enjoy with your favorite cocktail or two!

XOXO
​Adrienne

I am officially dedicating this week's cocktail to my husband Paul, Amy's main man Tom, and all of the other slightly crazy people that will be jumping into the frigid Atlantic Ocean tomorrow at the 10th Annual LADACIN Plunge. LADACIN is a wonderful organization, and we support many of their events, but this particular event is extra special for me, because it's where I met Paul 8 years ago. This picture is our first anniversary plunge; so cute, right?! (And yes, we get all mushy and act like this every year. It's one day, cut us some slack!). 

If you're feeling ever so generous, and would like to make a donation to LADACIN, here's our FUNDRAISING PAGE.

So, now that you have the basic history, let's move onto the more interesting stuff, like the drinks! Being that this is a late morning event, and you have to be a little bit drunk and crazy to dive into the ocean in January, there is definitely some early day drinking going on. We mostly stick to your typical brunch type cocktails - mimosas, bloody marys, screwdrivers, and coffees spiked with Bailey's (ok, and most of the guys will happily throw some beers back as well). This year however, thought we could step up our game for the sake of a fun "morning" cocktail this week! 

Not only do we have a fun play on an Irish Coffee, but it's also an opportunity to use up the rest of that homemade Irish cream that you hopefully made over the holidays (if you haven't made it yet, you can find the recipe earlier in our blog). 

This week's cocktail is Baby Guinness. This cute little cocktail has nothing to do with beer, except for the fact that it looks like a mini pour of Guinness. In reality, it's basically like an alcoholic version of an espresso and cream. Yum!

Ingredients:
3/4 of a shot of Patron XO Cafe 
1/4 of a shot of Irish cream (I recommend TBH's recipe, but Bailey's is great too)

Directions:
Step 1: Before you get started, chill the Patron. This can be done in 1 of two ways. You can either chill your bottle of Patron, or you can chill the Patron over ice in a shaker prior to adding it to a shot glass. Once chilled, add your Patron to your shot glass, and fill the glass about 3/4-4/5 of the way to the top (to leave room for the Irish Cream).

Step 2: Time to add your Irish Cream. Very carefully and slowly pour the Irish cream over an upside spoon into the shot glass. This will allow you to get the layered effect, mimicking a Guinness Draft beer.

Step 3: Enjoy! This is a shot, so it's meant to go down all at once (to fully enjoy the combination of the flavors), but we won't tell, if you decide to just dump it in your coffee either!

We will be serving these tomorrow morning to get everyone warmed up pre-plunge, but these are also just great shared with friends hanging out at home!

Bottoms up!
xoxo 
​Adrienne

I am officially over this cold weather! Waking up to single digit temperatures is not something I'm comfortable with, but unfortunately a move to Maui isn't happening, so I just need to make the best of it.

Since I can't even fathom getting my hands icy cold from shaking up a martini right now, today's cocktail is going to be hot, and will warm you from the inside out. Are you excited to check out my favorite hot toddy recipe? 

There are different ways to make a hot toddy, but typically it's a mixture of a spirit (usually whiskey, rum, or brandy), hot water, and honey (or, in some recipes, sugar). Additional ingredients such as cloves, a lemon slice or cinnamon are often also added. The drink can also be made with tea instead of water. In addition to warming you up, it's also great when you have a cold or flu; it can help clear up some of those yucky symptoms, and even if it doesn't, it's tasty, and should help you sleep!

Adrienne's Awesome Hot Toddy

Ingredients
6 oz of hot tea (I recommend Lady Grey, a lighter caffeine black tea, with citrus notes)
1.5 oz your favorite bourbon or whiskey (my go to is Bulleit)
1 Tbsp honey
1 slice of orange

Directions
After brewing your tea for approximately 5 min, add honey and bourbon and stir so honey completely dissolves. Squeeze in your orange slice. Sip slowly and enjoy. Hopefully this will become you favorite hot toddy recipe as well, but don't be afraid to try different tea flavors, or even just hot water, or use whatever citrus you have in your house...lemon is the traditional choice, but with clementines in season, they would be great as well! 
​

Stay warm everyone. Keep thinking warm thoughts, and maybe all of that positive energy will raise the thermometer!

XOXOXO
​Adrienne

I don't know about you, but for us, the holidays are all about family and food...LOTS of food! For any party we're working on, either for a Client or in our own homes, the first decision that needs to be made, is whether we'll be working with a caterer, the food will be homemade, or a combination of both. In my house, it's a fairly intimate and manageable group of close family members (just 6 adults and my 2 year old daughter), so I totally use it as an opportunity to get creative and try out some new recipes. This is one of those "do as I say, not as I do" scenarios though, because unless you are really confident in your abilities and/or your family is really forgiving, it's best to go with items that you know are crowd pleasers.

Loosely following my husband's family's Lithuanian tradition of a Christmas Eve that consists of a meatless "12 course" full day of eating, I was busy, busy, busy with cooking and prepping. I wanted to share with you some of our hits, sorta misses, and just some tips and advice for your next family food fest. Let me be very clear before we get into this...we take a lot of liberties with "12 courses" (crab dip with crackers may each count as one depending on how the menu is shaping up). I think once you see all of the food below, you'll understand why! And it was still way too much food!

The first dish that we served was a Pulled BBQ Spaghetti Squash with coleslaw on a buttermilk biscuit. This course, along with a few others, was a nod to my sister and brother-in-law and their southern wedding from this past summer (you can see photos from that event in our party portfolio). Came across the idea of using spaghetti squash as a replacement for pulled pork a while ago, and figured we'd give it a whirl. I think we all pretty much agreed that it was tasty and a great alternative for a meatless meal, but less exciting than some of the awesome seafood dishes, and will be relegated to a more typical Meatless Monday meal.

.This next course was BY FAR my favorite course! I absolutely love sushi and all things tuna, so these little sushi cups were guaranteed to be a win in my book. I would love to say that I came up with this recipe idea on my own, but you can find these all over Pinterest. My tip to you...if someone else has perfected a technique, capitalize on their experience and make it your own! I'm very familiar with using tuna, so I was very comfortable creating the tuna filling for the sushi cup and will totally get creative with it in the future. As for the rice cup portion, I stuck to the easy to follow recipe, and they turned out perfect!

Just look at this little mouthful of perfection...my mouth is watering just thinking about them!

A helpful tip if you want to make these for one of your next events - go ahead and make the rice cup portion a day in advance and just keep them covered in your fridge. Even the tuna mixture can be made the morning of your party and kept in a bowl, just hold off on adding the sauce and avocado to the end to ensure everything stays nice and bright and fresh. Right before people arrive, place the rice cups on a platter and add your tuna mixture to them for a delicious and healthy appetizer. 

Up next, we've got some more appetizers that were good to put out so everyone could nosh on them as we were continuing to get ready to leave for Christmas Eve mass. The fun thing with both of these, is that they were both an attempt at trying to recreate a menu items from a couple of different local favorites restaurants. Bubbly hot in the casserole dish is a crab and cauliflower dip. I tried to get the actual recipe from the restaurant, but all I got was an offer to make a to-go order for us. Where's the challenge in that?! I created a fairly standard crab dip, but added riced cauliflower. I was aiming for a bit more crab forward dip with some texture, that wasn't just swimming in cheese, and it was successful, I just made way too much! The other dish (which admittedly did NOT photograph well) was an "avocado boat" (avocado halves filled with kani), which was made primarily because my little mini me loves it when we go out, and then didn't even eat a bite of it on Christmas Eve. Key learning is don't let a 2 year old dictate anything on your menu, hahaha!

Are you getting full yet?! Next course was Thai style mussels. We do these almost every year, and we do them for so many family style dinners. They are affordable, super fast to cook, take on whatever flavors you're feeling like, and most importantly aresuper yummy. If you and your family like shellfish, mussels are a great way to go!

Well obviously we needed a salad, right? It's a salad, this one requires no explanation other than, I'm pretty sure we need to include a salad just to make ourselves feel better for eating so much food. Now moving on...

And here it is; our last official course, BBQ'd Shrimp and Grits (don't worry, to get to "12 courses" there was garlic bread, cookies, cocktails, wine, and probably even more that I'm leaving out!). We made this one our main course because we knew this was the crowd favorite. Grits take a little while, especially because you need to babysit them, constantly stirring, but they were cheesy and oh so worth it! The shrimp however...cook in less than 5 minutes, and as long as you don't completely overcook them, they are really hard to mess up. If you have an opportunity to do a little southern cooking, definitely include shrimp and grits on your menu!

This little one takes her food pretty serious as well, and she wanted to make sure Santa and his reindeer would be well fed. We probably should've just left him some of our leftovers!

I hope you enjoyed taking this journey through my Christmas Eve culinary feast, and are feeling as ridiculously full as I am right now thinking about the obscene amount of food. We've already started discussing next year's menu and how we're going to pare it down to be less glutinous. Hopefully I can remember that full feeling when the time comes again!

Till next time!
xoxo
​Adrienne