Happy Birthday, NS!

Of course, I'm a day late, but yesterday was my 3rd grandson's 3rd birthday!

He's such a cutie!!

Z is for ...

... the Zygon Cocktail

The Zygon looks like one thing (a human) but is actually something else (a Zygon). Hence I used the recipe for a Long Island Iced Tea - it looks like one thing but is actually something else. 

• 1/2 ounce vodka
• 1/2 ounce gin
• 1/2 ounce tequila
• 1/2 ounce light rum
• 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce triple sec
• 1 teaspoon superfine sugar
• Cold cola
• Wedge of lemon

I though about naming a cocktail the Zocci Cocktail using this recipe. The episode Voyage of the Damned featured a Zocci named Bannakaffalatta. The Zocci are a diminutive race of red spiked aliens (this drink is red-ish and, with a dragonfruit garnish, would be perfect).


Ingredients:

• 6 oz Tequila
• 4 oz triple sec
• 1 medium sized ‘RED JIANA’ Dragon fruit
• 4 oz lime juice
• 1 oz Orange juice
• ½ tsp salt and lime wedges

Yay!! made it all the way from A to Z.

Y is for ...

...Yeti Cocktail

(Image from here)

Ingredients (recipe from here).

• Sparkling Sanding Sugar, For the rim, optional
• 1 1/2-2 ounces RumChata
• 1 bottle Blue Cream Soda

The Yeti were in several episodes. The one that comes to mind for me is Web of Fear. This drink was originally called the abominable snowman.

X is for ..

... the eXtremis Cocktail

I don't actually have a picture of this one, so I just pulled one from my Cocktail Wednesday pics.  I had to have something here after all.

Ingredients:

• 2 shots Vodka
• 5 oz Root Beer
• 5 oz Mountain Dew
• 1 slice Orange
• Ice

Recipe from here.  (I picked this one because the original name was Extreme Valentine.)

I messed up with this one and used the eXterminate cocktail for the letter "E" ... definitely should have thought that one through since "X" is such a difficult letter, apparently in the Doctor Who Universe.  Fortunately, in the most recent series, Series 10, there was an episode call Extremis (the only title for an episode beginning with "eX"). 

W is for ...

.. Weeping Angel Cocktail

(Image from here)

I pulled this one from here.  It's actually called the Angel of Death -- how appropriate.  I intend to make each of these cocktails and as I do, I will replace the images with images of my drinks.  They may not be as artsy but I still want to do it.

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces dry gin, such as Death's Door
• 3/4 ounce Carpano Antica Formula or other sweet vermouth
• 3/4 ounce Campari
• 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
• 2 dashes of orange bitters
• Ice
• 1 spiral-cut orange twist, for garnish

The weeping angels are quite possibly the greatest aliens of modern Who (although the Silence (sp?) are pretty good too). The episode where we are introduced to them is Blink -- it was the first episode that Nevada had me watch and see where that got me ....

Here are two other cocktails that I was tempted to rename the Weeping Angel:

The first is the Red Sparrow (for Sallly Sparrow from the episode).

Ingredients:

• 0.5 oz Orchard Apricot Liqueur
• 0.5 oz Lime Juice
• 0.5 oz Blood Orange Juice
• 1.5 oz Habanero Silver Tequila

The second is  the Nightingale Cocktail (for the Sparrow & Nightingale video store Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale end up running/owning at the end of the episode).

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. Banana liqueur
• 1/2 oz. Blue curaçao
• 1 oz. Cream
• 1/2 Egg white

We'll probably end up making the first one .. though both of the others sound pretty good.

V is for ...

... Vortex cocktail

The "vortex" is the swirling tunnel you see in the Doctor Who title sequence.  Also, Captain Jack would travel using a vortex manipulator.

I had a tough time picking a "V" cocktail.  There was an episode Vampires of Venice which led me to look for Venice cocktails.  Then there were the Vashta Nerada from Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.  I really wanted to go with this one but had too hard of a time finding a related cocktail -- there was a Tree Shaker, a Forest Funk, a Dave Cocktail, and then a piranha cocktail (the Vashta Nerada were referred to as the piranha of the air) -- but all of those required too much explanation.  And then there was the Vespiform which had a connection to Agatha Christie .. but again a little too much of a stretch, so I settled on the Vortex Cocktail.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz strawberry vodka
• 1/2 oz coconut-flavored rum
• 1 oz cranberry juice cocktail
• splash lemon-lime soda
• 1/2 lime

Recipe from here.

U is for ..

... Utopia Cocktail

(Image from here)

"U" is another tough one.  Utopia was the 11th episode of the third season of New Who.  The Doctor and Martha (and Jack) travel to the end of the universe to a planet where the people were leaving to go to "Utopia," hence the name.

Other possibilities for "U" were Union Jack and UFO, but this one is pretty and hopefully will be tasty.  I don't know when we're going to start having these cocktails, but it will happen.  Nice to have them already picked out for me.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Cachaca (Leblon)
• 1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
• 1 tbsp Cranberry Juice
• 1 oz Grapefruit Juice
• splash Ginger Ale

Recipe from here.

Seems like a lot of these recipes have peach schnapps .. I'll definitely have to get some.

T is for ...

...the TARDIS cocktaill (Tardis-tini?)

(This is the drink made for the Doctor Who premiere party, in September 2015).  I'm not sure what recipe what we used ..  but I found a couple:

The first one, from here.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Hpnotiq
• 1 oz crème de violette
• ¾ oz vodka
• ½ oz blue curaçao

w/edible stars

and another one from here.

Ingredients:

• 4 Parts Absolut Citron
• 1 Part Blue Curacao
• 1 Splash Lime Juice
• 3 Parts White Cranberry Juice
• 1 Twist Orange

 Here's to the T.A.R.D.I.S.

S is for ...

.. Sonic Screwdriver cocktail

(Picture from here)

If you have ever watched Doctor Who, you know that he carries a sonic screwdriver.  There were several options for this drink.  I went for this one.  It actually has two different recipes.  One for the 10th Doctor; one for the 11th.  The picture above is for the 11th Doctor's cocktail. The drinks match the lights of the screwdrivers.

Ingredients (11th Doctor):

• 1 oz Blue Curacao
• 1 oz Vodka
• 6 oz Orange juice

Ingredients (10th Doctor):

• 1 oz Blue Curacao
• 1 oz Citrus Vodka
• Ginger ale

R is for ...

...  Rose Cocktail

(Image from here)

Rose was the Doctor's first companion in the modern series.  

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. French vermouth
• 1 oz. kirsch (cherry brandy)
• 1 tsp. raspberry syrup, such as Monin
• 1 maraschino cherry, to garnish

Recipe from here.

Q is for ...

... Queen Elizabeth cocktail.

(Image from here.)

It was either this or the Queen Victoria - since Rose and the Doctor spent some time with her (in Tooth and Claw). However, the Doctor married Queen Elizabeth I -- so this is the better one to pick.... Of course, she was also a Zygon ....

Ingredients:

• 1 Part Lemon Juice
• 2 Parts Gin
• 1 Part Triple Sec

Recipe from here.

P is for ...

... Pond Water.

(Image from here)

Amy Pond was one of the 11th Doctor's companions -- one of my favorites.  She was the girl who waited.

There are many different Pond Water recipes -- one of them is beer and coke. However, I opted for the following recipe instead.

Ingredients:

• 2 parts Vodka
• 1 part Blue curaçao
• 1 part Malibu
• top up Orange soda

Recipe from here.

O is for ...

... Osgood

I'm calling this the "Osgood Cocktail".  Osgood is a character in Doctor Who who is a fan of the Doctor -- she wears a 4th Doctor scarf, a 7th Doctor vest and various other Doctor clothing items -- sometimes at the same time, sometimes not.  In the Day of the Doctor, a Zygon took her form and now there are two Osgoods.  However, we never know which Osgood is which (human or Zygon).

This cocktail was originally called "The Imposter" (recipe from here).

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. fresh lime juice
• 1 oz. simple syrup (1:1)
• 3 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 3 basil leaves
• 2 dashes Tabasco
• basil leaf (optional garnish)

According to the cocktail description, "This savory cocktail takes the familiar flavors of a Bloody Mary and gives them a lighter, brighter spin, with a kick of Tabasco spice."  So, is it a Bloody Mary or an Imposter? or rather is it Osgood or the Zygon?  The answer:  it doesn't matter.

N is for ...

... Nevada Cocktail

(image from here)

What, you may ask, does Nevada have to do with Doctor Who? For most everyone else, absolutely nothing.  But for me, Nevada is why I watch.  She introduced me in 2013 and I'm hooked. 

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces light rum
• 2 ounces grapefruit juice
• 1 ounce lime juice
• 2 teaspoons superfine sugar
• Dash bitters

Recipe from here.
In my search for an appropriate cocktail, I ran across the following "N" quote ..."No, not the Mind Probe!" Exclaimed by a character in "The Five Doctors" (1983), and thought to be the most melodramatic line in the history of Doctor Who. So celebrated that a fanzine used it as a title.
(I took this from l;p.)

I thought it was funny.

M is for ...

... the Missy Cocktail.

(image from here)

I was going use The Master for the letter M (stealing from doctorwhococktails.wordpress.com), but when I read the blog post with the Master Cocktail,  which was a very good explanation of the Doctor/Master relationship (photo of the drink shown below), there was no mention of Missy - the Master's latest regeneration .

... so I thought she should have her own drink -- I say that but I actually stole the drink below from Mary Poppins ...

Mary Poppins? (you may ask).  Well here's a picture of Missy that may help...

(image from here)

Ingredients:

1 ½ oz. Apple brandy
¾ oz. Maurin Quina
½ oz. King's Ginger Liqueur
½ oz. Maple syrup
½ oz. Lemon juice
3 dashes Clove bitters

Recipe from here.

L is for ...

... LINDA (London Investigation N Detective Agency)

The Crazy Linda. (This isn't the Crazy Linda but I had to have some sort of picture.)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 oz. Peach Schnapps
• 3/4 oz. 7-Up
• 1 dash(es) Lemon Juice

 Recipe from here.

Anyway, LINDA was a group of people in a Doctor Who episode, "Love & Monsters".  Anyway this group of people formed a group looking for the Doctor.  They ended up having a wonderful time -- until the met the monster ...

K is for ...

... Kangs

(image from here)

These are the Red Kangs, there were also Blue and Yellow Kangs -- they lived in Paradise Towers (in an episode of the same name).  So in their honor, I am renaming the Paradise Tropical Cocktail, the Kang Cocktail.

(I pulled this from google images -- couldn't find who/where to credit)

Ingredients:

• 3 oz pineapple juice
  2 oz malibu coconut rum
• 0.25 oz blue curacao 
• 1 oz water
• 0.5 oz grenadine 
• ice

Recipe from here.

I've tried to embed the video below .. hopefully it works.

J is for ...

John Smith (he is the Doctor's alter ego on Earth -- see more here).

Apparently there is a John Smith brewery, who knew?

as for cocktails, J is for Jelly Baby Cocktail:

Ingredients:

1 oz vodka
1 oz peach schnapps
1 oz grenadine syrup
1 oz Blue Curacao liqueur
1 oz white rum
6 oz pineapple juice


Recipe from here.

Jelly Babies were the fourth Doctor's favorite and he always seemed to have them to hand out -- they are similar to gummy bears (for those of us in the US).

I is for ..

... Impossible girl cocktail

 

(image from here)

So, the Doctor Who Cocktails blog has a drink called Clara Oswin Oswald - Clara's Peach Lemonade (link here).  Clara was called the impossible girl by the 11th doctor, so I figured I could change the name.  I also decided I wanted a different peach lemonade recipe so I switched that up too ...

Their explanation of why they picked this drink was that it was pretty and sweet just like her -- I can go with that.

Ingredients:

• sugar
• diced peaches
• freshly squeezed lemon juice
• peach vodka
• 2-3 basil leaves
• Barefoot Refresh Crisp White Spritzer

recipe from here.

The website gives directions making the peach lemonade which sounds amazing -- first you make a simple peach syrup with sugar, water, and peaches.  Then you add fresh lemon juice and you've got your peach lemonade.

H is for ...

... Captain Jack Harkness cocktail.

(Image from here.)

This is kind of a stretch .. I know.  This is called Captain's Punch -- not the "Captain Jack Harkness Cocktail", but I'm still going with it. (Of course, this would go with C or J as well -- but I went with H.)  Captain Jack is played by John Barrowman; he's a wonderful character in the Who-niverse -- read more about him here.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 oz Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum
• 1 oz pomegranate juice
• 1/2 oz fresh orange juice
• 1/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/4 oz spiced simple syrup or cinnamon syrup
• garnish with ground coffee, nutmeg, and an orange slice

Recipe from here.

As an update, the Doctor Who Cocktail blog had a drink they called the Captain Jack -- probably a "J" drink in actuality, but thought I would link it here since this is my Captain Jack Harkness cocktail. 

Baby Burps ...

My first granddaughter was born on St. Patrick's Day.  My OD and SIL have not given me permission to post pictures of her yet .. but I decided I want to make some burp cloths to match the quilt I made them.  So, to that end I found the following pattern from here.

This is what they are supposed to look like...

(from here)

She uses terry cloth for these, but I decided to use some flannel that I had on hand.

These are the leftovers from the quilt ...

and here is the first one.  It's not as long as I thought it would be, but I think it's okay.

I'll take it, and any other ones I make, up to my OS and DIL probably on Wednesday.

G is for ...

... Gallifrey Double Sunrise

(Image from here)

Gallifrey is the Doctor's home planet, hence the name. 

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Pineapple Juice
• 1 oz Lime Juice
• Orange Juice
• Grenadine

Recipe from here.

This one might be good. 

F is for ...

... Fuzzy Banana (always take a banana to a party)

(Image from here.)

• Okay now, this one was a lot harder.  I looked for cocktails with the word Faceless (for The Faceless Ones - from the fourth season with Patrick Troughton as the Doctor (the 2nd Doctor)). No luck.
• I looked for just the word "Face" from various episodes with the word in the title.  No luck.
• I looked for a Father's Day cocktail (for an episode in Series 5, Father's Day).  I got some hits but they were for cocktails to make for dad on Father's Day, not a Father's Day Cocktail.
• I looked for the word "Fear", again from various episodes.  No luck. 
• Then First, Four, Fourth, Five, and Fifth (for the 1st, 4th, and 5th doctors).  I did find a Five Points Cocktail.  Recipe here.  But that wasn't quite what I wanted -- and it sounded so weird that I didn't think I would even consider making it.  Not that that is a requirement for this list, but I digress.
• Then I searched for 42 (another episode).  No luck.

Nevada had suggested the French 75 - in honor of the Girl in the Fireplace, Madame de Pompadour.  and then I found the Fuzzy Banana, which is also a reference to the same episode and the line "Always take a banana to a party...".  So here are recipes for both of those cocktails.

Fuzzy Banana

Ingredients:

• 2 parts Orange Juice
• 1 part Banana Schnapps
• 1 part Peach Schnapps

Recipe and picture from here.


French 75

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. gin
• ¹⁄₂ oz. simple syrup
• ¹⁄₂ oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice
• Brut Champagne or a dry sparkling white wine
• Lemon twist, to garnish

Recipe from here.

E is for ....

... Exterminate

So, who knew that I could make this both a Cocktail themed A to Z and a Doctor Who themed A to Z?  If only I'd realized this from day one.

Today's cocktail is called "The Exterminator".

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. Light Rum
• 1 oz. Dark Rum
• 1 oz. Kraken Black Spiced Rum
• ½ oz. Agave Nectar
• ½ oz. Amaretto
• ½ oz. Triple Sec
• ¼ oz. Grenadine
• 2 oz. Orange Juice
• 2 oz. Pineapple Juice

Recipe from here.

Honestly it feels a little like cheating to use this since this person was doing this as a Doctor Who thing... but, whatever.  And don't you just love this shotglass you can get from Amazon???

March Update / April Goals

I guess I didn't actually have March goals.  So not much to update there.

1) there was the 1200 calories/day -- I did it for one week -- and it worked.  I think I'll try that again this month but go for 1200-1500 and stick with it.
2) Less TV (two hours/night) -- I feel like I cut back, but again didn't stick with it.

April Goals:

1 - 1200-1500 calories/day
2 - Manage TV (no more than 2 hours/night) - except on Doctor Who nights.
3 - finish baby clothes quilt

4 - finish Nate's quilt.  Nate's birthday is at the end of this month so it's about time I finished his first quilt ...

5 - make burp cloths for the new baby
6 - manage mindless computer games
7 - make a new soup recipe
8 - make a new bread recipe

Guess that's it.  

D is for ...

.. the Doctor Cocktail (how could I resist??)

(Image from here)

Ingredients:

• 1 oz lemon juice
• 2 oz Swedish punsch

What is Swedish Punsch you may ask?  I had no idea so I had to look it up -- it's a Nordic liqueur.  Here's a link that goes into detail.  Yet another ingredient for my collection.  This might be one to try -- particularly on Doctor Who day (November 23) -- or perhaps when the new season starts.

Happy Birthday ...

Yesterday was MS's birthday.  I have plenty of pics of him by himself .. just don't have access here.

 
Anyway, Happy Birthday!

C is for ...

Image from here.

... California Dreaming.  Seriously, there's a cocktail called the California Dream.  It sounds nasty to me but I had to go with it because of the name.

Ingredients:

2 oz tequila
1 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1 maraschino cherry

Recipe from here.

B is for ...

.. the B52.  I didn't realize that I was supposed to start yesterday so I'm doing two posts today.  Recipe and picture from here.


Ingredients:

¹⁄₃ oz Kahlúa liqueur

¹⁄₃ oz Baileys Irish cream liqueur

¹⁄₃ oz Grand Marnier liqueur

 

Again, more to be added to our liquor cabinet/room.

 

A is for ...

Appletini...

We haven't made this one yet.  Here are a few of the recipes I found.

from here

• 45mL Vodka
• 15mL Apple Schnapps
• 15mL Cointreau

from here

• 1.5 oz vodka
• 1.5 oz green-apple liqueur, such as Sour Apple Pucker 
• 1 oz clear apple juice

and from here

• 50 ml De Kuyper Sour Apple
• 50 ml Vodka

So I guess the two main ingredients are vodka and a sour apple liqueur.  I don't have those on hand so I'll have to add more to my liquor cabinet ...