Amber had to have a baby tooth pulled so out came the blender that day. I wanted to make a big batch of smoothies to tied her over until dinner. Something that I thought she would love, something special. I hit a home run with this one. She adored it and lapped up two big glasses!! I didn’t take a picture at the time but made them again for her. She was waiting with baited breath for me to finish the picture and then off she went with her prize!! They really are very good.

Ken had bought some gorgeous blackberries but we had too much fruit at the time so I popped them in the freezer still at their peak. This is a great idea to do so that you have fruit at the ready for smoothies. You are probably more inclined to make one then. They whip up so quickly and are full of nutrition, we love smoothies here.

Try this one, you will love it too!

Had to have a couple of sips!!!

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With little skiffs of snow still on the ground I long for nothing more than the long hot days of summer. They are coming and quickly. I love sitting on the porch with a nice refreshing cocktail and here are two to get you in the mood for the summer, brought to you by Voga, one of my favorite wines for the summer time. Light and refreshing on it’s own but jazzed up in a cocktail, even better. Enjoy!!

Island Time

2 oz coconut flavored rum

3 lime squeezes (then discard)

1 oz simple syrup

5 oz VOGA Sparkling

5-6 mint leaves

In a shaker, combine ice, rum, simple syrup, and lime juice

Shake and pour into a chilled Collins glass

Add VOGA and mint leaves and gently stir to combine

Summer Breeze

1 ½ oz of peach schnapps­­

3 ½ oz of VOGA Pinot Grigio

In a shaker, combine ice, VOGA Pinot Grigio, and peach schnapps

Stir gently and strain into a chilled champagne flute

Top with a splash of cranberry juice

Garnish with orange twist

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S. Pellegrino kindly sent me some Sparkling Grapefruit and I decided to do a cocktail with some. Amazing flavor, I absolutely loved it. I am a big fan of grapefruit as long as it is not too bitter. This beverage is the perfect balance of sweet and tart and is made with 16% grapefruit juice from concentrate. I wanted to enhance the already wonderful flavor and I think I nailed it with this cocktail. A perfect porch sipper for spring/summer!! Enjoy!!

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Well up here in cold Canada (at least where I live) we are not celebrating Thanksgiving. It has long past us by. This is nothing but another Thursday. We have lots of snow and have had it for sometime now. This is when I start to dream of tropical locations. Since our vacation holiday is far off, I wanted to over the next three days, before we pull out all the stops for Christmas, delve into some tropical flavors.

We will start off today with a tropical smoothie. If you follow us you will know Amber is a big smoothie fan and is usually the one creating these. She was off at school and I was poking around the grocery store when I came across coconut water, not milk but water and thought that would make a great smoothie by first freezing it into ice cubes. It is healthy for you, high in potassium and low in calories. We usually use just plain ice cubes in our smoothies but here it is bumped up. It doesn’t give a huge coconut flavor so you can add a little extract if you like.

Enjoy, close your eyes and think of sitting under a palm tree while sipping on your smoothie.

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I have been enjoying sipping on a Steam Whistle beer every once in a while and I was trying to marry the flavor with something else to make a cocktail. It then came to me that I thought I would really enjoy lemon with it. I had lemonade vodka that I had never tried so I add a shot of that and 1/2 shot of lemon juice and through in few cubes so that it was icy cold and topped it off with the Steam Whistle. Wow, talk about refreshing!! It went to nicely together. It almost tasted sweet but then you go to the refreshing notes of lemon. A great combination. Try one of these while watching the game or hanging out with friends this holiday season. You will love it!!

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