St. Patrick’s Day may be about drinking, but you still have to eat! Here’s a fun way to turn the classic corned beef and cabbage meal into a finger-food appetizer for your Irish festivities this year.

Erin go Bragh!

Ingredients

6 Savoy cabbage leaves
½ cup stone-ground mustard
2 slices dark rye bread
½ lb corned beef

Instructions

Trim off the white core at the bottom. Steam cabbage leaves for no more than 2 minutes. … Read more

Shrimp cocktail is a classic cocktail party appetizer … and for good reason. It’s finger food that tastes fancy without a ton of work. Also, it goes great with cocktails and beer!

You can serve it in individual sauce-and-shrimp glasses or lay the shrimp out on a large platter and provide a bowl of cocktail sauce. It all depends on the type of party. You want these to remain cold—so it may be advisable to … Read more

With the New Orleans Saints winning Super Bowl XLIV, this year’s Mardi Gras Celebration aims to be one of the best ever. If you can’t be in NOLA, we’ve got a whole host of New Orleans Classics and Mardi Gras themed cocktails. We’ll start with these new drinks from Skyy Infusions.

Mardi Grape

Ingredients:
2 oz Skyy Infusions Grape
2 oz grapefruit juice
2 oz grape juice
½ oz club soda

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients … Read more

Deviled eggs are a tasty cocktail party finger food that you cannot go wrong serving!

They look fancy, but take less than 15 minutes to make.  Here’s my favorite, super-simple recipe:

Ingredients

12 eggs
½ cup safflower mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Paprika (garnish)

Instructions

Put eggs in a sauce pan, cover with water and add a splash of vinegar. Bring eggs to … Read more

The playoffs are in full swing, so why not an easy drink to enjoy during the game. Sure this drink is just a whiskey & cola, but add a lemon slice and use Canadian Club and you have a Quick Kick. Now isn’t that more fun? 

Courtesy of Canadian Club Whisky.

If you’re having a cocktail party, it is possible to make your drinks ahead of time for a large number of guests. The pros call it “batching,” which really just means making a larger number of drinks all at once to save yourself some time.

No matter what kind of cocktail you’re serving, the first step of batching is to take the recipe you’re going to make and multiply all the ingredient measurements by the … Read more

This classic champagne cocktail is wonderful for holiday entertaining. Light and refreshing, the Poinsettia Cocktail ads an extra bit of holiday cheer to any gathering.

CMSC Spirits is releasing a new spirit in May — Love Potion #9. They sent over a little sample, which inspired me to create a new dessert. The tropical-fruit-flavored liqueur is made with sugar cane alcohol (instead of grain alcohol), which made me think strawberry tart!

It’s a light and refreshing dessert, with the mascarpone adding creaminess without turning the dish into something heavy or sticky-sweet. Oh, and it’s super easy!

Ingredients

8 oz mascarpone … Read more

It is Mixology Monday time again, and our host Rowley’s Whiskey Forge has tasked us with the all so appropriate theme of hard drinks for hard times. Rather than come up with a few wallet stretching cocktails, I thought I’d share a few tips on stretching your drinking dollar. A recession doesn’t mean you can’t drink well, it just means you need to drink smarter.

Stay home and invite friends

Drinking at home is always … Read more

If you’re planning a special Valentine’s Day dinner, don’t forget the wine! Here are some basic food and wine pairing tips.

The first thing to remember is that it is more important to choose a wine that you enjoy than to follow rules. However, there are some tips that will help enhance your food and wine experience:

Match the intensity and “weight” of the dish with the intensity of the wine. So a bold dish … Read more