Cocktails to Ring in the New Year Right

Blind Pig Friends, how was your Christmas?  Ours was great.  We took in some travel to Kansas City to see friends, family and attend our niece’s wedding. We were a little busy over the past week, so we apologize for our absence.  However, we hope that you visited our site to look at some of our recipes for the holidays!

We feel like we have so much to tell you about what we’ve been doing this past month, but tonight is the night to party.  Many of you have been contacting us for cocktail ideas for New Year’s.  You can use any of our beverages that are on our beverages page, but to make it easier for you, we are highlighting a few of our favorites below.

The Ball Drop (The Moon Walk)

We originally developed this drink to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Walk, but change the name and call it The Ball Drop.  Your friends will love this easy to make cocktail.

Jingle Gin Punch

This large batch punch is the perfect cocktail for a party.  Mix it up early in the day and let friends serve themselves.  This punch is one of Rhonda’s favs!

Merry Margarita

How can you go wrong with a festive margarita?  This margarita has only a few extra basic ingredients, and margs are always a crowd pleaser.

Cranberry Rum Slush

This yummy, icy cocktail is on the sweet side, but a delicious cocktail with a little sparkle for any NYE.

Holiday Aperol Spritz

We shared this one with you a few weeks ago. It’s easy to make and a fun way to celebrate with a spritz.

French 75

This light classic cocktail has been popular for a century.  Look back at the 1920’s while peering into the 2020’s with a delicious French 75.

Reverse Manhattan

Reflect back at 2019 while drinking a Reverse Manhattan.  This is always a crowd pleaser for friends who appreciate crafted cocktails.

Italian Negroni

This is a great cocktail to serve friends who seek out a twist on a classic cocktail. The Negroni lovers in your crowd will be pleased.

We are wishing you a wonderful and blessed 2020.  We can’t wait to share more ideas with you starting in January!  Stay safe tonight.  Rideshare!

 

Disclaimer:  The beverages on this site are meant for adults 21 years of age and older.  We do not condone underage drinking.  Drink responsibly.

 

The Blind Pig Holiday Goody Basket Ideas

Blind Pig Friends!  Let us apologize for our recent absence.  We made a mad dash trip to New York to visit Piglet #1 last weekend.  We thought we would have time to get things together to send out a post this past week, but as you noticed– it never happened!  We will fill you in on our New York trip later.  Today you are getting the low down on some super Christmas baking treats!

One of  The Blind Pig’s Family favorite holiday traditions is baking and putting together our holiday goody baskets for friends and family.  It is a big event that takes days of baking and decorating to pull together. Whether you are baking for an army of baskets to be delivered to family and friends or just want one special treat to take to Grandma’s house on Christmas day, The Blind Pig Blog has you covered with lots of special treats.  Who needs sugarplums dancing in your head, when you can try one of The Blind Pig’s confections instead?

Here are our ideas that work well in a basket or for a special gift of sweetness and love.

Borghetti  Brownie Caramel Bites

We shared this delicious easy recipe with you in the fall.  Even if you are not a pro baker, you can easily pull this recipe off without a hitch!

Golden Mint Crinkles

This gem of a recipe was our number one post for 2018 and when you taste these, you will see why!  This recipe is a little time intensive, so make sure you have a few hours of time blocked out to pull this off.

Love You More Cookies

This recipe was shared with you in our Valentine post last February.  However, we have been using this for our Christmas cookies for years.  You get excellent sugar cookies for decorating everytime. Don’t forget the Irish cream in the recipe, it gives the cookies a yummy hint of chocolate.

Menta Truffles

These easy to make truffles are so rich and yummy. Your friends and family will think you purchased them from an expensive chocolatier!

Salted Whiskey Caramel Corn

This treat is great around Halloween, but we make again around the holidays.  It is great for placing in a decorative bag and handing out as a special gift.

Spiked Pecan Bars

We shared this with you right before Thanksgiving.  It would make a wonderful addition to a dessert plate for guests to nibble on after a big holiday meal.

Spirited  Chocolate Orange Bars

These versatile bars are great any time of the year.  These would work well on a dessert plate passed around for guests to pick and choose.  The flavor of chocolate paired with a hint of zesty citrus makes the dessert feel light and refreshing.

Thin Mentas

These cookies are time intensive, but a wonderful combination of mint and chocolate for any holiday celebration.

Yum Rum Balls

Our rum balls are easy to make and are an eye catching addition to any goody basket.

Espresso Fudge

If your family likes coffee and chocolate, then this easy recipe is a must to try for your holiday giving.

Whiskey Spiced Pecans

We shared this recipe with you this fall.  We made the recipe again and placed the nuts in decorative baggies to share with our goody boxes.

Do you have your holiday baking complete?  What treats do you usually make for the holidays?  We would love to hear about your ideas and preferences!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our Blind Pig Friends!  We wish you safe travels and the happiest of Christmas memories.

 

 

 

Holiday Aperol Spritz

How are your holiday preparations coming along?  Since we were out of town so much the past two weeks with Piglet sports (Bucket List Adventure), we feel like we are still playing catch up.  We finally finished putting up the Christmas decorations last night.  (We know… this is way behind schedule for the Blind Pig Household.)  However, Craig got the outside lights up and looking festive and Rhonda finally finished the inside.  Now we can concentrate on entertaining, baking and shopping. Gish!

This week we have a delicious little cocktail just right for spreading holiday cheer.  This cocktail is light and refreshing. If you have been around our little blog for very long, you are well aware that Rhonda has an affinity for anything titled spritz — especially if there is a little Prosecco involved.  This cocktail is festive without the feeling of weighing you down like a heavier or cocktail or a glass of wine.  In fact, Rhonda is having a little soiree with some friends this week and plans on serving it to her friends.

Aperol, cranberry juice cocktail (we used sugar-free), grapefruit juice, Prosecco, a slice of orange, a handful of fresh cranberries and a sprig of fresh rosemary are all you need to create this spectacular cocktail.

Pour the Aperol, cranberry juice and  grapefruit juice in a rocks glass filled with ice.  Stir together. Top off with Prosecco and garnish with cranberries, orange slice and rosemary sprig.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us as www.theblindpig.blog for a complete printable recipe of Holiday Aperol Spritz.

Try the Holiday Aperol Spritz for your next holiday festivities, and see how your guests like it!  Do you have all of your holiday decorations complete?  What part of your decorating is your favorite?  Let us know.  We’d love to hear from you.

 

 

Bucket List Adventure

Hopefully you have recovered from your Thanksgiving festivities by now and are ready for the Christmas season.  We told you that we have been spending a lot of time with Blind Piglets #2 and #3 and their sports.  Last weekend we went to Vegas with Blind Piglet #2’s soccer team.  While there we took part in a little grown up entertainment and sightseeing.  Oh, don’t get confused, we didn’t spend any time in a casino, but we did spend time eating some great food, taking in a great view of the city and checking off an item on Rhonda’s bucket list.

We had dinner reservations at Catch.  The dinner and the service did not disappoint.  If you are spending time in Vegas soon, we highly recommend eating at Catch.  They have an incredible dessert which is a doughnut carousel.  There are 8 doughnut holes served on a wheel of sorts with four different sauces to drizzle over the top. Hmmm… it reminded us of another spectacular dessert we’ve seen somewhere before (Hard Cider Donut Holes.)

We took in yummy cocktails and spectacular views of the Vegas Strip at the top of the Delano Hotel in the Skyfall Lounge.  The service at the Skyfall was incredible, we were seated at a table that overlooked the strip, and enjoyed taking in the view.

View from Skyfall

We visited the Hoover Dam for an afternoon.

It has been a long-time bucket list item for Rhonda to see the Grand Canyon, so since we were so close we added a couple days to our trip to do just that.  We drove the extra 2 hours to the South Rim where we could take in Grand Canyon National Park.  If you have not been to the Grand Canyon, this is a must!

You pay only $35 dollars per car for a day’s visit — a steal!  Once inside the park there is a visitors center with informative presentations to help you get the lay of the land.  We viewed a short documentary about how the canyon was formed which helped us to appreciate our views later in the day.  There is also a Geological Museum, an Art Studio, hotels, restaurants and more inside the park.

Look closely, see anyone you know?

There are shuttle buses that will take you to the main views along the southern rim, but we chose to take the Rim Trail.  If you are able to walk along the Rim Trail, we highly recommend it.  There are so many interesting sights and fun lookouts that you miss if you take the bus from viewpoint to viewpoint.  The walk along the trail gave us time to spread out and enjoy the canyon on our own instead of being shuttled along with a large group of tourists.  As you can see from our many photos, we had so much fun crawling out to different points and taking some fun shots.

Bright Angel trail is a must-do, if even for just a short hike.

We also spent a couple of hours hiking down the Bright Angel trail into the canyon, we did not have the time (which takes a day’s worth of hiking) to hike to the bottom, but we hiked down for about an hour and turned around for a 45 minute hike back up.  We loved being inside the canyon and appreciated the wildlife, which included a tarantula, many birds, and geological markers along the trail.

The wind started to pick up in the afternoon.

We did not stay in the park since we made our plans last minute, and the park hotels are known to book up more than a year in advance.  However, we were able to stay just outside the park in the sweet little town of Grand Canyon, Arizona.  We were treated to the surprise of unpredicted snow the last morning which added to the charm of the little town.

We were surprised with some snow while visiting the canyon.

Although it was a super quick trip, we enjoyed checking this American treasure off of our bucket list.  What sites and adventures are on your bucket list? Tell us. We would love to hear about it.