Jump to recipe

Are you having a dry January?  We are not referring to the precipitation outside, but to the trend that many Americans choose to follow in January.  A dry January is when one  chooses to abstain from alcohol and alcoholic beverages for the month of January.  Some choose this route to help jump start healthy habits and new diets for the new year.  Others choose to participate in dry January to give their bodies a reprieve from all of the imbibing and rich foods that were enjoyed throughout the holiday season. This week, you will see something that The Blind Pig Blog has not previously done.  We are sharing a recipe for a non-alcoholic beverage — a mocktail!

We were quite surprised with how delicious this little beverage turned out. Rhonda expected it to taste just so-so, but it was refreshing and delicious.  The Orange Basil Spritzer would be a perfect beverage to offer if you have friends at your gathering who are abstaining from alcohol for a variety of reasons.  Why should all of the alcohol drinkers have all of the fun with the festively garnished drinks?  Offer this as an alternative and everyone can enjoy the festivities!

This post is finally highlighting two of Rhonda’s Christmas gifts. First the coup glasses were high on her list.  We had so many recipes we wanted to share with you and we didn’t have the right glasses.  Coup glasses are great for classic cocktails and for cocktails where you need a wide mouth for the garnish.  Don’t these look great?  Secondly, she finally got a chance to light her torch!  She asked for a glazing torch, so she could glaze garnishes and desserts.  She used her torch for the first time to glaze the blood orange slices used for garnish.  Just sprinkle a little sugar over the orange slices, light the torch and glaze!

Creating the Orange Basil Spritzer is an ease.  You need only a few basic ingredients: orange juice, basil simple syrup, club soda, sliced blood oranges and fresh basil for garnish.

If you are reading this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a printable version of The Orange Spritzer recipe.

We made the orange spritzer with regular orange juice, next time we would purchase extra blood oranges so we could make it with blood orange juice to give it that pretty red color.

To make the basil simple syrup, follow our simple syrup recipe.  If you are going for a recipe with lower calories, you can also use our Stevia simple syrup recipe.  When placing the simple syrup in a container to cool, add two to three basil leaves.  Let the basil and syrup infuse for 24 hours before serving.

This beverage is an ideal beverage to serve at any gathering, but perfect for a baby shower or brunch! The basil simple syrup adds a delicious flavor to the orange juice base. Try out the Orange Basil Spritzer this week and let us know what you think!

We cannot close out this post with rejoicing with all of Chiefs Kingdom across the US!  It has been a very long time coming, but we all stayed true to the red and gold and now we are going to the SUPER BOWL!  Don’t worry, we are already concocting some recipes to share for your super bowl celebrations!  GO CHIEFS!!!!!