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YumSugar Gift Guide: The Bachelor Gastrosexual

YumSugar — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:30:03 -0800

Is your brother or your best friend a perpetual heartbreaker? If his gastrosexual self already knows that the way to a woman's heart is through her stomach, browse the options below, which fit in perfectly with his impossibly smooth pad.

His George Foreman deserves a long-overdue upgrade; try this indoor grill. If he's a serious gourmet, he'll love an at-home meat grinder. For those last-minute dates, Zagat to Go is a perfect reference.

Want more gift ideas? Browse the selection below or check out all the gift guides on HolidaySugar.

Come Party With Me: St. Patrick's Day - Drinks

partysugar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:50:14 -0700

To get in the mood for St. Patrick's Day, set up a "Make Your Drink Green" bar and let the girls help themselves. Fill one ice bucket with bottles of a light Irish beer (such as Harp) and another with bottles of white wine. Arrange beer and wine glasses and green food coloring nearby. Have everyone tint their drinks green.

Also set out the ingredients for a specialty cocktail and write the recipe for the drink, so your guests can play bartender. This interesting cocktail features Irish whiskey making it wonderfully appropriate for the holiday. It combines the whiskey with fresh ginger, lemon juice, apricot jam, and orange liquor.

To look at the recipe, read more.

Tommy Gun
From Food and Wine

Ingredients

2 thin fresh ginger slices
1 teaspoon apricot jam
1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
Ice
2 ounces Irish whiskey
1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
1 lemon twist

Directions

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the ginger with the jam and lemon juice.
Add ice and the whiskey and Grand Marnier; shake well. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.

Makes 1 drink.

Print recipe with images | without images

Now Open: World's First Certified Organic Bar

YumSugar — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:30:56 -0800

This weekend, GustOrganics, an all-organic restaurant in Manhattan, became the world's first 100 percent USDA certified organic bar. The sleek, eco-conscious bar and restaurant is located in Greenwich Village. The bar is stocked with certified organic wine, beer, fresh fruit, and spirits such as rum, vodka, whiskey, and tequila. According to owner Alberto Gonzalez, all of the drinks are free of chemicals, artificial substances, hormones, and pesticides. GustOrganics serves standards cocktails like martinis and mojitos, and fruit concoctions such as Fresquitos, made with mangoes, orange juice, and vodka.

Other aspects of the bar are eco-friendly: there's a wind turbine on the roof that generates renewable energy and the menus are printed with soy ink on 100-percent recycled paper. I'd love to stop by this bar to try the fresh-made drinks and test out the theory that organic drinks prevent hangovers. What about you? Does the organic drink movement interest you, and do you think GustOrganics will (pardon the pun) set the bar for other nightspots?

Source

Trend Alert: Sherry

partysugar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:15:02 -0700

Back in February I printed out a cocktail recipe from the Seattle Times that featured sherry as an ingredient. Like many recipes I print out, it got buried and forgotten. Until now, recently I've been noticing sherry everywhere. Could it be that the fortified wine usually associated with Spanish old men is set to make a roaring comeback?

According to an article in this month's Saveur magazine, sherry no longer seems outdated. With the renaissance of classic cocktail ingredients (bitters, whiskey, rye, etc.), the popularity of 60s-era drinking on Mad Men, and the food world's current obsession with all things Spanish, it's not surprising that Sherry is popping up on bar menus across the nation. For more on how Sherry is suddenly becoming trendy, read more.

San Francisco's Duggan McDonnell serves a sherry cocktail at his hotspot Cantina and several concoctions at New York's Milk and Honey feature the Spanish wine.

The ladies at the Kitchn point out that Sherry is incredibly versatile and it can be served with any dinner course. Sherry also makes a flavorful cooking wine. Sherry vinegar has been a long-time favorite for salad dressings, but it's pure form is also delicious in appetizers, chicken, and even granitas.

If you're interested in sipping a bottle, Chow recommends a briny La Gitana Manzanilla Sherry, while the folks at Imbibe prefer the brand Lustau.

I plan on making the aforementioned cocktail recipe as soon possible and have started to be more aware of the Spanish wine. How about you? What do you think of this trend? Has Sherry suddenly become more interesting to you?

Source

Come Party With Me: Impromptu Concert - The Look

partysugar — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:57:31 -0700

Last week I helped plan an impromptu concert in Spain. We started prepping on Tuesday when the venue was secured. After the flyer distribution, the most important part of the planning process was finding a stage. Luckily, one one was discovered quickly and set up the morning of the concert. A huge oriental rug was placed on the stage for a festive hippie look. Fun lighting was created in the form of a big disco ball. Other necessities involved guitar drink stirrers for the whiskey cocktails, a paella pan for the rice, and black napkins and plates for serving. Simple white votives were placed in glass holders to create a warm glow. Tons of plants and lots of pretty Spanish plates were on the walls, which added character to the entire setting.

To take a look at a brief video of the show and check out my complete gallery of photos from the event, read more

View 23 Photos ›

Image Source

Come Party With Me: St. Patrick's Day - Music

partysugar — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 06:55:19 -0700

I've been a wild rover for many of year, and I've spent all me money on whiskey and beer. And now I'm returning with wealth in great store and I never will play the wild rover no more. And it's no nay, never... Yes, I know the lyrics to an Irish drinking song. Ok I confess I know the lyrics to more than one Irish drinking song: when I was little Al, my grandfather, taught me and my sister a whole bunch and we would sing them to our relatives. Tomorrow I'll sing them (with the help of a few beers) to my friends while I celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I've invited them to join me for an Irish inspired dinner followed by a pub crawl. I'm decorating my house with lots of shamrocks and serving green beer. Practically everything is all prepped and it's looking like one fabulous party. I just have to figure out what music will be playing softly in the background while we eat. To see the soundtrack to my dinner, read more

At a dinner party with a set theme with a certain type of music, Irish drinking music, I like to have one cd in my rotation consist of these songs entirely. A great example is this compilation, Irish Drinking Songs. Next I'll go on the iTunes music store and search St. Patrick's Day songs and create my own playlist with songs selected from the search such as John Mayer, St. Patrick's Day and The Hit Crew, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.
Lastly I'll throw in a few songs by Green Day, Al Green, and a few that have the color mentioned in the title or lyrics. The cds of U2, The Cranberries, Enya, and the Pogues (see BuzzSugar tomorrow for more on this group) will fill up the rest of the spots in my stereo's ten changer. I'll hit random and be good to go for the entire night.

Have a great Irish inspired song you will be playing at your party? Share it with me below. I hope everyone has a happy and fabulous St. Patrick's Day!

Yum Market Finds: Beautiful Colorful Glasses

partysugar — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 10:11:52 -0800

Just as we fill our closets with shoes and handbags for each and every occasion we should fill our cabinets with the perfect glasses for each and every drink. Every time I show up with a new box of glasses it drives my father a little more crazy. After seeing Marie Antoinette I ran out in search of fabulous dainty little champagne glasses. We already have champagne glasses my dad grumbled. My response: we have champagne flutes and these are champagne saucers. As I was looking through the Yum Market, I realized that you recognize the importance of having a variety of glasses in all shapes and sizes. Here are a few of my favorite finds (that you found!):

almost famous found these gorgeous little brocade glasses. She says she is going to use them for decoration in her apartment or to pot tiny flowers (great idea!) but I would serve super hot tea or really cold beer in these glasses like they do in Spain.

There's more so read more

atkoester discovered these fabulous stemless martini glasses. I would use these to serve whiskey on the rocks or a classic vodka/gin martini. Thanks for finding these babies atkoester!

For everyday juices, milks, iced teas, and lemonades these functional, classic glasses saved by DesignRchic are ideal. Their tinted purple glass adds a touch of color to an otherwise ordinary day. Get them now because a set of 4 is on sale!

Keep on saving your amazing foodie finds in the Yum Market! Don't know what the Yum Market is all about? Read geeksugar's informative explanation.