3 Summer Cocktails to Kick Off Your Summer (at home) Party

The theme this summer is apparently lemonade in the house (well that and depleting all of the liquor that we have in the house). 

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As you know I am not a huge cocktail drinker, wine for me please, but during the summer from time to time I do like to mix it up with a cocktail. And since Patrick is a huge lemonade drinker, I decided to play around with recipes that he might like since he is more the cocktail drinker! 

I am recommending that you use fresh squeezed lemon juice, but using any regular old lemonade would work just make sure you adjust for the sugar quantities. Unless you love it really sweet! 

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The first cocktail is taken from Annihilations Daulter’s "Bites on a Board" which is a fantastic little cookbook I recently discovered. The other two I literally just made up. But number two is Patrick’s favorite of all time (maybe besides a Pina Colada).

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Blackberry Vodka Lemonade 

1 pint fresh blackberries 

2 tablespoons of simple syrup 

1/2 cup sparkling water 

4 sage leaves 

Combine and stir until blackberries have saturated the syrup then strain blackberries for juice

Then add 

4 ounces of vodka  

Juice of 3 fresh squeezed lemons (or just a 1/4 cup of lemonade) 

Combine, shake, stir and serve over ice with a sprig of sage

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Vodka Cherry Lemonade  

4 ounce of vodka 

1/2 cup of sparkling water (if you have cherry sparkling even better!) 

Juice of 3 fresh squeezed lemons (or just a 1/4 cup of lemonade) 

1 tablespoon maraschino cherry juice (Patrick recommends these cherries

Combine, shake, stir and serve over ice with a few extra cherries 

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Strawberry Spiked Lemonade 

1 pint fresh strawberry 

1 tablespoon simple syrup

1/2 cup sparkling water 

Juice of 3 fresh squeezed lemons (or just a 1/4 cup of lemonade) 

Combine and stir until strawberries have saturated the syrup then strain strawberries for juice

Then add 

2 ounces of vodka 

2 ounces amaretto 

Combine, shake, stir and serve over ice with a lemon twist and a fresh strawberry 

CHEERS! 

E