Update 3/2/2012: this competition is now closed. Congrats to the winners: David, Vici and Nicole.

Forget cocktails guys, winetails are the new black.

Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I did have a fiddle around making my own cocktails using Yellow Tail sparkling wine, and had some great results.

Win 6 bottles of Yellow Tail Wine!

Those recipes coming up in a minute, but first, make sure you are signed up to my email newsletter as I’ll be sending out competition details on Friday for how three lucky readers can win 6 bottles of Yellow Tail wine. Giveaway is exclusively for subscribers! Sign up right there in the sidebar -> -> ->

Right. Now that the admin is out of the way, let’s take a look at these winetails…

Once I got down to business, I was actually quite amazed at how versatile sparkling wine is when used in cocktails, ahem, winetails. The gentle fizz really adds a bit of fun and lightness, even for the ones that have strong alcohol in them (I’m looking at you bourbon whisky).

The best thing, though, was a new bottle feature – a resealable cap. How handy! Not only is this super convenient for regular folks who don’t want to drink a whole bottle in one sitting, but it was really great for me while I was experimenting and photographing over a whole day. The wine stayed fresh and chilled and ready for its close up.

Enough procrastinating though, let’s talk about these winetails.

Sparkling Leela. Named after the lovely girl who was taste-testing this for me. It’s a beautiful combination of peach nectar, fresh passionfruit and sparkling rose. A fun, girly, Aussie-Summer twist on a bellini.

Dark Golden Sunset. This is a masculine drink designed for the men at our taste-testing gathering. Bourbon whisky, cointreau, sparkling wine and dry ginger ale. Surprisingly, it remains quite a macho drink, even with the inclusion of supposedly ‘girly’ sparkling wine.

Minty Party Starter.  My taste-testers declared this was the best of the lot. Fresh, light and fruity with the mint being the stand-out ingredient. Definitely a winetail to kick your event off with a bang: lime, mint, vanilla sugar, moscato and tonic water. Yum!

Good luck in the competition guys, and do let me know if you try any of my winetail recipes tomorrow on Australia Day!

Christie x

This feature story and giveaway is proudly sponsored by Yellow Tail Wines.

Sparkling Leela

serves 1

• 30ml peach nectar
• 1 tablespoon passionfruit pulp (roughly half a passionfruit)
• 30ml vodka
• Yellow Tail Sparkling Rose

1. Pour the peach nectar into a champagne flute. Add the passionfruit pulp and vodka and stir.

2. Top with sparkling rose to fill the glass. Enjoy immediately.

Dark Golden Sunset

serves 1

• 30ml Bourbon Whisky
• 5ml Cointreau
• Yellow Tail Sparkling White Wine
• Dry Ginger Ale
• 2 ice cubes

1. Place the ice cubes into a short wide glass. Add the whisky and cointreau and stir.

2. Top with equal amounts of sparkling wine and dry ginger ale. Enjoy immediately.

Minty Party Starter

serves 1

• 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 3-4 mint sprigs
• 30ml vodka
• 60ml moscato
• Tonic water

1. Slice the lime into six wedges and place into a tall, slender hi-ball glass.

2. Add the sugar, mint and vodka. Smash, muddle and stir until the sugar dissolves.

3. Pour in the moscato and top with tonic water to fill the glass. Enjoy immediately.

There was no greasy breakfast or hangover for hubby and I this year.

Just a 6am wake up (thanks Poppy!) with avocado and tomato on multigrain toast and a super-charged smoothie to kick-start 2012 with all the healthy energy we can muster.

Packed with seasonal bananas and apricots, high fibre soy milk, oatbran and then sweetened with maple syrup; it made us feel great about getting the year started.

Then we packed Poppy into the car and headed to Manly beach for a bit of sun and a delicious seafood platter at the pub overlooking the beach.

How was your start to 2012?

Christie x

2012 banana smoothie

serves 2

1 banana, peeled and sliced
2 apricots, seed removed and sliced
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup Vitasoy Hi-Fibre soy milk
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon oatbran
handful of ice cubes

1. Place all ingredients into the blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

They arrived in a beautiful brown cardboard box tied with a red ribbon. Baby Poppy helped me untie the ribbon and then I squealed with delight at its contents. Poppy stared at me blankly, a little freaked out by my sudden outburst.

“Lychee season is here!” I told her excitedly. “You’ve never tasted lychees, do you want to try one?”

I immediately peeled a lychee and popped a small segment into her mouth. She smiled and juice dribbled down her chin. Then she opened her mouth for more. It was love at first lychee.

As far as I’m concerned there are only two ways to enjoy lychees:

1. Straight up. Peeled and eaten immediately. (Slightly frozen are a close 1B).

and;

2. With booze. Preferably gin, or pureed into a martini, or with this granita.

When Poppy went to bed, hubby fixed us both a nice drink of gin and tonic with fresh lychee. Now that’s a great night in!

Christie x

Fig & Cherry received the lychees with compliments of Impact Communications. Thanks Cessie!

My husband’s grandfather, George, was a bookie. He even won his house on a horse race – true story! His lovely wife, Marie, still lives in that house which is situated, naturally, right across the road from the race course. Now that’s living and breathing your profession!

I love looking at the beautiful old photographs of Marie in the super-stylish outfits she wore to the races. Somehow, women today just don’t look half as glamourous as the immaculately dressed women of that time in their gloves, hats and intricate frocks or matching twin sets.

Getting all dressed up is somewhat of a foreign novelty for me at the moment as a first time Mum. Ditto to drinking fancy cocktails as I’m still breastfeeding. However, when given a list cocktail recipes by my current sponsor Ocean Spray to celebrate the Spring racing season, I put on a token sparkly headband and got mixing.

When reading cocktail lists I am always immediately drawn to ones that include lychee, so one called Spring Fling, a mix of gin, lychee and ruby red grapefruit juice among other ingredients, was the clear favourite. I added extra Ruby Red because I love the colour and the taste (plus, it was the middle of the day!), so my photo looks much more vibrant than the real cocktail turns out.

A little sprig of Jasmine flower from my balcony which, to me, is the epitome of the Spring season, finished the shot nicely. The Jasmine plant is actually yet to flower, but once it does, it will fill the house with a lovely sweet scent. Just heavenly.

What is your favourite cocktail ingredient?

Christie x

Disclosure: Fig & Cherry and Ocean Spray are working together as part of a paid sponsorship.

Spring Fling Cocktail

serves one

45ml gin
15ml apple liqueur
45ml Ocean Spray Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice Drink
10ml lemon juice
3 lychees and a dash of syrup

1. Muddle the lychees and syrup in a cocktail shaker then add all ingredients with ice.

2. Shake and fine strain into a chilled martini glass.

3. Garnish with a thin wedge of apple (I used a lychee and lemon wedge).

This is a play on the American favourite sandwich combination of ‘peanut butter and jelly’ – in a liquid version. It’s super quick, super yummy and sure to super-charge you for the day!

Of course the ‘jelly’ element is actually what we call ‘jam’ here in Australia. ‘Jelly’ for us is ‘Jello’ for Americans. Confused yet?

This smoothie uses Vitasoy Soy Milky Lite making it a quick and healthy breakfast that is vegetarian, vegan, gluten free. Not to mention, super easy to slurp up before you rush out the door. I had it for breakfast the other day along with a crumpet and I was full until lunch time.

Give it a try! I’d love to hear if you think it really does taste like a PB&J sandwich!

Fig & Cherry received soy milk product with compliments from Vitasoy to experiment with for this recipe. Fig & Cherry is working with Vitasoy as an ambassador and recipe developer for their products.

Christie x

Peanut butter & jelly smoothie

serves 2

1 ripe banana
2 tablespoons strawberry jam
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
300ml Vitasoy Soy Milky
handful of ice
blueberries, to garnish (optional) (I used frozen ones)

Place all the ingredients into a blender and pulse until smooth and frothy. Serve immediately in tall glasses garnished with blueberries, if you like.

I absolutely adore recipes that use ingredients in an innovative way so that nothing gets wasted. Take this pineapple cake for example.

The first step involves poaching fresh pineapple in a vanilla spiked sugar syrup and then adding the pineapple pieces to the cake batter. Most recipes would then tell you to discard the syrup or ‘keep for another use’ which I’m sure most people do not do! But this recipe uses that precious syrup to moisten the cake into a heavenly wet mouthful.

This alone is fantastic but what really got me itching to make this recipe (other than the fact that I had a ripe pineapple begging for it) was this small note that accompanied it: “The pineapple peel can be boiled for 20 minutes or so with some sugar and makes a delightful juice”.

What! What? What! Why have I not thought of, or heard of this before? I weep for all the pineapple skins in my life that have gone straight into the bin. I weep salty tears for them.

Enough crazy talk. Let’s get on with the recipes…

Sorry, just one more thing before we get to the recipes.

I have to say a million thank you’s to Joumana from one of my favourite blogs Taste of Beirut for this fresh pineapple cake recipe. I read her blog every day and chastise myself for not making more of her brilliant Lebanese dishes.

I started with this cake, but am determined to make kibbeh balls, samke harra and mujaddara hamra (all dishes of my childhood) this year!

Pineapple drink recipe.

There is no ‘recipe’ as such. Simply wash the skins, add to a large pot and cover generously with water. Then sprinkle in some caster sugar – as much as you like – then bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Strain and chill before drinking.

Above is the pineapple skins being boiled. Below is the strained juice in a pink bottle in my fridge.

It is so refreshing served with ice cubes and mint leaves! Go on, throw a bit of gin in there if you fancy it.

That’s all for today. Below is the cake recipe. I have adapted the wording a bit from the original, enjoy!

Happy cooking! Christie x

Fresh pineapple cake recipe

1 pineapple (approximately 1kg, unpeeled weight)
300g granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
100g unsalted butter, melted

Poach the pineapple.
1. Peel and core the pineapple and chop into 2cm chunks. Place into a large pot with 100g of the sugar, the vanilla extract and 2 1/2 cups of cold tap water. Bring to the boil over medium high, then stir until the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Transfer to a heat-proof bowl and allow to cool.

Make the cake batter.
2. Heat the oven to 180C (375F). Place the eggs into a large mixing bowl and beat with a hand-held electric whisk (or use a Kitchen Aid type device, if only I had one!). Add the remaining 200g of sugar gradually and continue beating until the mixture turns pale yellow and increases in volume.

3. Sift the flour and salt into the egg mixture, folding carefully, then add baking powder and stir. Add the melted butter in a slow stream and mix with a wooden spoon until the butter is fully incorporated.

4. Drain the pineapple from the syrup – reserving the syrup – and add to the cake batter, folding gently to incorporate the pieces thoroughly. Butter a non-stick cake tin (I used a 20cm round tin) and bake for 30 minutes until puffed and golden.

Assemble to serve.
5.  Remove from the oven and prick the cake all over with a toothpick. Place the tin onto a plate, just in case the syrup pours over the sides. Pour the syrup over the cake, it will absorb very quickly. Allow it to cool slightly and then serve warm or at room temperature. Leave covered at room temperature for best leftover results (if there’s any left!).

(original recipe here)

[Pomegranate & hibiscus champagne cocktail with spiced macadamia nuts]

Don’t groan! Yes, it’s another recipe using POM wonderful, I’m sorry. I’m addicted. Help!

The blogosphere is awash with recipes for pomegranate juice after a lot of us received free bottles of it. There’s been granita, tagine, cake, salad dressing and others. Do you think we can fit one more in? Oh OK then.

The truth is I’m now addicted to POM Wonderful. Hopelessly addicted. I sneak a few sips throughout the day and think about new ways to incorporate it into recipes.

I guess I’m living proof that sending someone free samples actually works. Especially if they’re sent to a health nut like me that’s a sucker for 100% juice (juice that I don’t have to make a mess in my kitchen for and that is delivered in a cute little cooler bag right to my door).

I’ve been rationing my remaining 2 bottles by mixing it with sparkling mineral water and a squeeze of lime. Sometimes I add a little gin. It would be good with vodka too.

But once you’re riding the slippery slope of a pre-dinner alcoholic drink then you definitely need something to nibble with it. Enter spicy macadamias, stage left. Champagne cocktail, stage right.

If you’re serving them at a party then please don’t forget the charms for your glasses! They’re super cute and hygienic too. A good combo for a semi-OCD like me that avoids additional germs at all costs (and likes to be hostess with the mostess).

Taste of Sydney Festival

Don’t forget I’ve got 3 double passes to the Taste Festival to giveaway. Competition details here. Entries close on March 5th, so hurry!

Sorry to my international and interstate friends, you must be able to make your own way to Sydney if you win. I wish I was rich enough to pay for your flights (but thanks to those cheeky people who asked!).

Hope you win! Christie x

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Would love a vote if you get a chance. Go on, I’ll be your best friend….

RECIPES

Pomegranate and hibiscus champagne cocktails
no quantities so you can make as many as you like!

Edible hibiscus flowers (see here)
Pomegranate juice, chilled (I used POM wonderful)
Champagne or Sparkling wine

1. Place an edible hibiscus flower in the bottom of a champagne flute and pour over 30ml (use a shot glass to measure) of pomegranate juice.

2. Fill the glass with chilled champagne and serve. Easy, huh? Enjoy!

________________________

Spiced macadamia nuts
makes 2 cups

2 cups raw macadamia nuts
pinch ground chilli powder
pinch paprika
pinch fine sea salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. Mix together the nuts, spices and vegetable oil in a large bowl until all the nuts are evenly coated.

2. Heat a large frying pan over high and add the nut mixture. Dry fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes, shaking them around the pan constantly. Don’t move away, they burn easily! Remove to small bowls and serve with the cocktails.

[Pink grapefruit and sparkling mineral water drink]

Some people find it really hard to drink the necessary 8 glasses of water a day. Personally, I love water and can’t get enough of the stuff, but sometimes I do feel like a fizzy drink. I’m hesitant to buy the commercial ones available because they’re full of sugar and nasty additives which can make you fat and hyperactive. Not a good combo.

There’s lots of flavoured waters on the market, but I find them far too sweet and they’re always a ‘fake’ version of the fruit flavour. (What did I expect?)

So when I feel like something bubbly, what I like to do is squeeze some citrus fruit into a half mix of sparkling mineral water or soda water with fresh cold water. I especially love pink grapefruit, but lime, lemon, mandarin and blood orange also work really well. Add a few ice cubes and maybe some mint and you’ll never think water is boring again!*

If you don’t feel like a fizzy drink you can replace the sparkling water with still bottled water – it will be just as refreshing.

Happy drinking, Christie

Pink Grapefruit Drink
makes approx 1.25 litres

4 pink grapefruits
750ml sparkling mineral water or soda water
250ml cold water
Ice cubes, sugar, mint leaves (optional)

Slice the grapefruits in half. Squeeze the juice from each half by hand into a large jug (you could use a juicer if you prefer). Top with the mineral water and cold water and stir to combine. Add ice cubes, sugar and mint if using, stir again and serve.

*Just a little note, I’m not suggesting you never drink plain water again. This type of drink could be included into your daily liquid count as a treat; you obviously can’t drink sparkling mineral water all the time, you’d have some serious gas problems!