The Red Shaker » Page 12

Like The Butterball Turkey Hotline, But For Martinis……

Apr 132010

{scene: living room of Shaker One’s Pad}

*ring!ring!*

Shaker Two: “Hi, what’s that martini with the Lillet and the St. Germain…? You know?? The Lillet site is giving my iphone error messages in French.”

Shaker One: “How civilized, hmmmm-might be the Parisian….lemme look it up……”

Shaker Two: “Use the search engine tool on the top of our blog!”

Shaker One: “Oh cool, I wondered if we had one of those…….ah yes, The Parisian- 2 shots voddy, 1 shot St. Germain, 1/2 shot Lillet Blanc.”

Shaker Two: “Excellent- the bartender got it right! Thanks Shaker One~”

Shaker One: “Have fun.”

*puts phone down, walks over to bar*

Shaker One: “Well I have to have a drink now, don’t I?”

The Stripeycat:

{fade to black}

Shaker Two here…. I arrived home this evening after a night out with the boss talking business, projections plans and whatnot, while consuming a disgusting amount of vodka. Not being in the mood for a dirty martini, I opted for one of my standby’s from the blog – the Parisian.
The aforementioned conversation truly DID take place as I was trying to remember the exact ratios of Lillet Blanc, vodka and St. Germain. Stupid flash sites were not cooperating with my iPhone (damned Flash) and I was really craving it.. so Shaker One was a drunken lifeline in this case.

As far as the aforementioned “search” function…look to your top right and you can do a search of the entire blog for ingredients, links, keywords, etc…. a very handy thing, indeed.

Many thanks to Shaker One for being there when I needed her.

C'mon, You Can Tell Us…..

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Apr 122010

There is a divide amongst martini aficionados that is perhaps even deeper than the Great Vodka vs. Gin Debate :

Are you Twisted or Dirty?

When you enjoy a classic martini, be it with vodka or gin, do you prefer it with a twist of citrus or with an olive/dirtied up with the olive juice? In my martini travels, I’ve rarely found those who enjoy it both ways.

Shaker One here- I am a Twisted Tini gal exclusively. If a bartender decides to “surprise” me with his “specialty” dirty style, I send it right back. Dirty style should never be a surprise. I love the subtle lemon perfume of the twist- it kisses the martini with it’s brightness, yet still allows the clean flavor of the drink to shine through. Of course, when making a classic martini you must use the very best quality vodka or gin possible.

Shaker Two here. I have leaned more towards the dirty martinis. I am not sure if I started drinking these to mask the flavor of the rather cheap, burning vodka I drank as college student or whether or not I just ordered it for the olives. I am guessing some of both, but it has stuck with me through the years. I had one wonderful bartender that would bring me the martini with a small glass filled with olives, with the remainder of martini in it. I would happily snack on my vodka soaked olives. Now, though it is not what I order normally, I can also deal with a twisted martini. I think it depends on my mood.

Where do you fall? Tell us below….we’re curious to see which is more popular.

Questions View Results

A Whole New Shaker!!!

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Apr 082010

After much hair pulling, frustration and a really steep learning curve, the Shakers are proud to announce our new blog!!!

We have grown up and migrated to our own site and added oodles of new things to make your Red Shaker experience more complete. If you were following us on our old blog, please re-follow us as this new site will be where the party’s at. Here are some of the fabulous new features:

Shop in our new store! We have partnered with Amazon.com to form our own collection of gifts, guides and goodies.
Check out our custom logo gear in our Zazzle store
Subscribe via email to get word on our latest posts
Follow us on Twitter and submit content you like on Digg
Add us as a friend on Facebook

We proudly welcome you to the NEW Red Shaker and hope you come with us on our martini adventures. Same Shaker style, all new bells and whistles.

Shaker One here~I’d like to give a special shout out to Shaker 2 for her magical tech skills…..without which we’d still be a blog with training wheels. Thanks you luscious lush!

A Taste of Summer~

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Apr 082010

A summer-like spring day led us to thoughts of more citrus fun…..and from that comes:

The Citrus Bliss Martini

We based this off of the success of the Nasturtium Flip, but pulled in an old friend we hadn’t played with since last summer: Rain Honey Mano Melon Vodka! Added to this-fresh squeezed orange/key lime/lemon juice, simple syrup and a few dashes of Fee Bros. Lemon Bitters…….mmmmm, happy summery citrusy goodness in the glass! We skipped the flip (egg white) this time and just let the fresh flavors shine through. Delicious!

We give this golden child

We also enjoyed some fresh home made salsa, chips and roasted pepper quesadillas with lime cumin cream. Can you see us smile from where you are? Not a bad way to end a workday.

Well, since it is a work night, we moved on to dessert:

Ok, so were a bit late with this one, but here is our Easter martini~

The Cadbury Egg~

We based it off of this recipe, but substituted Godiva Chocolate Liquor for the white chocolate liquor and used Stoli Vanilla (which we had on hand) instead of Grey Goose Vanilla Vodka.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not expect to enjoy this one (Shaker One here). Color me oh so happy to be wrong. Wow. Creamy, chocolate-y, fantastic. The star here is clearly the Godiva chocolate liquor. It would simply not be as good with a lesser chocolate booze. And as you can see, we had some fun with the cream~ coloring it w/ get food color to create the “egg” effect. After the photo op, we whisked the cream into the drink. Wow again. The more cream the better here..thicken it slightly and throw in about a tablespoon of powdered sugar. You could have a lot of fun here with chocolate egg/bunny/peep garnishes. If you’re not trying to make it pretty, go ahead and shake the cream up in the shaker and strain into the glass.

The Shakers give this a belated Easter

A wonderful dessert martini for the chocolate fan…. you probably won’t want more than one…very rich. Of course, we have to get our fruit and veggies in there, so we served it with chocolate covered strawberries. Mmmmm,a balanced diet!

And so we close a short school night shake with satisfied smiles. Until next time~happy drinking!

Shake-a-tini!

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Apr 042010

Hello and Happy Easter to all our Shaker pals. For all of you in Southern California- how did you enjoy your Easter Roll? Yes, a healthy earthquake made me feel like I’d already enjoyed a couple of our ‘tinis. Spring is here and some ingredients on hand inspired me to create a new ‘tini:

The Nasturtium Flip:

Vodka, fresh squeezed orange and key lime juice, a little sweetener, and egg white for foam and finished with a few dashes of Fee Bros Lemon Bitters. And yes, that’s a nasturtium from my balcony garden!

Shaker 2 popped up to weigh in on this:

Delicious. Summery, fresh, with possibilities for other pairings……..

We shall play with this ‘tini again.

For all of you who were looking for the easter ‘tini…..check back tomorrow. There will be something tasting coming in to your e basket.

Happy Easter, Happy Spring, hope your day was lovely.
Shakers out.

Limey Bast@#d

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Mar 282010

The weather has warmed up here in Southern California and it seems though spring has arrived. Plants are bloomin’, the bees are buzzing and the key limes have hit the stores!

In honor of this fabulous bit of tart produce, we bring you Key Lime Shaker Night!

The first concoction is a Key Lime Martini (v.1)

Oh, yes, this one was a beautiful start to the evening. Tart, sweet with a graham cracker rimmed glass – talk about tripping a light fandango on the tongue! It was creamy, tangy, limey and not too sweet. I can see this bad boy being a definite summer drink staple.

Both Shaker’s concur:

Now Key Lime Pie Martini (v.2)
This is the recipe 3rd down in the article

Ok , this one reads more “pina colada” than key lime pie. To quote shaker 2 “mrepfifownof” which translated to “I like your key lime mousse better”. You can’t argue with logic like that. And yes, I made key lime mousse for us tonight. May I say yum? Recipe at www.epicurious.com. Juicing key limes is a bit of a chore, but well worth the effort.

Shaker 2 and I agree that we would not try this one again. It’s not terrible, but not worth it compared to the first. We’d give this one . Meh.

So we moved on to our own Key Lime Martini-Shaker Style!

Instead of Rose’s lime juice, we used fresh squeezed key limes juice and simple syrup. Nice true key lime flavor, fluffier body, but we still both like the first one the best.

Well, its a workday tomorrow, we will wrap this up for now. If you want to try a key lime martini, try our first recipe.

Starry Night

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Mar 272010

Last week while I was away from LA I looked up at night and I could actually see stars. And while I’m a city girl at heart (….the lights of the city are the stars on the ground-name that tune!), there’s something about looking up at an indigo velvet canopy studded with sparkling lights that makes you stop and just be in the moment……….marveling at the immenseness and beauty. What else does it make you do? Well, if you’re a shaker it makes you mix up a martini inspired by the night sky.

And so we have:

The Starry Night

regular vodka, creme de violette, vanilla vodka, pineapple juice, a splash of lemon…….still working on the proportions but this has possibilities. The violette and vanilla play nicely together while the pineapple juice foams up a lovely solar system across the top of the drink. Hmmmm, maybe some champagne next time to add “sparkle” to the sky???

I need to work more with the creme de violette. It is a lovely liquor…..subtle taste and a mesmerizing color that goes from inky indigo to pale lavender depending on the mixers. I wonder how this would play with a tea infusion?

So like the night sky, a good ingredient should make you wonder where else the night will take you………..

(as is, 3 1/2 olives-but I think this could be worked up to a 4)

Shaker One bids you a good night.

Éirinn go brách

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Mar 172010

Shaker Two here. Shaker One is out of town at the moment, so I am posting a little something in her absence.

Sadly, I don’t have a new martini to share, schedules have been a wee bit crazy and though we have tried for a few Shaker Nights, it has not worked out – hopefully that will remedy itself soon.

One of our readers asked if we were coming up with a Shamtini in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Due to circumstances above, we had not – but this also got me thinking (dangerous, I know.) Would I take the route of creme de menthe as my base or be more calorically diabolical with a green milkshake, a la the golden arches, and go from there?

We might have to come up with a few ideas and do a belated nod to St. Pat.

Thanks to SuzyQ for the suggestion and we’ll see if we can do some justice to her idea.

Love Potion #9

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Feb 222010

The Shakers have come up with a new signature martini:

The Love Potion #9 (working title)

Inspired by the Velvet Kiss and couple of our favorite ingredients (Lillet Blanc, St. Germain) we’ve created a tasty tini to melt your heart……literally.

3 oz Vodka
2 oz Lillet Blanc
1/2 oz St. Germain elderflower liquor
1 oz lemon juice
splash of simple syrup (optional)

Shake above over ice, strain into a martini glass and gently drop in a frozen heart. Yes, that’s a frozen heart of berry puree you see floating in the glass.

This martini is meant to be sipped slowly. The flavor changes over time. You start out with a nice citrus-y top note, but as the drink matures you start to get a more pronounced Lillet flavor and near the end, the berry puree heart melts to color and flavor the last half of your drink. This is a martini to savor, enjoying the layers as they develop.

Shaker 1 gives this a 4 1/2 olives

Chai-tini, Two Ways

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Feb 152010

Shaker 1 here- I just so happened to have a little bit of the Chai tea infused vodka left over from Zombie Night. We were so close to creating a terrific teani, so I wanted to see if we could bring it up an olive or so.

Method 1:

Toss a cinnamon stick or two into about 1/2 cup heavy cream. Simmer for a few minutes to infuse the cream. Chill and whip. Shake up ice, 2-3 large dollops of the infused whipped cream, about an ounce of simple syrup and 3 ozs of chai infused vodka (you can also sweeten the cream instead of adding simple syrup). Strain and pour into martini glass. Garnish with ground cinnamon if desired.

Method 2:

(I like to call this the “instant” method)
In a shaker, add ice, 3 ozs. chai infused vodka and an ounce and a half of Coffeemate Cinnamon Vanilla cream non dairy creamer. Shake, strain, pour, enjoy.

I’ve got to say, as weird as it sounds the Coffeemate method was really fantastic! Tasty and creamy with a subtle cinnamon hint that was not at all overpowering. I like the body that the whipped heavy cream gives the teani, but if you’re in a hurry for some Chai Teani goodness or just feel plain lazy-Method 2 is your friend.

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