Sometimes, the classics are best

This evening's get together was unplanned. It ended up being a result of new technology not working as well as promised. In other words, the digital transmissions to Shaker 2's place sucks and she was unable to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" so Shaker 1 offered to open up the Balcony Bar for a special screening.

Could we leave it at just watching this fabulous holiday classic? Of course not.

While Shaker 2 thought it would be perfectly fine to have tried and true classics like dirty and twisted.... Shaker 1, as usual, raised the bar a bit higher. She was again inspired and created:

The Mistletoe-tini!

A combination of Rain vodka, champagne sorbet, pomegranate juice and triple sec.

All I gotta say is "well done, Shaker 1!" {*blush*thank you}

Not too sweet, a slight fruity undertone balanced with the dryness from the champagne. Lovely! This puppy would even rock in the summer. 4 1/2 olives! And it's a pretty festive color.

As the twinkle lights cast a festive glow on the Balcony Bar, the Shakers enjoyed "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the ushering in of the holiday season.

turkey and.... violets???

On this eve of Thanksgiving, the Shaker Girls decided to have a decompression night and try an interesting new liqueur that Shaker One has been itching to try for quite a while.... an Austrian violet liqueur. The label reads that this concoction comes from the Austrian Alps and made of wild violets from the mountainside. Now, this is not some run of the mill schnappsy beverage, it is a rather unique drink that is a bit more on the aromatic side rather then an overpowering synthetic flavor. It also gives the drinks a fun bluish color! We like fun colors.

We first tried the Creme de Violette alone, since neither of us had tasted it before. It was slightly sweet, but not cloying.

Our first drink was a Violet Fizz, which we tweaked a bit using vodka rather then gin ('cuz we are vodka girls, not gin girls..and it's our blog, so there.)

The result was not bad, but we felt that there was a bit too much lemon in the drink-it really overpowered the violet. So we halved the lemon and got close to a lovely drink ( the lemon proportion totally overshadowed the violet)

As written, it gets 1.5 stars.... tweaked, it gets 3.5.

We also like that the drink matched Stacia's dress!!


Next was our own concoction of champagne sorbet (thank you, Surfas!), Creme de Violette, vodka, a splash of lemon juice and a splash of lemon bitters (thanks, Lynda!!) This was quite lovely - but then again, it was based on champagne sorbet, how can you go terribly awry??

Both of us felt this was well worth the liqueur's fairly subtle flavor.

Our third drink of the night was Creme de Violette with champagne. Oh yeah, baby.. this one was good. The flavors made friends in the glass and complimented each other well. Definitely going to be a repeat guest in the menu, methinks.

On the night before Thanksgiving, we would like to thank all of you who read our blog. This is a lot of fun and has been educational on so many levels. Much love to our family and friends. We will return after the turkey coma has subsided and the food babies have gone away.

here is to beautiful sunsets and lovely guests

It has been a few weeks in the making, but we finally got our acts (and schedules) together for a long-awaited shaker night. As the days get shorter and fall starts to creep in, we appreciate the last of the summer nights.

This week, we have a guest in from Holland, Michigan...the fabulous MJ. This woman is not only kind, fun and an inspiration - she is also a martini virgin!!!! Oh yes, let the corruption begin. ;) What better way to cap off a weekend of the Hollywood Bowl, Disneyland and trips to Venice Beach then an evening of cold drinks and fabulous food?

(Shaker One also would like to celebrate the nail biting USC victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes - apparently USC snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat from the Buckeyes in the last few minutes of the game.. Go Trojans!!!!)

This evening started out with a Pineapple Drop martini.

{Shaker One here, seriously- I need to get on this infusion thing}

Our guest Shaker, MJ, liked her first martini. She felt it tasted a bit like a pineapple margarita - she did sample more then one baby martini (she opted to use the baby martini glass - she is not too much of a drinker, normally..) She thought it could use a bit more pineapple... or "be more pineapply.)

2.5 olives... Shaker One concurs and Shaker Two is ok with that rating.

Shaker One produced another lovely menu... oregano grilled shrimp, herbed orange salad and some lovely La Brea Bakery bread (mmmmmmm). The shrimp was amazing - perfectly marinated and grilled. The orange salad was good, but would have been a bit better served over a bed of mixed greens then alone.

Our second beverage selection of the night is a Strawberry Basil martini from foodandwine.com.

It is a pleasant combination, though consensus was that we would like the strawberry flavor to be more pronounced. Perhaps infusing the vodka a bit more with strawberries... but overall, it is a nice drink with an interesting herbal element.

MJ gives is 2 olives (she likes the pineapple more, so she could not rate this one higher) she would also like it a bit more with all strawberries and no basil. She is a self proclaimed "foo foo drinker"

Shaker One gives it 3, perhaps 3.5 with a few mods.

Shaker Two coughed up 2.75 olives

We opted for a St Germain and champagne cocktail as a lovely finish..and discussed the merits of Dave Navarro, hair bands, and future plans for a "welcome back to the country" for Shaker Two after her upcoming international European tour.

To finish off our evening.... a somewhat made-up concoction based on a White Russian a bit with some variation...namely vanilla bean ice cream and Frangelico added to the traditional Kahlua (coffee liqueur), vodka and Baileys.

This was a lovely dessert drink (served with chocolate covered strawberries)

Recipe:

1 3/4 oz vodka (we used Stoli)

1 3/4 oz Irish cream

2/3 oz Frangelico

2/3 oz Kahlua

scoop vanilla bean ice cream

MJ sez....the drink is quite tasty, a little strong (for a non-drinker) might like it a little less alcohol (more like a Kahlua and cream, then a white Russian.) She gives it 3 olives - being her favorite martini of the night.

Shaker One like the heart strawberry sliver garnish and likes (total girlie warning here) how it looks. Taste wise, for a dessert martini, was nice. It is a little sweet and a bit heavy. Pleasant and lovely, but not something she would normally order... 2.5 olives. (Shaker Two concurs)

Strategy Session....and Cocktails!

Hello from Red Shaker headquarters. The Shakers decided to get together to plot our merchandising empire......over drinks, naturally.

As a change of pace, tonight we journey on a lovely river of bubbly: Champagne drinkies! As these are not officially martinis, we are suspending our olive rating system and just commenting on the drinks.

First off, The St. Germain Champagne Cocktail
A lovely summer drink. Slightly sweet. but not overly so. Sheridan says, "I'm in love with St. Germain". I think that's still illegal in 29 states, but we can all dream of a day when equality reigns.

Next up is the Champagne Julep.Yes sports fans, that is exactly what it sounds like- a mint julep made with champagne and cognac instead of whiskey. Ok, this one takes the triple crown! Even Miss Sheridan, who is not a mint fan, enjoyed this. I would happily drink this while sitting on the veranda entertaining my beaus. Tomorrow may be another day, but we need another bottle tonight.

In between our libations, we are actually putting together our Red Shaker Shop. Coming soon: t-shirts, boxers and a variety of products celebrating the Shaker Life!

One Technical note: in addition to blogspot, you can now reach our page at:

www.theredshaker.com

Whilst Sheridan deals with the technical side of things, I wonder what drink we should have next.............

La Vie En Rose~champagne with rosewater. Mmmmmm, this smells amazing. The rose flavor is subtle but definitely there. We like this one! Note: as I didn't have any rose champagne chilled, we made this with brut. The recipe used rose. for an enormous list of champagne based cocktails, go to http://www.wineintro.com/champagne/cocktails/index.html

You won't run out of options with this website. Really comprehensive and fun. We will be trying many more from this site in the future. I do love my bubbly.

Thanks for joining us for this impromptu strategy session. Check back soon for links to the store and be the coolest or at least the drunkest kid in your neighborhood by sporting the Red Shaker gear!

Shake ya later! ;)

le quatorze de juillet

Happy Bastille Day! We took time out on a school night to celebrate this historic day French style. Hors d'oeuvres included les fromages, la petite charcuterie, vichyssoise and a tapenade Sheridan was craving.


We began the evening with a Parisian Martini.

Admittedly, this was stepping out with some ingredients that were not normally in the Shaker repertiore: Lillet blanc and St. Germaine. This drink had us hesitantly sniffing to see if we could get a clue as to what this might taste like - it was lovely. Slightly sweet, a few hints of herbals... it made us anticipate what was to come - we were not disappointed.

The flavor reminded Sheridan of less sweet orange muscat wine. It was slightly sweet, with a depth of flavor that kept giving hints of other flavors melding together. Can you tell this was a hit? It is a lovely drink and one we look forward to bringing back as an encore - perhaps a martini showdown.

Sheridan bestowed 4 olives, Stacia 4.25.

Stripey came out to join us in the cool air on the patio.

Next up was the French Martini.

This one was pleasant, but did not stand out as anything overly original. Stacia assures me that they can be done better and with a bit of tweaking, there would be vast improvement. As is, it is still a nice drink.

Stacia gives it a 4 - though done better. Sheridan a 3.5 (she has not had another variation - so improvement is open to future experimentation. )

Our final drink of the night was French 75 .

This drink has an interesting story behind the name - in essence it is a champagne cocktail with variations (as most cocktails have.) Overall nice and refreshing with a bubbly accent.

As a sparkling end to this school-night edition of The Red Shaker blog, Stacia bestows a 3.5 olive rating on it, Sheridan a 3.25. A positive vote from both Shaker girls.

We capped the night off with a lovely champagne cocktail with raspberry liqueur. It was a light, refreshing ending to the evening.

Enjoy the rest of your week! Stay tuned for another edition soon.

End Note: we dipped into the remainder of Sheridan's cinnamon ice cream - it gets better as it matures. The cinnamon flavor really comes through with a bit of maturation.