Sizzling Summer Drink Recipe

I have definitely been slacking on this blog - sorry =( Now that our household is back into the swing of things I will be updating more frequently. My first post will actually be a post from a guest blogger, my gorgeous and talented friend Courtney! She whipped us up some delicious drinks and food over the summer and I had to share one of my favorite drinks she made. She used to be a professional bartender so she definitely knows a thing or two. Here are her directions:

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There is nothing better than sharing a cold adult beverage with your girlfriends on a hot summer day.  Actually, the only thing that could possibly be better is an ADORABLE cold adult beverage with your girlfriends on a hot summer day! Below is a quick easy recipe that tastes as splendid as it looks. 

*Before you begin keep in mind when purchasing these items look for what’s on sale, the brand does not make it taste any better.  

What you will need:

·         1.5 liter of Moscato

·         (2) 125ml bottles of prosecco 

·         1.75 liters of Raspberry Lemonade

·         1 container of fresh Raspberries

·         1 container of fresh Blueberries

·         1 container of fresh Strawberries

Prep: If you can, before your friends arrive, put the fruit in the freezer for as long as possible (overnight would be ideal). The frozen fruit will substitute most of the ice so you are not using as much in your drinks and watering them down.  If you can’t do this, no biggie.  You will just need to drink faster, which is never a bad thing.  Quarter your strawberries before you freeze them and leave as many whole strawberries (unfrozen) as you have for a garnish for your glasses. You will be using a small handful of each fruit in the drink, so plan accordingly.

Directions: Fill your glassware ¾ of the way with ice, if you were able to freeze your fruit only fill the glasses half way with ice.   We used charming mason jars as glasses.  Add your fruit to the glasses.  This drink is layered, so when layering drinks you always want to pour the liquid with the most sugar content first.  The more sugar in the drink the heavier it is which means it will sink to the bottom of the glass. Fill the glass a third of the way full with the raspberry lemonade. Next fill the glass two thirds of the way full with Moscato.  The last third of the glass you will fill with prosecco.  Because of the carbonation pour it slowly or it will overflow.  Garnish your drinks with the whole strawberries. And finally, the most important part: sit back, relax, and enjoy your drink and your girlfriends company!!         

Hello All!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Stephanie, I am 27 years old, and I reside in sunny southwest Florida. I live on a mere quarter acre and I am a beginner gardener and avid crafter. I am also a full time student with a BA in less than a year! Woohoo!

My husband and I purchased our first home last year and have had a blast crafting, decorating, and now gardening. I plan to share all of these experiences with you in hopes that we can be some inspiration. By being novices at most everything, we will undoubtedly be the collective guinea pig so that everyone may learn from our mistakes. We would also love feedback and suggestions from you so that you may inspire us in return.

                                     

Okay, I am literally in the beginning stages of gardening. I have purchased seeds from Burpee, Gurneys, and The Seed Kingdom. I started planting my seeds in January (we have an early season in Florida) and I have done one large planting each month since (it’s March now). When we first purchased our home we had several citrus trees in our backyard. I say this past tense because I had to make the heartbreaking decision to remove them. They were extremely misplaced by being right next to our screened in back porch and also under the shade of our live oak trees in the backyard so that they never received proper sun and became diseased. However, I replaced these trees in proper areas with new, already blossoming trees from HD. I immediately purchased a key lime lemon tree combo but we took too long to replant this tree and the lemon tree ended up taking over the key lime tree and in turn, it became our back porch lemon tree – or should I say the cats lemon tree.

Sookie (right) allowing Doja (left) in her lemon tree barrel.
They think they are cute ;)

So, for Florida Arbor Day this year we planted a new key lime and lemon tree in addition to a new orange tree. They are doing extremely well and are even blossoming a bit too much for their sizes. We added supports until they can become more established.

My husband is an amazing woodworker and made me a four-tier garden bed on wheels to put on our patio. He was originally going to make me an additional one, but instead we decided to go all the way. So, we will instead be building raised beds on the other side of our back porch. I am super excited about this project and I will post the transformation as it happens. In the meantime, I will update you on the seedlings that I currently have and the others that are still germinating.
I originally wanted to purchase Cow Pots but my local garden center only had Jiffy Strips, which I felt were fine with Organic Miracle Gro. I knew that I had to have biodegradable pots for the seedlings that were supposed to be directly planted and to avoid the stress caused by replanting for the other plants. I labeled each pot and also dated them so that I had an exact time frame for each plant because germination lengths vary. Here are the original few which have grown exponentially.

I left town for four days to visit family in Louisville and my husband managed to kill 50% of the seedlings so he ordered me the plant form of most of them :P ! From this situation, we can see who will be taking care of the plants and who will not be touching them again ;)

 

My garden bed only contains one cherry tomato plant that was purchased as a baby a little over a month ago and has grown so full and fast that it gives me hope for the rest of my plants once it is time for them to be planted.

Here is the plant as of today:

As you can see from a previous photo I planted garlic cloves from a head that was in my refrigerator into a regular kitchen bowl as an experiment and they took off. I now have them planted into their permanent container:

My original five cloves have grown so much that I have had to trim the leaves which I used in a recipe and they were quite delicious. The other five cloves I planted a few weeks ago are already sprouting. I used advice found on the internet and planted the largest cloves from the head. I plan to replant cloves from the head I will receive from this planting and continue this process indefinitely.
Another plant I planted from kitchen scraps were my onions, which I planted in my front yard garden bed a few months ago as an experiment. It has produced about five bulbs. For my onions in my container, I planted them from seeds. However, I think I will use the kitchen scrap method again next time since I did not even really attend to them and they grew so well.

My husbands plant massacre can really be witnessed with these onions.

As you can tell by now, I am also attempting container gardening.
Here is the list of the plants I plan on growing:
Luffa Gourds, Eggplants, Summer Squash, Zucchinis, Peas, Green Beans, Black Beans, Red Beans, Slicing Cucumbers, Pickle Cucumbers, Various Hot Peppers, Asparagus, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Container Corn, Porterhouse Tomatoes, Floridade Tomatoes, Carrots, Pak Choi, Spinach, Mesculin Mix, Lettuce, Broccoli, Kale, Loganberries, Strawberries, and Grapes. Yeah, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. For the asparagus I ordered two year old Jersey Knight and for the Grapes I ordered one year old seedless Concord. I plan on doing a couple crafting projects, especially for my herbs – which is another extremely long list. I will update you as everything happens which will be quite a bit within the next two weeks. Wish us luck!