Drink Recipe: Volcano Screwdriver with Mongibello Blood Orange Juice

What! A blog post? Yes, I do still blog from time to time. In fact, I have a backlog of posts just waiting for me to finish and publish. It’s just that, well, life gets in the way sometimes, okay a lot of times. But never fear – I have come upon a chunk of free time in my schedule so I’m returning to this blog that I love, in the town I love. Stay with me here, because there’s a tasty cocktail at the end of this post.

Mongibello Juice glass

What you see here is some pretty amazing juice. It is Mongibello Blood Orange Juice, available at Bristol Farms and on sale through October 16 (that’s next Tuesday, so make your field trip to Bristol Farms NOW). The orange trees grow on the side of Mt. Etna in Italy, where the soil is perfect and the juice is squeezed fresh, then frozen for its journey all the way to us in The Bubble. That means it tastes heavenly.

What’s great about Mongibello Blood Orange Juice is that it’s not only delicious for the whole family, but also, you can make a cocktail out of it!

Because Mt. Etna is a volcano, I went for a volcano-inspired hybrid cocktail this time. May I present to you…

The Volcano Screwdriver with Mongibello Orange Juice:

Part mimosa, part volcano, part screwdriver, but all Mongibello, and all delicious. I know because let’s just say I tasted several versions of this recipe until I got it just right.

mongibello juice volcano screwdriver

Volcano Screwdriver with Mongibello Orange Juice

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Mongibello Blood Orange Juice
1 1/2 ounces raspberry vodka
1/2 ounce Prosecco
fresh raspberries for garnish

Directions:

Mix juice and vodka in a shaker with ice.
Divide mix into two Champagne flutes. This will fill them 2/3 to 3/4 full.
Add Prosecco to fill.
Top with a splash of raspberry vodka.
Garnish with raspberries.

mongiobello juice drinks

Cheers!

Mongibello Blood Orange Juice is available at Bristol Farms and on Amazon 
You can follow Mongibello Juice on Instagram for recipes, serving suggestions, and inspiration!

This is a sponsored post. All ideas, opinions, and preference for a little extra vodka are my own. This recipe got “two enthusiastic thumbs up” from Sybil, my taster. 

mongiobello juice top of glass

 

My Amazing Banana Bread – Recipe

Who doesn’t love bananas? I buy a bunch every time I go grocery shopping, and my family eats all but 1 or 2 of them. They just don’t dig bananas that are even a little bit too ripe. (What’s your banana number?) To me that means one thing:

banana bread graphic

My mom taught me how to make banana bread when I was young, maybe I was 12 years old. I have always had this banana bread in my life. She wrote the recipe down on a recipe card that my girlfriends had given to every bridal shower guest, and then I collected all the recipes in a matching recipe box. (For you youngsters, that’s how we used to collect recipes before Pinterest.)

I make this banana bread all the time. I make it to keep on the kitchen counter for my family to eat. I make it for potlucks, for bake sales, and for people who just had a baby or surgery or a death in the family. Everyone loves it. Everyone raves about it.

But the recipe isn’t a secret. It was from the Jiffy Mix box, probably a box that my mom had in the house when I was little.

I make my own baking mix now so I don’t use Jiffy Mix, but it’s easy enough to buy a box of that pre-mixed baking mix and whip it out. This is how easy it is:

Ingredients:

2 cups baking mix
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter

Directions:

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Beat in the eggs and banana.
Stir in the baking mix until you form a moist batter.
Use a rubber or silicone spatula to scrape batter into bread loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

And this is what you get, and it’s amazing, and everyone loves it:

banana bread on cutting board

Photo by Jo del Corro via Flickr

 

Holiday Spiked Egg Nog and Blog Hop

It’s another Holiday Blog Hop from Savvy Sassy Moms and the ScoutBox team. This time I am one of the hostesses, because this week’s theme is holiday drinks! One of my favorite topics.

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What drink says “holiday” more than egg nog? For years I struggled to get mine just right, and then finally I focused on it. I didn’t make the nog from scratch – just got some at the grocery store.

egg nog ingredients

I experimented with all of the dark liquors in the liquor cabinet to see what egg nog recipe I liked best. This is a combination of old-fashioned recipes and what I thought tasted best. I actually liked it better over ice, too.

Holiday Spiced Egg Nog

1.5 tbsp bourbon
1.5 tbsp dark rum
1/3 cup egg nog
dash nutmeg

What’s great is that you can pour a little non-alcoholic egg nog for your kids, then spike it up for the grownups. A great holiday tradition!

This is part of the Holiday Blog Hop hosted by Savvy Sassy Moms and some other great bloggers. Check out their holiday drink specials here:

Savvy Sassy Moms

Lindsey of The Nashville Mom

Natasha of Hello, Happiness

Carrie Beth & Jen of Magnolia Mamas

Sara of Running from the Law

SSMHOLIDAYHOPWeek5

You can share your own posts with recipes for special holiday drinks by joining in. Just put the URL and name of your blog post into the InLinkz widget below. It would be great if you could visit 3-5 other blogs in the Holiday Blog Hop and leave a comment on their posts. Share this Holiday Blog Hop with your friends and readers on social media using the #SavvySassyHoliday hashtag.