Projo Football Food and Spirits

Every Day with Rachael Ray suggests this cocktail for Mardi Gras but let's think about it for Super Bowl Sunday.

HURRICANE COCKTAILS
½ cup sugar

Ice cubes

2 cups rum

2 cups passion fruit juice

2 cups orange juice

2 cups pineapple juice

½ cup orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier

Juice of 4 limes (about ½ cup)

Bitters, such as Angostura

8 fresh pineapple wedges

In a small saucepan, heat ½ cup water and sugar over medium heat and stir until dissolved. Let the simple syrup cool.
Fill a pitcher with ice cubes. Add the rum, passion fruit juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, orange liqueur, lime juice and simple syrup and stir until chilled. Strain the cocktail into glasses, top each with a dash of bitters and garnish with a pineapple wedge.

Makes 8 drinks.

Stirrings makes mixers and sugar and salts and chocolate for adorning the glass with more flavor. They sent along this recipe for Valentine's Day but it sounds like it would hit the spot for a football cocktail.

Stirrings Tiramisu Martini

1.5 oz Smirnoff Vanilla Twist vodka

1 oz Godiva White Chocolate liqueur

1 oz Stirrings Espresso Mixer

Shake well and serve up in a glass trimmed with chocolate shavings or Stirrings Chocolate.

Jose Cuervo, the world’s largest tequila company, has entered the ultra premium market with Jose Cuervo Platino. This is a handcrafted, limited-edition ultra premium silver tequila. It will retail for approximately $59.99 for a 750 ml bottle. It's made from 100 percent blue agave and is handcrafted using a proprietary distillation method called Esencia de Agave.

Here is a coffee recipe from Jose Cuervo which might help keep you awake for tomorrow night's 8 p.m playoff game. Of course they want you to use Platino but you can try it with another silver tequila, if you dare.

Platino Coffee

1.5 ounces silver tequila
1 tsp dark brown sugar
Dash of cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of cloves
4 oz. fresh brewed coffee
Whipped cream

Blend coffee with tequila and spices. Garnish with whipped cream.
Makes 1 coffee drink.

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant has shared some holiday cocktail recipes and with Sunday's weather forecast leaning toward snow, here are a few to keep tailgaters warm. I especially point out the Nor'easter but there's a Chipotle Hot Chocolate, Ginger Pear Toddy, Blueberry Tea and Irish coffee all to try.

NOR’EASTER
Ounce maple syrup
1 oz. cranberry juice
Ounce apple cider
1 oz. Applejack
Splash club soda
3 cranberries (for garnish)
Add all ingredients except soda and cranberries to a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain over ice into a cocktail glass. Add a splash of club soda and garnish with three cranberries.

IRISH COFFEE
Ounce simple syrup
1 oz. Bushmills Irish Whiskey
5 oz. hot fresh brewed coffee
Whipped cream
Stir syrup, whiskey and coffee together in a warmed glass coffee mug or cocktail glass. Add whipped cream on top to fill glass.

CHIPOTLE HOT CHOCOLATE
1 oz. chocolate vodka
Ounce. Kahlua
Scant 1/8 tsp. chipotle powder
2 dashes cinnamon
1 oz. chocolate syrup
6 oz. steamed milk
Stir all ingredients together in a large coffee mug and serve warm.

GINGER PEAR TODDY
1 oz. Clear Creek pear brandy
Ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
Ounce honey
1/8 oz. ground ginger
6 oz. hot water
Lemon twist (for garnish)
Stir all ingredients in a coffee or tea mug. Garnish with lemon twist.

BLUEBERRY TEA
Ounce Grand Marnier
1 oz. Amaretto
1 Earl Grey tea bag
5 oz. hot water
Lemon twist (for garnish)
Steep tea bag in hot water. Stir in Grand Marnier and Amaretto. Serve warm in a brandy snifter,
garnished with a lemon twist.

The Steelers' cookies were so good, we're going for greater New York's. In Long Island, where Newsday has a food stylist's slideshow of 'em, including the enticing Chocolate Shortbread (yum) and Stained Glass Cookies (made with Life Savers candy) at right.

Recipes at Sylvia Carter: Cookies make Christmas.

We'd steal the Daily News's Cookies from around the world too, but grinding almonds, frying dough and finding a half-cup of passion fruit puree just looks too hard tonight.

Oops: More intriguing, perhaps, is this New York Times correction, in its entirety:

Recipe: Back Forty

A recipe with the Pairings column last Wednesday for a Back Forty cocktail misstated the amount of orange bitters that should be used. It is three to five dashes, not three to five ounces.

Try this on pancakes?

Grey Goose has sent along some holiday cocktails but they might offer nice sipping for the game today.

Ginger Snap Martini Cocktail

1 part GREY GOOSE La Poire Vodka flavored vodka

½ part Disaronno Ameretto

½ part simple syrup

½ part molasses

2 ¼ part thick slices of fresh ginger

Pinch cinnamon

Pinch clove

Pinch allspice

Crystallized ginger for garnish

In the bottom of a cocktail shaker place the ginger, molasses, simple syrup and spices; muddle well. Add ice and the rest of the ingredients. Shake vigorously until the outside of the shaker is frosted and beaded with sweat. Strain into prepared martini cocktail glass. Garnish with ginger.
To make simple syrup, combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar disappears. cool and save in the fridge for all your holiday drinks.

Peppermint Froth

1 ½ parts GREY GOOSE® Vodka

1 part peppermint schnapps

½ part simple syrup

½ part cream

Candy cane or peppermint patty to garnish

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously until the outside of the shaker is frosted and beaded with sweat. Strain into rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with candy cane or peppermint patty.

Kahlua Pumpkin Flan
1 1⁄4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup canned or cooked pumpkin
1 1⁄4 cups half-and-half
1⁄4 cup Kahlua (recipe for homemade Kahlua is below)
1⁄4 teaspoon each, ground: cinnamon and nutmeg

Heat oven to 325 F. In skillet, heat 3⁄4 cup sugar on medium heat until sugar is dissolved and turns golden color. Immediately pour into bottom of 6 (6-ounce) custard cups or souffle dishes. Set aside.

Beat eggs with remaining 1⁄2 cup sugar, pumpkin, half and half, Kahlua, cinnamon and nutmeg. Divide mixture between prepared dishes.

Set in 13-by-9-inch baking pan and pour water into pan to come halfway up dishes. Bake 40 minutes or until just set.

Remove from oven and cool, then chill. To serve, run thin knife around edges of dishes, then turn out onto individual dessert plates.

Source: Cuisiniers Catering via the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel

Easy Homemade Kahlua
2 cups water
1/3 cup instant coffee crystals
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 fifth vodka

In a large pot, boil water, then add coffee crystals and sugar. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add vanilla, stir and allow to cool completely.

Add vodka, stir, then pour into 2 fifth bottles (try to use ones with dark glass). Cork well.

-- Recipe from Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley's "Best of the Best: Fast and Fabulous Five-Star Five Ingredient Recipes"