Homemade Pickle Vodka and Revlon “Royal”

Happy Weekend!! FINALLY!  I woke up on Tuesday thinking it was Thursday and was all excited that it was the almost-weekend…worst feeling ever!  I’ve actually been doing that a lot lately.  But nobody cares!  On to the good stuff!

Yes, that says “Homemade PICKLE Vodka”.  I know a lot of you (if anyone actually reads this thing) are gonna be all ew gross pickle?! but too bad!  I love pickles, I love vodka.  It’s a natural combination.  There’s this brand of vodka called Naked Jay that sells pickle flavored vodka.  I looked and looked at every liquor store I could find and NO ONE has it (not even Total Wine).  I went as far as to tweet to their account on Twitter and they informed me, sadly, that they do not sell in Florida…YET!  SO, in the meantime I had to get myself a recipe to make that shit!  I really wish I still had the website/blog whatever where I got it so I could give them a shout out, but I don’t.  So, disclaimer: this isn’t my recipe and I didn’t make it up!

You’ll Need:

• 750 mL Vodka (they recommended a higher end brand because cheap vodka may affect the end taste – I bought Smirnoff)
• 2 Cucumbers
• 6 Cloves of Garlic
• Dill (they didn't say how much so I bought a bunch in a package from Wal-Mart and used the whole bunch)
• 1 Jalapeno
• Some sort of container with a seal to keep it in (I got like a lemonade/tea pitcher with the spout thing on the bottom..?  Yeah, I don’t know what it’s called – there’s a picture so you know what I’m talking about)

Make It!

Cut up the cucumbers into ½ inch slices, peel the garlic cloves but leave them whole*, take the stems off the dill, slice the jalapeno into quarters**.  Put all ingredients in the container then pour in the vodka.  Let it sit for 3-4 days and then make yourself a damn Bloody Mary for having such patience!!

*I smashed a few of the garlic cloves a little with the back of a knife to make it more garlic-y tasting.

**If you don’t like really spicy stuff, take the seeds and junk out of the middle of the pepper – that’s where the spice comes from.  I left everything in and it’s not THAT spicy.  Don’t forget to wash your hands and not touch your eyes/face after cutting it!

Like I said, make a Bloody Mary with this (recipe on my “The Classics” post).  I don’t know what you could possibly drink pickle vodka with and I’m not about to try mixing it with anything else!  I kinda tweaked the Bloody Mary recipe because I thought the vodka would have turned spicier than it actually was. 

Here’s how I made my Pickle Bloody Mary:

Start with the Pickle Vodka, 3 dashes What’s-This-Here Sauce, Lemon Pepper Seasoning (only a little because the jalapeno adds some peppery taste).  Then fill the cup with ice, add V8 & Clamato juice, top it off with more lemon than usual.  Drank it up!

This stuff really does taste a lot like pickles guys!  I added more lemon than normal because you don’t get the vinegary bite since, duh, there’s no vinegar added in it.  Otherwise, it’s a fuckin’ liquid pickle!  Amazeballs!  I guess you can just leave it out on the counter.  That’s what I’ve been doing.  I’m pretty sure the vodka will kill any bacteria.  But, if I turn up dead in a few weeks we can blame it on me ingesting some weird pickle-vodka-mold-fungus-grossness.  I will probably move it to the fridge soon – just in case.

Looks so good!

This is that container I was talking about.

Revlon Royal

Holy blue! I’m on a blue/turquoise kick lately and WOW!  I saw this in the store and couldn’t believe that was the color in the bottle.  I thought it was wrapped in a different color plastic or something.  If you find it or have it, I think you know what I mean.  Naturally, I had to add it to my collection. 

The picture really doesn't do it justice.  You HAVE to see it in person!

I guess you could classify this as a “jelly” polish.  Forgive me, I have a nail polish blog but am totally not up on the lingo.  Holos, hex, bar, jelly, whatever guys!  It’s all nail polish!  I DO know a jelly is that kinda see-through pretty stuff that you need like, five coats to fully cover your nails – good for the jelly sammiches that I wanted to try…andeventually will. 

It’s a speed-dry polish too and it really dries super fast!  The only thing I don’t like about it is it dries matte so I HAD to put a topcoat on in.  I don’t know about y’all, but any time I put a topcoat on is always when I end up smudging, so I try to stay away from it.  Nothing wrong with mattes, but I just thought it would be shiny – and I think it looks prettier like this. 

Two Coats Revlon Royal with a Topcoat.

Wow, I'm really pale.

I used two coats of Royal and a topcoat.  By Wednesday I had a lot of chips.  I will, however, blame that on Tequila Tuesdays when my friend and I split two pitchers of margaritas and a shot of tequila each.  Got a little outta control there for a couple hours.  You know tequila, no explanations are necessary ;)

Have a great weekend y’all and tell your daddies Happy Father’s Day on Sunday!