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!

The Classics: A Spicy Bloody Mary and Cheetah Print (or Leopard, if you prefer)

For my first post, I’d like to start out with one of my all-time favorites – a Bloody Mary. My first taste of one was about a year ago while on vacation in Georgia with my aunt (YES I still remember because it was THAT good). This is not the same recipe, but it’s still effin good! I find it weird that I like them so much because I have such a strong aversion to vegetables – especially tomatoes (which are actually a fruit, but whatever)! I guess if you put enough vodka in anything I’ll consume it. :P Read on to get your veggie-packed deliciously scrumptious Drink Of The Week….

Here's how to make mine:
You'll need...

• Vodka (I just bought a huge thing of Red Cup Vodka, so that's what I'll be using in my drinks)
• "Whats-This-Here" (Worcestershire) Sauce
• Lemon Pepper Seasoning
• Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• V8 (Regular OR Spicy)
• Clamato Juice
• Lime or Lemon Juice

Now make it!
In a cup, add 3-4 glugs vodka (or pour while counting to 5), 3 shakes whats-this-here, 1 dash lemon pepper, and 3 shakes hot sauce (I exclude this if I use the spicy V8). Fill cup with ice and pour 2/3 full with V8. Fill remaining with clamato and a splash of lime or lemon. Stir up and get ready to do yo nails!! :)

I really like this Red Cup Vodka. I want to say it was $13 for a big jug (I’ll have to look up the ounce-age for ya later). I’m not an alcohol aficionado at all, so if you are a fan of Grey Goose, you miiiight not like this. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never had the Goose. Like I said, I’m keeping this semi budget friendly since nail polish comes at around $8 a bottle and I have quite the collection.

Cheetah (or Leopard) Print Nails
I started out with 3 coats of Zoya MINKA.  It's a very pretty nude color with a hint of iridescent goldish pink shimmer.  I was going to leave it as-is, but I got one too many drinks in me and decided to be adventurous! I hadn't used my Konad stamps in a while and thought the cheetah print was speaking to me.  It was a lot easier than I remembered, so I did ALL my nails with it.  After it dried, I was bored again and wanted to try out my nail pens I got for Christmas last year - and ta-daaa!! the pink and white dots were born!

I’m a huge fan of Zoya polish now. I got this one on sale at Ulta for $5 (regular $8). It would have been perfectly fine in 2 coats, but I smudged some, so I went ahead and put a third on.

Colors:
Zoya MINKA
Stamped with Nicole by OPI Razzle Dazzler
Dotted with the Pink & White Nail Pen (below)

Tools:
(Top Left) Konad Template with Cheetah Print with scraper & stamper
(Bottom Left) Close Up of Cheetah Print Template
(Right) Pink & White Nail Pen

These Konad stamp templates are the shizzz! They take some practice, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll have so much fun. You just paint the polish over the design, scrape the excess polish off, press the stamp onto the design then transfer it to your nail.

I hope you enjoy my drink and are inspired to take a walk on the wild side with your nails this week (haha that was gay - sorry!)

Upcoming:
To me, trying a bunch of drinks is fun and exciting! But who wants to buy 2,045,674 ingredients for a drink you’ll make maybe once or twice. So I’m keeping them simple with minimal ingredients – hopefully you’ll have most of them in your stash already. I have a few drinks on deck that require some ‘special’ ingredients, but I promise I’ll post more recipes in coming weeks that will have that in it too - because no one wants a half empty bottle of Midori Melon Liqueur sitting around forever.

I'd like to know: What are some of your favorite vodka drinks? Did you try mine? How was it?
PLEASE comment and give your input! I'd love to hear it! :)

Have a great weekend y'all!