Feeling Punchy?

Feeling the holiday spirit this year? Want to win $500 for your magical, awesome original punch recipe? Today is the last day to enter Rumdood.com and Malo Cantina's 'Twas the Punch Before Christmas live contest, sponsored by Kraken Black Spiced Rum.

If you have a recipe to enter, you must email it to contests [at] rumdood [dot] com or rhachel [at] sbcglobal [dot] net by midnight tonight. All submissions need to comply with the rules listed below:

• Punches must be original recipes containing citrus, spice, spirits, sugar, and some sort of “weak.” I know, basic punchology 101 stuff. A quick note: even though Rumdood and Kraken Rum are sponsoring the shindig your punch does NOT need to include rum. Use tequila, whiskey, gin, mezcal, sherry…go wild!
• Punch recipes must be submitted by 11:59:59 PM on November 30, 2009.  Recipes should be submitted to either contests [at] rumdood [dot] com or rhachel [at] sbcglobal [dot] net.
• Contestants or a representative must be able to attend a live competition at Malo Cantina on the evening of December 10th. If you cannot attend, you can have a friend or colleague represent you at the event, but someone has to be there to serve your punch.
• The top six submitted punch recipes will be selected by Rhachel Shaw of Malo (a member of LUPEC LA) and Matt Robold of Rumdood.com to participate in the live punch party/contest at Malo on December 10, 2009.  Malo will provide punch bowls, ice, and any ingredients needed other than homemade ingredients and rare liqueurs (though they will work with you on those to the best of their ability).
• Contestants will be competing for the prizes of “Most Popular Punch” – voted on by all attendees – as well as “Judges’ Favorite” – voted on by a panel of judges including Rumdood and other cocktail writers, local bartenders and cocktail celebrities.
• The winner of the “Most Popular Punch” will be awarded $150.
• The winner of the “Judges’ Favorite Punch” will be awarded $500.
• Punches will be judged on taste, originality, and presentation.

If you're not a punchy sort of person, you can buy a ticket to the live party at Malo on December 10th where attendees will taste the six selected punches and enjoy some nibbles and music for the reasonable price of $12. Tickets are available for purchase at Malo Cantina (4326 W. Sunset Blvd. Silverlake) and Barkeeper (3910 W. Sunset Blvd., Silverlake).

Time is running out, so make some punch or buy a ticket to support your local bartenders, cocktail nerds, cocktail establishments and, of course, the Ladies of LUPEC Los Angeles!

Floradora
(aka Marleigh from SLOSHED!)

Crantopia

Every year around this time I get asked for some "Thanksgiving Cocktails" and I have to say, it's one of my favorite holidays for there are so many different directions to go and so many different ingredients to use ranging from cranberries to oranges to spices to persimmons to apples.

While I usually mix up something new every holiday (yes, being a mixologist relegates me to always being the one to "bring the alcohol"), we always make a "Crantopia Martini" before dinner, as people are showing up. (You know, because it's bad luck to be empty-handed in our household.) The drink is actually a combo effort between my sister-in-law and myself. When my husband & I were first married, we had Thanksgiving over at his family's house. His sister made this amazing cranberry sauce and I was inspired to make a cocktail out of it. A typical Thanksgiving cranberry sauce is actually more of a compote made with sauted, sweetened cranberries and a number of different ingredients. Below is a recipe for a cranberry compote and our traditional Crantopia Martini. But, if you have your own recipe, feel free to use in the martini recipe.

Orange Spice Cranberry Compote
2 cups whole cranberries
peel of one orange
1 cup orange juice
3/4 cup simple syrup
2 dashes ground cinnamon
2 oz Grand Marnier

Saute the ingredients together until the cranberries soften. Continuously scrape the sides. Pour contents into a bowl and let cool. Serve with turkey and/or use for the Crantopia Martini

Crantopia Martini
2 Tablespoons cranberry compote
1.5 oz orange vodka (I like Belvedere Orange and Stoli Oranj)
0.5 oz Grand Marnier
1 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz simple syrup (may need to adjust depending on how sweet your compote is)
rosemary sprig, for garnish

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Double strain into a chilled martini glass or even tall shot glasses. Garnish with rosemary sprig.

Enjoy!

Julep

Julep

Name: Kim Haasarud

Cocktail Alias: Julep

Where I live: Manhattan Beach, CA

Hometown: Dallas, TX. Also lived in Kansas City and NYC.

Day Job: Mixologist / Beverage Consultant (Liquid Architecture) and cocktail book author (101 cocktail series.)

Favorite "go-to" cocktail: Margarita ... and by Margarita I mean a real one with real lime juice ... not made with that neon-green nastiness out of a gun ... don't get me started ;-)

Favorite Spirit: Del Maguey Tobala mezcal

First drink I ever had: Bartles & James wildberry wine cooler (totally dating myself)

First drink I ever made behind the bar: Funky Cold Medina (ok, so now I'm totally dating myself) - this was before I knew anything about cocktails ...

My "coming to Jesus" cocktail: Hemingway Daiquiri

Childhood Memories: Sneaking nips of my parents' Baileys in the liquor cabinet.

Cocktail POV: Using fresh, seasonal ingredients as a base - I frequent the farmer's market and build cocktails around the ingredients.

Most stressful moment behind the bar: Working in Times Square on New Year's Eve, 15 people deep, and having a guy throw up at the bar.

Best Moment behind the bar: There have been so many, but one great high for me is when I train bartenders across the country and seeing the light bulb go on -- their "ah-ha" moment when they realize that with better ingredients and techniques they can go from making an ordinary cocktail to making an extraordinary one. I love that!