Root Beer for Grown Ups

About a month ago, Ryan and I were walking through the liquor store, when I spotted this old-timey bottle. I was intrigued. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a root beer liqueur, named after an old man: the Blackmaker. The bottle's tag tells the tale of a grumpy gentleman, who spent his time in the mountains, collecting herbs and making concoctions. He sold his mixtures to the town store, including this liqueur. I can't resist booze with a kooky story. 

The old man's ingredients for root beer extract included wintergreen, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sweet birch, and star anise. I can just see him wandering the woods with his pack, collecting all sorts of herbs, grumbling to himself. Maybe some lass broke his heart. Maybe the Blackmaker never existed. One thing I do know - this bottle is more than a cool label. It's contents are mighty tasty.

Robot Baby Shower : Food Details

I wanted to share with you some of the food details from the baby shower. Below are little wrapped chocolates. I like to use Hershey's Nuggets. Ryan printed robot images onto file folder labels and then simply wrapped them around the chocolates. Return address labels are also the perfect size for these little nuggets.

I also used the Robot Party Cricut cartridge to make these super cute cupcake toppers. The mom-to-be requested her favorite: rainbow chip cupcakes. We also made chocolate fudge cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Oh yeah!

I know it may be unusual to have adult beverages at a baby shower, but it was at the request of the mommy-to-be. She wanted everyone to be able to enjoy a cocktail, even though she couldn't. What a gal!

I made lemonade and then had raspberry and pink lemonade flavored vodka on the side so that guests could spike their drinks as they please. Ryan suggested sangria as another option. We used the recipe below from allrecipes.com. It was rather tasty. The recipe was a little different from most sangrias I've tasted, but everyone loved it.

Sangria Recipe from allrecipes.com, thanks Hjacoby!

• 1 (750 mL) bottle of dry red wine
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 1/2 cup triple sec
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup sugar (optional)
• sliced lemon, lime and orange
• 8 maraschino cherries
• 2 cups club soda

Mix together the wine through the sugar. Add the sliced fruit and cherries. The longer you let the fruit soak, the more flavor there will be. Add in the club soda just before serving. This recipe makes about 6 cups worth of sangria. I quadrupled the recipe to fill the drink dispenser.

I also came across an ingenious tip. Usually, you add ice to a large drink container...ice melts...drink tastes watered down. :( Avoiding the watered down taste is as easy as filling an ice cube tray with whatever you will be drinking. Some of you may be thinking...duh, but it had never dawned on me to do it before now. So I made up some lemonade, the night before the shower, and filled 3 trays.

Photos by the beautiful Sarah B from MissSarahLou

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