Cheers for National Margarita Day!

It's A Margarita Kind of Day! 

Yes! It's National Margarita Day! Who says you have to wait for just one day to relax on your back porch with this south of the border cocktail?  

In Texas, it's tradition to drink a salt rimmed margarita alongside your favorite Mexican foods.  At our ranch, margaritas aren't just for southwestern fare, but with our Hereford steaks, seafood and as a night time tonic after a long day. Someone once said...when life gives you lemons, get some limes and salt and make margaritas!  Now just for fun and as an added kick for a few years on our ranch, we place a few home grown jalapenos in our margarita!

The Ranch Kitchen's Rancharita - Jalapeno Margarita was inspired from one of our favorite restaurants Ranch 616 in Austin, Texas and their famous Jalapeno Margarita.  My oldest daughter resides in this fun, eclectic city that has more trendy bars and restaurants than any city in Texas. Ranch 616 is a spot we always stop at when visiting Ilissa.  This restaurant definitely has that Austin vibe to it with it's tin roofed outdoor porch and southwestern inspired menu.  Special thanks to dear family friend Terry Barber for introducing us to this fun restaurant more than 15 years ago!

The Ranch Kitchen's Rancharita - Jalapeno Margarita!

A few years back friend Gerald Jones, owner of Los Pinos Winery helped Ilissa and I reinvent their trendy margarita for us to enjoy at home and post on the blog.  My husband Scott especially loves the addition of jalapeno peppers freshly cut and placed in to these Rancharitas. The longer the jalapenos sit in this drink, the bigger the kick! We usually don't have to worry about that though as they don't last long!

Make sure to also check out Los Pinos and their winery in the heart of Northeast Texas. Their Rodeo Red is our all time favorite wine and perfect with anything in my books. If you are an Amazon member, you can order their wines there.  Their winery has amazing food, live music on the weekends and a lovely porch area to sit, sip and enjoy the pines of East Texas and the beautiful views of their vineyard. 

If you have a sweet tooth like me, rim your Rancharita with sugar instead of salt.  Just dip the top rim of your glass in lime juice and gently swirl in the sugar for a tasty addition to your cocktail. The picture above shows the addition of chili powder to the rim of salt on my Rancharita.  

So tonight or any night, try The Ranch Kitchens' recipe for this Rancharita - Jalapeno Margarita.  It's a family favorite and becoming the trendy margarita in the southwestern parts of the US.  Promise, you may never go back to a traditional margarita again!

Enjoy!

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen 

The Ranch Kitchen's Cherry Limeade Sherbet Punch

In the south wedding showers are done many different ways. The end result is 'showering' the bride with gifts for her home with her chosen groom.  The hostess sends out invitations, women offer to assist by either donating money toward the catering or are assigned appetizers and/or desserts to bring.  Ladies clean their houses until they shine and hostesses arrive an hour before to help with last minute preparations.

In my small town. many showers have the gifts already laid out throughout the house on tables with the cards beside each gift signifying whom they came from.  Some showers will not only have gifts laid out, but gifts guest have brought wrapped to open during the shower.  Registries are set up in our local gifts shops and it is always as easy as picking up the phone and calling in your order without a credit card!  You're billed later by mail or know to go in before and pay what's due.  Some registries in recent years are made at chain department stores like Dillards or Macy's and guest can register online to have them picked up by the bride and either brought the day before to be set up at her shower or kept at home.  In my little hometown the local gift shops bring out the gifts either the day or morning before and the main hostess where the shower is held will set all the gifts out on top of her best linen tablecloths. 

Although a lot of work is involved, I love giving showers of any kind. For one, my house gets that good, 'somebodies coming' cleaning that it normally would not get, and two my favorite foods are party foods as evident by my Pinterest Board called Party Time! Women can always make a meal out of appetizers and after eating a few petite fours (little white cakes with delicious powdered sugar icing) one of the sweetest desserts of the south... you are pretty much done for the day calorie wise!

My most recent shower was not held at my house, but at the beautiful friend of Lisa Pitman Rogers. She and her sister Donna had decorated a lovely table with a to die for crystal footed punch bowl of their mother's and assigned each hostess wonderful foods to bring.  The shower was for my long time friends Pam Clemens son Mitch and daughter-in-law to be Courtney. 

Didn't they make the prettiest table.
Pictured is my sweet diabetic mom having some nondiabetic punch and sweets.
Love that woman! 

My contribution was my sherbet punch that I have been making for the last twenty or more years for showers, receptions and birthday parties.  I call it my Anthology Punch from the days when I hosted our district presentation of student written work for grades kindergarten through the twelfth grades.  Each student produces in class a poem or narrative that was then judged and selected to be placed in a bound book showcasing the best in our district of over 2,500 students.  Several hundred attended this function and we could have never pulled it off without the help of my teacher friends and sherbet punch that became a staple and favorite of the staff and those in attendance. 

Any combination of punches will work for this punch and I have been known to add diced frozen fruit to it when I wanted to add a little flavor.  Keep the sherbet frozen and it is best to have your 7 Up, Sprite or Ginger Ale chilled in order to not melt the punch too quickly.

I should call this 'husband punch', because my husband actually bought the sherbet for me at the grocery store in Cherry Limeade flavor when they were out of my standard pineapple that we normally use.  It turned out to be the best sherbet punch I have ever made and thankfully had I served it with the pineapple, one lady said she would have been allergic to it.  It had a beautiful pink color with pops of red from the cherry's. 

For this shower, with just at fifty in attendance, we served three gallons of sherbet with four - 1 liter bottle of 7 Up.  I usually use a one to one ratio and sometimes 1 gallon of sherbet to 1 - 1/2 bottles of 7 Up.  Ginger Ale and Sprite, or your grocery store's version of these sodas (off brands) are just as good and cheaper as well.

Cherry Limeade Sherbet Punch

1 gallon Cherry Limeade Sherbet

1  to 1 1/2 liters bottle of 7 Up soda

Place sherbet in a large punch bowl.  Gently pour soda(s) over the sherbet over the ladle first being careful not to splash it out.

With a separate large spoon, gently break up the sherbet into small pieces like what you would want served in punch cups. 

Serve and enjoy! 

***As easy as this punch is, I can't tell you how many times people have asked for the recipe.  Be creative and use sherbet or even ice creams you enjoy the most.  It's always a hit and this recipe for the Cherry Limeade Sherbet Punch was my biggest hit yet with very little left over.  *** You can find Cherry Limeade Sherbet on the ice cream isle by Golden Brook at Brookshire's Grocery Company or you can also find it at Braum's Restaurants and Grocery at their ice cream counter!

Enjoy,

Alise