Sweet Evil Read-A-Long: Week 2: Pear & Citrus Recipes

Hidey ho to all the fellow Sweet Evilians (yea I made up a new word, deal and love it!) I am here today for week two of the Sweet Evil Read-A-Long hosted by the wonderful Mindy from Magical Urban Fantasy Reads and co-hosted by myself and Nancy from Ravenous Reader, Rachel from Fiktshun and Jaime from Two Chicks on Books.

I hope that you all are enjoying the Sweet Evil Read-A-Long!! I for one love this book and am totally thrilled that so many people are participating and enjoying all the post!!! It really has been a blast seeing everyone fall in love with this book!!! 

I'm sure you all enjoyed my post last week about Road Trips and I hope that someone will take me to the Squeeze Inn someday soon! 

This week it is all about Pear and Citrus recipes. I am hooking up with my girl Anna today and am going to share with you some of my favorite Pear and Citrus cocktails that sound lovely! 

WARNING: PLEASE drink responsibly. I do not condone illegal consumption of alcohol and am not in any way saying to try all of these drinks. Please Drink Responsibly. This post is for fun.

This segment of the book is honestly my favorite. So many like ohmygawd moments happen and I think I went through about eight pairs of panties here. Talk about tension and steam!!! MY absolute favorite part of this entire book is the massage part and the many nights they spend in the hotels while traveling. And hello!!! A sexy massage from Kaidan?? WholeyfrickinghellmygoddoIeverwanthimtodothattomealldayandnight! 

AND! That damn pheromone scene!! *Dies* I seriously crumble every time. I cannot express how much I love that part of this book. Ugh!!! Eeep!!! And we also learn that Kai likes to sleep in the buff!!! Oh rawr!!! 

I love the world building we get form these chapters and also everything that they experience together is just! Ugh!! That is all I can really say about this! I just LOVE this book and this is def one of my favorite part of this book. Esp ch 15! 

There are also some rather sad moments for both of them. Wendy does a great job of really having these characters struggle to be together even though they both want to be together but can’t! I just love it!

Now onto the party! If you are curious about these drinks but can’t consume alcohol, just take it out and you have a fancy drink! 

Now I kind of love cocktails. I prefer martinis and mojitos. I am a HUGE lover of citrus in my drinks. The tarter the better. I am one of those people that can suck on a lemon wedge and enjoy it. Some of these look so good I must try them. *note: all of these recipes are pulled from the link provided. I do not own any of these recipes or photos. I have not tried any of these and can't say if they are any good or not. Directions and ingredient list is pulled directly from the websites where I found them. Credit goes to those who own them.*

Up first is for my baby Kai, because he is my little key lime pie (seriously anything key lime flavored is consumed immediately around me; pie, truffles, drinks, sexy boys serving those items, it’s just yummieness all around) I LOVE mojitos and always am looking for a way to spice them up (berries, grapefruit, etc) So if it says mojito I'm all over it! 

Key Lime Pie Mojito

Makes 1 cocktail 

Ingredients:

• 6 fresh mint leaves 
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, or to taste 
• 1/2 lime, cut into 2 wedges 
• 3/4 cup ice cubes 
• 1 ounce Marti Mojito 
• 1 ounce Ke Ke Beach Key Lime Cream Liqueur 
• 6 ounces club soda 
• 1 sprig fresh mint for garnish (optional) 

Directions:

In a highball glass muddle mint leaves, sugar, and 1 lime wedge. Add ice cubes, Marti Mojito, Ke Ke Beach Key Lime Cream Liqueur, and club soda. Squeeze remaining lime wedge into glass. Stir, taste, and adjust sugar if necessary. 

Next we have what looks like a lovely warm fall cocktail. Vanilla and citrus?!?! Yes please! 

Vanilla Citrus Cocktail

Makes 2 drinks

Ingredients: 

• 4 ounces fresh grapefruit juice 
• 3 ounces vodka 
• 1/4 vanilla bean, seeds scraped 
• 1 ounce lemon juice 
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest 
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 2 lemon zest spirals for garnish 

Directions:

Combine grapefruit juice, vodka, vanilla bean seeds, and lemon juice with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously for a minute or so to break up and infuse the vanilla bean seeds into the cocktail. 

Combine the lemon zest with the granulated sugar in a small plate or shallow bowl. Wet your finger with juice and run it around the rim of each cocktail glass. Dip the rims into the lemon zest sugar to create a sugared rim. 

Pour the shaken cocktail over ice and serve. Garnish with a spiral lemon zest spiral.

And one for our girl Anna!!! Vanilla, pears and vodka, OH MY! 

Vanilla, Pear and Vodka Cocktail

Makes 4 drinks 

Ingredients: 

• 12 oz (1.5 cups) pear juice 
• 6 oz vodka 
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped 
• Vanilla sugar, for rim 
• 1 cup ice, plus more to serve over 

Directions: 

Mix pear juice and vodka in a pitcher or shaker. Split open the vanilla bean, and scrape the seeds into the juice and vodka. Add 1 cup ice, then give it a good shake. Pour into cocktail glasses over more ice and serve with sugared rim.

Told you I can’t resist anything citrus and mojito!! I really thing that this will be the first one I try!! Grapefruit is one of my favorite citrus frits and mmm this sounds so good!!!

Grapefruit Mojito

Makes 2 drinks 

Ingredients: 

• 1 grapefruit, segmented & juice reserved 
• 20 mint leaves 
• 4 teaspoons agave nectar 
• Juice of 1 lime 
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons reserved grapefruit juice 
• 3oz rum (2 shots) 
• Ice 
• Sparkling water 

Directions: 

Muddle 4 grapefruit segments, mint, agave nectar and lime juice in the bottom of a martini shaker with the end of a wooden spoon. Add grapefruit juice and rum, then fill the shaker 3/4 full with ice. Shake until very cold then evenly divide between two glasses filled with ice. Top with sparkling water (to taste) and garnish with remaining grapefruit segments. 

Ok this is one of my MANY blood orange drinks here today. I didn’t notices till I was putting together this post, but damn it just sounds so good!! And its Halloween time and blood time, it just sounds yummie!! 

Blood Orange Margarita

Alternative Drink

Makes 1 drink

Cook Time: 2 mins

Ingredients: 

• 3 oz fresh Blood Orange Juice 
• 2 oz Tequila (for recommendations see comments on Meyer Lemon Margarita post)
• 1 oz Triple Sec 
• Splash of agave nectar (syrup) (optional yet fantastic suggestion from Brooke who is a kick ass bartender) 

Directions: 

Rub the rim of an old fashioned glass (or whatever similar vessel you prefer) with an edge of a blood orange slice. Swirl the rim through a small pile of kosher or sea salt to salt the rim. 

Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker, add ice and shake for 15 seconds. 

Put a few cubes of ice in your glass. Strain the cocktail into the glass and enjoy. 

I do love a good margarita, however I tend like different cocktails not the normal margarita, mai tai and popular drinks so this one really sounds good!

Blood Orange French 75

Makes 1 drink

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 ounces gin 
• 1 small blood orange (about the size of a lemon), juiced 
• 1/2 small lemon, juiced 
• 3 ounces Champagne or sparkling wine 
• Ice 

Directions:

Fill a Champagne flute or comparably sized glass less than halfway with crushed ice (optional). 

Fill a small cocktail shaker with ice. Pour in the gin and the blood orange and lemon juice. Shake well. 

Strain the gin mixture into the glass. Top with Champagne. Garnish with a blood orange twist (you’ll see in the pictures that I played around with garnishes but the twist is more traditional). 

Remember how I said I love martinis?? That includes all forms!! A lovely Peartini for our home girl Anna!

Fall Peartini & Flambéed Bartlett Pears over Vanilla Ice Cream

Makes 1 Drink; 1 Flambéed Bartlett Pear 

Ingredients: 

• 2 oz. Absolut Pears Vodka 
• 4 slices of Flambéed Bartlett Pears (See below for recipe.) 
• 2 oz. simple syrup, or 1 tbsp. super fine sugar and 1 oz. water 
• 1 wedge of lemon 

----------------------------------- 

Flambéed Bartlett Pears over Vanilla Ice Cream: 

• 1 Bartlett pear, sliced 
• ½ cup Brandy 
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar 
• ½ cup water 
• Sprinkle of cinnamon 
• Scoop of vanilla ice cream 

Directions: 

Flambéed Bartlett Pears over Vanilla Ice Cream: 

Heat a sauté pan with butter, add sliced Bartlett pear, 2 tbsp brown sugar, and a half cup water. Cook the pears until the water has steamed off and the pears have softened. Add half cup brandy and allow to flame; use extreme caution when executing this step . Cook over high heat until the pears caramelize and the brandy has been absorbed and cooked off. Finish with a sprinkle of cinnamon over the pears. Serve over vanilla ice cream and reserve a few slices for the Fall Peartini. 

Fall Peartini: 

Place 2 pear slices and a lemon wedge in a shaker. Muddle them until the pear is the consistency of a purée. Add the remaining liquid ingredients and ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with the remaining flambéed pear slices. 

Talk about one to try!! After I try that one Blood Orange French 75, I will be trying this one!!!

Dragon Well

Makes 1 drink

Ingredients: 

• 1/3 USA Red Anjou pear, cored and coarsely chopped (do not peel) 
• 1-1/4 oz pear vodka, such as Grey Goose La Poire or Absolut Pears 
• 1/2 oz pear liqueur, such as Clear Creek Pear Brandy or Aqua Perfecta Pear Eau de Vie 
• 3/4 oz green tea-infused simple syrup (see recipe below) 
• 1 oz pear juice, such as Santa Cruz Organic Pear Nectar 
• Dry Soda-brand Lavender soda 
• Ice 
• Garnish: Pomegranate seeds 

Green Tea-infused Simple Syrup

• 1 c granulated sugar 
• 1 c water 
• 2 bags green tea 

Bring sugar and water to boil in small pot. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes. Strain and chill. 

Directions: 

Put pear chunks in shaker and fill half full with ice. Muddle until pear is broken down. Add pear vodka, pear brandy, green tea syrup and pear juice and top with ice. Shake well, until very cold, and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Finish by filling glass with lavender soda and adding 5 or 6 pomegranate seeds. 

I think the name says it all!!! 

Oh Pear

Makes 1 drink 

Ingredients: 

• 2 oz Irish whiskey 
• 1 oz purée of USA Red Bartlett pear 
• 1/2 oz pear liqueur, such as Belle de Brillet or Aqua Perfecta Pear Eau de Vie 
• 1/2 oz Drambuie 
• Ice 

Directions:

Pour ingredients into shaker and fill with ice. Shake well for 30 seconds and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a USA Red Bartlett pear wedge. 

So I am a huge fan of Sunrise drinks (tequila, rum, whisky) and now this is mixing my new obsession of blood orange!! Mmmmm! 

Blood Orange Sunrise

Makes 1 drink 

Ingredients: 

• Ice 
• 1 1/5 oz tequila 
• 3 oz Orange Juice 
• 1/2 oz blood orange syrup

Directions: 

Add ingredients to your cocktail glass in the order above, drizzling the blood orange syrup last (and over the back of a spoon, as shown). Give everything one quick stir, and serve. 

And just to have a little fun, since it is October and Halloween is my favorite holiday, here are some fun Halloween cocktails! These don’t need any explications! They just look like a lot of fun! And I'm so all over these zombie ones!

The Brain Cocktail

Makes 1 drink

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 oz. peach schnapps 
• 1 1/2 oz. Bailey's Irish cream 
• Dash of grenadine 

Directions: 

Pour peach schnapps into a glass. Slowly add the Bailey's Irish cream and top with a dash of grenadine. 

Zombie Cocktail

Makes 1 drink

Ingredients: 

• 1 oz. apricot brandy 
• 1 oz. light rum 
• 1 oz. dark or Jamaican rum 
• 1 oz. lime juice 
• 2 dashes grenadine 
• Orange juice 
• 1 oz. Bacardi 151 rum 

Directions: 

Mix light and dark rum and brandy in a cocktail shaker, add lime juice and grenadine. Shake well and strain into a highball glass filled with cracked ice. 

Fill glass with orange juice, but leave enough room to float the Bacardi 151 rum on top. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice. 

Zombie Gut Punch

Makes a lot of drinks?

Ingredients:

• 10 ounces vodka 
• 5 ounces triple sec 
• 2 ounces bitters 
• 1 cup fresh-squeezed blood orange juice 
• 2 cups black cherry soda 
• Grenadine, for rim 

Directions:

In a large punch bowl filled with ice, pour vodka, triple sec, bitters, blood orange juice and black cherry soda. Laugh as though you are an evil zombie and stir. Rim each glass with grenadine before filling with punch mixture, then serve. Stagger around menacingly, and threaten to eat strangers' brains. 

Green Fizz

Ingredients 

Makes 1 drink 

Ingredients: 

• 2 ounces London dry gin 
• 1 teaspoon green creme de menthe 
• 1 ounce lemon juice 
• 1 egg whites 
• 1 teaspoon superfine sugar 
• Club soda 
• Glass Type: Collins glass 

Directions: 

Shake strenuously with cracked ice in a chilled cocktail shaker -- don't worry, one egg white will do fine for two drinks -- then strain into a Collins glass. 

A final note on the Fizz: This class of drinks -- basically, liquor, citrus, and sweetener shaken together, strained, and topped up with carbonated water -- dates back to the nineteenth century, when it had something of a reputation as a hangover cure. Our (perhaps not quite indefatigable) research has, however, turned up no mention of this particular variant of the venerableSilver Fizz prior to the Handbook for Hosts. One of our own? It'd be an honor. 

Zombie Drink

Makes 1 drink 

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 ounce white rum 
• 1 1/2 ounces golden rum 
• 1 ounce dark rum 
• 1/2 ounce 151-proof rum 
• 1 ounce lime juice 
• 1 teaspoon pineapple juice 
• 1 teaspoon papaya juice 
• 1 teaspoon superfine sugar 
• Glass Type: Collins glass 

Directions: 

Stir together all these ingredients (the juice in the recipe is what mixologist David Embury calls the "mystery ingredient"; it can be pineapple juice, passion fruit nectar, coconut milk, apricot, or cherry brandy -- just about anything this side of Romilar) except the 151 and pour into a 14-ounce glass three-fourths full of cracked ice. Float the 151 as a lid (by pouring it into a spoon and gently dipping it under the surface of the drink). Then, if the spirit moves you, take a match to this mixture; it will burn. Garnish with mint (either straight or dipped in lime juice and then superfine sugar) and/or fruit. (A particularly fetching touch: On a toothpick, impale a lemon slice or pineapple cube between two maraschino cherries and lay this fruit kabob atop of the drink). Supply a straw and, after two, a hammock. After three: a stretcher. 

And again, I will leave you with my favorite quotes from this section and really they end up being my favorite quotes from the whole book. 

“Wait,” I said, sitting halfway up. “Not my legs. They’re …” I was too embarrassed to finish. 

“They’re lovely.” His face was straight, but his eyes were smiling. 

“No, please.” I pulled my knees protectively up to my chest and mumbled, “ I didn’t have time to shave this morning.” Now he laughed. It was a marvelous sound, so rich. 

“All right, fine, no legs. But you’re missing out. I'm not through with you. Roll onto your stomach and relax again.” I obeyed, letting my arms lie limp at my sides and closing my eyes. Somehow it seemed a little safer to be on my tummy. 

“Mmm.” He moaned, having not even touched me yet. 

“What?” I asked, muffled by the poofy pillow. 

“Oh, nothing. Its jut that you’ve got quite a nice little—“ 

I flipped to my side, glaring hard. He put up his hands. 

“Sorry! A guy can’t help but notice. Truly—best behavior—starting now.” ~ 133-34 

Kaidan leaned back against the headboard with his eyes closed. Each lean muscle was noticeable under his tanned skin. 

… 

When his eyes were closed I stared unabashedly. His shoulders were rounded and his forearms tight. His entire torso was a sight to see—a toned chest angling downward to his abs with a slight ripple, but he wasn’t cut in a way that might make a girl feel self=conscious of her own imperfections. His waist went down in a vee at his hips, where it met the hotel blanket. 

I tore my eyes away when he stirred. From the corner of my eye I saw him throw the blankets easily aside and scoot to the edge of the bed by the window. He stoop up, facing away from me, and raised his arms fro a glorious stretch. When I looked again my eyes landed on his bare behind. 

Dear God! ~142-143 

“Why are they allowed to do this?” I couldn’t help but feel betrayed on behalf of humanity. I was jolted by the bitter edge in Kaidan’s response. ~ 150 

“Which was your favorite place?” I asked. 

"I’ve never been terribly attached to anyplace. I guess is would have to be … here.” 

I stopped midchew and examined his face. He wouldn’t look at me. He was clenching his jaw, tense. Was he serious or was he teasing me? I swallowed my bite. 

“The Texas panhandle?” I asked. 

“No.” he seemed to choose each word with deliberate care. “I mean here in this car. With you.”~ 153 

“Starting to get it now? Let me be even clearer,” his voice lowered as he walked me through his work. “I can feel out someone within five minutes of conversation to know what I would have to say and do to lure her into bed. That includes you, though I admit I was off my game last night. With some people it’s a matter of simple flattery and attention. With others it takes more time and energy. I do whatever it takes to get their clothes off, and then I attempt to make it so they’ll never be with another person and not think of me. I know secrets of the human body most people don’t even know about themselves. And when I leave, I know they’re ruined when they’re begging me to stay.” ~158 

“What is it you smell, exactly?” his voice took on a husky quality, and it felt like he was taking up a lot of room. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. Something strange was going on here. I stepped back, hitting the tub with my heel as I tired to put the scent into words. 

“I don’t know. Its like citrus and the forest or something… leaves and tree sap. I can’t explain it.” 

His eyes bored into mine while he wore that trademark sexy smirk, arms still crossed. 

“Citrus?” he asked. ”Like lemons?” 

“Orange mostly. And a little lime, too.” 

He nodded and flickered his head to the side to get hair out of his eyes. Then his smile disappeared and his badge throbbed. 

“What you smell are my pheromones, Anna.” 

A small, nervous laugh burst from my throat. Then it closed up and I crossed my arms. ~ 168 

“How’s your orange juice, Ann? Does it have a touch of lime? 

The glass paused at my lips as I processed his innuendo, and I took a second to make sure my embarrassment stayed hidden inside. I let the drink swish over my tongue a moment before swallowing and answering. 

“Actually it’s a little sour,” I said, and he laughed. 

“That’s a shame.” He picked up a green pear from his plate and bit into it, licking juice that dripped down his thumb. ~179-180 

I held back a smile. How cute that this giant demon was apologizing for a light curse. ~ 216 

“Is the fate of each person set in stone?” I asked. 

“No, no, no. There is no ’fate’ in that sense. Nobody was made to fail. For individual souls, there’s always choice. Every time a choice is made, a new path forms. From what I understand, humans are told before going to earth that life will be difficult. They know what hardship they’ll have to face. They know it’s a test, and they’re eager for it. You, too, knew before you came to earth that you’d be born into these circumstance.” ~226 

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