Holiday Entertaining on a Budget

I love hosting parties. Unfortunately, my tiny apartment isn't exactly conducive to that, but I still like to regardless. This year, I did some hunting on Pinterest (of course) to find the perfect cocktail to serve, and ended up coming across the 'Ornamentini' by Inspired by Charm. I loved the presentation. The drink is presented in signature clear ornaments, held in martini glasses. The jewel tone red of the cocktail shines through and looks oh-so-festive!

I changed up my recipe just slightly from what you'll see on Inspired by Charm. The recipe called for an orange liqueur, and immediately I thought of Grand Marnier. It's the liqueur my parents had growing up, and for the last few years, I've been using it in my own cocktails. It just has the most lovely smooth, orange flavour. It tastes great even on its own! It's definitely the more premium of the orange liqueurs though, so I thought I would try to keep my budget under control on the presentation of the drinks to balance things out.

I made a trip to Value Village in search of some cool drinkware, and ended up coming across the incredible contraption you'll see below! I rarely check out the 'home' section of Value Village because I usually go straight for the clothes and shoes, but every once in a while I browse the home section and find something amazing (and cheap!) like this.

It's a 6-part cocktail set that includes a lovely glass cocktail shaker, 4 crystal glasses, and the holder, which houses the shaker as well as hangs all 4 glasses on it. The whole set cost me only $18.98 - which is a great deal, considering the glasses are all crystal. And what a unique design! I'd never seen anything like it before, and immediately when I saw it I thought I could make it work for this ornament cocktail.

I picked up some plastic empty ornaments from Michaels (make sure you check their app for coupons - I got 40% off!), and decided I would use the mini crystal glasses to hold the ornaments full of cocktail mix - kind of like an egg-holder holds an egg. I remembered having some cute striped straws in a cupboard, so I cut a few shorter so they would fit in the glasses, and voila! I also decided to add a couple small sprigs of rosemary not just to the cocktail itself, but in the bottom of each glass, just to give it an even more festive look.

Want to give these babies a try at your Christmas or New Year's party? Here's the recipe:

The Grand Ornament

• 1.5oz Vodka
• 1oz Grand Marnier
• 2oz Cranberry Juice
• 0.5oz Orange Juice
• 1 Rosemary sprig

Just shake together your juices and liquors with ice, pour using a funnel into the ornaments, and add the sprigs of rosemary to your ornament, and in the bottom of the glass!

Happy Holiday Entertaining!

~ Britta

Disclaimer: Grand Marnier and Value Village provided the products featured in this post. As always opinions here are entirely my own, and I only collaborate with brands I truly love!

Holiday Entertaining on a Budget

I love entertaining during the holidays. Eating Christmas baking, drinking festive cocktails, exchanging gifts and opening Christmas crackers...all with your friends and family...does it get any better than that? After buying all the gifts on my list this year though, there wasn't a whole lot left in the budget for entertaining, so I popped into Value Village to see what I could find in the home/kitchen section.

I was planning to serve guests a new warm cocktail I was introduced to while in Switzerland this year, so I was on the hunt for thick glasses with handles, a serving tray, and a nice decanter to hold the liquor. Guess what?? I ended up finding them all with 1 trip to Value Village! For a total of $30, I ended up with 4 glasses, a tray and this amazing crystal and gold decanter. Such a deal! The decanter alone was a fabulous find. There were tons of other pretty glasses I would have loved to bring home too, but sadly, my bar cart is running low on space. But if you're looking for stylish wine glasses, champagne flutes or liqueur glasses, there were plenty of those too. And serving trays galore! Pro tip: make sure you really get in there and look through every shelf, and move stuff around, because I found my glasses behind a bunch of wine glasses and almost missed spotting them!

The "warm cocktail" that I'm planning to serve using my fancy new wares is called Schümli Pflümli (pronounced Shoomly Floomly), a drink popular in the area of Einsiedeln, Switzerland. It definitely has the feel of an après ski cocktail, something I imagine drinking in a cozy ski chalet. Perfect for sharing on a cold wintery night with family and friends!

Here's the recipe in case you want to try this drink yourself (you really really should):

Schümli Pflümli

1. Brew 2 tbsp of coffee for 4 minutes

2. Fill the glass just over halfway with coffee

3. Add 1/2 to 1 tsp of sugar (depending on how sweet you take your coffee)

4. Add 2 1/2 tbsp of plum schnapps (or plum brandy - I found this one at our BC Liquor Store)

5. Stir

6. Optional: add a dollop of whipped cream

Enjoy!

Happy Entertaining! xo

~ Britta



Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Value Village. As always, opinions are my own.