Crabbie's Ginger Beer Cocktails

I've been on a serious Moscow Mule kick recently when we go out for dinner and drinks because they're so light and tasty. I decided to look up the recipe the other day and realized they're in fact super easy to make at home with just a few ingredients ~ ginger beer, lime and vodka.

I recently discovered Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer which comes in three different flavors ~ Spiced Orange, Scottish Raspberry and the Original Ginger Beer which all taste amazing. It's made with real ginger that's steeped for up to six weeks, then blended with exotic spices to create a unique and flavorful ginger beer. I immediately fell in love with these ginger beers because they're not too sweet and already contain 4.8% alcohol.

These are best served over ice with a slice of lime or lemon. I did a little sampling over the weekend and whipped up some seriously good cocktails with Crabbie's Ginger Beer to enjoy at home while we watched movies. They were so good I have to share!

Raspberry Dark & Stormy 

Ingredients:

1/2 oz dark rum
Crabbie's Raspberry Ginger Beer
Lime wedge

Glass full of ice

What To Do:

Combine the rum and ginger beer in a glass full of ice cubes, stir well and garnish with lime wedge.

Crabbie's Moscow Mule

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz vodka
3/4 oz. lime juice

1/2 oz. simple syrup
3-4 mint leaves
Crabbie's Original Ginger Beer

What To Do:
Crush the mint leaves gently in the bottom of your glass. Add the lime juice, simple syrup, and vodka along with some ice cubes. Then add a splash or two of Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer depending on your preference or taste. 

These products were provided to me complimentary in return for my honest review of the products. All opinions stated above are honest and accurate based on my true experience.

Weekend Whereabouts

Well this weekend just seemed to zip by as they all tend to do. By the time Friday night came around I was pretty exhausted so we went for a quick bite at The Social House, which just recently opened. There was live music but it was extremely loud (like we could hardly even talk) and the salad I ordered was just okay. I'll give them another try but it wasn't the best date night idea.

When we got home we relaxed and watched The Night Before from RedBox. I didn't care for the movie so I zoned out half way through. I guess that means I don't recommend it, at least it didn't peak my interest.

On Saturday morning it was time to go pick up my new car at the Mazda dealership which of course is a long process and takes a couple hours but I'm in love with my new ride and all the new features cars have these days.

 On Saturday night it was time to get dolled up and head to Mango's Tropical Cafe to celebrate J's 37th birthday with dinner, drinks, and entertainment. While the atmosphere was fun with lots of different shows throughout the night, the service was horrendous (took 30 minutes to get a drink), the food was decent but they messed up a few people's orders including mine. The icing on the cake was when we had to pay $15 for valet parking but when it came time to leave, we waited almost 45 minutes for them to bring the car. I probably sound like a complaining shit between the events of Friday and Saturday night but I will always give my honest opinion here on my blog.

It was a fun night with friends but I will never return to Mango's again!

Sunday was all about getting organized - eggs benedict for a late breakfast since I slept in, three loads of laundry, all the blogging possible, dinner cooking in the crockpot, weekly food prep, and early to bed with hopes of not feeling too exhausted today because of the time change.

How was your weekend?

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Friday Faves + $50 Amazon Giveaway

Hello friends and hello pollen season!
My car and patio furniture are covered in a powdery yellow layer. Thankfully I don't have allergies but I feel bad for those who do because it's pretty intense this year.

Easter is coming up in a few weeks and I'm starting to plan our annual Easter potluck dinner so this weekend I need to figure out the menu and some pretty decor for the house. I'm thinking some mason jars with colorful flowers and maybe incorporating some fruit in there. Of course, one must turn to Pinterest for some inspiration.

 
source: here, here

Beauty Product Spotlight:
I just picked up this Revlon eye primer and shadow palette and love the medium neutral yet shimmery colors. I was definitely drawn to it because of the discrete application guide it comes with. I know how to apply some basic eye shadow for everyday wear but definitely could use some "professional guidance".

via

Healthy Meals:
I'm always searching for new recipes and while I'm not vegan or vegetarian, I found this Vegan Buddha bowl and it looks delicious but I would probably add some grilled chicken to the dish.

Favorite Blog Post:
One of my favorite bloggy friends, Alexis from The Chemistry Cachet posted about her favorite beach places and featured me with a questionnaire about my travel plans.

Alexis and I have also teamed up to host a $50 Amazon Gfit Card Giveaway so enter on below to win your ticket to a fun little online shopping spree!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to...



Joining Amanda for her Friday Faves linkup. 

Best Happy Hour Spots in Orlando

From traveling around to different cities, I've realized that Orlando has some of the best deals for happy hour during the week to unwind after work. Other than people that work for the big amusement parks in Orlando a large portion of young professionals work downtown and the surrounding areas so there's lots of fun places to meet up after work for a quick drink and/or bite with friends. Here are a few of my personal favorite spots although there are TONS of other great happy hour deals in Orlando!

Restaurant titles are clickable if you want to visit the website to get more information or view the menu.

Carmel Cafe & Wine Bar

Carmel Cafe has happy hour 7 days a week from 4-7pm which includes $5 large glasses of wine, $5 small plates, $2 off liquor drinks and $1 off beer. We also love going on Thursday nights which is $5 martini night. Nothing gets me more excited than that!

Aku Aku Tiki Bar
Aku Aku has a different special everyday on their Hawaiian style drinks. Insider tip: The Tiger Fucker cocktail pictured below is a must-try but only have one because they are very strong and a very large size cocktail!

 

The Gnarly Barley

Daily specials: Taco Tuesday, Wine Wednesday, Tin Thursday (craft beers) and $1 off drafts on Tues-Fri from 4-7pm.

Vanbarry's Public House

Daily drink specials and live music on the patio from 12-3pm. Vanbarry's has a really nice outside patio and allows dogs which is perfect for us for happy hour, lunch or brunch!

The Parkview

Graffiti Junktion
Graffiti Junktion has happy hour all week long M-F which includes $1 off draft beers; $3 house wine; $4 well drinks & margaritas.

Hammered Lamb

The Brass Tap
Happy hour is Monday to Friday from 4-7 pm and includes $4 pint beers, $4 house wines, and $6 small plates.

The Porch
The Porch has a nice, relaxed atmosphere with different food and drink specials during the week: Craft beer specials and 1/2 price burgers on Tuesdays. Kids eat free on Wednesdays. All you can eat wings on Thursdays.
 

So now I'm ready for some happy hour. Is it Friday yet?

Wanderlust Wednesday: 2015 Travel Recap

Looking back at last year, apparently it was a fairly successful year of traveling and exploring some new and old destinations. I also have some really exciting travel plans lined up for this year which I'll share at the end of this post. So here are the sites and scenes from 2015:

San Francisco & Sonoma
 In March I traveled to San Francisco for the second time to attend a conference for work but I made sure to fly in a few days early to explore more of the city and wine country.  I have some friends that live in San Fran so they picked me up and we drove out to Sonoma on the Sunday. It was a gorgeous day to visit the wineries and have a picnic outside plus every wine we tasted was amazing! (Here's another travel recap of my time in San Francisco over the past couple years.)

Trinidad & Tobago
In early 2015 I traveled to Trinidad and Tobago twice both times for weddings which I was a bridesmaid in (wedding recap here and here). It was a bit hectic to attend back to back destination weddings but I made it all work and got to spend time with family and catch up with friends while I was there.





Las Vegas
K and I visited Las Vegas for the 4th of July long weekend to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary coupled with a good friend's 30th birthday. Our days were packed with exploring the strip and lounging by the pool. Our nights were spent having some nice celebratory dinners, seeing Tiesto perform at Hakkasan, going to the "O" show by Cirque du Soleil and losing some money in the casino. What can I say? It's Vegas after all.

 

New Orleans

K and I traveled to New Orleans for the Labor Day long weekend in September which also happens to be K's birthday weekend. I'm usually a big planner when it comes to trips but K doesn't always like to follow a strict schedule so I made no big plans for this trip. We had some must-eat-at restaurants on our list as well as a ghost pub crawl and that we did along with lots of exploring, some shopping, and of course some drinking because Bourbon Street. (And here's NOLA Part 2 trip recap.)
 

 

Lots of Disney Trips

2015 was definitely filled with lots of Disney action and we made good use of our annual passes before they expired. Epcot was our favorite for the Food & Wine Festival but each park has it's own adventures to enjoy. If you have annual passes Disney it's also the perfect place to go to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, bachelorettes, etc so we did lots of that! The Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot (which is going on now) is also a gorgeous time of year to visit. Here are some of my favorite Disney memories from last year: one, two, three, four, five.

Barbados

In October we were off again for another destination wedding that I was a bridesmaid in but this time it was in the beautiful island of Barbados. The trip wasn't as long as I was hoping for (because lack of PTO at this point) but we did manage to squeeze some fun things in when I had some free time from wedding responsibilities. K and I went on a catamaran cruise around the island and then on our last day, some friends drove us around for an island tour so we got to see the best of both worlds.

Ft Lauderdale

Heading to Ft Lauderdale for New Year's Eve was kind of a spur of the moment decision for us. We didn't have any plans for NYE and were seeking some fun and adventure. We decided it was the perfect time to visit some good friends that live in the Ft Lauderdale area and when we were able to find an affordable dog-friendly hotel near to the beach, we were sold! We ate lots of good seafood and rang in 2016 beachside with good friends plus Lola got to join us for this trip.

Here's a sneak peak of what 2016 is looking like so far:

St Augustine, FL

Denver, CO

Coral Gables, FL

Boston, MA (tentative)

 Montego Bay, Jamaica

Toronto, Canada

Nashville, TN

Link-up Rules:

1. Follow Kerri, Kate and myself on Bloglovin

2. Link up your favorite travel recaps or travel related posts

3. Grab our Wanderlust Wednesdays button and link back to our blogs

4. Be sure to visit other blogs and build your travel bucket list!