Spooky Halloween Sangria

Spooky Halloween Sangria

I always say that these posts are going to be short and sweet so I’m not sure why I start each post by saying that! Lol but I also think that I say that so if you’re new here you don’t to this post and be like “OMG I don’t care how she stumbled upon this recipe standing on a cliff looking out into the water looking at a baby dolphin learning to swim” hahaha! Some recipes just need to get to the point!

I wanted to create a Spooky Halloween Sangria recipe for you guys with things that you probably have in your kitchen! Much like a charcuterie board, I think to some extent…especially with a sangria, you can play around with it and make it what you like. There is a little more wiggle room with sangria because you can literally use any fruit you like, any wine you like.. red or white! You can add rum, brandy, vodka.. pretty much anything you have on hand! So without further ado… I will share the recipe!

This recipe makes one pitcher so if you are wanting more for like a get-together or something, double it! OR triple the recipe depending on how many people are going to be drinking it!

Ingredients/What you will need

• 2 bottles of red wine {I used Apothic Red}

• Rum {1 1/2 cups}

• Splash of apple cider {I added the apple cider to each glass to gauge sweetness depending on each person}

• Simple syrup {optional, I thought the apple cider made it sweet enough!}

• 4 red delicious apples {mostly for the color}

• 1 large container of blackberries

• black sugar sprinkles for the rim of the glass

• honey {to get the sugar to stick to the rim

• pitcher

• skulls {I got mine here}

I would love to see if you decide to make Spooky Halloween Sangria for your Halloween festivities! What are your plans for the weekend? Do you have any? Let me know in the comments below or you can send me an email at tarynintotravel@gmail.com!

Adult Popsicles Six Ways

I know I have mentioned this to you guys before but I eat no less than 10 of those Ice Freeze popsicles a day in the summer! I felt a lot better when I did a poll and most of you eat them in the summer as well. I mean probably not 10 but you do eat them a lot lol. Over the past few weeks we have been testing different kinds of popsicles.. adult popsicles and DANG they are good! We came up with six that we really like so I decided it was time to share it with the people. They are all really simple and most are 2, maybe 3 ingredients! I’m not even really sure if you can call them recipes! It’s more like… “put these two things together”. It took about 15 minutes to make everything and I love how versatile they are! You really can make it whatever you want. You can get the popsicle bags and funnel here!

I put 2 shots in a 16 oz glass and filled the rest of the cup with the juice {and fruit if using}. Each 16 oz glass made 5 popsicles! You could definitely make them not as strong or stronger depending on what you like and how you want them to taste. But I liked them how we did it with the 2 shots per 16 oz glass.

simply blueberry lemonade & vodka & frozen blueberries

raspberry lemonade & raspberry Smirnoff & muddled raspberries

orange juice & vodka

cranberry peach juice & vodka

watermelon juice & vodka & blended watermelon

fruit punch & raspberry Smirnoff

We’ve had them made up in our freezer for a couple of weeks now and I love having one after dinner! I also took them to the beach one afternoon and they were perfect to cool us off. One other thing I did was empty the popsicle into a cup and then poor about a half shot into the cup and fill the rest with the same juice and its a good way to chill your drink without it getting all watered down! I would love to hear if you guys make any of these! If you have any questions at all I would be more than happy to answer them. Comment below or you can email me at tarynintotravel@gmail.com!

Cranberry Peach Cocktail

This is hands down my favorite drink to make at home! Its so easy I honestly probably didn’t need to write a whole blog post on it but I wanted you guys to have an easy place to reference it so here we are! I promise to keep this short and sweet and to not talk {write..?} your ear off. Its so simple, its just three ingredients and one of them is OPTIONAL!! Like seriously, so easy and so yummy and it doesn’t really even taste like you are drinking alcohol but boy let me tell you.. you are!

I feel like vodka is at the bottom of most peoples alcohol lists {probably because of college lol} but because I can’t have a lot of alcohols because they contain gluten - I usually reach for vodka rather than tequila. But I think that this combination of ingredients really makes it seem like you aren’t drinking vodka at all.. just trust me! The holy grail of this drink is the juice that you mix it with.. I find it at Walmart, Target.. Market Basket, I pretty much can find it anywhere! But lately I have been ordering the juice from Walmart.com and its like $5.98 for two of them!

I like to make this drink two ways, regular and frozen. I will make it frozen in the summer as a way to cool off! I like to bring it frozen when I go down to our pool in the summers because it will stay cool longer and that means fewer trips to the apartment and more relaxing time!

What you will need for this Cranberry Peach Cocktail:

• 1-2 shots of vodka

• Frozen Peach chunks {optional}

• Ocean Spray White Cranberry Peach Juice

• Ice

I would absolutely love to know what you guys think of this drink! It is hands down my favorite! But I would also love to know what is your favorite drink?? Dustin’s is a Whiskey Sour and mine is this Cranberry Peach Cocktail! Let me know yours in the comments below! And if you make the drink tag me in stories and I will share it!

Caramel Macchiato Three Ways

A few weeks back I was realllllly wanting an iced caramel macchiato from Starbucks or really anywhere that could make me one at that point lol but our closest Starbucks is in a Target and closed so that just want going to happen. SO I started playing with the ingredients that go into a macchiato and came up with three versions of the caramel macchiato! I did a regular iced caramel macchiato, a hot caramel macchiato and a healthier version of an iced caramel macchiato. The majority of this explanation of these is in the video at the bottom of the screen but I wanted to type out the instructions and ingredients that you will need just in case you don’t have time to watch. But really its only like 5 minutes!

What you will need

• ground espresso {regular coffee grounds honestly work just as well, I use this here}

• Caramel Syrup- I used this here

• Caramel Skinny Syrup {if you are doing the healthy version, I use this here}

• Milk of choice

• Ice

Iced Caramel Macchiato

1. Cover the bottom of the cup with caramel syrup

2. Fill half of the cup with milk and stir the milk and caramel until combined really well

3. Add ice to the cup {the cup should be about 3/4 full now}

4. Add two shots of espresso

5. Drizzle caramel on the top

Hot Caramel Macchiato

1. Cover the bottom of the mug with caramel

2. Two espresso shots into the mug

3. While that is brewing, add caramel and milk to a frother and froth that together

4. Pour the frothed milk and caramel into the mug

5. Drizzle caramel syrup on top

Healthy-ish Caramel Macchiato

1. Fill the bottom of the cup with the Skinny Syrup Caramel

2. Fill half of the cup with milk and stir the milk and Skinny Syrup until combined

3. Add ice to the cup {the cup should be about 3/4 full now}

4. Add two shots of espresso

5. Taste to see if you would like to add more Skinny Syrup- if you do, only add a little it at a time! Too much can really ruin the taste of the coffee so just be cautious!

ENJOY! My favorite way is the non healthy iced caramel macchiato and Dustin’s favorite is the hot version! I would love to know if you make this and if you do which version was your favorite?!

Sipsby Tea Subscription Review

I was not always a tea drinker, at all. When I worked at an office in Minneapolis, I drank at least 3 cups of coffee a day and usually it was a lot more than that. It was like something for my mouth to do while I was working lol. It wasn’t until we moved to Boston and my life slowed down a whole lot more {aka working from home}, that I decided that I didn’t need to be bouncing off the walls at all times to function. I slowing started buying tea from the grocery store to try. But what I was finding was that I would buy that whole box and then not really like it! It felt like a huge waste.

Back in September when Sipsby reached out to have me work with them I was thrilled to try this subscription. It was perfect for someone like me who really had no idea where to even begin with tea. I have been getting this subscription box since September and what started as a brand partnership has turned into a subscription that I now purchase on my own! This blog post isn’t sponsored in any way, I just wanted to share it with you because I felt it was the perfect solution for being a tea newbie!

So, the way that it works is that you take a quiz and let them know of any allergies that you might have I love that they cared about my gluten allergy! They ask if you want loose leaf, bagged tea, I even tried dissolvable tea! Another question that they ask is if you want caffeinated or non-caffeinated tea. Lastly they go through about 30 flavors of tea that you could have the option of trying and you answer yes, no, or maybe! I can’t even tell you how spot on the accuracy of the quiz is! I have now tried like 20 different teas from them and only disliked ONE out of all of them. They really can tailor the box to any level of tea knowledge that you might have! One option to brew is Eastern: Gongfu cha and you can betcher butt I don’t know what the heck that is lol therefore I didn’t choose it as an option.

Anyways, I think it is such a fun idea to try new things or even a fun gift idea if you know someone who loves tea! It is $15 a month to get 4 kinds of teas to try and they give you 3-5 of each kind they send. So its like 20 cups of tea for $15!! If you have any questions at all I would love to answer them for you! You can email me at tarynintotravel@gmail.com or ask in the comments below!

4 Wine and Cheese Pairings

I feel like this has just been the week of hosting blog posts, but who am I kidding- I love it! I wanted to share some wine and cheese pairings that you can put out at your next get together. I love taking the guessing out of what you are serving and you can just enjoy the company! These are my four go-to’s when I am having people over. I know that I post really large charcuterie boards but you can put out something as simple as cheese and cracker, it doesn’t need to be extravagant. I will give you some examples below!

Pino Noir and Brie

This is always my first thought, especially in the fall and winter. I love pairing a creamy, buttery brie with a pino noir. You can always leave it as just brie and wine or you can elevate the cheese and add a jam! My perfect combination is brie with rhubarb jam and Simple Mills almond flour crackers! Its both salty and sweet!

Pino Grigio and Gouda

Gouda is a bit heavier but the Pino Grigio complements the cheese with its lighter taste of the Pino Grigio! If you are wanting to add a bit to the cheese you can pair it with dried apricots and table crackers! If you are gluten free I like the Schar Gluten Free Table Crackers. This is such an easy combination to put together because you can just set out the gouda, apricots and crackers on the cheese plate and your guests can decide how they would like to eat it!

Riesling and Goat Cheese

This is one of the yummiest combinations! I love goat cheese… I mean LOVE it! We had a great combo at on our Halloween Grazing Table that was the goat cheese log rolled in fig jam and crushed pistachios! Another option would be the goat cheese log rolled in honey and then rolled in a mixture of finely chopped apricots and almonds! The sweet Riesling will complement the dense texture of the cheese!

Merlot and Aged Cheddar

This combination is SO yummy in the winter and so easy because it doesn’t need to be really paired with anything. I like crackers paired with the cheddar! You really don’t need much more, the cheddar goes nicely on table crackers as well! Or if you like the saltiness, you can use Simple Mills Crackers instead!

Here are my favorites for entertaining a small crowd!

As always, I am here for questions! I would be THRILLED to help you figure out what you will be serving for your next get together. No matter how large or small, just ask!

Boozy Apple Cider

I feel like it has been so long since I have shared a drink recipe! I would love to share one a month, so from now on I am going to add it to my calendar! So for November the drink is Boozy Apple Cider and let me tell you, it was DELISH! We made it for our guests at our Halloween Party and it was a hit, it was pretty much gone by the time the party was over! And it you read that post, (if not you can read it here), the drink dispensers were actually pretty big! So with that being said, it was so yummy. It is so easy and just four ingredients!

What you will need

Like I said, super easy to throw together and the longer that it was in the drink dispenser, the tastier it got! I would love to hear if you decide to make this cocktail for a party of yours! As always, send any questions that you have my way. I would be more than happy to answer them for you!

ABC’s Bachelorette Party: Spicy Pomegranate Margarita

Fantasy suites week is here! I immediately thought of this spicy pomegranate margarita to make while you and your guests watch the drama unfold in the upcoming episode! Honestly this season has flown by and I can’t believe it’s almost over. This drink is so yummy and you can easily pair it with tortilla chips and salsa or guacamole if you are wanting to also bring a snack!

What you will need

This is such an easy recipe because its really just putting things together, there isn’t any mixing or cooking, just a bit of prep work. Getting the seeds out of the pomegranate was the hardest part and even that could be eliminated if you bought a pack of just pomegranate seeds rather than a pomegranate. I also like it because these are so simple to make but they look really pretty!

The Perfect Memorial Day Party

Here we go guys! ALLLLL the things you need to have the perfect Memorial Day weekend! I found literally everything you need from what to wear to what you are going to float your happy butt on in the pool!

THE DECOR

The inspiration for this set up seriously all started with the cutest cooler there ever was from Dabney Lee. I saw it in Target, had to have it! I had a serious debate on getting the 18-can backpack cooler or the shoulder style. I opted for the backpack because I will use it to go to the beach and the pool all summer! While it is a cooler, it is still super easy to pack a towel, a few drinks and a snack all in one bag and not have to worry about the drinks getting hot.

You guys KNOW I can’t pass up a good theme, the lemons set the plan in motion and I couldn’t be stopped after that! We are having a citrus Memorial Day party and I am HERE. FOR. IT! When I am planning something I like to “shop” from my apartment for a bit before I go buy a ton of stuff. Finding things that I already have usually makes the store a bit less stressful as well.

The plant, glassware, tray and blanket (aka, the shawl of 1000 uses! See inside joke here). All that was left to buy were the lemons, tea, lemonade, and of course Strongbow! Super easy. See the recipe for the boozy Arnold Palmer below!

BOOM, DONE

TO DRINK

TO WEAR

Target is my go to when it comes to swimming suits! I love that you can mix and match tops and bottoms and they usually fit true to size. Memorial Day Weekend is the first pool weekend for us so it gives me alllll the excuses to get a couple of new suits! I am all about rewearing suits that fit correctly. So usually I find tops and bottoms to go with the ones that I already have. I picked some of the ones that I already own as well as the ones in my cart for next weekend! I also added a few of my choices from Amazon as well!

THE EXTRAS

There were so many cute citrus options when it came to pool floats and other accessories to add to your party for the perfect day! They become decorations without really even having to try. I think they are the perfect addition and I especially love the straws!