Don’t Judge Me Mondays: Cranberry Margaritas Two Ways

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Are you indecisive about silly things?  I know I am!  I may have mentioned this before but I can be a very indecisive person about small things but surprisingly have an easy time making large decisions, go figure.  Should I buy a house? Yup!  What should I order for lunch?  Ummmmm, oh man, uh, maybe the quiche, or the salad, uuhhhh, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.  I’m always the one saying “I’ll go last” when out to a restaurant, lol.  Anyway all of this to say that’s why you’re getting two margarita recipes today. 😉

Originally I planned on sharing a margarita that used cranberry sauce for something to do with Thanksgiving leftovers.  Then I remembered we had cranberry liqueur and I thought about serving a margarita using that onThanksgiving.  I finally decided, why not just share both!

Let’s get to it!

 

Using cranberry sauce

This margarita will be a little more fancy and served up, in a stemmed martini glass.  It’s not the way margaritas are normally made, but oh well. The drink needs to be strained to get out the clumps of the cranberry sauce so serving it in a martini glass just made sense to me.

First fill your shaker halfway with ice.  Now add the cranberry sauce (if you need a recipe for Thanksgiving you can find mine here), lime juice and tequila. I recommend silver/blanco tequila here because it has a smoother taste for cocktails, and tends to be less expensive. Shake for a few seconds.

Pour out through a fine mesh strainer into your martini glass.

Garnish with lime zest or a sugared cranberry.

Using cranberry sauce makes this version sweeter than the other one using the liqueur but both have a lovely tart cranberry flavor and a refreshing zip from the lime and tequila.

 

Cranberry liqueur

My husband, Derek brought this liqueur home last year after a grocery trip.  He’s always on the lookout for interesting stuff for me to experiment with. 🙂 As you can see it’s available at Total Wine & More and there’s probably other brands available at any stores selling liquor. It’s really tasty with full cranberry flavor and a little bit of tartness.

Start by filling your glass with ice. Pour in the cranberry liqueur, tequila, and lime juice and stir.

Top it off with club soda and give it a final stir.  Garnish with lime zest or sugared cranberry.

If you want to serve this at Thanksgiving, you could make a batch in a pitcher and keep it in the fridge.  To do this, mix the cranberry liqueur, tequila and lime juice in the pitcher.  When ready to serve, pour some of the mixture into a glass with ice and top with the club soda.

The addition of the club soda makes this version lighter which also makes it a good choice for Thanksgiving Day.  No one wants guests that are sloppy drunk, right!

So there you have it.  Try one or both! What’s your favorite cranberry or Thanksgiving cocktail?

 

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