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One of the questions I get a lot from my friends is my recommendation for the best Christmas cocktail to serve up at all their various holiday parties. Apparently my reputation precedes me! Making seasonal holiday cocktails is my favorite, but jazzing up a classic White Russian recipe in particular is kind of my thing. Over the years I’ve made sugar cookie White Russians, gingerbread White Russians and my super popular salted caramel White Russian recipe. This year I’m raising the bar with this white chocolate peppermint White Russian recipe that tastes a bit like Christmas itself swirled into a glass.

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Fall is one of my favorite times of year, for all the obvious reasons. The foliage, the crispness to the air, trips to the apple orchard, homemade apple pies and, naturally, apple cider beermosas. A beermosa, if you’re not aware, is kind of like a classic champagne mimosa, only you’re using beer instead of champagne. I also like to add a dash of flavored vodka to really make it good. And, yes, they’re as tasty as they sound. Here’s how I make mine!

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When you live in the Northeast, you live every minute of summer to the fullest because while short, I’d argue that they’re some of the most beautiful summers of anywhere. It’s a season that brings me to life and rightfully so we make it a point to soak up every last second of the sunshine that we can. Hitting the weekly farmer’s market for freshly squeezed lemonade is one of my favorite summer traditions. They serve it up in big cups full of ice and you can sip it while you walk through the stalls collecting farm fresh produce for that night’s dinner. That farmer’s market lemonade is the inspiration behind this cocktail, made with the tastiest homemade strawberry lemonade and Prairie Organic vodka. Taking just a few minutes to make hand crafted cocktails is one of my favorite parts of a weekend happy hour. Fresh, farm grown ingredients totally elevate the cocktail sipping experience which is my way of saying, make this cocktail. Find the ripest local strawberries you can find, make them into lemonade and sip these Moscow mules all summer long.

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Over my last decade of blogging I have had the incredible privilege of making friends with loads of amazingly talented people. The camaraderie and the community in this wild little industry of ours is what made me fall in love with blogging from the very beginning, way back in 2008 when I took at stab at writing my very first post. Melissa Coleman of The Faux Martha is one of those people. She’s a tiny little whisp of a lady with an impeccable eye, a knack for making delicious food and a brand new cookbook, The Minimalist Kitchen, among her credits. A couple months ago I received an advance copy of her book, which is now available for sale, and I can’t get enough of it. It’s loaded with tips for how to stock your pantry and your kitchen so you can make really delicious, wholesome meals without having to run out to the store for a bunch of exotic ingredients every time you cook. If your kitchen is anything like mine, it can get overrun with containers of this and cans of that, too many of which go bad before they ever get used. I’m absolutely going to spend some time revisiting those sections of Melissa’s book and purging my kitchen of a lot of the nonsense, because I hate unruly cupboards and that’s precisely how mine are looking and feeling at the moment.

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Friends, did you know that my birthday falls on Easter this year? Ok, I didn’t really think anyone was tracking that so guess what? My birthday is on Easter this year! That’s never happened before, but it feels kind of fun, so since I’m a grown adult (turning the big 3-5 no less), it seems only appropriate that there be some kind of booze involved. Cut to me walking through Michaels and spying the cutest little silicone bunny molds and, welp, we’ve got these boozy bunny jiggler shots! They’re made with rosé, raspberry vodka and strawberry simple syrup so the result is  super fruity and equally festive! Keep reading for the recipe, and click through to check out a few of my blogging buds and their festive Easter creations, too! My friends know how to celebrate and I’m crazy for all their recipes and decor ideas.

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‘Tis the season for the most festive of Christmas cocktails and I’m serving up one of my new favorites! I’ve dubbed these frothy little concoctions sugar cookie White Russians and with good reason. They’re loaded with yummy vanilla flavor and topped with whipped cream, sugar cookie crumbles and sprinkles! This is the type of cocktail that is sure to wow your friends and makes the perfect addition to your hosting repertoire this time of year. I’m partnering with Walmart to bring you the recipe, which boasts my personal favorite vodka, Tito’s Handmade. (Any other Tito’s fans in the house?!) So let’s get to mixing, because this cocktail is going to make your actual sugar cookies at least a teeny bit jealous this year.

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June is one of my favorite months of the year, probably due to associating it with the start of summer vacation as a kid. Even now as an adult, many years past even my college or grad school days, I still love the start of summer! There’s an energy and lightness that comes along with the summer solstice that begs to be celebrated, which is why today I’m joining up with my pals at Dr. Oetker Virtuoso to share this sangria recipe. Appropriately enough, I’ve dubbed it a sparkling summer solstice sangria, and loaded it up with mango and raspberries so it’s super fruity and delicious, but not overly sweet. Paired with your favorite Virtuoso pizza, it makes for the perfect casual summer cocktail hour on the back patio or front porch.

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This super pretty gingerberry sparkler is a cocktail that I made over the holidays and shared over on Inspired By This. I had fully intended to share the post then, but if you recall that was right about the time that I came down with the first wave of the death plague that decided to hang around for nearly a month and it just never happened. That said, this cocktail would make the perfect bubbly concoction for sipping while you’re watching the Oscar’s this weekend!

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This post was sponsored by Dr. Oetker Virtuoso Pizza. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help make The Sweetest Occasion possible! In our town going out for Bloody Marys is a longstanding New Year’s Day tradition to the point where some folks skip New Year’s Eve festivities entirely in order to better partake in the Bloody …

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