Celebrate Spring with a colorful homemade cocktail: here’s how to make a pomegranate margarita!
Makes 2 servings
Our weekdays are so full, and mornings begin so early, that by Friday night we are usually too tired to go anywhere or do much of anything. It seems like such a welcome indulgence for my husband Andrew and me to make a cocktail and stay in and relax. This usually includes catching up on episodes of Shark Tank or watching another show we both enjoy.
We’ve yet to find a series we can both get into as much as we did Breaking Bad, but we’re a few episodes in to Better Call Saul (a Breaking Bad spinoff) and hoping it hooks us as much as BB did—so far it’s promising. [Andrew is a litigator and Saul was his favorite character on Breaking Bad, despite the fact that everything Saul did professionally was probably the exact opposite of anything Andrew would do. That’s probably why he enjoys Saul’s character so much—it let’s him live out his lawyer bad-boy fantasies.]
Now that they are in high school, it seems like the kids have their own plans more often than not on Friday nights, but if they are home, we all share a casual family dinner. But if it’s just Andrew and me, and sometimes even if the kids are around, we have more of a picnic dinner or happy hour on Friday nights. I pull out odds and ends of food that needs to be finished up before I do the next weekly menu plan and grocery shop, and sometimes we eat sitting on stools at the counter rather than at our kitchen table. We’re crazy like that. 🙂
Sometimes we supplement our meal with a can of sardines which we eat on crackers with avocado, cream cheese or mustard. Sardines are so heart and brain healthy and they’re sustainable, so we’re trying to eat them once a week. They have a pretty intensely fishy flavor but it’s growing on Solomon and me (Andrew loves them from way back, and Celia’s been a vegetarian since she was 11).
On Friday nights Andrew makes us cocktails. His standards are a vodka Gimlet (vodka and Rose’s Lime Juice with some fresh lime slices) or a Santa Barbara (a concoction my dad used to make in his Santa Barbara kitchen with vodka with freshly squeezed grapefruit, lemon and lime juice, usually made with fruit grown in the backyard).
Other nights Andrew makes fresh margaritas. A classic margarita contains nothing more than tequila, triple sec or cointreau and fresh lime juice. We’ve experimented successfully with different twists on the classic, as he did with the Grapefruit Margarita mentioned here. Recently Andrew concocted these Pomegranate Margaritas, which are tart and sweet with a touch of spicy if you add the optional jalapeno or hot pepper sauce.
Ingredients:
- 2 oz. tequila
- 1 oz. triple sec
- juice of 1 lime
- 1/2 cup 100% pomegranate juice
- 2 slices jalapeno or a few shakes of mango hot pepper sauce (optional)
Instructions:
Stir or shake together all ingredients except the jalapeno or hot pepper sauce. Serve over ice in a tumbler, or use an ice-filled shaker and serve in a margarita glass. Garnish with the pepper slices or drizzle in the hot pepper sauce.
P.S. These pomegranate margaritas (pomaritas?) pack a punch so make sure you don’t have to pick up the kids or drive anywhere after you enjoy them. Please don’t drink and drive—even if you think you are fine to drive. My dad, Ronald Shlensky, was struck and killed by a drunk driver in 2006 while walking his puppy near his and my mom’s Santa Barbara home and we still miss him every day. His puppy was unscathed and is now our beloved dog, Suerte.