HAPPY National Margarita Day!

Let's start this out by saying I certainly don't need a day to drink margaritas, but I'm definitely using it as an excuse to talk about them today! I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of margaritas, so I thought we'd talk about some of my favorite places to get a margarita. 

Obviously, my favorite place for margaritas is going to be my back porch. Maybe tied with poolside somewhere. Here's my go to margarita recipe. Simple, straightforward, nothing fancy. NOW let's talk fancy though. 

This. This margarita is from Chantico Burrito on the Marietta Square. This place is awesome. This was their summer margarita that hung over into fall a little bit. It was a peach puree and some spicy salt and oh my goodness was it delicious. They make all of their margarita stuff fresh, nothing leftover or mass produced. Even their house margaritas are all made fresh, no big batch sitting up on the back of the bar. 

Los Magueys is up in Paulding county by my dad's house. It's your typical little neighborhood Mexican restaurant, which is why it's delicious. They also have a pretty heavy pour when it comes to the tequila, which really is the way to my heart, if we're being honest. Plus. They have this dish called the Maguey Special which is rice drowning in cheese dip with shrimp and chicken or pork. YUM.

Last, but not least, we have El Taco in the Virginia Highlands. El Taco is a fun little place, they have a salsa bar, tasty food, and a fun little giveaway where everyone gets tokens and they spin a wheel at the top of the hour for prizes like free queso. They do make their house margaritas in a large batch, but the pitchers are super affordable and delicious. 

What are your favorite margaritas? Any favorites in the Atlanta area that I missed? Anyone craving a margarita at 8:30 am now? 

Kasey at the Bar: Breaking News!

Today (as I'm so very responsibly writing this Wednesday night in advance) Wednesday, the 20th of January 2016, I have finally met a wine I don't like. Now, don't get me wrong. It's not bad per se. I just, don't fancy it... 

So first, for the quick rundown 

• Who makes it? CA Winecraft?
• Where did I find it? Murder Kroger! (I'm a grocery shopping creature of habit..)
• What did I pay for it? $3.99 (I realized later that's because it was best by January of 2016. I've never seen wine with expiration dates..)
• What type of wine? "red slightly sparkling"

Okay. So here's what I think: I bought this because I see it every time I walk down the wine aisle at Kroger. Monday, I went to Kroger on my way home for two things and somehow lost focus like I was in Target... So I saw this was on sale, so my normal thought process of well, it's only $4 so what's the worst that can happen? 

Don't ask me why I thought wine in a can would be just wine in a can. I was lured by the cartoon boxing man with the mustache. Plus what a clever name! Guys. It's a wine cooler. That was my mistake, here I was thinking "look it's with all the individual glasses of wine, it must be wine!" since the wine coolers are always in the cold section. 

So the moral of this story is that I'm not a high schooler trying to sneak a Mike's Hard Lemonade so I'm probably not the correct demographic for a wine cooler. You might like it though, it's somewhere between those "limearitas" and a 4 Loko (guys. remember 4Loko?) Have you tried the Mataro's Punch? I hope I didn't upset anyone who loves wine coolers -- it's just not my style.  

Kasey at the Bar: Apothic Red

I don't know why it took me so long to decide to do this, but let's be honest. It's about damn time. Welcome to the very first ever Kasey at to the Bar post! Today we're killing two birds with one stone, both the first Kasey at the Bar post + my very first cheap wine review. It's worth noting, no one paid me to buy this wine or gave it to me fo'free or anything. I bought it all on my own thankYOU.

So, what we're going to try, this time at least, is a bulleted points on the deets of the wine (who makes it, where I found it, what I paid for it, type?) so here we go!

• Who makes it? Apothic
• Where did I find it? Murder Kroger! 
• What did I pay for it? $3.99 with my Kroger Plus Card! haha
• What type of wine? It's a red blend, I think....

So this wine, according to this new app facebook targeted an ad to me for, Vivino, is best paired with: beef, lamb, spicy food, game, mature + hard cheese, + goat cheese. In case you were wondering, I've paired it with Kraft Mac + Cheese, Papa John's cheesey bread, ham and cheese croissants, and shrimp + fettuccine alfredo...

I like this wine because it's dry, but not like WOAH dry. There's a little bit of a spice to it too, but based on what I've read about blends (and figured out trial and error) since there are a handful of different grapes it's a muted spice. If that makes sense. This is a wine I would definitey buy again for the $3.99, and would consider buying it for the average price of $10.98 that Vivino is telling me it usually goes for. 

Have you tried the Apothic Red? What are your thoughts? Also, what are your thoughts on the very first ever wine review here? Would you like to see something else? Is there anything that I covered that seems unnecessary? 

Rome Beer Fest: It's For The Kids!

So this was supposed to be my Thursty Thursday post, but best laid plans etc. ANYWAYS. So last weekend my trip to Baltimore got postponed at the very last minute, luckily my mom had an extra ticket to the Rome Beer Fest! It's a FUNDRAISER a fundraiser for the arts. as if I needed motivation to drink beer. 

The weather couldn't have been better, the sky literally looked like Andy's room in Toy Story. The beer was fantastic. The live music was fantastic. We made friends with a butterfly. It was the most fun! 

Accidental Watermelon Margaritas!

So, remember last week I showed you about the watermelon shot glasses? Remember how the video made it look all easy peasy lemon squeezey? Welp.

My first clue should have been when I walked up to the giant bin of watermelons + thought "okay, so you *thump* it to see if it sounds "solid" to know if it's ripe" then I thought "wait. what the hell does a solid watermelon thump sound like?" that was a good start. Miracuoulsy, I picked a ripe one. Like. oh man, makes your mouth water to think about it ripe. Anyways. It started out great. I managed to cut only the watermelon, right down the middle! 

Simple enough, next step is to cut that half into a square! I can do that! I flipped it over, cut it into a nice square, then when I went to turn it back over to cut into the shot glasses, it fell apart. (remember what I said about how ripe it was? also, my pinterest projects have a habit of falling apart.....) Then I'm left with a bunch of oddly cut watermelon pieces + nothing to do with the tequila! ENTER A SOLUTION! 

Obviously margs are always my backup plan, since it was a zillion (err 85) degrees, I thought "hey, why not frozen ones?!" So I hunted down the blender, chopped up the watermelon, filled it up with ice, and you know, a hefty amount of tequila, and hit blend! 

Pour in a fancy glass until after your take the picture, add an umbrella, and enjoy!! 

You know what they say, when life gives you lemons, make margaritas! (wait, that's not right is it?) Well, there you have it! A pinterest fail turned tasty margarita for a nice sunday funday by the pool with an old book. What are you sippin' on? 

Thursty Thursday Tequila Things!

FIRST OF ALL. Let's talk about that alliteration. You're welcome. Anyways. I don't have anything super fancy to share in the way of new drink recipes. I've been doing a lot of Corona + liiiime (i will be your maaain squeeze..) because -- no dishes duh. ANYWAYS. The internet has been all about tequila lately (or maybe the internet is targeting me....) and I had to share some of the best stuff! 

I was adding songs to my never ending country music playlist, I thought "oh, I should totally add all of the country songs about tequila!" because, you know, it's my brain doing the thinking. I discovered this Kenny Chesney jam + I have no idea how I haven't heard it before. One, I am pretty sure I bought all of his CDs in the early 00's, two, it's about tequila, and three, it's perfect. 

THIS WATERMELON SHOT GLASS. It even suggests you fill it with tequila. stay tuned, I'm totally trying this ASAP. 

You know how there are "suggested pins" on Pinterest now? Well mine are usually one of two things. Travel destinations or tequila drinks. I pin all sorts of other stuff, but Pinterest know's what's up man. Thanks to those pins, I've discovered this post about boozy popsicles. So we'll see how those compare to my deep fried tequila shots.

Okay, so who's ready for margaritas + queso now? Because I definitely am. Do you have any tequila recipes I need to try?! 

Heart of Darkness Margarita AND A Giveaway!

You know, I don't know why I thought I would be recovered enough from my vacation to handle a Tuesday. So while I'm nursing a sunburn + dealing with a book hangover (you know the feeling after you finish a good book? you're like bummed it's over + not ready to move on to a new one? that's me.) I'll be sharing that book this weeeeeek! Plus a zillion sunset pictures. Plus a lot of other fun things. but I COULDN'T miss Cinco, where else would you get a margarita recipe?! we're giving away these adorable Kate Spade desk accessories!

SO, when I stopped at TJ's for the wine for last week's sangria, I thought "oh, I can totally grab margarita mix here!" I was wrong. Then I saw that this mango passionfruit juice was called "heart of darkness" so I was pretty sold. Anyways, this is about as easy as my tequila sunrise. I have to be honest, I didn't think that this was going to be as delicious as it was so this is the only picture I took. Hashtag bad blogger. Anyways. It's easy! Fill your glass with ice, pour in your desired amount of tequila, fill the rest up with heart of darkness mango passionfruit juice (no sugar! real juice! it's good for you, duh!) mix it in one of your many stadium cups on hand, splash of grand marnier (let's be honest, I only have that at my bar because my dad needed room in his bar + had a full bottle. so any orange liqueur is perfect, I know you have it because you're making my regular margaritas.) Mix a little more + enjoy!

Okay, now that you're enjoying your tasty margarita, it's time to start entering to win these adorable accessories for your desk!

Your workspace should always inspire and these dreamy, rose gold supplies and notepad definitely do the trick. Enjoy the stapler and tape dispenser (with fun idioms) to dress up any desk place. And use your cute pad for any kind of note.These ladies joined me to giveaway these great Kate Spade items!Amanda | Suz | Liz | Brooke | Kerri Kristyn| Kasey | Daisy | Faith | Nina

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Around The Horn: Favorite Ballpark Food

FIRST OF ALL. As of 11:42 am yesterday (or, today when I'm writing this...) we had FOURTEEN PEOPLE link up for last week! I am dead guys. I figured it would be like, four people who I begged to participate or something. Counting myself. I'm constantly overwhelmed that people have as much fun with this as I do. SO go check out the posts from the first week -- read about all of the favorite baseball memories -- then come back for ballpark food! 

Now, the rules are easy. We have topics for each Thursday in March here, follow along with me + Jessa, grab the button below, link up, and make new friends woooooo!

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OKAY. I am 400% convinced that a few things taste better at the ballpark than anywhere else you can get them. First of all, that $7 beer is totally worth it. Trust me. They're bigger than the ones you get at the bar anyways. I'm pretty sure there's nothing better than an ice cold beer at a baseball game.

Also. Hot dogs. I don't know what it is. Hot dogs taste better at the ballpark. Which is weird, because they're probably sitting out long enough to where they should be better in your backyard BBQ (okay, well those are really good too.. also do you ever cut hot dogs up + put them in macaroni + cheese? no? oh, because you don't have the pallet of a four year old? well, you should probably try it.) It has come to my attention, while writing this post, that I don't take pictures of my ballpark food.... 

OH MAN. You know what else I love? NACHOS. I don't want to talk about that nacho cheese, I can't think about it too long without getting a little grossed out. BUT IT IS SO TASTY. You know what else it's good on? A SOFT PRETZEL. YUM. Oh my goodness. OR FRENCH FRIES. a good basket of french fries covered in everything you would put on nachos? 

Okay. Now I'm hungry and I want a beer. I can't wait to see what everyone else's favorite ballpark foods are. Obviously I'll have to try them all. Do you think if I made Kasey At The Bat an LLC, I could travel to all the ballparks to try all of the food + then write all of the expenses off on my taxes for business expenses? Like, is that how taxes work?  ANYWAYS. Link up right here! I can't wait to be more hungry.. hahaha

An InLinkz Link-up

Thursty Thursday :: The BEST Tequila Sunrise

I stumbled on this Thursty Thursday (ps, spelling it that way is really what sealed the deal for me...) linkup a couple of weeks ago when Lauren was co-hosting + I have been saving this post for the Thursday before Valentine's Day ever since. OBVIOUSLY I plan on spending some quality time with my Valentine, Mr. Cuervo, so I thought I'd share the best way to make a Tequila Sunrise. From the expert due to the sheer volume of sunrises I drink.

Okay. This is probably one of the easiest cocktails out there -- both to make + to mess up. Here's what you need:

• Tequila
• Orange juice (fresh. good orange juice. I get really bummed if it's the kind that comes from the soda wand. #orangejuicesnob)
• Grenadine. (OR A BOTTLE OF MARISCHINO CHERRIES IN THE SYRUP.)
• bonus :: cherries or fruit of some kind because yum. 

NOW. This is very important. I like to do ice, tequila, then orange juice -- that way I don't really have to stir it. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to mixing drinks. Make it as strong or as orange juice-y as you like. I'd recommend the normal ratio -- like a three second pour to each glass. Once you have the orange juice + tequila ratio to your liking add just a splash of grenadine. JUST. A. SPLASH. That stuff is like, 4565% sugar okay? Orange juice is already kind of sweet + tart, so that's more sugar. If put too much grenadine it's gonna make your teeth hurt. Stir + enjoy!!

GUYS. I made that. HOW. COOL? Also, it's a fact that we don't have any cups in our apartment that didn't either come from pint night, a brewery, or my sticky fingers. So none of them match. Which makes them all match right? What are you drinking tonight?