Hope you are having a wonderful Holiday season, Ballston and Virginia Square! Hopefully you are enjoying some time with friends, family, and food.

We are now venturing into the wild world of cocktails for the Holiday Saute. We started with making a delicious, minty Grasshopper Martini. We're switching gears just a little bit to something a little lighter, a little fruity, and a little bubbly.

Today, we drink a Poinsettia. This champagne cocktail is absolutely divine. I know, I said it-divine (and I'm not taking that back. Josh says I'm too corny. But I like being corny!). It tastes light, delicious, and is a very festive red color. Perfect cocktail for your Christmas or New Years Eve party!

Poinsettia (found randomly on ask.com)
Serves 1

Ingredients:
½ oz Cointreau or Triple Sec
3 oz Cranberry Juice
Champagne

Directions:
In a champagne flute, pour Cointreau and Cranberry Juice. Top with champagne.

Rate it!:
Rating: A
Level of Difficulty: VERY easy
Cost: Roughly $23.00 (that's for a bottle of each of the ingredients above)-you'll get many drinks out of those bottles.
Bad Breath Factor: It's fruity and amazing. You'll be fine.

Suggestions:
1) Place frozen cranberries (2-4) in the flute as a garnish!
2) Don't use Triple Sec. Spring for an orange liquor. Cointreau can be a little expensive, but there are a couple other orange liquors that will work (Bonus-we're making another cocktail this week using orange liquor-so it will be used again!!). Triple sec will still work, and will taste ok-but orange liquor gives a much more complex and well rounded
3) With champagne cocktails, you always want to pour all mixers in the flute first, then pour champagne on top of those ingredients.

This is refreshing, light, and a great Holiday cocktail. Since it's red-it's perfect for Christmas. Since it's champagne-it's perfect for New Years. This is a great cocktail to try out this week!