Tiki Cocktails & Kool Ideas for Labor Day Weekend!

Happy Labor Day, Swingers!

With the three-day weekend ahead I thought I’d throw in a few good old drink recipes and party ideas to make things a little more fun. Sure, Labor Day is all about Barbecues and beer for most people, but for us swingin’ Kats & Kitties, we need something a little hipper. So here goes…

Tropical Mellon Ball Cocktails

2 oz. Coconut Rum
2 oz. Midori Liquor
1/2 oz. Sour Mix

Throw it all in a shaker with rocks and shake it up good. Strain over cracked ice in a hurricane glass or Tiki mug, and garnish with an orange slice and a cherry on one of those little plastic swords. Add an umbrella and a flamingo swizzle stick and viola!

Watermelon Martini

8 oz watermelon juice (press watermelon through a sieve or cheesecloth)
4 oz Vodka
2 ozsimple syrup
juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons sugar
Watermelon slices

Rim: Mix together the sugar and salt, then wet the rim of a chilled martini glass with a piece of watermelon. Dip the rim into the mix.

Throw the watermelon juice, vodka, lime juice, and simple syrup into a shaker with ice and give it a good rattle. Strain it into  the martini glasses and garnish with a hunk of watermelon. Oh, yeah!

Perfectly Grilled Hound Dogs

To do this right you’re going to have to find a butcher or a deli that sells Quarter Pound Hounds…jumbo all-beef hot dogs that blow away anything you’ll find in a plastic package. If you can’t, next best thing is Ball Park all-beef (or Angus), or Sabrett’s.

Prep: Boil the dogs for about five to eight minutes in beer – Miller High Life or Pabst Blue Ribbon, to stick to tradition. This cooks them all the way through and infuses a nice lazy hazy crazy days of summer beer taste.

Grill: First of all, you can’t BBQ retro with a gas grill. No Patio Daddy-O is going allow propane in his back yard, so get charcoal and hickory wood chips like a real man. Soak the chips in water for at least an hour. Get the coals burning and when they ash over, place some wood chips on top and watch them start smoking. Put the hounds on the grill and let them smoke for a few minutes, turning so they don’t burn. Take ’em off when they start to turn dark brown (if you like them blackened like my lovely wife does, leave them on a little longer. They’ll char up nice).

Serve: Don’t skimp on buns. Get good quality dog buns, fresh if possible. Potato rolls are great too. Add your choice of condiments (but not ketchup, dammit) and enjoy yourself. Personally I like spicy mustard, sweet relish, a little onion and occasionally kraut on my dogs.

Mix it up: A variation on this is to add a little hickory BBQ sauce to the dogs, if you dig it. Also you can add some chili to make the most incredible chili dogs you’ve ever tasted.

Old Fashioned South Philly Style Macaroni Salad

You don’t have to be a whiz in the kitch to pull off this recipe. Click here for the post.

Sweet Tropical Fruit Dessert

I got this recipe from a kid’s cookbook when I was about eight. It’s easy to make and fun to eat, and goes perfectly with a Tiki-style party of any kind. Just layer these ingredients (in this order) in a rectangular pan or tupperware:

Sweetened Shredded Coconut
Orange Slices
Apple Slices
Dark Chocolate Chips
Sweetened Shredded Coconut
Banana Slices
Dark Chocolate Chips

Top off with Pineapple chunks and decorate with little Tiki toothpick flags, or whatever you have. Serve it chilled. It’s sweet, but sooooo good. If you want to kick it up a little, drizzle some Kaluha over each serving. Uhhh-huh.

And Of Course…

Have A Labor Day Luau!

Click Here for my post on having a groovy tropical Labor Day Luau the easy way. Great for you kids that dig Tiki but don’t have your home devoted to it.

Well kids, I hope some of you get a kick out of the stuff I’ve posted here. It will probably be raining here all weekend (Hurricane Earl’s kickback) so we’ll probably hit Machete at the movies and stay inside…or at the Tiki Bar under the lanai, at least.

-Happy Labor Day Weekend from Tiki Chris and the staff at Tiki Lounge Talk: Colleen, Tiki the Cat, Cat the Cat, Rio & Zack (the Parrots), Simon & Sidney (the Cockatiels), and our temps Lucy, Faith, Betsey, Merry, Lila, Fry & Amy.