The champagne cocktail is, hands down, my favorite drink. There’s something about adding champagne to a regular cocktail that makes it more exciting to me. They are also extremely easy to make: add the other ingredients to the glass and top with champagne. Voila!

In my opinion, the best champagne cocktails are ones that are mixed with at least two other ingredients, one of which is a hard liquor. I don’t particularly like drinks where juice or syrup is added to champagne–A mimosa just seems like bubbly orange juice to me. But give me a French 75 or a Classic Champagne Cocktail and I am very happy.

Here are some I may be drinking tonight:

French 75

simple syrup
lemon juice
1 oz gin
champagne

In a glass add a splash of simple syrup, a bigger splash of lemon juice, an ounce of gin, and top off with a glassful of Champagne.

Champagne Cooler
(Pictured above courtesy of White on Rice)

1 oz Triple Sec
1/2 oz Cognac
Angostura Bitters
Champagne
orange zest

Chill champagne flute. Pour all ingredients except for the champagne into the flute. Slowly add champagne. Garnish with an orange zest.

Poinsettia Cocktail

1/2 oz triple sec
3 oz cranberry juice
orange twist
champagne

In the glass, combine the triple sec and cranberry juice. Add the orange juice twist, top with the champagne, and serve.

Pear Brandy Champagne Cocktail
(This recipe makes four cocktails)

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup plus 4 teaspoons French pear brandy
2 2/3 cups chilled champagne
1 Seckle or small Bosc pear

1. In a small saucepan, heat sugar and 1/4 cup pear brandy over moderate heat until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove pan from heat and cool syrup.
3. Spoon 1 1/2 tablespoons syrup into each of 4 champagne glasses and add 1 teaspoon pear brandy to each glass.
4. Add 2/3 cup champagne to each glass and stir well.
5. Cut pear lengthwise into thin slices and add 1 slice to each cocktail.

And finally, the Classic Champagne Cocktail

1 cube sugar
Angostura bitters
1 oz brandy
Champagne

Soak a sugar cube in the champagne flute with a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters, add the brandy and top up with bubbly.

Happy New Year!

Sometimes the packaging of wines and liquors are better than the alcohol that comes in them. I’m digging this lamp made from a wine box. More about it here. This is a great use for those boxes–or for the bottles. I knew a woman once who made lamps out of premium vodka bottles. She just put a lamp kit in the bottle and added a shade on top. Ingenious. (Via)

As I’ve mentioned before, my biggest area of wasted money is eating out. Well, this year that’s going to change. One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2009 is to cut back on eating out. The food bill is one of the most common areas of wasted money because most of us have bad habits regarding food. Interestingly, most of us are also overweight. Coincidence? I think not.

Here are the top five ways to save money on food in 2009:

5. Stop Snacking—Snacking not only puts unneeded calories in our bodies, it wastes money. Yet most of us snack in some way or another. For me, I drink Diet Pepsi all day long, a costly “food” with absolutely no nutritional value. For other people it’s the potato chips or bag of cookies or extra beers in their diets. The best way to cut back on snacking is to stop buying snack food. If it’s not in the house, you probably won’t eat it. This year, identify one area where you snack and stop buying it. It takes 21 days to break a habit—in 21 days, you’ll be free of a bad habit and saving money too.

4. Identify Areas of Waste—Pay attention when you throw food out. Is this a habit? If so, it’s probably an area of waste. Here’s a fail-safe way to become aware of wasted money in your food budget: For a month or two, write down everything thing you buy, how much it cost, and where you bought it. Also write down when you throw food out. Pretty soon, patterns will emerge. You didn’t realize you were over-paying for chicken breasts at one store when another store regularly has them for 30% less. Now you will only buy chicken breasts at the cheaper store. You didn’t realize that you threw out a half a pot of coffee every Sunday morning. Now you will make less coffee on Sundays. The key to saving money is to first know where it is going. Only then can you make changes.

3. Grow a Garden—If you have a little space and some sunshine, odds are you can grow some food for yourself, even if it’s just in a pot. It’s the best way to get healthy, organic, fresh food for almost nothing. A pack of seeds costs $2 and you can end up with $50 worth of food. In 2009, consider trying out a garden. You will be richly rewarded.

2. Make It from Scratch—Making food from scratch is almost always cheaper than buying it readymade. That doesn’t just go for dinner, but other things as well. Homemade cleaner costs a fraction of the store-bought stuff, so I make my own. I also make my own seasoning mixes, broth, pizza dough—the list is long and put all together, it saves us a lot of money. If you buy a pre-made salad in a plastic bag from the grocery store, you’re not just buying lettuce, grated cheese, croûtons, and a little bit of dressing, you’re buying the convenience of having that all put together for you. Making it yourself is not hard, doesn’t take long, and will save you money. For 2009, let’s identify where we can switch to DIY cooking.

1. Stop Eating Out So Much—Eating out is the most expensive way to eat. It’s also the most fun, which is why it’s my biggest problem area. But this year, I’m going to do better. I’ve picked an amount I want to spend on eating out and I’m going to stick to it. And it’s not just dinner out that you have to watch out for—it’s those $4 lattes that could be made at home for $1. It’s the $7 lunches that could be brown bagged for $2. It’s that $3 sodas at the movie theater that could be skipped (or smuggled in for a quarter). In 2009, start saying no to eating out. It doesn’t mean you can’t ever go out, it just means cutting back so a fun thing doesn’t become a money drain.

There you have it, the top five ways to save money on the food bill next year. I’ll be working on it too. If you have a similar resolution for the New Year, good luck. Keep checking back here and we’ll see how we’re both doing on it.

Now through early January is the best time to buy:

Christmas ornaments and lights
Christmas cards
Wrapping paper
Christmas decorations
Christmas candy
Anything else Christmas related
Candles
Calendars
End-of-year bargains–look through those bargain bins. This year’s sales are particularly good.

I have already bought a calendar and some ornaments for 50-75% off. Still to buy: Christmas cards for next year and some new drinking glasses.

I know, the last thing you want to think about is Christmas, but I can’t resist posting this great list of DIY Christmas Gifts. Many of these ideas cost next to nothing. And unlike a lot of thrifty gift ideas–I’m looking at you Oprah–these are presents people might actually enjoy receiving. Keep them in mind for next year–or for other gift-giving occasions.

A few I liked:

It’s difficult to go wrong with themed gift baskets. Did you can your own pasta sauce over the summer? Use a colander for a basket, add some garlic bulbs, gourmet noodles, and a wooden spoon — a little taste of Italy. Or consider a breakfast basket. Or a breakfast basket (syrup and pancake mix), a movie basket (popcorn, candy, and a movie rental coupon), or a gardening basket (a trowel, a gardening hat, and some packets of seeds).

(A Savvy note–I have done this before, and it can get quite pricey. The key is to get all the components of the gift for super cheap: the colander from the thrift store, the spices from your garden, etc.)

In the GRS discussion forums, Brad suggested giving the gift of time or skill. Brad has given music lessons. He has colleagues who have given bike tune-ups and wine advice. What skills do you have? Can you help somebody set up a blog? Plant a garden? Learn to change the oil in their car?

You might create a spice sampler. Bulk spices can make an affordable and appreciated gift for anyone who loves to cook, or who is moving into a new kitchen. Don’t know which ones to choose? Find some tempting recipes that call for exotic spices, then include the recipes with the spices. Or, get creative and make a custom spice blend for a meat rub, marinade mix, salad dressing kit, dip, or seasoning (search the web for ideas).

One winter, my wife made felt-backed tile trivets. You can find lots of beautiful tile designs at the home-improvement store. Sometimes the end of a lot can be had at a deep discount. Using a hot-glue gun, add a layer of felt to the back of a 6×6″ (or larger) tile, and you have a useful trivet for bringing a hot dish to the table.

“For my cash hungry nephews and niece I make sure to do something creative to get the money. This year is going to be a family trivia game with questions that make them talk to other family members. It is much more interesting than a $20 bill.” Of course, it’s also possible to do this without the monetary reward.

Genevieve makes her own stationery sets to give to friends. She writes: “I make envelopes out of pretty magazine ads and then pair them with nice stationary paper that you can get cheaply by the pound from any stationary or craft store. It is a great way to recycle magazines and the resulting stationary sets have been a real hit with my friends. If the gift calls for a little extra just pair a set with an address book or a nice pen.”

Ayelet has a gift idea that’s after my own heart: “I’m really excited about my holiday gift to my fiance (will be married by the holidays)this year. We love to cook together so I’m going to sit down with him and create our first family cookbook. It’ll be something we can update as we add more recipes. This would be a good one for a big family…get everyone together for a recipe day (could be some cooking involved) and then print and bind the recipes somehow for all to have. Good for a HS senior or college student, too.”

Below is my favorite Christmas song, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, sung by Judy Garland. This was my favorite part of Meet Me in St. Louis, which is an awesome film if you haven’t seen it. The lyrics seem especially relevant this year, what with the recession and all.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be
out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yule-tide gay
Next year all our troubles will be
miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us once more
Someday soon, we all will be together
If the Fates allow
Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Listen here.

With all this holiday eating, some people are going to have upset tummies. Well never fear, Instructables has instructions of how to make your own Alka Seltzer for much cheaper than the store-bought stuff. Here’s how to make it:

Put the following ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly:

1/4 cup citric acid (aka sour salt or lemon salt)
1/2 cup minus 1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup fructose
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Store in an airtight container. When needed, pour 2 teaspoons into a small glass of water, stir, and drink. Make sure your measuring spoon is dry and you don’t get any water in your jar…

This recipe will yield about 66 doses.

Sounds easy. According to the site, a dose of Alka Seltzer costs $.50. A dose of the homemade stuff costs $.025. That’s a savings of $.475 per serving, 20 times less than the store-bought stuff. Wow.

Read the full instructions here.

I usually make semi-ugly gift tags by folding a square of wrapping paper and writing the name on the inside, but I like this idea by A Spoonful of Sugar better. She made a gift tag out of paint chip. Cute. (Via)

I now know what I’m serving for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners. For Christmas Eve, we’re having crab bisque and crab salad, a family tradition. For Christmas, I’m making a leg of lamb with Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and scalloped potatoes. I have still to resolve the dessert.

Holidays are the only time of the year that I make a decadent desserts–strawberry cake for Easter, coconut cream pie for Fourth of July, etc.–so this is my chance to do something fun. I’m not going to do an apple or pumpkin pie just because I want to do something different this year. I’m not a fan of spice cakes and fruit cakes. So what to do?

Luckily, Martha Stewart has a list of 50 options on her website. Here’s a few I am considering:

Birch de Noel. I don’t see myself making meringue mushrooms (hard!), but this is an impressive and delicious dessert, plus very traditional.

Grand Raspberry Trifle. This is a leading possibility. However, I don’t have a trifle dish so I’m not sure what I would make it in….

Chocolate-Pistachio Torte. All I can say is: yummy.

Chocolate-Peppermint Tarts with Currants and Berries. These are beautiful but not the most exciting dessert in the world.

Gingerbread Cheesecake. I love a good cheesecake.

These are all great options, but I’m not sure the right thing is here. Suggestions?

I’m not a huge fan of wreaths but I love this knitting themed wreath ragstorichesart posted on Craftster. She glued ornaments and yarn balls on a Styrofoam wreath form. To make the yarn balls, she used “ugly Christmas balls as forms for the yarn. And once I had plowed through all the ugly balls, I used ping-pong balls, styrofoam balls, doll stuffing…” The knitting needles are chopsticks with dolls heads on them.

What a great way to use up extra yarn. I like the red-and-green wreath too: