Before our trip to Texas I asked my sisters what I could bring or pick up prior to our arrival at the ranch.   Since they were already in Texas and we were flying in for the weekend, it made my part in the participation of the meal planning and shopping more difficult, but I wanted to contribute.  Pat and Jan were already planning menus and purchasing provisions.

I spied this list on the side of the refrigerator and secretly wondered how much discussion had gone into the planning.

My assignment..the drinks.  I post a myriad of interesting drinks on pinterest, many of which look interesting, but most untried.

Assignment accepted.

The challenge would be limiting the ingredients since I wouldn’t have access to a fully stocked bar.   Once I received the preliminary menu plan, I narrowed the speciality drinks to one each day.  Jan and I are red wine drinkers, and Pat a beer drinker, so I knew the specility drinks would only be a precursor to the drink of choice.

The first meal on Friday evening was listed as “Casual”, to be followed by Fajitas on Saturday, and homemade Ravioli on Sunday.  Breakfasts were pre-planned as well and the hours between breakfast and dinner would be appetizers/snack foods.

Since the Ol’ Buckeye is a huge fan of Ginger Beer and Tito’s Vodka, our first drink selection was the Moscow Mule.  My only qualm about serving this drink was that historically it is served in a frosty copper mug.  Oh well, we would just have to make due.

The Saturday drink we planned, since we were having fajitas and the temperature was predicted to be in the 70’s, was a white Sangria with fresh fruit.

The third drink was the Red Rooster.  Our version is a slushy rendition great for a warmer day…but we choose it mainly because it was a second use for the Tito’s Vodka that we would already have on hand.  In addition the Red Rooster is a popular cocktail on Fat Tuesday, which was only days away.

We hit a great liquor store on our drive from the airport.  The Ol Buckeye’s favorite Vodka is Tito’s.  I soon learned that is proudly made in Austin.  How appropriate.

We picked up the Tito’s vodka, ginger beer, and Cupcake Moscato, which proved to be a perfect selection for the Sangria.

We saved the purchase of the fresh fruit until we were in close proximity to the ranch.   We never dreamed that we would not find a good grocery store close to the ranch.  Soooo, we arrived on  Friday afternoon still in need of a grocery run.

Oh well, since we were provisioned for the first day, we planned a grocery run for the next morning.

We arrived at the Texas ranch just in time for Happy Hour!  Let the good times roll.