Champagne and Strawberries & Strawberry Margarita Jell-O Shots

Strawberry Margarita Jell-O Shots - a new Cinco de Mayo tradition

These are an absolute hit wherever you take them! In fact, I even took the champagne and strawberry shots to an event where the average age was 3x my own and they were the talk of the evening (I dragged the poor bf to this and he was wide eyed when we showed up, "you said they were older, but I didn't think you meant THAT old!! WHAT DID YOU BRING ME TO?!" Let me add that by the end of the evening he was thoroughly enjoying himself and realized old people can be fun too).

 Champagne and Strawberries

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pints of strawberries
• 1 small box strawberry Jell-o (sugar free of course)
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 1 1/4 cups sparkling wine, very cold - you will have left overs in the bottle so make sure you have someone to drink the rest :)

DIRECTIONS

1. Hull strawberries being sure to leave the sides intact so that the jell-o mixture does not leak out while making enough room to put a decent amount of jell-o in. Cut a tiny bit off the bottom of the strawberries so that they stand up -- be sure not to create a hole in the bottom, you'll be surprised by how little you'll need to cut off to make them stand up. I put mine into mini muffin tins to make sure they did not fall over.
2. Mix 3/4 cup boiling water with package of jell-o and stir until completely dissolved.
3. Measure out 1 1/4 cups cold sparkling wine and allow the foam to dissipate.
4. Carefully add the jell-o mixture to the sparkling wine and stir gently. [Try adding the wine to the jell-o and you'll end up with a foam that will take years to go down, so it is not recommended]
5. Pour jell-o mixture into each of the hollowed out strawberries to the very top. [If you have any extra jell-o mixture, just pour it into a dish and you get enjoy it on its own before you head to the party]
6. Refrigerate until set and enjoy!

I have also made these by pouring into tiny clear plastic cups and placing a slice of a strawberry into each before setting in the refrigerator. Use pineapple jell-o to give it the look of champagne. Still cute but half the work.

Strawberry Margarita 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pints of strawberries
• 1 small box strawberry jell-o
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 6 oz. Tequila, very cold
• 4 oz. Cointreau, very cold
• Sugar for garnish
• True Lime to taste or real limes for garnish

Powdered lime in a packet! Great for your Corona Light too!

DIRECTIONS

1. Follow same directions as above, swapping out the sparkling wine for the tequila and cointreau.
2. In a shallow bowl, mix several packets of TrueLime with a couple tablespoons of sugar.
3. Once jell-o is set, dip the top rims in a little water followed by the sugar mixture for a yummy sugar rim. These are fairly strong so trust me, you'll want it.

*I first saw these on Bakers Royale: www.bakersroyale.com/fruit/strawberry-margarita-jell-o-shooters