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Easy Drink Recipes

Sipping cocktails with friends at the hip, new bar in town makes for a fun, albeit expensive, night out. For a more affordable yet still enjoyable alternative, consider unleashing your inner mixologist and making drinks at home. You won't have to tip a bartender, jockey for a table amid the crowds, or wait in line to use the restroom. We say cheers to that.

Cocktails range from simple mixed drinks (combining your favorite alcohol with tonic water, cola, fruit juice, club soda, or other mixers) to elaborate elixirs served in specialty glassware with such ingredients as high-end spirits, muddled herbs, citrus peels, fresh fruit, simple syrups, and garnishes. It's tempting to go the easy route and simply add a shot of vodka to cranberry juice with a slice of lime for a Cape Cod or pour fizzy tonic water and your favorite brand of gin over ice. But when you're in the mood for libations that are a little more complex yet still easy to create, consider trying one of these delicious and easy drink recipes.

Vodka Martini (recipe from Esquire.com)

3 ounces vodka
1 teaspoon dry vermouth

Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon peel or an olive.

Old-Fashioned (recipe from cocktails.about.com)

3 ounces bourbon
1 sugar cube
2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
2 orange slices
Maraschino cherry

Place the sugar cube at the bottom of an old-fashioned glass, also called a lowball glass. Pour the bitters on the sugar cube until saturated. Add an orange slice. Mash ingredients with muddler - a stick-like tool designed for this particular purpose. Fill the glass with ice cubes. Add bourbon, stir well, and garnish with the remaining orange slice and a maraschino cherry.

Mojito (recipe from Chow.com)

3 fresh mint sprigs (a mint sprig is a few mint leaves that are still attached)
1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
1 ounce simple syrup (equal amounts sugar and water heated in saucepan until sugar dissolves, cool completely before using)
2 ounces white rum
Ice
1 1/2 ounces club soda, chilled

Place 2 of the mint sprigs, the lime juice, and the simple syrup in a cocktail shaker and press gently against the mint with the back of a spoon to release the oils. Add the rum and a handful of ice and shake vigorously until the mixture is well chilled, about 20 seconds. Fill a 10-ounce glass with ice and strain the drink into the glass. Top with club soda and garnish with the remaining mint sprig.