Easy Valentine’s Day Cocktail

Valentine’s Day is the holiday to pull out all the stops: a new dress, a fun dinner: and beautiful cocktails! I think that a lot of people hear the word “cocktail” and get intimidated by all of the ingredients it takes to make them. While a lot of cocktail books call for hard to find dashes of this or that, it is easy to make a beautiful drink for your special someone with items you have lying around your house!

I made this cocktail this past weekend while recipe testing for a small Galentine’s Day party I am having for some girlfriends this coming weekend. This Pink Drink only has four ingredients and comes together in a pinch. Scroll down for the full recipe!

The Pink Drink:

1.5 oz gin (I prefer Hendrick’s!)

1.5 oz pureed watermelon

.5 oz simple syrup

Top with seltzer water

Combine your gin, watermelon puree and simple syrup (boil half water, half sugar in a pot and simmer until syrupy.) in a shaker (if you don’t have a shaker, use a mason jar!) and top with ice. Shake for about 10 seconds and then strain into glasses. Top with seltzer water.

If you do not like watermelon or do not want to take the time to puree watermelon, strawberry juice is a great substitute that you can buy in a can at the grocery store. To add some “wow” factor to my cocktail, I plopped a fluffy piece of cotton candy on top!

The poodle salt + pepper shakers are from Jonathan Adler and I love my Vera Wang coffee table book!