• last year
With her new cookbook already flying off the shelves, chef and home entertaining extraordinaire Molly Baz is ready to bring the party indoors. So we asked the queen of abbreviations to share some of her favorite hacks to entertain guests while still keeping things fresh, fun, and cozy. Watch the video above to see how her signature unconventional style translates into great entertaining solutions.

From getting creative with your beverage tubs, to pairing a DIY dessert with your favorite cold-weather cocktail, none of these hacks would be complete without Cutwater’s cocktails, like the lusciously creamy and delicious White Russian, perfect for the season.

When you’re ready to have high-quality cocktails whenever, wherever, head to Instacart to order a pack of Cutwater. This video "When The Weather Gets Cold, Molly Baz Entertains With Cutwater Cocktails", first appeared on http://thrillist.com.
Transcript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 It's officially entertaining season.
00:04 The weather is getting colder.
00:06 I will be entertaining as much as I possibly can
00:09 for the rest of this year.
00:10 And I'm having people over tonight,
00:12 so I thought that I would share with you all
00:14 some of my tips and tricks for easy entertaining.
00:19 I'm Molly Baas.
00:20 These are cut water canned cocktails,
00:22 and here are my three favorite entertaining hacks.
00:28 Everybody knows at my house that the first thing
00:30 I'm gonna offer you when you walk in the door is a drink.
00:33 Something that I do when I entertain at home
00:35 is get creative with the way that I am presenting things.
00:39 So look around your kitchen and find new uses
00:42 for the things you already have.
00:43 I'm gonna take my Dutch oven,
00:44 which normally I'm using for braising meat,
00:47 and I'm gonna pour ice into it
00:50 and then transform this into my beverage bucket
00:52 so I don't have to go and buy a specific beverage tub.
00:56 Tonight I will be serving cut water,
00:58 white Russians, and vodka mules.
01:00 And obviously you can sip it right out of the can like I am,
01:03 or you can make it a little bit nicer and pour it over ice.
01:07 I am brimming my white Russians tonight
01:09 with salty peanuts, dates, and flaky sea salt.
01:12 You guys know I love salt,
01:13 and I like the balance of sweet and salty in a cocktail.
01:25 Hack number two, do not snooze on the garnish.
01:28 A cocktail that is un-garnished to me
01:31 is like a salad that is undressed.
01:33 So I like to put out a big tray of garnishes,
01:37 and that can be anything on the sweet or savory spectrum.
01:41 That way your guests can kind of curate their own cocktail.
01:44 So let's build a couple.
01:45 Then we crack and pour a cut water and vodka mule.
01:49 Okay, first one's gonna be a couple of baby cucumbers.
01:54 I like to pick weird shapes and things
01:55 like these little Jimmy Nardello peppers
01:57 that I got at the market.
01:58 That's skewer number one with a little mandarin.
02:01 And then next up, we're going cherries on cherries.
02:05 So I have brandied cherries here.
02:08 These are the kind that are soaked in syrup.
02:11 And then I have these little fresh ground cherries.
02:13 I'm doing a little sweet skewer.
02:16 You could use any kind of herbs and just shove them in there.
02:22 And then the last one here,
02:23 I'm gonna put a bunch of fresh sun-gold tomatoes
02:26 along with candied ginger.
02:28 Vodka mules obviously have ginger in them already,
02:30 so it's nice to garnish with something similar
02:33 that you can then chew on after.
02:35 And that's all three.
02:39 Hack number three, everybody loves a show.
02:47 Today I'm making a big table-side pavlova
02:50 that I'm gonna cart around the table
02:52 and scoop out for my guests,
02:53 and they can decide what toppings and what sprinkles
02:56 and how they wanna customize things to their own liking.
02:58 So this is my large format table-side pavlova.
03:02 I baked it in a big sheet tray,
03:05 and I'm literally just cracking off large pieces of it
03:09 and then topping each one to my guest's liking.
03:12 So this one here is going to be lemon curd.
03:16 I have some stewed plums.
03:19 Pavlovas love whipped cream.
03:23 And then I always finish it with something sprinkly,
03:26 so this is sesame salt.
03:28 For me, a White Russian is an after-dinner drink,
03:33 and what better to pair it with than dessert?
03:36 Pavlovas are really light and fluffy,
03:38 and so it's a nice pairing to a richer drink,
03:40 like a White Russian.
03:41 (doorbell rings)
03:44 Door's open!
03:45 Happy entertaining!
03:47 (water pouring)

Recommended