(NewsUSA) - Being a mom can be challenging, but celebrating Mother’s Day and other spring events can be easy. What better way to celebrate moms and spring than with a brunch or an outdoor cocktail hour on the deck or patio?

Festive spring occasions call for a menu to match. For a spring party, think airy quiches, fruit parfaits, flaky croissants, and refreshing drinks.

Make Mom’s day or any spring celebration extra special with a Seagram’s Escapes Strawberry Mamarita featuring the perfectly sweet and tangy flavor of Seagram’s Escapes Jamaican Me Happy, a unique blend of lemon, watermelon, strawberry and guava.

The directions are simple; five minutes and a few ingredients and you have the perfect spring cocktail that enhances any event and adapts to any menu, from casual to elegant.

Seagram’s Escapes Strawberry Mamarita

-  1 strawberry

-  1 oz. tequila

-  1 lime, juiced

-  1/2 cup Seagram’s Escapes Jamaican Me Happy

-  Sea salt, for rim of glass

-  Watermelon slice and strawberry, for garnish                                                                                                                                         

To prepare the Mamarita, start by adding sea salt to a shallow dish. Take a lime slice and run it around the edge of a margarita glass, then dip the glass into the salt until the rim is well coated.

Slice the strawberry into a cocktail shaker and muddle until it is broken down, then add tequila, lime juice, and ice, and shake until chilled. Strain the chilled mixture into the prepared margarita glass over ice. For the grand finale, top with ½ cup of Seagram’s Escapes Jamaican Me Happy, and garnish with another strawberry and a watermelon slice, if desired.

As with any recipes in the Seagram’s Escapes collection, you can make this one your own. Create a unique drink for a particular event, customize with extra spirits or add your favorite fruits.

Enjoy at a Mother’s Day event, bridal shower, wedding, graduation, or any other spring celebration.

As warmer weather kicks in, try freezing Jamaican Me Happy or any Seagram’s Escapes flavors mixed with lemonade, then blend for the ultimate adult slushy.

Visit seagramsescapes.com for more information and other recipe ideas for spring and summer.

(NewsUSA) - As every adult knows, Halloween is not just for kids. Grown-ups may not be out ringing the neighbors’ doorbells, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be having fun.

When planning your adult Halloween party, don’t be afraid to get creative with food and drinks based on your theme. Dress up your hot dogs or pigs in a blanket as severed fingers, draw a spider web on your bowl of dip with sour cream for savory, whipped cream or chocolate for sweet. You can’t go wrong with ghost or pumpkin cookies, and the variations are endless.

For drinks, what’s a Halloween party without a punch bowl. Take your drinks up a notch by serving them in a cauldron. If you really want to freak your guests out, you could even buy a zombie hand that can hold the ladle for serving.

These boozy Halloween punch recipes are definitely a treat and not a trick. However, you can make your guests think twice by chilling the drinks with eyeball or skull ice cubes.

Did you know that dry ice emits a foggy substance when it mixed with a liquid? If you want your cauldron to steam, try adding some food-grade dry ice to the punch right before guests arrive. Since it’s cold, it’ll also work to keep the drinks chilled.

Finally, fill your cauldron (or glass) with Witch’s Berry Brew, made special with the distinctive flavor of Seagram Escapes Berry Mimosa.

- 3/4 cup Seagram’s Escapes Berry Mimosa

- 1 oz vodka

- 1/4 oz blue curacao

- Lime wedge

- 1/4 cup berries, plus more for garnish

The directions are frightfully simple. Combine Seagram’s Escapes Berry Mimosa, vodka, blue curacao and juice from the lime wedge to a mixing glass or pitcher and stir to combine.

Next, add 1/4 cup of berries to a 17-ounce wine glass. Fill the glass with crushed ice. Pour the cocktail mixture into the glass. If desired, garnish with berries.

Visit seagramescapes.com/seagrams-recipes for more ideas and information.

(NewsUSA) - A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nuts, etc.

We also enjoy chocolate chip cookies.

In most English-speaking countries except for the United States, crunchy cookies are called biscuits. Many Canadians also use this term. Chewier biscuits are sometimes called cookies even in the United Kingdom.[3] Some cookies may also be named by their shape, such as date squares or bars.

Biscuit or cookie variants include sandwich biscuits, such as custard creams, Jammie Dodgers, Bourbons and Oreos, with marshmallow or jam filling and sometimes dipped in chocolate or another sweet coating. Cookies are often served with beverages such as milk, coffee or tea and sometimes "dunked", an approach which releases more flavour from confections by dissolving the sugars,[4] while also softening their texture. Factory-made cookies are sold in grocery stores, convenience stores and vending machines. Fresh-baked cookies are sold at bakeries and coffeehouses, with the latter ranging from small business-sized establishments to multinational corporations such as Starbucks.