I love Halloween! I’ve already purchased all the fabric for my costume and can’t wait to get it all put together. I’m also excited this year because I’m dedicating the rest of the month to Halloween cocktails and snacks. The next four posts leading up to the holiday will be packed with spooky fun.

First up, Bleeding Heart Cosmopolitans. 
Now I know that while cosmos were very popular in the late 90s, they have become a little looked down upon these days. Don’t let the Sex in the City popularity turn you off to them. These are very strong and tasty drinks. In this particular case, I’m really not kidding about the strong part.

But more than that, they are perfect for Halloween! The “hearts” in the glasses are frozen cubes of fresh squeezed blood orange juice. If you haven’t had blood oranges before, they are delicious. They are more tart than regular oranges and when you cut into them, their deep red pulp and juice is a little disturbing and quite beautiful. As the cubes of juice melt in the martini glass, it looks like it is “bleeding” into your cocktail. Bleeding Heart Cosmopolitans

For each glass:

• 2 shots vodka
• 1 shot triple sec
• 3 ice cubes blood orange juice
• sugar for rim
• slice of blood orange for rims

First up, juice the blood oranges and pour the juice into an ice tray. You have to do this ahead of time. The cubes photographed were made with a regular ice tray and they looked great. But, I’m sure that if you have specialty shapes, that would be fun too. Freeze the ice tray until juice is solid.

Rub rim of glass with the blood orange slice. Pour some sugar on a plate and dip the rim in the sugar.

Pour the vodka and triple sec in a cocktail mixer over ice. Shake and strain into martini glass. Add the blood orange cubes.

Drink and enjoy! Though you might want to wait for the juice to melt in your glass a little bit first, or you are just drinking straight alcohol, which is totally fine, but might make your evening shorter than planned.

Also, if you come across plastic bugs at the store, it is fun to freeze them into ice cubes too and add them to your drinks for something a little bit creepier.

Ew! Bugs!

Happy Halloween!

Photographs by Jessica Yager