We had our first snowy day in Denver last week. I sat in a work meeting, looking out the window at the dreary snow.  It wasn’t the pretty snow that you see on postcards or in Christmas movies, but that sleety, grey sky snow that just looks cold.  Its not comfortable to walk around in, and by about February I’ll be tired of cold weather, but since it was the first real cold snap it was still a novelty, and it meant we could have our first roaring fire of the year.  So I hurried over to Whole Foods to pick up some firewood (local, sustainably grown- no joke).  (Hunter and I are lucky enough to have a Denver house that has a wood burning fireplace.  Pollution laws keep Denver builders from building homes with woodburning fireplaces anymore, but since ours was built in 1942, we got one before the ban, and we take full advantage of it in the winter!)  As I was walking through Whole Foods, I thought of getting some hot cocoa, chai tea or hot cider to drink by the fire, and then I saw the blood oranges and they looked so cheerful that I had to get them.  I added a container of lime juice and went home to make some margaritas!  And for all the margarita purists out there, of which I often am one, I know this is not a “real” margarita, but we need to face the facts that the definition of culinary things is expanding, see martinis, risotto, etc. This is tasty and has tequila with lime juice so it gets called a margarita on my blog posts

These are very easy to make.  If I’d been patient, I would have bought limes and squeezed them myself for the lime juice (as John’s fantastic margarita recipe calls for), but when I don’t have time for that, I use Simply Limeade brand, its the closest thing I’ve found to what I’d ideally use: fresh squeezed juice mixed with simple syrup.

Blood Orange Margarita:

Squeeze blood oranges into a glass until you have about 2 ounces of juice. Add 1 ounce of tequila (or more to taste) and mix, then add ice to the glass and fill the rest of the glass with a mixture of the lime juice of your choice*.  Garnish with a lime and enjoy!

*If you are going to go the fresh squeezed route, I suggest doing a mixture of even parts lime juice and simple syrup, with the simple syrup being exactly half water and half sugar.