Risa James Photography, Sacramento, CA (2026)

01/07/2022

Whiskey Sour (classic recipe)

This might be - maybe - the last photo featuring my Christmas tree as a backdrop. The tree is probably coming down this weekend…but we’ll see. I promise nothing!

This isn’t the whiskey sour I was making when I had a shaker explosion last week and ended up with egg white all over my kitchen. This whiskey sour is from the previous week, because whiskey sours are one of my favorite go-to recipes when I’m too tired to think about recipes.

But speaking of recipes, now is a good time to officially announce something I already low-key announced: I’m working on a cocktail book! (Way to bury the lede, Risa.)

Fresh off the publication of my book about how to plan a wedding, I’ve decided to write and publish a cocktail book. Obviously I’ll be taking all the photos myself, and it will be very photo-focused, but it will also be chock-full of recipes. Some will be classics, like the whiskey sour. Some will be my original recipes. And I’d like to invite you to contribute one of your original recipes if you’re interested!

If you’d like to have one of your recipes included, just email me at [email protected] so I can give you some parameters (e.g., no outrageously difficult homemade ingredients, lol - you know who you are). My goal is to finish the book and have it published before Christmas 2022.

That’s wildly ambitious, because it took nearly three months from finished manuscript to final publication for my wedding planning book. That means I need to make, shoot, and edit photos for all the cocktails and get the manuscript finished by early September to pull this off.

I’ll probably also be starting a real mailing list for people who are interested in keeping tabs on the book’s progress and getting a copy once it’s published, so be on the lookout for that. In the meantime, enjoy this classic recipe.

WHISKEY SOUR

2 oz. Dickel rye whiskey
1 1/2 oz. Fresh Victor Lemon Sour mix
3/4 oz. egg white

Shake with 1 ice cube for 75 seconds (yes, you read that right). Strain into rocks glass over large ice. Garnish with dehydrated citrus. I went with a blood orange wheel by .

01/04/2022

Cranberry 75 (re-shake…of myself)

I rarely do this, but today I’m sharing a re-shake of one of my own recipes. I first made this last year, but Royal Rose shared the post again last week, and I *just happened* to be drinking the exact same California sparkling wine that I used the first time. I took that as a sign that I should make it again.

It also was a great opportunity to use this shaker that kindly sent me over the holidays. It features Ada Lovelace, who is also featured on their gin label. Sadly, I killed off my bottle of Ada Lovelace gin making this cocktail.

CRANBERRY 75

1 oz. Ada Lovelace gin
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. Cranberry Spice Organic Syrup
Champagne or sparkling wine

Combine first three ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake to chill. Double-strain into a festive glass and top with bubbly. Note: I double-strain because this cranberry syrup is a little on the chunky side (that’s how you know it’s good) so I want to strain out the bits.

Both times I’ve made this I’ve used Anderson Valley Brut. Such a good match for the cranberries! The first time, I served it in a flute, but this time I went with a coupe for several reasons. 1) It can be difficult to double-strain into a narrow flute. 2) Putting sparkling wine in a cocktail makes it less important (in my opinion) to create the column of bubbles that you get with a flute but lose with a coupe. And 3) because these coupes are gorgeous. Who needs a better reason than that?

01/01/2022

Happy New Year, and Happy National Bloody Mary Day!

Not-so-secret-fun-fact: I don’t like Bloody Marys. Not really a fan of tomato juice. But I invariably end up making Bloody Marys every year for one or more of my clients, and this year was no different. At least it gives me a photo for the following year’s Secret Boozehound Calendar 😂

You all know (or can Google) how to make a Bloody Mary: some combination of vodka, lemon juice, spices, and tomato juice (or a pre-made mix). This one is made with - Paleo-friendly, gluten-free, distilled from corn. And I used a mix by which is definitely the best Bloody Mary mix I’ve had, and that’s saying something!

Cheers to more drinks coming your way in 2022, and a big project that I’ve teased before but will officially announce soon!

12/31/2021

Happy New Year’s Eve! Today is also conveniently National Champagne Day, so I have a fun and easy Champagne cocktail for you.

Lapin Rouillé (Rusty Rabbit) is a 100% Pinot Meunier Champagne. If you know anything about Champagne, you know that Pinot Meunier is one of the three traditional grapes of Champagne (the other two being Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) and that 100% Pinot Meunier Champagnes are quite unusual. I drink a lot of Champagne, but I think this is the first time I’ve had a 100% Pinot Meunier.

The grapes are grown in Reims, in the heart of Champagne, but the brand is actually based in the U.K. It also happens to be the first female Black-owned Champagne brand in Britain! Lucky for us, it’s also available in the States (but it probably, as usual, depends on which state you live in - thankful to live in California once again). I’ll drop a link to their site in my Stories.

On to the cocktail! I happened to have several Twisted Alchemy juices in the fridge thanks to a project I just wrapped for them. So I thought they would be a great addition to this Champagne. I suggest mixing the juices together first, and then adding them to your Champagne glass and topping with the Champagne.

RUBY RABBIT

2 oz. Twisted Alchemy cold-pressed blood orange juice
1 oz. Twisted Alchemy cold-pressed three citrus margarita mixer
Lapin Rouillé Champagne

Add between 1/2 oz. and 1 oz. of juice mixture to your glass, depending on the size of your glass. Top with Champagne. That’s it! This juice combination is enough to make between three and six cocktails. I was using these tiny 3-ounce capacity vintage cordial glasses, so I used not even half an ounce of juice per glass.

The cocktail is festive and delicious, but the Champagne is also delightful by itself. Not overly ye**ty, with delicate fruit and a nice mousse. Definitely recommend if you’re a Champagne drinker!

Champagne provided by
Juices provided by
Glasses are a vintage Etsy find

12/30/2021

Quattro Agrumi (original recipe).

Christmas may be over, but that doesn’t mean I’m finished using my Christmas tree as a backdrop for photos yet!

This one is super easy and refreshing. It would be equally good in the summer, so I guess I’ll have to make it again next year.

QUATTRO AGRUMI
translation: Four Citrus

2 oz. Rum Haven coconut water white rum
3 oz. Three Citrus & Mint
4 oz. Trader Joe’s sparkling blood orange seltzer

Build in a highball glass, stir gently, and garnish with dehydrated citrus from .

Half the stuff in this photo is new. I bought a set of four crystal highball glasses at HomeGoods (for $10!) and I bought these tiny Christmas trees at Target while I was waiting for my car to charge during my ill-fated six+ hour odyssey to SFO earlier this month. At least I got something cute out of that debacle.

Fun fact: I have absolutely no idea where this rum came from. I assume I bought it, but I don’t know where or when. I think this is a sign that I have too much booze 😂 And it’s made in Canada. Did anyone know that Canada makes rum??

12/27/2021

Pomegranate Cosmo.

Happy Monday! Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and/or their weekend! I really enjoyed my break from my usual daily routine. Might have to work more of those in next year.

In the meantime, here’s a really easy recipe for your between-holiday workweek. The recipe was on the bottle of juice, but I added more vodka 😂

POMEGRANATE COSMO

2 oz. vodka
3 oz. Cactus Pear-Pomegranate juice
1/2 oz. Orange curaçao
1/4 oz. fresh lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake to chill. Strain into martini glass and garnish accordingly. I used a dehydrated blood orange wheel by because the color complemented the drink.

12/24/2021

Happy National Eggnog Day! Also known as Christmas Eve! Also known as my favorite day of the year! I love Christmas Eve even more than Christmas Day because of the anticipatory nature of the night before the big day. Christmas Day is for being lazy, but Christmas Eve is for being fancy.

Rhead is smoking a turkey today, and we’ll be preparing a lovely feast for tonight. We have a special bottle of Burgundy from our honeymoon on deck. And there are Christmas cookies for dessert. (We’ll also be eating turkey for literally the next week because there are only two of us here.)

I’ve already had more than my fair share of eggnog this year, but I’m sure we’ll fit in one more batch before January hits. We’ve had store-bought and homemade (Rhead does it sous vide). Tbh, I don’t remember which kind is in this photo, but it was yummy. We added a bit of rum to it and grated some fresh nutmeg on top. And of course, it’s more festive to drink out of a fun glass! And yes, I did feature these glasses just yesterday, but they’re my new favorites!

So Merry Christmas, if you celebrate! Happy weekend if you don’t. I’ll be off the ‘gram for the next couple of days, just relaxing and enjoying myself. (And eating turkey three meals a day, lol).

12/23/2021

Sugar Plum Fairy (original recipe)

Looking for something festive to make this week for the holiday? I gotchu.

I’m biased, but I LOVED this concoction. I mean, it involves bubbles and my favorite liqueur of all time, so how could I go wrong? To make it extra festive, I gave it a Nutcracker-themed name.

SUGAR PLUM FAIRY

1 oz. Plush Plum vodka
1 oz. Italicus Bergamot liqueur
1/2 oz. Dolin blanc vermouth
4 oz. Sparkling wine (chilled)

Combine first three ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir briefly to chill, then strain into your fanciest glass. Top with sparkling wine. Garnish with fresh rosemary and gold dust.

I think this is the official debut of these coupes on my feed. I bought these for myself on Black Friday from an Etsy shop in Turkey, and I love them! They catch the light nicely, the gold looks fancy, and they have a nice heft to them. Plus they arrived in record time, considering how far they had to come. They may or may not be scheduled to make another appearance on the feed later this week.

12/22/2021

Peachy Keen Christmas (original recipe)

Peach might not be your first thought when it comes to Christmas cocktails, but it works surprisingly well with other flavors of the season, like cinnamon and clove. I created this recipe for to use their Peach Liqueur, but you could also sub in peach brandy. It’s built on an old-fashioned template, but with the seasonality turned up to 11.

PEACHY KEEN CHRISTMAS

Rosemary sprig
1 1/2 oz. Monkey Shoulder (or other blended whiskey)
3/4 oz. Alley 6 Peach Liqueur (or peach brandy)
1/4 oz. Cinnamon-Clove simple syrup
1 teaspoon Bénédictine
1 dash Angostura bitters
Orange peel & cinnamon stick for garnish

Place fresh rosemary sprig on a fire-safe surface and light it on fire to singe it and create some smoke. Place a rocks glass upside-down over the smoking rosemary. Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir to chill, then strain into prepared rocks glass over large ice cube. Garnish with orange peel wrapped around a cinnamon stick and the rosemary sprig.

Liqueur provided by
Simple syrup provided by
Clear ice made with my mold from
Glass is the Lismore pattern by Waterford

And I realize that I posted this tartan table runner two days in a row, but too bad. Long live the tartan!

12/21/2021

Whiskey Cranberry Spritz (original recipe).

Happy Winter Solstice! My feed has been suffering from a cranberry deficiency lately, so it’s high time I got back into the cranberry spirit. (But if you also love cranberry, be sure to check out Ginny’s feed - no cranberry deficiency over there!)

I created this recipe for to use their Special Batch Whiskey. It’s super easy, super delicious, and super festive. The garnish really makes it feel perfect for the season.

WHISKEY CRANBERRY SPRITZ

2 oz. Bespoken Special Batch Whiskey
1 oz. Tart cranberry juice
1/2 oz. Cinnamon syrup
3 oz. Fever-Tree tonic water

Shake whiskey, juice, and syrup with ice. Strain into rocks glass over large ice. Top with tonic. Garnish with fresh rosemary and cranberries.

To make cinnamon syrup, dissolve 1/2 cup sugar into 1/2 cup water over low heat. Remove from heat and toss in 2 cinnamon sticks. Let steep for about 30 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks and store syrup in a glass bottle in the fridge.

Cheers to the shortest day of the year! (Also my niece’s birthday, but she’s only turning 11, so this would be highly inappropriate for her 😂)

12/20/2021

Winter Sangria (aka Make It Rain, re-stir)

Katherine posted this sangria the other day, and it seemed perfect for today, National Sangria Day! I know I say this every year, but I don’t understand why Sangria Day is in December. It’s such a refreshing beverage, I want to drink it when it’s, you know, hot outside. But I guess it’s well-timed for my Southern Hemisphere friends!

I slightly altered Katherine’s recipe by using pear instead of star fruit. Mostly because I forgot to buy a star fruit at the grocery store, lol. But pear is a nice seasonal fruit, so it works. I made the rest of the recipe according to her instructions, and it was delicious. So delicious, we may have consumed the entire pitcher throughout the afternoon and evening on Saturday 😳

I’ll share her original post in my Stories so you can find out why she named it as she did.

WINTER SANGRIA (AKA MAKE IT RAIN)
by

1 liter bottle of white wine (I used sauvignon blanc)
1/4 cup Fresh Victor Three Citrus & Mint Leaf juice
2 tablespoons Boozy Botanicals Rosemary Mint simple syrup
Apples
Oranges
Starfruit (or pears or whatever)

Slice fruit and infuse into wine overnight in the refrigerator. Add syrup and juice in the morning, and refrigerate an additional 2-3 hours. Serve with flowers and a tiny umbrella.

I didn’t have any great-looking flowers, but I did have some filler stock from a wedding centerpiece, so I used that with my tiny umbrella.

Juice provided by
Syrup provided by
Glass from a local winery

12/18/2021

Mexican Hot Chocolate (original recipe).

What makes this hot chocolate Mexican, you ask? The addition of some spices, mostly. Oh, and also tequila liqueur. 😉

MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE

1/2 oz. Arrogante tequila liqueur
1 dash orange bitters
1 dash molé bitters
Allspice
Cinnamon
Ghirardelli double-chocolate hot cocoa mix
Milk

Add tequila and bitters to the bottom of a mug or Irish coffee glass. Prepare hot chocolate in your usual way, adding a sprinkle of allspice and cinnamon to the mixture. Pour hot chocolate into prepared glass and top with mini marshmallows and another sprinkle of cinnamon. (Or a large chocolate-covered minty marshmallow if you’re my husband.)

Hot chocolate is one of my favorite things in life, and this just kicks it up a notch. Bam! A couple hits off the spice weasel and you’re good to go. (And yes, that is a Futurama reference, for those paying attention.)

This is perfect for sipping next to the fireplace on a Saturday night as you get into the Christmas spirit!

Risa James Photography

01/07/2022

01/04/2022

01/01/2022

12/31/2021

12/30/2021

12/27/2021

12/24/2021

12/23/2021

12/22/2021

12/21/2021

12/20/2021

12/18/2021

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category