I really like to pair drinks with the food being served, and I like to keep some money in my wallet after I have people over. The key to this is to find one drink of your fancy and mix it in advance, (enough for each guest to have 2).
Since I am a bit cheap, I tend to avoid mixed drinks with a long ingredient list of booze. I'm more of a juice with a bit of liquor gal.
My friend Andy being the great traveler, told me about a delicious drink she had in Prague. It was a simple mix of vodka and apple juice. However, store bought juice just wasn't brining her back to the first time she drank it. The key was freshly juiced apples. The kind that's cloudy and crisp, not too sweet.
Prague Style Apple Juice
4 apples, washed then put through a juicer (about 3 cups of juice is what you need)
4 oz vodka
1/2 lemon
After you juice the apple divide between 2 glasses. Add ice, and 2 oz of vodka to each glass. Add a small squeeze of lemon to each glass and stir.
Cheers to fall and easy to mix drinks!