It was a Dark & Stormy night in the orchard... No, let's start again. "You poured your apple cider in my Dark & Stormy." "No, you poured your Dark & Stormy in my apple cider!" Hmmm. Closer, but not quite right. Let me start at the beginning. I'm in a contest. (Ah, that's better.) In the Spice Up the Holidays contest, nine of my fellow bloggers and I will be duking it out (virtually, 'cause I'm a lover not a fighter, man...) over the next couple of weeks to throw a party spiced up with the aid of Captain Morgan's Original Spiced Rum and Black Spiced Rum. We'll all be developing recipes for an appetizer, a cocktail and a View Post
White Russian Milkshake
When I was in Oregon a few weeks ago, my friends were shocked- SHOCKED, I say- to find out I had never had a margarita in my life. They remedied that pretty quickly, let me tell you... Everyone wanted to know why I hadn't had one before. The truth is, I'm picky. I'm not a big drinker, so when I have one, I want to make sure it is a good one (and preferably not a strong one or I'm going to need to go to bed very quickly after having it. Zzzzzzzzz.) I didn't dare tell them how short the list of mixed drinks I've actually had in my lifetime is. Honestly? I can count them on one hand; Long Island Iced Tea (meh), Daiquiri, Gin & Tonic, View Post
Strawberry Wineade
I should begin by saying that serious wine snobs should probably look away. Quickly. I'll give you a second or two. Are they gone now? Okay, it's about to get all kinds of classy in here. And by classy, I mean serving wine in jars mixed with juice. Yeah, baby. That kind of classy. I have had a couple of very crazy weeks here with various groupings of kids going to various camps, preparing for my brother's wedding, getting the house ready for company, and then there was some very fun travel for yours truly. How fun was that travel? Let me show you a picture or two... So yeah. That's me. Do you recognize the digs? Yes? No? View Post
The Unsophisticated (Chilled Two-Wine Spritzer)
A little housekeeping: Unfortunately, I got a little education this week when I learned about Scrapers. Am I the last person alive to hear about these folks? What they do -in a nutshell- is steal the RSS feed from a blog and republish it for whatever reasons they have to doing so (getting hits, pilfering audience, what-have-you...) Evidently someone(s) have been doing this with my posts for quite some time. My band-aid fix is to truncate my feed to an abbreviated one. I do apologize to those of you who liked getting the entire post in an email, I hope you'll stick with me until I can figure out another way to defeat these content thieves. View Post
Chai Lattes and Hot Caramel Apple Cider
Welcome to my third entry post for Project Food Blog on Foodbuzz.com. The theme of the challenge for this round is "Luxury Dinner Party". The good folks at Foodbuzz.com prompted thusly: "Celebrate! You've made it this far, and the next challenge is to hold a party for your friends and family (at least four guests). Whether you're an experienced host or an entertaining newbie, get creative and host a luxurious dinner party. Share your hosting secrets with readers. " I ran into a bit of a snag but the show had to go on! How did I do? I'll let you judge... "...[Weed] out what you yourself like best to do, so that you can View Post
Simple (and Frugal!) Homemade Hot Chocolate: Foodie Christmas Gift #3
Years ago, when I first was looking seriously into making homemade gifts for sharing at Christmas, I stumbled across a newsletter that had recently begun publication--a housewife in Maine had started sharing ideas on frugality (a.k.a. "tightwaddery") and I was hooked on some of those ideas from the very beginning. Amy Dacyczyn and all of the issues AND books connected with the Tightwad Gazette became a permanent part of my life! One of the simple gift ideas that I've used repeatedly over the years is a recipe for homemade hot chocolate mix. I enjoy both the simplicity and the versatility of this mix--you can add cinnamon, nutmeg, View Post