Category Archives: Life

My Easiest Recipe Yet: Hot Water in a Mug

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Around 2 pm yesterday, I was so cold I could hardly stand it. The weather has been wacky here in the Northeast: unseasonably warm, then cold, then warm again, then REALLY cold. I think the fluctuation has made it seem colder than it actually is. I’m not normally one to yammer on about the weather; just setting up the story here.

A less lazy person would have found a sweater or turned up the heat, but not me. I suddenly had a memory of Mom Mom drinking hot water. Just plain hot water. Even as a child, that seemed…I don’t know? Odd? Wrong? Icky? “Depression Era” wasn’t in my vocabulary back then, although I suppose a part of me felt like drinking plain hot water with nothing else in it was probably a poor person’s drink.

But it was 2:00 pm and coffee was out of the question for me. Tea didn’t sound good, either, since I am trying to cut back on sugar. So that left me with the obvious choice: Hot water, straight up, Mom Mom style! I heated up my electric tea kettle and poured the water into one of my rarely used (but oh so cute) Fiestaware tea cups. The hot water instantly warmed me. Not only did it warm me, it soothed me. It felt good. It felt right. I should have known Mom Mom knew what she was doing.

Mom Mom wasn’t a doctor, but she was certainly ahead of her time when it came to alternative health practices, and most of her information was from AM talk-radio show doctors she listened to religiously. She and Pop Pop took vitamins and supplements years before anyone else I knew. I can still picture all the vitamins lined up like little soldiers at her kitchen table: small ones, big ones, clear ones, dark ones…so, so many!

I hesitate to repeat any medical claims, but if you Google “benefits of drinking hot water,” you will find dozens of reasons to give this a try. It is important to note that you should never drink hot water straight from the tap, as it is not properly purified. Boil the water first, and then enjoy. If nothing else, it’s a nice post-holiday detox. This is only my second day, so I can’t share any life-changing claims just yet, but I promise to keep you posted on any progress worth noting.

Mom Mom’s Health Drink

Ingredients:

Water

Directions:

Bring to full boil. Enjoy in a mug or cute tea cup.

To Friendship (and Fondue)

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Happy New Year! May 2012 be filled with love, happiness, good health, good food, good friends and prosperity.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give us a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

–Auld Lang Syne, Robert Burns

I have always loved traditions, and I am so fortunate to have a very special New Year’s Eve tradition: Dinner with the same two couples every year since the early 1990s. In a world where so much has changed, six friends have kept a commitment to spend New Year’s Eve together for eighteen years, give or take a couple here and there. We could be an HBO series about stable, married people, if there was ever a market for such a thing.

Back in his grad school days, Ed had the good sense to befriend a couple guys who married women I truly liked as real friends, not just husband friends. When it comes to friendship, I am more of a cat than a dog. I usually don’t instantly love everyone I meet. (Ed, on the other hand, is a dog, a friendly Golden Retriever, happy and loving to all. I am a scrappy stray cat who thinks she belongs on a Fancy Feast commercial). It’s not you, it’s me, and simply my reserved nature which I’ve come to accept it over the years. No hard feelings.

So while I may not have tons and tons of friends, I fiercely treasure the friends I have. Like my mother, I am loyal to those I love, and loyal people have friends for life. The funny thing about my NYE friends is that we really don’t see each other all that much throughout the year. Lunch and a party or two, but definitely not weekly or even monthly. However, I know I could call or text either one of them at any time, and they would be there for me in a heartbeat. They are both prettier, smarter, thinner, better mothers and better human beings than me, but instead of feeling threatened and perhaps a wee bit bitchy like I normally would with anyone else, I only feel admiration instead. If that’s not true friendship, I don’t know what is. Just being around them a few times a year rubs off some goodness by osmosis, and then I’m set for the next few months.

As you can imagine, we have shared some memorable meals over the years. My friends always set the bar high, so it’s a little harrowing whenever it is our turn to host. For the second (third?) time, I will be playing the sushi and appetizer card. We all enjoy sushi, and who doesn’t love a meal comprised entirely of appetizers? If I ply everyone with enough wine and limoncello, I might once again convince them to play my favorite game, Balderdash. We will talk about our children and our parents and our jobs (and my lack of a real job) and our household projects and kids today. We will forget for a few minutes we have nine children between the six of us, three a piece, and reminisce about the good old days when we were young and just starting out our lives. We will eat too much and drink too much and vow to see each other more often next year, and then I will go to bed overwhelmed, once again, by my good fortune to be surrounded by such wonderful people on the last day of another good year.

Even if we are occupied with important things and even if we attain honor or fall into misfortune, still let us remember how good it once was here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us perhaps better than we are. – Fyodor Dostovevsky

To all of those I call my friend, thank you.

Edited Jan 1, 2012:

As always, we had a wonderful night of laughter and friendship. I nodded off for a few minutes between 11 and 12 (surprising absolutely no one who knows me), but I was awake in time to ring in the New Year.

My friends make the best fondue I have ever tasted, and we demand it each and every year. Lucky for you, they left behind the recipe. I know fondue recipes are a dime a dozen, but I cannot speak highly enough about this fondue. Seriously, THE best, ever. There is no better end to a good year than dipping things in cheese.

Classic Cheese Fondue by Ryan Hardy, Food & Wine

Ingredients

  1. 1 pound Gruyère cheese, coarsely shredded
  2. 1/2 pound Emmentaler cheese, coarsely shredded
  3. 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
  4. 1 garlic clove
  5. 1 cup dry white wine
  6. 1 tablespoon Kirsch
  7. Salt and freshly ground white pepper
  8. Crusty bread cubes, hard salami and small dill pickles, for serving.

DIRECTIONS:

  1. In a bowl, toss the Gruyère and Emmentaler with the cornstarch. Rub the inside of a cheese fondue pot or medium, enameled cast-iron casserole with the garlic, then add the wine and bring to a simmer. Add the cheese mixture all at once. Using a wooden spoon, stir over moderately low heat just until the cheese is melted and smooth, about 5 minutes. Stir in the Kirsch and season with salt and pepper. Serve with the bread, salami and pickles.
Make Ahead The fondue can be refrigerated overnight and reheated in a microwave oven, or on the stove over low heat.

 

 

 

 

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes

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Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylight, in sunsets, in midnights,
In cups of coffee, in inches, in miles
In laughter, in strife

— Jonathan Larson, Seasons of Love, Rent

Ah, December 2011. Soon it will be January 2012, and I normally would have purchased my 2012 Mom’s Family Calendar by Sandra Boynton long before today. However, Ed mentioned that maybe we should finally end this annual tradition. He wasn’t trying to be mean or miserly, just practical. After all, between Google calendar and his Blackberry and my iPhone, we manage to get where we need to be well enough. And truth be told, some of us aren’t as vigilant as we once were about meticulously recording every event on the paper calendar hanging on the inside of the basement door. “Check the calendar!” used to be the standard answer to the question, “Are we free on the 16th?” Now, more often than not, it’s a matter of checking the phone or the computer, not the calendar. Poor, neglected old dinosaur.

In general, I am the opposite of a hoarder (cocktail napkins, aside). Whatever the word is for a person who throws out too much stuff and then later regrets it — thoughtless purger, perhaps? — that’s me. I get a perverse thrill from throwing stuff out or giving it away. But for some reason, Future Dawn in the Nursing Home spoke with me in 2001, and she said, “Don’t do it. Don’t throw out these calendars. Yes, it seems like clutter now, but one day you will want them to remember your life when you were young and busy and all the pages were full.” I am glad I listened to Future Dawn.

Behold, my calendar collection!

Sometimes I look through them and sob and remember when my babies were young and our days were filled with play groups and pediatricians and Kindermusik and Gymboree and French lessons (I was way more ambitious back then) and soccer and so much lacrosse and picnics at the park and apple orchards and pumpkin patches and preschool interviews (!!!) and…all of it. So much has changed. So many people who lived in those pages are now gone, either dead gone or gone from my life. Pets we faithfully took to the veterinarian year after year are now buried in the back yard. More than a few couples we would meet regularly for dinner or even vacations are now divorced. Annual neighborhood golf outings are no longer annual. Babysitters now have their own babies.

Time has marched on through these pages, both literally and figuratively, month after month, year after year. Will 2012 be the year I finally give up the calendar? I don’t know if I can do it. Aside from my memories, the calendar seems like the only tangible evidence of this life I lead, and I’ve already forgotten so many of the small details. If I don’t write it down on real paper, can I be sure it even happened?

In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love

— Jonathan Larson, Seasons of Love, Rent

Ask Mom Mom: To Facebook or Not

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Dear Mom Mom,

I am the last person in the universe not on Facebook. Even my 82 year old grandmother is on there! I just don’t know that I want to devote all of this time and energy developing an online presence. Is this okay?

Amish Annie

Dear Annie,

Of course it’s okay, but the question we really should ask is, “Is this the best choice for you?” I think Facebook is a great tool and you can use it as much or as little as you want, so don’t be afraid of the sensationalized negative publicity you may have heard.

The number one reason I would suggest having a Facebook account is that it enables people from your past to find you and reconnect with you. It’s like a modern-day phone book listing. I fully realize that this is also the number one reason that people DO NOT want to be on Facebook. Believe me, I understand, as there are plenty of people I would be happy to never hear from again — and the great thing is I don’t have to! No one says you have to let every person back into your life who knocks on your online door. You do have control, and sometimes it’s best that the dead remain buried.

However, resurrecting some ghosts from my past has been nothing short of miraculous and life changing for me. College friends and roommates, friends from London, children I babysat, old neighbors, co-workers from my first “real” job…all of these people and more have come back into my life, and I’m so much richer for it. This is not to say it’s all been one big party, but for the most part, it has been wonderful. The fact that I can get a glimpse of people who were once so important to me — people who just ten years ago I would not have known were dead or alive — how amazing is that?

I will be posting my rules of Facebook Do’s and Don’ts at some point in the future. My advice would be to set up an account and see who finds you. If you want to reestablish contact with people, do so. And if not, don’t. Unless you’re in the witness protection program, I would give it a try.

Ask Mom Mom: So You’re Hosting Thanksgiving

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This week, Mom Mom was asked a question in person. All the more fun!

I ran into a friend at school the other day, and she shared that she was hosting her first big Thanksgiving for about twenty people and could use some advice/hand holding/Xanax. Like most people would be, she was a little anxious about…well, about the whole production of it all. Thanksgiving is not for sissies. Most people forgive and forget a bad meal on any given Tuesday, but Thanksgiving? That one stays with you. However, with a little planning and preparation, this can be one of your greatest victories.

Luck favors the prepared, darling. — Edna Mode, The Incredibles

Step 1: Menu Plan

This may seem obvious to some, but I am sure others are saying, “Turkey, stuffing, what plan?” NOW is the time to sit down with your food magazines or your DVRd Food Network shows or Google and DECIDE EXACTLY what will be going on your table.

Part A of this plan is deciding what category of food you want, and Part B is deciding which recipes you will use or which relatives you will ask to contribute. If I were hosting 20 people, my plan would look like this:

Light Appetizer (nothing to upstage my hard work)

Bread/Rolls

1 standard green vegetable

1 adventurous green vegetable

Corn

1 stuffing with sausage

1 vegetarian stuffing

Cranberry sauce

1 mashed potato dish

1 sweet potato dish

Turkey

2 pies

2 other desserts

Wine, Beer

Soft drinks

Coffee/tea

Once you’ve gotten all your food listed, it’s simply a matter of choosing your recipes. Remember, no need to be a martyr! If (and only if) your guests have offered to contribute, you can certainly shorten your list by delegating. Desserts are a good one to farm out. And if a trusted guest/cook can help you knock a potato off the list, all the better! Feel free to ask any questions in the comments, and I promise I will try my best to guide you.

Do the bulk of your shopping for non perishables the Friday or Saturday before Thanksgiving, and the earlier in the morning the better. Each passing hour, things get exponentially more crazy. But as bad as it will be on those two days, it will only get worse, so refer to your shopping list and knock out every single item you possibly can (soda, beer, wine, cheese, etc.) I am a huge fan of off-hours shopping, so shopping really early or really late helps preserve my sanity. Save your fresh vegetables and any other last minute items for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. In a perfect world, you will have very little left on your list by that point.

Step 2: Logistics

This is a boring and often overlooked step, but let me assure you that it’s every bit as important. Make sure each one of your guests has a place to sit down and a proper place setting. It doesn’t have to be fine china, crystal or silver — warehouse clubs like BJs and Costco have nice quality disposables that are neutral enough to blend with your good stuff. If at all possible, give each guest a seat on a real chair and a real table rather than a sofa and coffee table. Sure, it’s fine to put your grandmother and the real dining room table and your eight year old at the fold-up card table, but to have some guests sit at a real table and others jockey for space on the sofa seems rude and unfair. Take the time to map out where people will be sitting, and if there is not obvious space available for everyone, tell them ahead of time where you expect them to eat. There is nothing worse than people with full plates in hand nomadically shuffling from room to room looking for an open spot to sit down. Everyone deserves a spot, and it’s your job to make sure they have one.

Step 3: Turkey, fresh or frozen?

This is a matter of personal preference. I have done both, and believe it or not, fresh has never come out significantly better. People are passionate on this subject, and I’m sorry, but I can’t take a firm stand based on taste. Obviously a humanely-raised-locally farmed-Montessori-educated-vegan-fed turkey is better for variety of reasons, most of which allow you to feel morally superior, but from a culinary standpoint? Eh, not so much in my book. Preparation is everything.

And by preparation, here is your reminder to order your fresh turkey N O W, especially if you require something in the neighborhood of 20 pounds or more. Don’t expect to waltz into the supermarket the Monday before Thanksgiving and pick up your 20+ pound turkey. It will be known as The Year You Made Two Twelve Pound Turkeys if you don’t plan ahead. There are a variety of turkey calculators online. Use them! You will be able to plug in your specifics and plan accordingly. For example, 15 adults and 5 kids who are big eaters would require a 26 pound turkey. If that turkey is frozen, it will take six and a half days to thaw in the refrigerator. Needless to say, these are not details you can just work out three days before Thanksgiving. Spend a few minutes today thinking about this.

Step 4: The Set Up

Start cleaning your house (or have someone else clean it for you) the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and leave the minor last minute touch up for Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday night, set the table(s), move furniture to accommodate more tables, inspect/dust folding chairs, make sure table cloths are clean and fit. Inspect your china/crystal/silver and make sure it is clean and polished (or at least clean and sanitary). This always takes more time than you think it will, so do it the night before and save yourself some stress. I have been that person in cashmere and pearls cleaning a toilet while the first guest rang the doorbell. Learn from my mistakes.

Step 5: Food Prep

Bright and early Thursday morning, I like to go through each recipe and measure and chop ingredients ahead of time. It’s so much easier to make a stuffing with fourteen ingredients when they’ve all been prepped and measured and put into neat little baggies.

This is also the time where you fine tune your game plan and assign oven space. Before I got a double oven (and even some years after) I would use the oven of my neighbor across the street who would always travel during Thanksgiving. Most friendly neighbors are happy to lend you their ovens or refrigerators if they’re away, so that’s an option to consider. If not, you just have to work it out. It’s like a bad math problem: Sally has a turkey in the oven at 325 for five hours and it has to rest for 30 minutes. Once the turkey is out she has two dishes to cook, one at 375 for 30 minutes and one at 350 for 40 minutes...

The time to solve this sixth grade word problem is not when your guests have arrived and you’re drinking wine. Make your schedule with a sharp mind and a clear head, and stick to it accordingly.

Step 6: Enjoy your guests, enjoy your blessings

Take time to enjoy the day. Some of my best memories are of having Mom Mom and Pop Pop in my house for Thanksgiving. They were so happy and proud of all my hard work and enjoying their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids surrounding them. Watching the cousins play, seeing family from near and far, even if it’s just that one day a year, is so important. It’s a great honor to provide a venue for your family to gather, enjoy good food, and count their blessings. It is a big job, yes, but it is always worth the effort. Be thankful you are up to the challenge.

November Gratitude: Mom Mom’s Fur

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Mom Mom had a sense of style that is hard to adequately describe, but some words which come to mind are: sparkle, glitter, razzmatazz, festive and loud. She was about as subtle as one of Trump’s casinos, and usually favored the same color palette. Naturally, animal prints were a lifelong wardrobe staple season after season, leopard being a favorite choice, whether in a bathing suit or a fur coat. Mom Mom didn’t need Kim Kardashian or Rachel Zoe to tell her leopard was fabulous.

I don’t know the story of this coat, or even if it has a story, but I do remember Mom Mom wearing it, hugging her tightly and coming eye to eye with the embossed gold buttons. She didn’t wear it a lot, and it was socked away for years, but I definitely remember her wearing this.

When Mom Mom died, as her eldest granddaughter, I inherited this lovely coat. Well, it was more like, “WHO wants THIS THING?” and I jumped all over it, much to the surprise of my conservative aunt and my animal rights activist sister. I should note — before anyone mails me buckets of blood or calls me hateful names — that I love animals, too, and I would never spend money on fur (okay, maybe from a consignment store, but not brand new). If the label is to be believed, it IS real fur, but I can’t imagine actual leopards were killed. I’m thinking it must have been the fur of some poor low-brow animal who was dyed leopard, but I can’t say for sure. One of these days I will try to find out, but it really doesn’t matter to me.

For a fairly conservative dresser, I sure hit the ground running with Mom Mom’s coat. I debuted it a couple years ago at my Mad Men party, and since then it has been everywhere with me. Being a mostly stay-at-home-mom, that means the Acme and school conferences and Chick-Fil-A. The black satin lining began to rip more and more, and finally I determined it was time to replace it. I can’t say why, exactly, but I was drawn to choosing either red or emerald green for the lining this time. It just seemed like a Mom Mom kind of a choice.

I picked up the coat from the tailor yesterday, and it looks great! I am so grateful to have had a grandmother who was ahead of her time fashionwise, and whose warmth I can still feel when I’m wearing her fur. I only wish she could see me wearing it.

November: The Month of Gratitude and Organization (Gluttony Optional)

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Happy November! I hereby declare this the month of Gratitude and Organization. Why, yes, I do sometimes fancy myself Oprah, why do you ask?

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. It’s all about everything I believe in: family, gratitude and comfort food. I have hosted Thanksgiving more times than I can count (and often for no less than 20 people), but this year is a rare and admittedly welcome year off for me. We will be traveling a mere five minutes away to the home of one of my favorite hostesses, so I know Thanksgiving will be in good hands. It also means my family will be spared my Annual Thanksgiving Mental Breakdown, which usually ends with me crying, “Never again!” or “WHY do I do this to myself?” or “WHEN will I learn?” But in the end, it’s like childbirth: difficult but exhilarating, and always, always, always worth it.

I will be sharing some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes with you this month, most of which come from the mack daddy of all Thanksgiving cooking magazine issues, the much-lauded November 1999 Bon Appétit. And I’m sure I will be trying some new stuff as well, because I can never resist an appealing Thanksgiving recipe. Send me your favorites!

In addition to recipes, I will also be sharing my journey of household organization, starting with my kitchen utensil drawers. I would love to hear if any readers have utensil drawer organizational solutions. I have two deep drawers and lots of utensils, so my first step will be throwing out or donating anything that hasn’t been used in the last two years.

I will leave you with pictures of my two unorganized drawers, pictures which may evoke words like hoarder or mental illness, but rest assured, I am working on this today.

p.s. Note the three cat food lids. Our cat died in 2005. RIP Lulu.

Julie’s Sausage Strata

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Have you ever known someone for just a brief time, yet their impact on your life remains constant? I first met my friend Julie when I starting working for discount broker Brown & Company in Philadelphia. I had left the cushy mahogany row of Janney Montgomery Scott for a gritty, mostly male trade desk, and aside from my boss, Julie was the only other female in the room. In typical Dawn fashion, I just assumed we would be friends, because why not?

Julie was a tough nut to crack. Quite frankly, she scared me a little. She probably made me cry once or twice, too, during the early weeks. And I’m sure I was a tad bit annoying to her, if for no other reason than our circumstances. I was just about to get married, and she had just gone through a devastating divorce. I am sure my prissy, wide eyed enthusiasm got on her nerves, as well as some unintentional insensitivity on my part.

I didn’t go away quietly. Typically, I don’t bother with people if I don’t feel like they’re worth my time or energy, but I believed that Julie was worth it. I knew that sooner or later she would grow to like me, and I was determined to wear her down with my charm. It turned out to be our mutual love of animals which finally brought us together. She adored her English Springer Spaniel Miss Fergie, for whom she would cook dinners of lamb and rice. I adored our adopted stray calico cat Lulu, who I treated like a child. When one pet lover finds another pet lover, bridges are created, and through those fur covered bridges eventually grew a friendship.

Julie taught me so many things that I couldn’t begin to list them all. She never intended to teach me anything, but just by being herself, I learned a lot. In many ways, she was like a big sister to me. I loved the way she dealt with our difficult customers. It’s hard to explain, but the she always managed to show them who was boss and control the situation without ever being overtly rude. Overtly is the key word in that sentence. All of our conversations were recorded and frequently we would have to go back to the tapes to verify disputed trades, and one quickly learns to keep one’s cool on a recorded line. This skill never came naturally to me in times of high pressure, so I tried to imagine how Julie would handle the situation and just imitated her.

In no particular order, here are some of the things Julie introduced to me: embossed monogrammed stationery (in white, always white), Martha Stewart before she was a household name, the city of Burlington, Vermont, Beaujolais Nouveau, Kir, quilted china storage sets, high thread count sheets, trunk sales, Grace Kelly postage stamps, Scotch (which I still can’t drink), knitting (which I still can’t do), Talbot’s boiled wool jackets, and the notion that truly wealthy people drive old and modest cars. These are things which Mayflower descendents just know.

When it came time to host my first big brunch, naturally I turned to Julie. She quickly scribbled down two recipes: Amy David’s Sausage Strata and Susan Moore’s To-Die-For Potatoes. I have been making both of these dishes for eighteen years now, and I think of Julie every time I get out those recipe cards. I will share the sausage strata today, and the potatoes at a later date.

Sausage strata recipes are a dime a dozen, but this one is special to me since it came from my old friend. It’s not particularly fancy, but it’s easy, delicious, satisfying, and always a hit. Julie has also taught me to stick with the classics, especially if they work.

 

Julie’s Sausage Strata, courtesy of Amy David

6 slices white bread (crusts cut off)

1 lb. sausage meat (mild)

1 t. mustard (I always use Dijon)

1 cup grated Swiss (I am not a fan of Swiss but it works well in this recipe, trust me)

3 eggs lightly beaten

1 cup half and half

1/4 t. salt

dash of pepper

dash of nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 13 x 9 Pyrex dish

Cook sausage, drain, and toss with mustard. Arrange bread in bottom of dish. Top with sausage. Cover with remaining ingredients. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes.

 

Might as well face it, you’re addicted to…cocktail napkins.

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Startling confession:

I am addicted to cocktail napkins. Usually I keep my addiction quietly in check, but this week the floodgates opened. It started innocently enough with a little trip to Home Goods on Tuesday in search of supplies to make Limoncello (more on that fun project coming soon). I was doing so well and not even seeking them out, but they were thrust in my face while waiting in the notoriously slow Home Goods checkout corral lined with pear scented sparkly candles and athletic socks and organic coffee and…whimsical cocktail napkins. I had a lot of time to contemplate my selection. On Wednesday, I hit kitchen mecca Sur La Table and wound up with a couple more packs (at full price, ugh, what a sucker), and then finally today I “bought my last pack, I SWEAR” with a little something from quirky discounter Tuesday Morning. That’s six packs in one week, in case you’re keeping score and now possibly wondering, “Gee, when’s the big party?” The answer is, “I don’t know.” Does one need a party to buy multiple packs of cocktail napkins?

I would show the napkins to you, but I like to surprise our guests with my colorful whimsy. Instead, I will share two actual cocktail recipes, courtesy of my friend Beth, the official Hostess with the Mostess. Beth founded Sipp, her own organic beverage company. Her products are phenomenal and have received numerous awards and accolades from the beverage industry, celebrities like Tori Spelling, and little old me.

I have had both of these cocktails, and warning — they go down easy! Sipp is expanding their distribution, so hopefully you will able to get your hands on some soon. Of course you can substitute if necessary, but it is worth it to use the best products you can manage to find. Cheers!

Posmo Berry Sparkler

2 oz. organic vodka
4 oz. organic pomegranate juice
1 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. organic agave nectar
1 oz. SIPP – Mojo Berry

In a shaker add ice, vodka, pomegranate and lime juice with agave nectar.  Shake vigorously for 10 seconds.  Strain into a highball glass with ice.  Top off with SIPP and garnish with a thin lime wheel. Enjoy!
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Ginger Blossom Gimlet
2 oz. organic cucumber vodka
4-5 leaves of fresh basil
1 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. SIPP – Ginger Blossom

In  a shaker muddle basil slightly with a muddling stick.  Add ice, vodka and lime juice.  Shake vigorously for 10 seconds.  Strain into a chilled martini glass.  Top off with SIPP and garnish with a thin cucumber wheel.  Enjoy!
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p.s. Not only do I hoard cocktail napkins, I also take pictures of cute ones I see at different parties, as seen below. Yes, I know I have a problem.

Twenty Years Come and Gone So Fast

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Twenty years ago, I went on a first date with a handsome engineer who was working on launching the UARS Satellite for GE Aerospace. I was a sales assistant at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, working for a blue blooded tyrant while studying for my broker’s license. It was a tough week, and by the closing bell, I was very tired. I distinctly remember telling my coworker that I had a date but I would much rather go home and get in my comfy clothes, read the latest Glamour magazine, and polish my nails. Even back then, I knew how to party. But I would never cancel a first date, so off I went.

Ed picked me up in his black Jeep Wrangler. He was wearing a purple tie. I was wearing a gray printed wrap dress, buff stockings, black suede pumps and pearls. Ask any of my friends, and they will confirm I am terrible with faces. But I am great at remembering clothes! I was glad to be dressed a little on the conservative side, because the restaurant was very fancy and formal…tuxedoed maître d’, candlelight, etc. I ordered a vodka tonic to start.

Our dinner was wonderful and romantic. We ordered wine like proper grownups, and not even white zinfandel like those losers still in college! The food, while very good, wasn’t what I would call innovative or especially remarkable. I probably ordered salmon. Ed said that he liked that I actually ate all my food — a little foreshadowing right there! It was a special dinner because I immediately realized the guy sitting across from me had serious potential. Conversation was easy and comfortable, and we clicked right away. I was glad I didn’t stay home and polish my nails.

Twenty years and three kids later, Ed came home early last night with flowers and told me to put on a dress! He was taking me to the Dilworthtown Inn, the place where we went on our first date. We had been there a few times over the last twenty years, and I was happy to go back. Not deliberately but because it was the only thing in my closet that fit, I put on a gray dress. Not deliberately but because I keep forgetting to pick up our massive dry cleaning order and nothing else was clean, Ed put on a purple checked shirt. He looked even more handsome than on our first date. Damn, men age well.

I ordered a vodka tonic to enjoy while I examined the menu. And what a menu it was! The Dilworthtown Inn has gotten much better with time. Neither stuffy and boring, nor tries-too-hard weird, everything offered was just right. After much deliberation and a little help from our fun and fabulous server, I decided to go with:

Wild Burgundy Escargot
Vanilla Scented and Dark Rum Glazed Roasted Pineapple, Serrano Chili, Sage Brown Butter

Manchego, Baby Spinach, and Arugula Salad
Fried Manchego, Sliced Plums, Serrano Ham, Marcona Almonds, Warm Pancetta Vinaigrette (Ed and I split this, and THANK GOD — it was a meal in itself)

Twin Lobster Tails
Whipped Potatoes, Haricot Vert, Baby Carrots, Drawn Butter

The lobster was delicious, but yes, a little boring. Of course, it was exactly what it claimed to be, and the right choice for someone who likes the classics prepared to perfection. I am always powerless in the presence of lobster and escargot on a menu, because I love them so much and rarely get to have them. Then I get mad at myself for ordering the same thing I always do. What would I get if they were not on the menu? What would you get? Take a look at this wonderful menu and let me know: Dilworthtown Inn Menu

I marvel that the last twenty years went by in the blink of an eye. As Mom Moms everywhere would say, “The days go slowly but the years go quickly.” After twenty years, I am so incredibly blessed to wake up every morning next to someone I love and respect, someone who brings out the best in me and who is always my biggest cheerleader. I can’t wait to see what the next twenty years will bring.