The Spirit World

By the time you read this post, or shortly thereafter, I should be arriving at JFK airport, after a hopefully restful red-eye flight, and making my way into the city. This is my mostly annual trip to the city to celebrate my birthday. This year, as in some previous years, my best friend […]

Most people know about hard apple cider - apple cider or juice that has been allowed to ferment to produce a lightly alcoholic beverage on par with beer - normally somewhere around the 5% range. But many people are not aware there is another common hard cider, perry or hard pear cider.
The […]

Today’s Happy Hour post is going to take quite a little twist - next week we will return to our regularly scheduled program… I hope you will stick with me!
As a person who loves food, drink, entertaining, sharing it all with friends and family I wish that everyone could be as lucky as I […]

This week my mind has been solely on champagne and cake, as I prepare for a party I’m throwing for my sister and brother-in-law’s milestone anniversary. So my Happy Hour at Home for this weekend is going to focus on something a bit different.
Sometimes it’s not a cocktail you crave at the […]

Last week it was all apples, this week we are focusing on another fruit of the season, the beautiful pear! Lara has already provided you with the Pear Nectar Martini which would be a great choice for this weekend but here’s another alternative, the Pear Brandy Champagne Cocktail.
I first had this cocktail at one […]

With the coming of the fall weather our thoughts turn to those things that remind us of the season. Apples play a big role in these thoughts. For this weekend’s Happy Hour at Home we are going all apples!
We’ll start with our cocktail for the weekend - an Apple Manhattan. […]

The name of the appetizer may have caught your attention but before we get to that let’s quickly touch on our beverage for this week’s Happy Hour at Home.
I’m selecting Ouzo on the rocks. This slightly sweet, anise flavored beverage is what we think of when we think of Greece. As the summer […]

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in a wine-pairing dinner. We were each assigned a wine in advance and then tasked with coming up withe a food pairing. My assignment was Pinot Noir.
Pinot Noir styles run the gamut from lighter bodied, fruit-filled wines to stronger bodied wines […]

It’s time for another Happy Hour at Home. With the warm weather continuing our thoughts are still with refreshing and cooling drinks and appetizers - although this appetizer certainly has a little heat to it!
Cucumbers are in full swing in all areas of the country and, probably, in most areas in the […]

I have been drinking a lot of rosé lately - it is crisp, refreshing and a nice light alternative on a hot day. This last weekend, though, after doing tons of yardwork and working up a big thirst, rosé just wasn’t going to cut it. No, my mind was set on one of […]