Creamy Strawberry Mint Daiquiri

It's cocktail Friday and time for a new drink. But Brian and I are still really loving last week's Springtime Martini. And so, with no particular plans for a new beverage, we headed off to do some weekend grocery shopping and ran into a big bunch of ripe looking strawberries.

My Award Cup Runneth Over!

I am feeling the love around here lately, let me tell you!  In addition to my previous Liebster and Sunshine awards, I've just been the lucky recipient of four...count 'em...four more honors!

Lasagna Roll Ups

What's for dinner? I used to flip through cookbooks for inspiration but now I "flip" through Pinterest and Food Gawker. Don't you love food porn? And at this point I've probably got ideas to make or tweak or use as a basis for to last me a while so it's only a matter of what speaks to me that day.

The Water Club

The East River at 28th - 32nd Sts, New York, NY 10016, 212-683-3333 www.thewaterclub.com

The Water Club was built in 1982 on Manhattan's East River near the 34th street heliport. The culmination of a three year project, the restaurant is set on a floating barge and resembles a docked yacht. Although you can arrive by foot, its location off the highway makes that awkward and the restaurant recommends arriving either by private car or taxi. Valet parking is offered in the restaurant's lot and that itself is a rare luxury in Manhattan.

Springtime Martini

The start of spring is an occasion well worth celebrating with a cocktail. Of course, I tend to think that the arrival of Friday is to be equally celebrated but that is not the point. The point is that spring arrived this week and did so in an appropriate fashion. It's been sunny with temperatures in the 60's and 70's all week. The trees will be blooming soon as will the tulips that are traditionally planted all over the city. I love when colorful tulips fall over the sides of a vase...

Healthy Asparagus Spiral Puffs

Happy first day of spring! Yesterday was the official end of my least favorite season and this morning is to be sunny and 65 degrees in New York. My pup and I will be strolling around for a long time today, soaking up the spring. To be truthful, the northeast has enjoyed a very mild winter this year (the second mildest in history according to the news reports) and we escaped the majority of the deep freeze, snow and slush that normally blankets us for a few months. But psychologically, I still knew it was winter but now it is spring! OK, I'll shut up about that now.

Bailey's Banana Colada

For the past few months my bestie has been going on and on about some cocktail that she and her hubs had on their way to Montauk last summer. Finally, as we all gathered last weekend for some food and merriment, we decided to try to recreate it. We didn't have a recipe but we did have a blender and all the likely suspects for ingredients. The problem was that as we kept tweaking and pouring and tasting, we kinda lost track of what we'd added. So by the time we thought we had it right, we were all too drunk to remember the ingredients. Haha...what a bunch of wacky kids we are...except for the fact that we're all over 40!

Simple and Sweet Soda Bread

A number of years ago I had the pleasure of working with a few Irish clients and, consequently, found myself frequently dining at Irish restaurants. There was plenty on the menus to suit my taste but the soda bread was never particularly interesting to me. Last year, however, an Irish colleague brought a soda bread into the office and I was fortunate enough to get a small piece before it was set upon and devoured as if by a pack of ravenous wolves. The bread was actually made by a friend of hers and it was unlike any I'd had before.

Heavenly Cheesecake Brownies

On Saturday, Brian and I were invited to a friend's house for dinner. When I asked her a few days prior what she'd like us to bring she said she'd appreciate dessert, maybe brownies or cheesecake which are her two favorites. And so I thought to myself that I would bring cheesecake brownies and thus combine the best of both. I've never made them myself and I wasn't particularly in the mood to bake so I intended to buy them from a bakery. There's one near us that usually has delicious cheesecake brownies but this time they did not. I headed to another nearby bakery that had them but theirs looked stale and dry. Sigh. I guess I'm baking cheesecake brownies.

I am Bubbly and Full of Sunshine!

That, at least, is the opinion of Chock Chip Uru, the resident kitchen diva over at Go Bake Yourself, who has given me the Sunshine Award. If, for any reason, you have not already visited this lovely Australian girl's blog than get over there at once. I would, however, advise you to lose some weight first because you will want to eat everything in sight!

Beef Casserole with Cheesy Cornbread Topping

I was going to call this recipe a chili but I didn't want to start a debate on what does or does not constitute authentic chili. So I figured that if I called it a casserole, all it constituted was dinner :)

Peace, Happiness & Pinterest

I've been having fun with Pinterest, adding my pins and looking at other people's inspirations to fuel my own. It's certainly making me focus on what I really care about. I like a lot of things but only a few conjure strong emotions and while it would be fun to be able to buy all those lovely things on my wish list, that won't bring inner peace or happiness. So here, then, are a few things that make me feel peaceful and happy.