Dinner in Central Park - The Loeb Boathouse, New York, NY

East 72nd and Park Drive North, New York, NY 212-517-2233, www.thecentralparkboathouse.com

A business associate of Brian's was in town for the weekend with his wife and we took them out for a lovely dinner at the Boathouse. Whenever we entertain, Brian always leaves it to me to choose a place that out-of-towners would like and that would show off our city. Since we're in Manhattan, there's no shortage of impressive places but I like to feature the quieter, less touristy aspects of this city.

Tropical Fiesta Cocktail for Cinco de Mayo

This past St. Patrick's Day, I got together with a group of other food bloggers to create Irish themed recipes and we had an absolute blast doing it.  So much so that we decided to call ourselves the Holiday Food Party Bloggers and choose a few occasions throughout the year on which to unleash our creativity.  I think you can guess from the title of this post that now we're doing it up for Cinco de Mayo.  The holiday celebrates Mexico's independence but, in New York, it tends to be an excuse to gather at the many wonderful Mexican restaurants in the city, eat great food and drink margaritas.

Light Spinach Lasagna with Cauliflower Sauce

For those of you that enjoyed my cauliflower sauce recipe, I thought I'd show you another option for how to use it other than just pouring it over a pound of fettuccine and stuffing your face with every last bit of it.  Not that I think there's anything remotely wrong with that idea.  And I may have done that with my first batch of sauce but now, I've gotten hold of myself.  Also, I'm out of fettuccine.

Crispy Cheesy Buttermilk Chicken

Breaded chicken cutlets that are baked in the oven instead of fried.  Boring.  Yawn.  Zzzzz.  Everybody knows how to make those, right?  Well, until recently, that would be everybody except me.  The few times I'd tried it I ended up with dry, flat tasting chicken that made me feel like I was the only person on earth who couldn't cook this simple dish properly.

Mango Madness Martini

TGIF!  I'm particularly happy to see Friday this week. Such a busy few days with so many annoyances and errands and running around. And, to make matters worse, my running is more like hobbling as I struggle with an injured ankle. Ouch. But, Brian and I do have some fun Saturday night plans so I think I'll spend today resting my ankle and maybe sipping on our latest favorite cocktail.

Creamy White Bean Soup

I had expected to put away my soup pot by this time of the year but the weather hasn't warmed up enough to cool my cravings. In fact, we've had some pretty chilly nights where all I want to do is climb into my warm bed with a bowl of soup. And since I ran across this tasty looking concoction on one of my favorite blogs, I figured it was well worth putting the soup pot to some more use. Stephanie from Sarcastic Cooking has so many wonderful savory meal options along with stunning photographs and this soup was no exception.

Happy Birthday, Hadley!

Our little furry sous chef turns 4 today and we don't know where the time has gone. She may not be a baby anymore but she's still a happy, playful, tail wagging, ball chasing, people-loving pup. She's brought us so much love and happiness and we can't imagine our lives without her. I think this calls for a biscuit!

Creamy (and Light) Cauliflower Sauce

We love cauliflower and it appears on our dinner menu pretty often. Raw, steamed, roasted, mashed...we'll happily eat it in any form. But cauliflower sauce? I'd never heard of that. The other day, though, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Pinch of Yum, and Lindsay was expounding on the virtues of her cauliflower sauce in place of creamy, heavy pasta sauce. Huh? Whaaa? I had to make it. I mean, immediately! And I had a head of cauliflower in my fridge because I pretty much always do.

Lime in the Coconut Martini

I'm thinking it might be time for some kind of intervention.  Brian has apparently developed a condition whereby it is impossible for him to walk into any kind of liquor store without "discovering" some new Pinnacle flavored vodka for us to try.  He also insists that all vodka be stored in the freezer and we are WAY over capacity in there.  I'm not too keen on frozen food but there are a few things that do belong in there other than bottles of vodka, ice cube trays and cocktail glasses.  I nearly created an avalanche the other day trying to retrieve a package of frozen spinach!

Cheddar Apple Pie Grilled Cheese

Since April is National Grilled Cheese Month, I figured it was time I shared one of my favorite grilled cheese recipes with you.  Of course, it's more of an idea than an actual recipe since I'm assuming everyone knows how to put cheese on bread and toast it up.  It's the "extras" though, that make each version unique.  Tomatoes and avocados are popular additions and I certainly have no objection to a couple of slices of bacon.  But, since I'm usually trying to keep it on the leaner side, I tend to stick to this version more than any other.

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Tart

Do you remember the Bangles song "Manic Monday" where they sing about Sunday being "fun day" and "I don't have to run" day? That's pretty much how I feel about it. Saturdays tend to be busy and filled with errands but Sundays are for sleeping late and being lazy. Sometimes we meet friends for brunch and we frequently head out to the park with the dog but always in our own time. We also tend to be casual about food on Sundays. There are usually leftovers from Saturday so I'll just add a quick salad to whatever we have and we can tuck into bed for a light dinner and some Sunday night TV.

Double Chocolate Cake with Cherry Cheesecake Swirl

So, remember the other day when the bundt cake bakers got together to make cherry cakes for April? I had initially thought about combining chocolate and cherries but ended up making a more spring-like lemon cherry cake with a lemon glaze. It was delicious! But I still had chocolate and cherries on the brain. Plus I had a chocolate loaf cake recipe waiting to be tested and a leftover jar of cherry preserves and...the rest was fate. And a sweet tooth. :)

Lemon Cherry Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze

This month, the Bundt-a-Month group founders, Anuradha of Baker Street and Lora of Cake Duchess, chose cherry as our theme and my mind immediately drifted to warm weather thoughts. I love spring and summer and the appearance of the first, sweet cherries in the market makes me very, very happy. Unfortunately, we've had a horribly cold winter and it doesn't seem to want to let go. No fresh cherries yet. Hmm. Well, as much as I love fresh cherries, I should be able to make a cherry dessert even when the weather doesn't cooperate.

The Month in Review - March 2013

This year, March was the month that saw us longing for an end to winter and being constantly disappointed.  It snowed, it rained and it snowed some more.  We took the word of a lying rodent because we wanted desperately to believe...and then it snowed again.

So, we stayed in a lot and we cooked and we ate.  We changed the clocks and we celebrated St. Patrick's Day and Passover and Easter and we waited for spring.  Below is a recap of all the tasty foods we ate while we waited.  Enjoy!