Two of my best friends and I had a little holiday happy hour tonight to celebrate the season. Peggy, Anne, and I have been friends since our kids were in elementary school. You know how that goes, when the kids are little, you see each other, if not daily – at least weekly, and then as the kids grow, it becomes less and less frequent. So getting together becomes more and more of a treat. Tonight was definitely a treat! Merry Christmas “besties”, love you both!

I found the blood orange sparkling drink at Costco, and Peggy said she has seen it at the grocery store as well.  If you can’t find it in your area, just use a mix of fresh blood orange juice and sparkling soda as a substitute.
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Peggy and I went to lunch today at our amazing mall, Scottsdale Fashion Square.  We ate at the new Fox Restaurant Concepts place called Modern Steak. Lunch was perfectly delish but what really stayed with me was a cocktail Peggy ordered called “Retail Therapy” (that name is just too cute!)  Once I tasted it, I wished I had ordered it too!  So, I came home, worked on it for awhile, and believe I have come close to duplicating it.  I’m calling my version, “Summer in a Glass” for obvious reasons.  It calls for simple syrup and for muddling, just as my Cucumber Martini did, so click here to go to that previous post if you need help with either the muddling technique or the simple syrup recipe. Thank you dear Peggy for lunch and my beautiful gift, but most of all, thank you for the gift of your friendship! xoxo
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It’s Saturday and Dave and I are at NAU in Flagstaff with our freshman, Connor, enjoying “Parents’ Weekend”.  Have a couple friends over and enjoy your Saturday with this tasty treat!

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I’m wondering how long this new feeling I’m experiencing will last? “What feeling?” you ask – Guilt! It’s 11:15 PM and although I’ve worked diligently on the blog off and on all day long (setting up links and learning new things- thanks as always Cyndi) I haven’t yet posted anything for the day. I don’t bother much with the emotion of guilt, I don’t find it to be a very productive one, so this is new for me! Honestly, I really am having a great time and am so excited about this blog and in fact my horoscope – I’m a Scorpio – has been crazy dead on. Here was today’s ”
You’re feeling wonderful. Exhilarated, excited and anxious for all new things to happen. Well here’s a newsflash: just thinking about change – the way you are – means it’s already started. Everything begins as a thought – as an idea – right? So now your only job is to get the show on the road with some action. Map out a battle plan on paper and get it started.” WOW! Anyhow besides slaving away on the “inner workings” of this site, I also was messing with my cable/TiVo connection for a larger part of the morning… sometimes all this techno stuff just really ticks me off. After doing back-bends, restarts, consulting TiVo.com, and finally having to call them twice, it all came down to unplugging it all (TV, TiVo box, cable box, and VCR) waiting 10 seconds and plugging it all back in so it could all reboot and be happy again. That’s all it took! And honestly, that is what I usually think of first, WTH?! The day wasn’t a total loss though, because I enjoyed a wonderful “end of the summer ladies-who-lunch” date at Lon’s with Barbara Fenzl and Kim Howard, my “Cooking Partners in Crime”. So yeah to that! Anyhow, since we only had leftover salmon, peppers, and pesto for dinner, I will just have to put up a cocktail recipe for today! My BFF’s, Peggy and Anne, and I discovered this great drink at Ocean Prime Restaurant back in the late summer of ‘08 on a girl’s night out. I served it at a Christmas party back in mid-December and then shared it with my other BFF’s, Jen and Jeff – who live in Illinois, in January. Hadn’t had it again until this month, twice now! First with Peggy and Anne a couple weeks ago and last night with the Froggatt’s at our Basil & Bay dinner. I know it sounds like a strange combo, but after serving it to more than about 3 dozen different people, I haven’t found one person who doesn’t love it- so don’t knock it till you try it!

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