May has flown by so quickly. Another school year coming to a close. TV series winding down for the summer. One more wedding to party at. Lining up summer flights.
Ahhhh… summer is just about here! One of my favorite new things to grill on the barbie is fresh corn on the cob — soaked and grilled in the husk. Yummmm. And a piece of marinated chicken to go with it.

And, just as the sun’s setting? A Creamsicle Martini (pg.. 79 of Sandra Lee semi-homemade Cocktail Time book). A little vanilla vodka, with strawberry nectar and strawberry liqueur, shaken with half and half, and ice, and you’re on the grown up ice cream truck!

Yes, definitely on a scale of LUSH IT, LUSH IT A LOT, OR LEAVE IT, this is a Semi-HomeTested Cocktail rating of LUSH IT A LOT!

Hmmm… I think I’ll try whipping up a variation of this as an Orange Creamsicle – stay tuned!

Tip: Also try this one in the blender – and don’t forget use fat free half and half.

Woo-hoo! Jill finally gets to reap her just rewards. Although it is sad to see anyone treated badly, Jill just jets in and drops in on Ramona’s Island getaway, acting like nothing bad has passed between Jill and Bethenny. OR Jill and Alex. And after poo-poo’ing Ramona’s (OK lavish) plans to renew her vows, Jill expects Ramona to be thrilled that she is now ready to drop in and celebrate with the housewives???

And what did Jill expect her poor husband to do on the island of Meltdowns? Well, it turned out that wasn’t a worry as the housewives shunned Jill and sent her packing. On her private jet.

My take is that Jill fought with everyone – High School mean girl style – and lost. Jill’s TV popularity rating must be really low for her to come crawling back to Bethenny like that.

And how sad is it that Kelly, after leaving the island, had lunch with Jill (who I might add was very catty to her) and LuAnn which only solidified everyone’s opinion that Kelly has lost it.

Anyway – this show is getting tres boring – the most entertaining thing that happened is that Jill fell on her butt at her party while ice skating in a 1970′s looking skating outfit!!!

SO, let me recap. Jill got kicked on her butt, then she fell on her butt. Yup, boring!

But we must stay tuned. Jill called Bethenny for a truce luncheon. Bethenny accepted the lunch date, but will she renew her friendship??? I’m betting NO. Jill has talked badly about Bethenny to too many people.

But I still want to know – (and I do like Bethenny) – what is going to make Bethenny’s new show entertaining?

I must say that at least I enjoyed the Creamsicle Martini -pg.79 Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cocktail Time book while I watched the show!

Bittersweet. While I am so excited to see that the Space Shuttle Atlantis landed perfectly, it is sad to see the end of such an important era.

The world has gained much from the successes and failures of this Space Program.

KUDOS TO YOU NASA AND THE SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS TEAM!!!

It’s always the little brother! He’s going to be a businessman. He’s going to be in charge. He has the charm to pull it off…. usually. But will Chris’s idea to have a worldwide chain of Car Wash & Strippers be a reality? Well.. it could happen.

So his family sends him to their close friend and businessman extraordinaire. And just who is he? A guy in a suit managing a strip club. And his advice to Chris? “Don’t call it a strip club… call it a gentleman’s club”. Are you freak’n kidding me? This is going to make his mother, Caroline, proud?

Actually, if he just implements it Hooters style with the bustier (and bustiest) tops and Daisy Duke shorts, Chris will probably get Caroline’s blessing and end up making a pile of money. Maybe. I can think of sooooo many things that could go wrong with this plan. Being outside and on the streets is a weee bit different than being inside serving fries. Or maybe I’m kidding myself!

Anyway, at least it was something different from just the usual cat fighting!

BUT WAIT – we can’t leave Teresa out of our chat here. Was she too funny when after a very hard contraction, she weakly asks ‘Is my makeup ok’? Ya gotta love her. She’s so goofy-funny.  And Audriana  is truly a beautiful baby!!!

So, we have the return of crazy to look forward to next week with Demonic Danielle and her oh-so-tuff ex-con buddies. Did she meet them when she was a ‘working girl’? I’m betting they don’t even get in the door of the Brownstone!

Will next week on the Real Housewives of New Jersey be a table flipping event?  Will Teresa be there??  Can’t wait!!

Enjoy a Semi-HomeTested KIWI KOOLER while you wait!

It’s always fun to have friends over. It was such a perfect evening, my girlfriends and I were able to sit outside and enjoy cocktails and catch up with each other.

The cocktail of the evening was the KIWI KOOLER from page 76 of Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cocktail Time book.

This delicious blend of fresh Kiwi fruits, guava nectar, and spiced rum is made creamy with the addition of yogurt (I used non-fat plain yogurt) with a touch of lime and mint. Ya know what’s really handy to make this cocktail? . . .

My Margaritaville machine — I love that almost as much as my Kitchen Aide mixer – which I love, love, love. Just throw a pile of ice in that, load up the blender with the KIWI KOOLER ingredients, and WALAAA!! !! Delicious, creamy yumminess.

Everyone liked it, but agreed, you only want one – it’s just a tad on the ‘too much like a milkshake’ side.

But yummy neverless so, out of a LUSH IT, LUSH IT A LOT, OR LEAVE IT, we gave this a Semi-HomeTested rating of LUSH IT.

Salude!

Will it pick up spilled coffee? NO. Does it pick up 5 times it weight in water? NO. Does it pick up anything?  Well, maybe…. I’ll let you tell me!

It’s a T-Cee Semi-HomeTested original cocktail.  I call it the Cham-Wow.

This is a creamy delightful mix of:

• 1 oz. Chambord
• 1 oz. Bailey’s Irish Creme
• 2 oz. soda water

Shake it up with lots of  ice and pour it into your favorite martini glass.  Taste!!   Ahhhh….

Maybe Ms.  Sandra Lee would be willing to make one of these on her show??!  I think she’d like it.

OK, rating time – LUSH IT, LUSH IT A LOT, OR LEAVE IT?  I definitely give the Cham-Wow a LUSH IT A LOT!

Try it and  let me know what you think.

Salude!

Hooray for Book Club night. We are known as the MAHI (Margueritas And Hot Intelligent) chics. However, since the MAHI Chics have agreed to be my guinea pigs for my Semi-HomeTested Cocktails, we drank PASSIONPOLITANS. See Sandra Lee semi-homemade Cocktail Time, pg.84.

I chose this cocktail because between the pineapple and cranberry (I used diet) juices and the mix of tequila (I used Jose Cuervo gold instead of the recommended silver), vodka (I chose Smirnoff), and passion fruit rum, it sounded amazing. That, and the recipe made a batch of 10 cocktails! Thirsty group that we are, I thought that would be handy. I must note, that the other change I made to the cocktail recipe was, I omitted the gin and doubled the passion fruit rum – no one I know likes gin.

OK, about the book, The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan. She is married, has 2 kids, and has tremendously close ties to her mom and 2 brothers, but is especially close to her dad, Greenie. Both Kelly and Greenie develop cancer and this is her story of how it affected all of them.

We MAHI chics enjoyed the book – the funny and sad parts – and had a great discussion about family ties, both within the context of the book and in our own lives. We saw Kelly as very strong yet immature and decided that she was incredibly honest in laying this out in the book on her journey out of the Middle Place and into adulthood.

This morning, I found a brutally honest essay Kelly wrote online about her parenting skills – I think most parents can relate to it in some way.  I think if my kids saw it, they might find a similarity or two – OK, maybe more than two.  Thank you Kelly!

So, back to the cocktails. LUSH IT, LUSH IT A LOT, OR LEAVE IT? Everyone loved the PASSIONPOLITAN and decided it gets a Semi-HomeTested rating of LUSH IT A LOT!

Salude!