Hooray! It’s Wednesday night.  Book Club Night!! I just love this gathering of friends – we have so much fun that even if someone is not crazy about the book selection of the month, we still have a great time.

And this month was no exception.  Wow – where do I start – with the great White Wine Cooler (pg. 92 Ms. Sandra Lee semi-homemade Cocktail Time)?  With the great food?  With the fun and laughs we had?

Well, I’ll start with the food…  ummm, 2 different fresh from the garden tomato and basil salads – one with feta cheese,one with black olives and artichokes.  Then there was jumbo shrimp with spicy cocktail sauce!  Finished up by fresh Strawberries Romanoff with just a touch of Gran Marnier, and topped off, of course, with fresh whipped cream!

Now the book – we read HOTEL on the CORNER of BITTER and SWEET by Jamie Ford.  I LOVED this. (Most of the rest of the group did too,with one saying it was good, not great.)  I really enjoy reading about different cultures as long as it has an interesting story line with believable characters.

This is the story of a Chinese man, Henry, who recalls his youth when he fell in love with a Japanese girl, Keiko, right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Henry’s family had lived through much fighting in China, and his father was bitterly opposed to all things Japanese.  Their hope was to bring Henry up as an American, resulting in Henry going to an American school on ‘scholarship’ which ironically is where he met Keiko.  As Henry and Keiko’s innocent love begins to blossom, Keiko’s family is sent to an internment camp.  Years later, Henry deals with his past and his son’s future as his son breaks away from Chinese tradition.

The story was beautifully told and moved at a quick pace.  I definitely recommend reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

Now for the cocktails. We had White Wine Coolers – a delightful concoction of white wine, peaches, Gran Marnier and orange juice.  I omitted the sugar, from Ms. Sandra Lee’s recipe, because the juice from the canned peaches made it sweet enough.  This was a refreshing and light cocktail.

Did the group think the WHITE WINE COOLER  rated a LUSH IT, LUSH IT A LOT, or LEAVE IT rating?  We gave the White Wine Cooler a Semi-HomeTested rating of  LUSH IT!

Let me know what you think of the cocktail and/or the book. Looking forward to hearing from you…

Salude!

Bike Sharing Programs. Sounds good.  Cheap transportation.  No fumes.  Great exercise.

Although many cities don’t have the bike lanes to support this, Minneapolis is one city that is making it happen.

The proponents of the bike sharing program (as reported by the Durango Herald of  Colorado) say the reason it is more successful than other bike sharing programs, is that the bike RIDERS are responsible for the bikes and there are Kiosks at various stations where the bikes are locked and stored.

I LOVE this idea. So for your great Bike Sharing Program, I say …

HUMP DAY KUDOS TO YOU MINNEAPOLIS!

This Real Housewives of NY Reunion show part 2 was just pathetic. Absolutely nothing new happened. Except Any Cohen lost control of the show.

We do NOT need to watch the same conversation twice! And I’m hoping we won’t hear the same catfight for the 3rd time next Monday night.

Paaleeze Andy. You can do better than this!

And will someone please get some help for Kelly. She doesn’t seem to know where she is in the conversation. I am really afraid for her mental health.

BRAVO TV – listen up – This show would be better served by giving Kelly next season off and adding another NY housewife more like Sonja. Then they can have more interesting spats without it just being plain uncomfortable.

AND, speaking of being better served…. try my Semi-HomeTested SKINNY CRANILLA cocktail! It might knock you on your a##, but at least it won’t be MEAN to you!

Good Friends. Good Snacks. And a lively night of playing cards.

What more can you ask for?

Well, I say, you can ask for a great cocktail! And, yes, we had that too – the icy, refreshing LEMON TEASER (pg. 100 Sandra Lee semi-homemade Cocktail Time). But you might want to mix up a large batch of this prior to indulging at a gathering of more than 3 or 4 people. Why? Because it involves 2 kinds of rum (regular and coconut) and 2 kinds of juice (orange and pineapple). And ALL of the ingredients were in varying increments of 1/4 ounces.

Do you see how this might get confusing to make after you’ve participated in the first round? Well, not a major problem, but I for sure will do the math ahead of time and mix up a pitcher of LEMON TEASER ahead of time at the next game night!

And here’s something everyone wanted to know. WHY IS THIS CALLED A LEMON TEASER? There is no lemon in it and it does not taste like lemon! What??? Perhaps if Ms. Sandra Lee responds to my email, we will have our curiosity satisfied.

Regardless, it was DELICIOUS and enjoyed by all. The only issue was that some people couldn’t keep their cards straight (and I’m happy to report that it wasn’t me on this occasion) as the night wore on, but hey – the great thing about this group of friends is – we really don’t care – we don’t play for money, so who cares if you go bust. Again.

So, was this LUSH IT, LUSH IT A LOT, or LEAVE IT? We all agreed – the Sandra Lee LEMON TEASER gets a unanimous Semi-HomeTested rating of LUSH IT!

Salude!

This cocktail came about because about a month ago, I went to mix up a plain old vodka and cranberry juice, and I had everything BUT vodka in my bar. That was more annoying than going in the pantry to grab a cereal bar, and coming away with just the empty cardboard box. Tres annoying!

BUT, I digress. Anyway there was a bottle of vanilla vodka in my freezer. So, I filled a glass with ice, dropped an ounce of vanilla vodka in, topped it with 3 oz. of DIET cranberry juice, and dressed it with a fresh cut lime. Ummmmmmm!

Thus was born the SKINNY CRANILLA! Everybody that’s tried it has loved this one!

So, LUSH IT, LUSH IT A LOT, or LEAVE IT? The Skinny Cranilla definately gets a Semi-HomeTested rating of LUSH IT A LOT!

Salude!

How crazy uncomfortable was this RHONY reunion show? I’m glad Andy Cohen let Alex have her say, but I have to agree with Bethenny, enough is enough.

Really, Jill might cry, and I’m sure she really feels bad right now- but only for herself. Jill does not seem capable of understanding how awful she is to people. Jill really needs to be in charge and has to have a posse to be happy. So continuing to tell Jill why you don’t like the things she has done only produces more tears and uncomfortableness and does not change who Jill is or how she behaves.

Too bad. I wonder if Real Housewives of NY will be back. For Long. Really. Bethenny Frankel is gone. Jill Zarin is just bad news. Kelly Killeren Bensimon should go have a rest somewhere (else). LuAnn de Lesseps is boring. Sonja Morgan is a good change of pace, so that’s good. Ramona Singer should definitely stay – you never know what she will do, but it’s always entertaining!!! Ramona may be rude, but she is not mean – so I can handle. that. Alex McCord … well, Alex might be OK – but she and Simon are still a little bit creepy to me.

So anyway, at this 1st of 3 reunion shows, Jill walked off… And Kelly walked off. Maybe Andy should take away 1 hour of their air time each time they walk off. You can just bet they’d keep their keisters in place!

Or maybe they should enjoy a COSMORITA (Sandra Lee semi-homemade Cocktail Time) next week! And take it down a notch. Nahh!!! It’s gonna be a gladiator fight to the end…

What a fun day I had! I met a friend – we took care of personal grooming – ok – just eyebrows – nothing to get too excited about. But since we are pretty goofy, this was a lot of fun.

Next stop – LUNCH. We pretty much don’t do anything without stopping for food. We went to our favorite salad place and had a great time catching up.

On then, to shopping. We can make anything fun, and had a ball having the sales lady drag out every purse behind the counter. I have to say, this was not on purpose. I really DO have to touch everything! Sadly, I did not find a winner to take home.

Now, this next stop is TOTALLY my friend’s fault. We stopped in at Swarovski’s and BAM! I thought this store just had cute sparkly doggies, birds, etc. BUT THEY HAVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL JEWELRY!!

I fell totally in love with this ring. Oh my gosh! Brown crystals, opaque white crystals, turquoise, and clear crystals – one of those oversize rings — but FABULOUS!!

DARN! Why couldn’t I have discovered this before Mother’s Day?! Well, I will send my hubby a pointer to my blog tonight, and maybe he will see how much I really, really, want this, and then who knows???

Anyway, what a fun, relaxing day I had (even though sparkly is sad because I left it behind in the store).

And, as luck would have it, later (I believe it was around 6PM), hubby said something really mean to me. So, by rights, I should have flown into my car and retrieved sparkly to it’s rightful place – my right hand! But, NO, I decided to be mature about this, and instead, I prepared a delicious – fresh from the garden – tomato, basil, and oregano salad for me and hubby.

Soooo….. think about that while you enjoy this delicious COSMORITA (pg. 93 Sandra Lee semi-homemade Cocktail Time)! Lovingly prepared with (diet of course) cranberry juice, my other friend Jose Cuervo, and Rose Lime Juice!!

Is this COSMORITA a LUSH IT, LUSH IT A LOT, or LEAVE IT? I give this a Semi-HomeTested rating of LUSH IT!

PS – Can’t wait till tomorrow to see is sparkly is coming home with me!!!

Salude!