Who doesn't like ice cream ?!? Especially when it's homemade!!! Well, I don't know anyone who would say "no" to homemade ice cream and when my daughter, Avery, and I went strawberry picking at the local strawberry picking farm (Jones Family Farms), we had an abundance of strawberries and decided that homemade strawberry ice cream was on the menu. She had received a Cuisinart ice cream maker several years ago as a Christmas gift, but honestly it had been collecting dust in the

Recently, my daughter and I went strawberry picking at the local farm in the town next door, Jones Family Farms. We had soooo many strawberries that we immediately went to work making all things strawberries. Now, a strawberry mojito is definitely an adult beverage so I did this recipe all by myself. If you've never had a mojito, then you must try one. It's a traditional Cuban cocktail made with white rum, simple syrup, mint, lime and club soda. I don't eat or drink too many

June is Strawberry Month!!! It's the month when the local strawberries are in their prime but since we are now at the end of June, this is a recap of my fun day Strawberry Picking with my daughter at Jones Family Farms in Shelton, Connecticut. I had mentioned in my kayaking day with my daughter (see article here) that here in Connecticut, I live very close to so many fun outdoor activities and strawberry picking is one of them. I used to pick strawberries every year with my m

Craving dessert? Craving a cocktail? Craving chocolate? Craving coffee? Craving pretzels? I know that's a lot of cravings BUT if you are craving them all (you probably didn't KNOW you were craving THEM ALL), now that I've listed these ingredients, I bet you ARE craving them ALL! So, now that I've subliminally made you crave all these ingredients (dessert, cocktail, chocolate, coffee AND pretzels), you can put them all together and create my Chocolate Pretzel Martini! Here's m

My middle child, (whom you met in this article) is a bit of a "cat with 9 lives"... what I mean is: he seems to have the most bad luck when it comes to his health & well-being. He's: -- fallen off his bike badly enough to leave a facial scar -- got hit in the face with a baseball & almost lost his 2 front teeth -- narrowly missed being hit with a heavy door -- and a few other things that I will save for a later article... but this time, it's his KNEE... multiple baseball inju

I love to be active. I am just not good at sitting still. And when the weather is fantastic like it has been here in Connecticut, I want to run outside and soak it all up. I feel very thankful and blessed living in Connecticut, I'm: -- 5 minutes from our town park (has a pool, lake, walking & biking trails, tennis & basketball courts, baseball & football fields) -- 10 minutes from local breweries (read here) & wineries -- 20 minutes from beautiful beaches along southern Conne

I've been making pasta salad for YEARS for various events, parties, picnics... and I always just go on the fly... I make up the pasta salad recipe based on whatever mood I'm in or whatever items I have in my pantry. But the pasta salad that I keep coming back to is my Hot Messy Bun's Summer Pasta Salad!!! It's only 5 ingredients and I've never had another recipe that keeps getting kudos and asked for more than this one. How simple: 5 ingredients! Most you already have in your

Pink is my FAVORITE color, if you haven't already noticed (see the design of this blog!), and I wear it all the time in clothing and I gravitate towards it whenever I see it. So, no surprise to you (or me) that I also enjoy a lovely glass of PINK wine... Rosé! I drink a particular type of wine depending on the food I'm eating (white wine goes with chicken), the weather (red wine on a rainy day) and of course, the pink kind, Rosé, perfect in the summer! It really IS "summer's

Travel doesn't necessarily need to be on a plane... it can be traveling within your own state or even just the next town over! And that's exactly what I did this weekend... I tried out the NEW brewery in Newtown, Connecticut, called: NewSylum. I may make a lot of homemade cocktails and I do drink a lot of wine, but I love beer too and I especially like TRYING new beer. Light beer, dark beer, IPA, sour beers. I've been to beer festivals, I put fruit in beer (think limes or ora