Our 1st Show for 2009!

Well tonight was our first show for 2009 and boy did we have a blast. First lets welcome Robin Peppers-Hunt aka "Detroit Style Diva" as my new co-host! I am sooooo happy to have Robin as the newest member of the Cocktails and Conversations Team! I have known Robin for well over 20 years and I know you're going to love her just as much as I do! With all that Detroit flava'...tell me how could you NOT love her! :-)


To kick off tonight's show we started with our signature cocktail for the evening...

Mixed Berry Bellini

Place 8 champagne glasses in freezer for 20 minutes. Combine 6 oz. frozen mixed berries (thawed), 1/4 cup orange juice and 1 Tbsp. sugar in blender; blend until mixture is pureed, about 20 seconds. Strain berry mixture and discard seeds. Add 1 Tbsp. berry puree to each glass and pour enough chilled sparkling wine to almost fill glass. Garnish with fresh mint. Serves 8.

To make this drink "kid friendly" or for folks who don't drink, you can easily substitute the sparkling wine with Sprite. Which is what I did and boy was that a good drink! Cheers!

Well it’s been a while since our last live broadcast and so much has been going on. My wonderful co-host Jonetta AKA “The Paper Diva” has left the show to go off and do bigger and better things with her company. We are sad to see her go and we wish her much success with her new business venture. Maybe we can get her to drop by the studio one day to tell us how things are going and fill us in on what she’s working on. Now we have Robin "Detroit Style Diva" with us and she will be adding her Detroit flava to the show. Oooh wee! We are all in for a treat.

As you know March 20th marked the first official day of spring and for those of you who know me, I absolutely LOVE the spring time. Georgia's springs are absolutely beautiful...lots of sunshine and warm weather! So in celebration of spring we decided to share some fun springtime entertaining ideas you can use.

While surfing the internet, I stumbled across this great website The Nest which is the sister site to The Knot. On the site they had some great ideas for parties that I decided to share. As we all know the economy sucks right now. Unemployment is at an all time high and GM is looking at possible bankruptcy. Needless to say many folks you know may not be in the partying mood. However on the site there were two party ideas that caught my eye.

Pink Slip Soiree - Economist say that we are in a depression...so why not party like it's 1929! The goal of this party is to encourage your laid-off friends to bring a "personal" calling card (i.e. their name, number and email address) so they can network with the other guests. Remember the saying, "it's not what you know but WHO you know". Invitations to the party can be actual "pink slips" giving them they who, what, when, where, and why about the event. For food, why not create your own "stimulus package" by using Chinese take-out boxes filled with yummy goodies. And ofcourse a party would be a party without a signature drink. In keeping with the theme why not serve "Pink Slip Slammers" made with vodka , pink grapefruit juice, and a splash of simple syrup.

Rolodex Bash - With everyone no on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, its time to actually friend/follow people up close and in person! The fun part of this party is that each guest has bring one of their favorite people to the party with them. The goal is to build a larger network. Invitations for this bash can actually be printed on a Rolodex Card...or you can do a simple Evite. For food, think bulk...remember the goal is to increase your network so there will be lots of people there. Serve items like chips, nuts, and popcorn. For drinks, think about beer and shots.

For more information on these parties and for additional ideas, check out The Nest at http://www.thenest.com/.

If you missed the live broadcast of the show don't worry...you can check it our here!






Happy Planning!