Happy Hour

Popcorn has never really been a craving of mine.  I think it’s because I wore braces as a kid and you’re not supposed to eat popcorn when you wear braces.

But of course, popcorn and adult beverages do tend to show up in the same places, as they did during a recent visit to the Naples Grande Beach Resort.  If you haven’t visited Naples, Florida lately, it’s not the retirement community that some might remember it to be.  The city is booming and the Naples Grande is a posh, modern, happening place where you can get in some serious fun and sun.

So I was at the bar sipping a Purple Haze martini with some friends and the server left us some popcorn.  Not just any popcorn, mind you…she said it was white truffle popcorn.  Well my foodie ears just perked right up and I decided to give it a try.

Tasty!!  So much so, in fact, that we proceeded to eat three bowls of it and ask the server to show us how to make it.  All you do is spray a little white truffle oil on plain old popcorn.  How easy is that?!

Now that the weather is turning chilly, this will be a great treat to savor as we fend off cabin fever in front of the TV.  Enjoy!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.

The holiday’s origin is in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain.  The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1.  It marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, which was often associated with death.  So on the night of October 31, the worlds of the living and dead become blurred…and the dead would come back to earth.  Early ceremonies were bonfires, where people wore costumes and offered sweets in the hopes that the spirits would not damage their crops.

Fast forward to modern times and this offering of sweets became trick-or-treating.  As a kid, I would put together some sort of costume and visit the neighborhood houses.  Of course, that was back in the days when you didn’t have to take your candy to the emergency room to be X-ray’d before you could eat it.

When I was first married, we looked forward to Halloween.  And, we were an in-demand location.  We gave out full-size candy bars.  Yep, that’s right…full-size candy bars.  Imagine how big a little kid’s eyes would get when they picked out a candy bar that was bigger than they were.  It was priceless.

Unfortunately, Halloween has gone commercial in response to the weirdness and wildness of society.  Theme parks take care of our haunted houses.  Shopping malls hand out candy.  And, we can get our hot apple cider at Starbucks.

So while I don’t have trick-or-treaters anymore…I have kept one Halloween tradition.  Watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show and eating Spooky Joes.  Sounds hokey I know…but it’s my way of keeping the tradition and I’m sticking to it.

Happy Halloween everyone.  Now let’s do the Time Warp again . . .

Those in-the-know are aware that the HR Bartender is a lifelong foodie.   I just returned from an all-too-brief but wonderful tour of the Naples Grande Beach Resort where they have a Strip House steakhouse - YUM.  But more on that in another post.

Today being Martini Friday, I want to explore what is being called “The Quick 10: The Birthplace of 10 Great American Foods” as it appears in mental_floss.  This fun little article delves into the roots of some of this country’s best known and loved cuisine.  Well, cuisine may be a little high-end of a term for these creations.  But you can’t help but recognize them and maybe even some of their respective birthplaces.

According to the Library of Congress, the hamburger originated in America at Louis’ Lunch restaurant in New Haven, CT.  Who knew?  The original American pizzeria?  Lombardi’s in New York City.  You probably got that one.

Okay, here’s another one that’s widely debated . . . the cheesesteak sandwich was born in 1951 at Pat’s King of Steaks in (of course) Philadelphia, PA.  Geno’s Steaks has claimed for years to have perfected the cheesesteak several years later.  And in 1937, diners at the famous Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, CA witnessed the birth of the Cobb Salad.

You can explore the rest of the list, including the root beer float, corn dogs, and fried Twinkies(huh?).  But what I want to know is, where’s all the important stuff?  Who invented the martini?  Key lime pie?  Steak au poive?

If you know a good one, please share.  I’ll get things started . . . last year, I had the pleasure of visiting a charming little restaurant called Barrachina that’s right in the heart of Old San Juan, PR.  Their claim to fame?  In 1963, don Ramon Portas Mingot created the original Piña Colada.  Now that’s worth a toast . . . Cheers!

Happy Martini Friday!  It’s hard to believe that Halloween is only a few days away.  Before we know it, the holiday season will be upon us and we’ll be faced with that next-to-impossible task of finding the perfect gift for all of our friends.

Let me share with you a little gem of a gift that’s sure to bring smiles to anyone on your holiday list.  Stirrings has a cocktail of the month club.  You can give that special person 3-, 6-, or 12-months of home-based happy hours.  Imagine the smile on their face when they come home after a long day in the office to a cocktail mixer and rim garnish.  Just add liquor and enjoy.

And, while you’re at it…you can order one for yourself.  You work hard, right?!  Treat yourself.  (You could call it ‘gift testing’…after all, you wouldn’t want to give a close family member something that doesn’t meet your standards, right?)

The New Frugal has heralded the return of stay-at-home entertaining which makes this gift a can’t miss hit.  Holiday Cheers!

It’s Martini Friday so let’s have a little fun to get a jump start on the weekend!

We have a fascination with ‘what’s in and what’s out’.  When something is popular, we call it the ‘new black.’  Whether it’s with colors - brown is the new black - or trends like being frugal is the new black, something is out there that we latch onto and embrace at least for a while.

In social networking, it used to be LinkedIn.  Now LinkedIn is still very important…I’m not recommending that you delete your account.  But the über-cool place to be right now is Twitter.

What’s Twitter you ask?  Well, it’s a micro-blog.  A blog, like HR Bartender, allows me to convey my thoughts, ideas, and feelings as often or as little as I like in as many or as few words as I like.  Twitter allows you to convey those same thoughts and feelings…but you have to do it in 140 characters or less.  That’s where creativity kicks in and you have to be succinct in your tweets (that’s the Twitter word for what you write in your updates.)

You can follow people to read their tweets and they can follow you.  While that might appear on the surface like cyber-stalking…it’s no different than subscribing to someone’s blog.  And, if you already have a blog…you can cross-reference your posts in Twitter for a little extra marketing boost to your blog traffic.

But social networking and marketing aside, it’s just plain fun!

So, when you get finished inviting everyone you know to LinkedIn…come visit me and my Tweeps in Twitter.  You can follow me at Sharlyn_Lauby or HRBartender.  See you in Twitterland…

I’m sitting in the lounge at The Shores Resort in Daytona Beach at the end of a long day of meetings.  l get some of my best ideas in restaurants and bars.  After a long day at work, it’s great to just hang out with a glass of wine, listen to some jazz, and decompress.

For me that involves letting go of my mental ‘to-do’ list so I can actually relax and let my thoughts wander.  Of course, I never go to a bar with a pen and paper so I can write my ideas down, let go of them, and get on with my evening.  So I have a habit of writing ideas and things I need to do on bar napkins.  You can imagine what it looks like when I go back to the office, dump out my bag and have dozens of bar napkins laying all over the place.  Bar napkins have become my version of the post-it note.

Now you might be wondering why I’m spending so much time talking about napkins.  Well, it’s because I’m here to celebrate being listed on Alltop.  How cool is that?!  If you’re not familiar with Alltop, it’s like a “digital magazine rack” of the internet.  And, for those of you who might need a visual - here’s an explanation from Dan Roam, author of Back of the Napkin:  Solving Problems with Pictures…on a napkin, of course!

So here’s to Alltop and the rest of the napkin artists of the world.  Cheers!