Heidi gustan margaritas de frambuesa.

After a 7-year hiatus, I decided to put this tequila ban business behind me. Why let two (rather infamous) nights freshman year discount an entire category of drinks? So when we declared Mexican night Saturday, it was time to man up and face the tequila. I thought I'd give myself an easy start by adding chambord to my margarita on the rocks. It took a few close-nosed sips to get me going, but now I can fully participate in Mexican night. Más margaritas de frambuesa, por favor!
A Place to Eat.
Spring break meant catching up on homework and some sleep. A glamorous week with lots of winding threads around pieces of foam core and drawing to the soundtrack of many many episodes of Sex and the City. This week's perspective: a dining room.

Just Call Me Martha Stewart.
I guess the genes for my mother's sweet tooth are finally kicking in, because I've found myself baking and making chocolatey things a lot lately. I've made a few batches of "healthy" oatmeal cookies - one with asian pears, walnuts and almonds, the other with hazelnuts and chocolate chips. I've made a few batches of chocolates - organic peanut butter cups and hazelnut clusters. And the latest was a batch of chocolate-covered strawberries for a potluck at work. Turns out to be a big impact for not much work; the hardest part was trying to get out of my apartment with a decent stash in tact after losing quite a few to the roommates and apartment guests.

Step one: wash the strawberries and then dry them really well. No soggy strawberries.

Step two: you can use a double boiler if you want to be all fancy. Or if you're on the grad student budget like me, put 2 - 3 inches of water in the bottom of a saucepan then double up some tinfoil and make it into a little basin on the top of the pot. Turn the burner on high and put in about a cup of chocolate chips. Stir occasionally until it's really melted and starts to thin out a bit.

Step three: hold by the stem and swirl around in the chocolate. Place on a piece of saran wrap or parchment paper on top of a tray. Put the tray in the freezer to fully harden the chocolate before trying to remove them to put away.

I did about a third of them in white chocolate and was pleasantly surprised. I'm not usually a fan of white chocolate, but this yields more of a strawberries-and-cream kind of taste. Yum!

Happy Cherry Blossoms!