A Spice & Ice Cocktail Party with Kara Newman

My first virtual cocktail party and I’m late. Apologies to Kara Newman, the hostess. I hope you’ll let me join in the fun anyway because I brought a great drink: Red Dawn, from your lovely book, Spice & Ice: 60 Tongue-Tingling Cocktails.

In fact, I had the perfect occasion in which to enjoy it: the Red Carpet ceremony that preceded the Academy Awards presentation. Usually I hold a small ‘Red Carpet Rant’ party, in which a group of us picks apart what the Hollywood glitterati are wearing as they teeter or swagger their way down the crimson path and are forced to exchange words with the likes of Ryan Seacrest. As you might imagine, a good cocktail does much to enhance this experience.

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Severn Sailing Association 7th Annual Chowder Competition

They said it couldn’t be done. No way would a vegetarian chowder ever claim the top prize. But at the 7th Annual Chowder Throwdown, held recently at the Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis, Charlotte Shearin proved them wrong.

Shearin, who lives in southern Maryland and is earning a master’s degree in marine estuary environmental science, won first place in the innovative category with her pale golden Curried Succotash Chowder--chock full of corn, potatoes and edamame beens but not a mollusk in sight. By sheer coincidence, her boyfriend, Darden Pickall, a marina manager, won in the classic category for a rich and wholesome Rockfish Head Chowder.

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