A few weeks ago I received an invitation from Veuve Clicquot to join for an evening floral arranging class with my friend Ariana Lambert Smeraldo at her ultra-chic floral boutique, Lily Lodge. I knew it would be fun and that I’d learn a thing or two because Ariana has exquisite taste and her floral arrangements are second to none (psst—if you are wondering what we moms really want for Mother’s Day, a big green box from Lily Lodge is a good start). If you’ve ever wondered who does the drop-dead gorgeous arrangements at Bouchon, it’s this girl:

At some point we’ll want to devote another post to Ariana’s hair, but in the meantime back to the flowers. Buckets of orange and pink petals on tables as Ariana instructed us how to arrange, starting with our biggest blooms first and playing around with height and color.

There were trays of gorgeous little lobster rolls and ahi on cucumbers. Even the food was pink and orange!

I love the idea of using cupcake wrappers for popcorn or crab salad. Wouldn’t they be great for a birthday party?

And there was champagne, lots of it—pretty little coupes of Veuve Clicquot Rosé with candied rose petals were on offer from young gents, also with good hair.

If I can ask you to refocus your attention for just one moment, check out the gorgeous array of vintage vases over his shoulder in the background. Oh, that’s what you were looking at all along? Good. Because one of Ariana’s exquisite arrangements sent in a vintage vase for Mother’s Day would really knock it out of the park.

At the end of the evening we got to take home our creations. I love Natalie Martin‘s arrangement, above, but she is a fashion designer after all so of course hers is going to look fabulous! Ditto for the stylings of STYLOOT co-founder, Carlota Espinsoa, below.

Even if my own arrangement was, in Ariana’s words “wild and crazy,” I am absolutely wild and crazy about it! Here it is on our kitchen table.

Cheers and thanks to you, Ariana, for an absolutely beautiful evening.

Veuve Clicquot Champagne Reception at Lily Lodge photos courtesy of Veuve Clicquot.

The all-time most popular recipe on TheFoodinista.com remains David Lansing‘s Perfect Margarita, pictured above. David knows his margs, and years ago I sent him down to Jalisco to research tequila for Bon Appétit magazine. Amazing that he ever came back, but when he did it was with this recipe. The man knows his stuff, and his margs. Get his recipe HERE.

I’m a believer that the best margarita is one somebody else makes for you, which is why this dandy little “skinny margarita” that Bruce stirs up at our local tennis club ranks right up there. I’ve watched him make it more times than I care to admit, and as best I can tell here are the basic proportions.

Los Angeles Tennis Club Margarita

1 tablespoon kosher salt

2 ounces fresh lime juice, plus one lime wedge

2 ounces* silver tequila (Bruce uses Patron, I like Don Julio)

2 tablespoons triple sec

1/4 cup club soda

*2 ounces is a heavy pour, and believe me I’m not complaining, but you may want to start with 1 1/2 ounces. Or not.

Sprinkle salt on a small plate. Rub lime wedge around rim of a rocks glass and dip in salt to coat rim. Fill rocks glass with ice. Add lime juice, tequila and triple sec. Stir, and then top with club soda.

The Soho House Picante de la Casa Margarita is my favorite new discovery for spicing things up in the marg department. This one gets its kick from red jalapeños and cilantro. My friend Vanessa recreated the recipe for home consumption and says feel free to play around with proportions depending on how spicy you like it.

And then it’s hard to improve on perfection, which is why this is my go-to classic margarita recipe. Simple and sublime.

Foodinista’s Go-to Marg

Makes 4 stiff drinks

Kosher salt

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

1 cup Don Julio blanco tequila

1/2 cup triple sec

Sprinkle salt onto a small plate. Take a juiced lime peel and rub around rims of glasses, dip glass rims in salt. Pour lime juice, tequila, and triple sec into a shaker full of ice. Shake and strain into salt-rimmed glasses.

Whenever my friend Lulu Powers sees silver mint julep cups at a thrift store or flea market, she grabs them. As a result she has an awesome assortment of mismatched cups that looks so effortlessly chic when she serves up cocktails, or “sneekys” as she calls them. I was inspired to do the same, and picked up this silver-plate engraved julep cup from Churchill Downs—home of the Kentucky Derby—on eBay. I surprised my husband with it just in time for Derby Day, and think it makes a wonderful cup for his toothbrush, razor, and comb and such in our new bathroom.

I love hotel bathrooms. I mean love. So when it came time to redo our own bathroom, I looked to some of my favorite hotels for inspiration. In my book, London hotels are the ones to beat, with those gorgeous polished nickel fixtures and  creamy palettes that age so gracefully. But I’m also partial to New York subway tile—it’s so good if a little masculine. Plus, I’m married to a New Yorker and don’t live in a luxury London hotel, so subway seemed to make sense for our project. So I’ve split the difference and used warm, antique whites and polished nickel with rich, creamy subway tile and a vintage hex floor that’s time appropriate to our 1921 Los Angeles home. Can’t wait to share the finished product, but in the meantime a sneak peak at the elements:

We’ve been up to our eyeballs in a bathroom remodel over here—more on that to come—but we’ve also found a little time to eat dinner, too. I’ve made this wonderfully light and refreshing orzo salad a couple times in the past few weeks. It’s great with grilled fish or roast chicken, and is an old favorite recipe from Dean and Deluca. I can just tell it’s going to be making the scene all summer.

Orzo Salad with Lemon, Mint and Ricotta Salata

From Dean and Deluca

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup minced shallots
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, or more to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked orzo
1/2 cup very finely diced yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup very finely diced seedless cucumber
1/2 cup crumbled ricotta salata cheese (about 3 ounces)
3 tablespoons minced fresh mint leaves

Cook the orzo in a large kettle of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain pasta completely in a colander, running under cold water. Transfer orzo to a bowl, stir in the olive oil mixture, and let cool. Stir in the bell pepper, cucumber, ricotta salata, and mint until combined well. You could serve the salad immediately, but we think it tastes best if you let it stand at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.

We’re back from a week in paradise, namely visiting my in-laws in Gulf Stream, Florida. There was lots of swimming in the ocean, lots of french fries by the beach.

But best of all was watching my sons play together, with their cousins, with their grandfather. There is no vacation quite as perfect as the one that reminds us how lucky we are to have each other.

This weekend I’ll be celebrating my sons’ and husband’s Irish heritage with some good friends, who are going all out with corned beef and cabbage. I’m bringing a chocolate stout cake for dessert. When I was at Bon Appétit, an editor cult favorite was a recipe for Chocolate Guinness layer cake that I was pretty sure could never be bested. And then I tried Heidi Swanson’s Chocolate Bundt Cake, which calls for chocolate stout instead of Guinness. Chocolate stout refers to a style of stout that is brewed with roasted malts, which impart a chocolate flavor.  This one, below, which I picked up at Whole Foods, has actual chocolate in it. And while I wouldn’t want to drink it, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is perfect for cake baking purposes.

Heidi’s recipe is inspired thanks to several other innovative ingredients—such as whole wheat flour, yogurt, maple syrup, darkest muscovado sugar for moisture—and much less butter. If you are familiar with her website, 101cookbooks.com, you know that she often improves classic recipes by making them healthier and cutting out unnecessary sugar or butter. She’s kind of a genius. And the proof is in this cake.

Imagine a perfectly rich but not too sweet chocolate cake with subtle malty notes, frosted with buttermilk cocoa icing and sprinkled with Maldon salt.

And then imagine it disappearing faster than you can say blarney…

I’ve never been a fan of Uggs and have never owned a pair. There, I said it. But that doesn’t mean my feet don’t get cold, even in Los Angeles! And so when I discovered these grown-up cousins of the Australian original while traveling last year, I pounced. The cult London label Mou is known for hand-crafted natural fiber boots that are fashion forward, feminine and produced with an ethical and eco-friendly approach. They’re also super comfy and offer good support. I love the crochet wool seams on the Eskimo 24 boots and the soft silvery metallic leather (there are lots of other color options, too). Though if I lived in a colder climate I would be all about these tall Mous in metallic black:

Last weekend, four friends and I ran the Pasadena Rock ‘n’ Roll 13.1 Marathon. During our weekly training runs, my friend Laurie and I often talked about dinners we’d cooked during the week. She mentioned a French friend’s Christmas Eve tradition of waking the family at midnight and serving Champagne with roast potatoes, smoked salmon, crème fraîche and chopped chives. The secret, she said, was to sprinkle a little allspice over the potatoes while roasting. It seemed like it might be the perfect post-race recovery brunch—and it was.

Midnight Potatoes & Smoked Salmon

Serves 4

8 medium-size Yukon Gold potatoes, skins on

1/2 cup olive oil

Pinch of ground allspice

Salt and freshly cracked pepper

12 ounces sliced smoked salmon

1/4 cup crème fraîche

Fresh chives, chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut potatoes in half (or quarters if larger potatoes) so that potatoes are uniform in size. In a roasting pan or glass baking dish, toss potatoes in olive oil with a pinch of allspice, and season generously with salt and pepper. Bake in oven for 35 minutes, or until tender (stirring potatoes midway through to ensure even cooking).

Divide potatoes between four plates. Drape salmon slices over potatoes. Drizzle each with crème fraîche, sprinkle with chopped chives and cracked pepper.

If not in the bedroom, then let’s start by heating things up in the kitchen tonight. Last night at cooking club, the theme was recreating your favorite restaurant dish. The evening requires a separate post—Mozza meatballs, tagliata and Brussels sprouts with prosciutto breadcrumbs, Akasha kale salad, Ammo lentil salad, Café des Artiste mac n cheese, Hungry Cat ceviche and chocolate bread pudding, all SO good. (And apparently a lot of us like Mozza and Hungry Cat.)

But for the purposes of romance, for igniting that flame tonight, might I suggest my friend Vanessa’s recreation of the Soho House Picante de la Casa Margarita? Vanessa notes, “There are no real directions for how much pepper/cilantro to add so you just have to experiment and see how spicy and cilantro-y you like it.”

If you know what I mean.

SOHO HOUSE PICANTE DE LA CASA MARGARITA

Makes 2 cocktails

Red jalapeño, chopped, to taste

Fresh cilantro leaves, to taste

4 ounces Cazadores tequila

1 ounce agave nectar

2 ounce fresh lime juice, squeezed