Big Brown Triple Crown ?

This Saturday is the third leg of the Triple Crown of Horse racing - The Belmont Stakes. And if Big Brown wins, it will be the end of a 30 year draught for a Triple Crown winner.

So get out your party hats and have some fun.

Try a Belmont Breeze - here is the original recipe by Dale DeGroff

1.5 oz. Gentleman Jack (Jack Daniels)
.75 oz. Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry
.75 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
.75 oz. Simple Syrup
1.5 oz. Fresh Orange juice
1.5 oz. Cranberry juice

Shake ingredients with ice and top with half 7up and half soda, approx. one ounce of each. Garnish with fresh strawberry, mint sprig and a lemon wedge.

Decorate your table with White Carnations - they are the official flower of the Belmont and the winner is draped with a blanket of approximately 350 of them.

While you're waiting for the post time you can pitch horseshoes.
If you have young children, you can play pin the tail on the horse.

For snacks / food you can always go with a Western (Cowboy) theme. Some ideas would be chips and salsa and any type of barbecue with lots of tasty sauce. Baked beans and corn on the cob would be tasty side dishes.

Have lots of fun but don't forget to watch the race. It could be the first Triple Crown winner in thirty years.

Let's Go Pens!

Tonight we're cheering in my house. And with their win against the Detroit Red Wings, the Pittsburgh Penguins are cheering in their house - Mellon Arena. For anyone who had written the Pens off because they hadn't even scored a goal in the first two games, think again. This young team has a lot of passion and showed it tonight. I don't know if they will win it all, but if the rest of the games are like tonight, it will be a lot of fun to watch (just pass me the Tums).

The Pens being in the finals for the first time since 1992 really brought back a ton of memories for me. I was a new hockey fan back then. I was going to school at the University of Pittsburgh and staying in Pittsburgh for the summer to work. We were hockey crazy. Oh, how we wanted to go to a game but being cash strapped college students we had to settle for watching on TV. When they won it all, we did go down to Three Rivers Stadium for the rally though. Blew off work and everything. It's funny, I hadn't thought about that summer for years. Sid the Kid and Company has brought back those easy-living days of youth - to Pittsburgh hockey and to me, if only as a memory.

I hope they win, I really do. They're a special group. And I want them to win because it will bring 1992 back just a little more. Not that I want to be 19 again, but it's nice to remember when I was.