a new year's eve eve dinner party
We're having my little brother and his girlfriend over for a little pre-new year's eve fun tonight.  We're steaming clams and mussels and making homemade pizzas.  We've added a little Pennsylvania homegrown goodness, too - Art in the Age: Root
We'll also be making champagne cocktails and enjoying Christmas pie!  A fantastically 1950's recipe my mom made my entire life.  It's an oreo cookie crust with a candy cane, marshmallow and whipped cream filling...sounds nuts, but it's SO GOOD! Plus, it's pink!

The dish on 2010: What the Philly food-and-drink scene served up this year
At Old City's Art in the Age, Philadelphia advertising executive Steven Grasse created two interesting spirits: Root, an 80-proof organic liqueur made from birch bark; and Snap, a potent nod to real Pennsylvania German gingersnaps.

Mavea Water Filter!
Did you know that Americans purchased nearly 31 billion bottles of water in 2006 and spend $11 billion on bottled water ever year?  Of those bottles, only 10% are recycled, leaving 90% in landfills or as litter every day!  In addition, millions are being spent to clean up these plastic bottles!  (source)
My husband and I always use a water filter to keep our water clean and to avoid wasting bottles, so when I recently received this Mavea Water Filter it was perfect timing as our other filters had surpassed their use!
I love the look and style of this filter and feel so trendy just pouring a glass of water!
My favorite feature is this meter that tells you when to change your filter, which is definitely helpful for me as I don't pay enough attention to this.  It takes about 1 minute to filter the water and to see the filtering process, see here.
Mavea's blog recently started a series called "Cooking with Mavea" so you can look forward to a Simply Life contribution soon in addition to all their other great info and recipes!

The Story of (ginger) SNAP- 12.27.10
I love when beautifully packaged delicious liqueurs come with nicely illustrated stories around their necks… like the Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction SNAP ~ a ginger snap spirit, from the makers of ROOT. Previously i showed you ROOT as well as a sample of Snap in a glass jar we tasted… since the production bottles were not yet ready… This time you can see the finished product! Popping the cork on this bottle, it smells like gingerbread houses wafting out, perfect for this wintry holiday season… the mix of blackstrap molasses, cloves, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, rooibos tea and vanilla is just irresistible! Perfect for getting creative with cocktails playing with everything from apple cider to toasty fireside drinks. The story was so cute (and educational!) had to share the booklet details with you… lovely illustrations… check it all out on the next page!

Beautifully illustrated Story of (ginger)SNAP
Beautifully illustrated Story of (ginger)SNAP ~ as found around the neck of the bottle of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction's SNAP spirit.

Gourmet pizzas were hot; flavor trend was to hearty side
Zavino
112 S. 13th St.; 215-732-2400; www.zavino.com
This lively pizzeria-wine bar adds a worthy new option to Philly's suddenly growing artisan-pizza scene, with a corner cafe space at 13th and Sansom that hums with a casual, youthful vibe. Founding chef Steven Gonzalez has left since the initial review, but a recent revisit proved Zavino's kitchen remains steady under new chef Matt White, with flavorful charcuterie and cheese plates and heat-blistered pies that easily rank among the city's best, from the minimalist perfection of the puffy-crusted Margherita (yes, better than Stella's) to the signature spicy meatball. The small and quirky wine list remains a mixed-bag work in progress. But a Snap liqueur-infused panna cotta for dessert was not to be missed. Reviewed April 18; revisited December.