Click It. BEAT picks of the week.

My six-year-old linen Pottery Barn duvet cover finally got so worn/thin it tore, so I'm in the market for a new one. Ever since spotting it in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, I've loved the idea of the one from The Bowery Hotel (above) at home.

Speaking of The Bowery, my take on a pasta dish from their restaurant, Gemma.

And more food talk -- what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers.

If you're looking for something gripping to read -- Joan Didion's Blue Nights.

Two films to see this weekend -- A Dangerous Method, and The Artist.

Confession: I tried a chia seed Kombucha (I was so excited to see a grape flavor on the shelf, even the abundance of seeds didn't stop me!) today and was NOT into it. Recommendation: stick with the original.

Bazaar magazine Editor-in-Chief Glenda Bailey will be at Book Soup on Sunday afternoon (4:00 p.m.) discussing and signing Harper's Bazaar: Greatest Hits.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: concierge.com

Check It. Honesty Day.

Today, April 30, is Honesty Day. Ok, so it's not one of the major holidays, but if I can "celebrate" a holiday by drinking delicious organic iced tea, I'm going to go there.

Before you take a sip of Honest Tea's Heavenly Lemon Tulsi tea, you can smell in the clove-like aroma of the tulsi how good it's going to be. It's one of the newer products for the brand, first introduced last fall, and I think it will be a keeper.

Native to India, tulsi is also called "holy basil", and is one of the most important plants used in Ayurvedic medicine, and is grown around Hindu temples. Dr. Andrew Weil notes the herb's importance for treating stress, "The most compelling evidence I've reviewed indicates that holy basil may counteract the effects of stress."

And who doesn't love some good lemon in iced tea? Heavenly Lemon Tulsi contains lemongrass and lemon peel (as well as lemon myrtle, lemon juice concentrate, and lemon extract--all organic).

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: the BEAT

Drink It. Old Pasadena Happy Hour Week [Thirsty Thursdays!]

It's a new month -- March, already! Celebrate by heading up to Old Pasadena and partaking in their Happy Hour Week, which includes discounts and specials from up to 20 restaurants and bars around the area.

Think $10 cheese or chocolate fondues with $5 well cocktails at The Melting Pot; $20 pitchers of sangria and $4 Spanish chili cheese fries at Bar Celona; $5 cut rolls at Sushi Roku; $4 mimosas and 20% off all appetizers at POP Champagne and Dessert Bar. And of course, many many more specials. Check them all out here, and enjoy!

Old Pasadena Happy Hour Week lasts until next Tuesday, March 8.

-- Chau Tu

Eat In. Grapefruit Sidecar.

Making drinks at home can be great if you do it right. Firstly, a stainless steel shaker is a good start. Mine is from the Pottery Barn and twists to give you drink recipes. Martha Stewart makes a similar style.

One of my favorite classic cocktails is a sidecar. This past weekend I wanted one at home, but didn't have any lemons or limes. A quick replacement was fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice, and it ended up making quite a delicious drink! I think orange juice would work just the same. The grapefruit flavor really came through, and mixed well with the brandy and sweet triple sec.

Ingredients:

2 parts Brandy

1 part Triple Sec (Cointreau or Patrón Citronge)

1 part Fresh-squeezed Grapefruit Juice

Fill the shaker 3/4 with ice, pour in ingredients one by one, cover, and mix well.

Pour and serve immediately.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: Pottery Barn

Eat In. Lemonade and Jack Daniels [Thirsty Thursdays!].

Going with the lemonade theme of this week, I'm sharing an easy cocktail recipe that's great for the warm weather months. As a general rule, when you're using quality ingredients, it can never go too wrong, so with the two classics pictured above, no matter how you mix it, the drink is sure to be a hit.

Using a lowball glass, fill it with about four large ice cubes (or six smaller ones). This being a casual mixed drink, you can either free pour the Jack Daniel's to a level that looks about right (about 1/4 of the glass) or use a shot glass for measurement. Fill the rest with cold Newman's Own lemonade, stir lightly, and enjoy!

Depending on how much of the whiskey flavor you want in the drink, you might not want to fill the glass to where it looks like just lemonade, you'll want to see some of the whiskey color if you want the true marriage of the flavors.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: the BEAT

Drink It. Katie Lee's Mai Tai.

My favorite celebrity chef, Katie Lee, has a Chinese New Year menu on her website that includes crispy orange beef, chicken lettuce cups, and Chinese five-spice kettle corn. These refreshing-looking Mai Tai cocktails are the drink of choice for the Year of the Tiger.

Recipe, per Katie Lee:

1 1/2 oz. white rum

2 oz. fresh orange juice

2 oz. pineapple juice

1 oz. grenadine

juice of 1/2 a lime

Shake ingredients together in a cocktail shaker with ice, and pour into an ice-filled glass. Garnish with an orange slice (mini silver parasols optional).

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: katieleehome.com

Eat In. Candy Cane Swirl.

From baking (gingerbread cookies!) to clothing (Christmas sweaters!), the holidays just make everything better. But now that it's the weekend, let's add some alcoholic drinks to the mix!

Now normally, I'd just take the lazy route and add some peppermint schnapps to a steaming cup of hot cocoa (topped with an abundant amount of marshmallows, of course), but we can get fancier than that. Here's a recipe I found on whattodrink.com (not that great of a site, but a good place to start getting ideas) for a surely wonderful concoction named Candy Cane Swirl: