Here in the northern hemisphere where most of us live, spring officially occurs when the sun crosses the celestial equator and the hours of day and night are roughly the same. This year, that occurred on March 20th.

We know mother nature doesn't always go along with that as demonstrated by the recent historic weather pattern that crossed the US causing blizzard conditions and record levels of snow in many areas. But we are starting to see signs...our warmer days are occurring more often, seasonal birds have arrived or are arriving, grass is starting to green up and the early spring flowers are popping up.

So we're putting away the snowblowers and shovels, moving the heavy winter clothes to the back of the closet, planning our gardens, opening up the windows and getting outside more. This week we invite everyone come help #Nipclub celebrate the return of spring.

Drinks & Noms

Arnold Palmer
(spiked and non-alcoholic)

Shoofly Punch
(Ginger beer, Bourbon, Bitters)

Catnip Lemonade

Catnip Mojito

Moscato Wine

Bucket of Corona Beer

Sparkling Water

Cheesy Garden Vegetable Flatbread

Sesame Beef & Asparagus Salad

Chickpea, Grape, Tomato

& Arugula Popover

Fried Green Tomatoes

Proscuitto Pasta Toss

Skillet toasted Gnocchi & Peas

Braised Sausage & tomato with Spices

Carnitas on flour tortilla

Chicken Francese

Chipotle Lime Shrimp Bake

Crab Cakes with

Green Tomato Slaw

Chocolate Mousse

Coconut Cream Cake

Rhubarb Sticky Buns

Mochi Ice Cream

Lemon Spring Cake

Vegan Lemon Cheesecake Tartlets

Italian Easter Bread

Let me preface this by saying it's all Mom's fault.

What is?

A little misunderstanding about Pi day.

See, Mom & Dad were having friends over for dinner and she was going to make a Southern themed meal - shrimp & grits, hushpuppies and Pecan Pie. She never made a pecan pie before so decided to buy one at the really good pie store near home. When she came home she told dad that the people at the Pie store excitedly told her that she was buying a pie on pi day!

Well, that got me all excited too, because like all us anipals, I really enjoy food and if people were celebrating Pies, we should too, and I set the barktenders to the task of making wonderful pies.

It wasn't until later that I learned that they weren't talking about pies, they were talking about some silly number named pi. And now we have an over abundance of pies. So in the spirit of "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade", life gave us pies, lots of them. So to heck with celebrating a silly number that not only isn't pie, it isn't even spelled right (π), we're going to celebrate by having our own Pie Day!