A Food, Spirits & Wine Blog

Last week’s blog covered some of the things about recipes that annoy me. This week, I’ll finish off my list of recipe pet peeves, in the hopes that someone out there who actually writes recipes will see my blog and make the necessary changes required to create easier to use recipes! Writing easy-to-use recipes is harder than one might think! Laurie and I have created 80+ recipes over the past five years, and I still struggle sometimes to describe the steps for making these

It’s easy to spot a well-written recipe: easy-to-understand ingredients list with helpful substitute information for those ingredients that might be difficult to find; clear instructions on how to prepare the ingredients; and a logical timeline and specific information on how to cook and then combine the ingredients to create a beautiful dish. But what about all those recipes that don’t meet these requirements? Here are the things about recipes that annoy me the most! I get m

What makes the perfect martini? Gin or vodka? Shaken or stirred? Vermouth or another aromatized wine? Dry or wet? A twist or olive garnish? Nick & Nora or martini glass? So many choices, so many options for screwing things up! But I’m here to help you make the perfect martini (well, at least MY version of the perfect martini)! My perfect classic martini - a "dirty" martini Martinis are all the rage these days. Go to any restaurant or cocktail bar and you’ll find an amazing se

Laurie and I are always exploring ways to create healthy, “modernized” versions of classic recipes. I recently saw a recipe for shrimp scampi in one of our food magazines and decided to update it for a quick and easy mid-week meal. Here’s my new take on this classic recipe! Shrimp scampi with zucchini noodles Finding fresh seafood and fish down here in Florida on the gulf coast isn’t difficult – most of the seafood sold in restaurants, markets, and grocery stores in Sarasota

For my third and final blog about our recent Sonoma wine country vacation, I’ll continue my list of our favorite things about Sonoma and what we experienced while we were there! Bodega Head on the Pacific Coast Favorite Resort/Inn We stayed at two different places during our 10-day Sonoma trip (well, actually three if you include our last night at the Grand Hyatt at SFO airport) – one was a small luxury inn located in Forestville, and the other a larger luxury resort in Heald