A Food, Spirits & Wine Blog

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

Our recent vacation to Sonoma was epic – there was so much to love about the Sonoma valley, coast, and mountains. Last week I wrote about the things that made Sonoma such a great travel destination. This week, I’ll share a few of my favorite things from our visit to this beautiful wine region in California! View from Copain Winery Picking our favorite memories from our Sonoma visit was much harder than I could have imagined, but after careful thought and many conversations wi

Laurie and I recently returned from a 10-day wine tasting vacation in Sonoma, and we agree – Sonoma is our new favorite wine destination! And that’s saying something, given our frequent forays into Napa Valley, our retirement celebration trip to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, and other favorite wine destinations like Monterey/Caramel Valley, and Virginia wine country! So, what makes Sonoma so great? Read on to find out! Wine tasting at Paul Hobbs Winery Sonoma County enco