Changes to Food, Wine and Fun

If you have been coming to the site for a while you can see it has undergone a number of changes. Once again I have changed the hosting and email database to make it easier for me to maintain the list and site. I was spending more time dealing with the software than actually writing new stuff. Anyway, what you will be seeing is more frequent, but smaller updates. The site is also searchable, which a number of you have asked for. I will also be putting up all of the old content over the next month or, so have no fear the Spinach Salad recipe will be back up soon.

Bent Creek, 2004 Livermore Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

For a Livermore Cab, this wine is very good and a great value. It will hold its own with any of the mid range cabs from Napa (e.g. Silver Oak, Caymus, Hall) at half the price. Great fruit, good nose, and a nice soft and long finish. I didn't think wine this good came out of Livermore.

From the winery tasting notes;

The clear ruby color of this classic wine captures your attention. Intense fruit aromas blend with a hint of oak. Rich dark fruit flavors of blackberry and black cherry join soft tannins to create an appealing Cabernet. Barrel aged 18 months in French oak.Gold Medal 2007 San Francisco Chronicle Wine CompetitionGold Medal 2007 California State Fair Wine Competition Best In Class Greater Bay Area

Bent Creek 2005 Mendocino County Sauvignon Blanc

This wine is made by one of our neighbors here in Livermore. It is crisp, fresh and bright. Lots of citrus, but not over powering like some Sauvigon Blancs tend to be. This is a great wine for seafood that is in a rich sauce.

Why I write this blog / web site.

This all got started because I have never been very good and staying in touch with people I meet. So, keeping with one of the new year’s resolutions I made several years ago. I decided to create this web site (now blog).

Over the years I have collected thousands of email addresses so, you now know about this because you managed to survive my many e-mail address book purges. I wish I had the time to write each of you individually, but if I tried that, it would take many years.

The next two paragraphs are from the original email that I sent out to the original list of friends on this mailing list.

I first want to say that I am sorry for not touching bases with you much over the last year and a half. To say the least my life has been in transition. Two years ago (2002/2003) on New Years Eve, Lisa and I were sitting in a restaurant in London and we decided to make some profound changes in our lives. We didn’t know all the things we wanted to change, but we knew some of them. Over the last two years we have been working to make those desires a reality, and we are mostly there now. So at long last, I have a chance to take a breath and catch up with people.

So, keeping with one of my new year’s resolutions I am going to try to stay in touch a bit more often. Some of you speak with me nearly every week, some I have not had contact with in a year and a half. I have trouble just dropping notes to people to “Say Hi”. Anyway I am going to be mailing out a monthly food, wine and fun letter. Those of you that know me best know these are things I care a lot about. If you want me to drop you from the mailing list just let me know with a return email. I am starting out this month with two of my recent tasting notes.

Okay, back to present day. Over time the list has grown slowly but surely every month. To the point that managing the email became a challenge by itself. And now the bulk of the people on this list are folks I have never met. Anyway because of the positive feedback I have gotten I am going to continue with the site and also add some new features over time.

Todd K.

What's it all about?

Food, Wine and Fun is a monthly e-publication/blog dedicated to three of my passions.

Food, I love to cook and over the years I have invented, co-invented, collected, borrowed, and reverse engineered a fairly large number of them. What you'll find are a number of my favorites.

Wine, I started falling in love with wine when I moved to California (a long time ago). First because I would ride my bike through Sonoma and stop in for a free drink. What I discovered over time is that the culture and mystique that surrounds wine making is amazing. Wine that comes from the same vineyard can be profoundly different simply because the grapes were picked at a different time on the same day. I get accused by friends and family of being a wine snob quite frequently, but what the heck, somebody has to order the wine.

What's life without a little fun. Most of the fun things we (Lisa, Alexa and I) do are the result of tips by friends, reading, or just getting in the car and exploring. We try to share what we think are the good things, bad things and funny things we have done (or in some cases are thinking about doing).