Happy Holidays From Us To You

Lisa, Alexa and I would like to wish you, your family, and friends a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous holiday season.

Dave Koz Christmas Tour

If you are long time reader of the blog you know Lisa and I are big fans of Dave Koz, he is doing a short christmas tour this year to support a his new CD of original music and jazzed up christmas standards. For those of us who are not big on christmas music Dave's interpretation of the standards will change your mind. If you like up beat jazz, you owe it to yourself to check him out.

12/12 Oakland, Paramount Theatre
12/13 Los Angeles, Wilshire Theatre
12/16 Santa Rosa, Fargo Center
12/17 Mesa, AZ , Mesa Arts Center/Ikeda Theater
12/18 Santa Ynez, Chumash Casino
12/i9 & 12/20 Cerritos, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts

Todd's Cosmopolitan

To do this really right you need some wedge martini glasses that you place in the freezer for a couple of hours prior to making the cocktail.

1.0 part Grey Goose L'Orange Vodka
0.5 part Cointreau
0.5 part Fresh Lime Juice
1.0 part Cranberry Juice

Shake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, then carefully pour into a martini glass. What you have is a very colorful and tasty cocktail.

Lisa's Blue Margarita

Well, this one is kind of leftover from summer, but it is colorful and tastes great. Lisa first had one of these at our favorite Mexican restaurant "The Blue Agave" in downtown Pleasanton. It has taken a bit of experimentation but here is our favorite way to put this together.

1.5 parts Tequila
1.5 parts Fresh Lime Juice
1.0 parts Blue Curacao

Shake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, then carefully pour into a glass with or without ice. What you have is a very colorful and tasty cocktail.

Honey Mustard Dressing

We have been trying to eat a little healthier lately so I have been paying more attention to the ingredients in the food we buy, and sure enough salad dressings that you buy at the store have lots of bad stuff in them. So here is my attempt at honey mustard dressing that is actually good for you (it also taste better than the store bought stuff).

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon whole-grain mustard
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the vinegar, honey, and mustard in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Add olive oil in a slow, steady stream until dressing is emulsified. I cheat on this I have a small milk foamer (very small had held blender) that I use for this.

Australian Pink Floyd

If you are a hardcore Pink Floyd fan like me, this is the next best thing to being there (given that two of the founding members of Pink Floyd have passed away) it is not likely that band will tour again. These guys are a pretty good substitue, http://www.aussiefloyd.com/


12/3/2008 (My 19th Birthday) at the Fillmore, 1805 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, CA 94115

2004 Kistler Vineyard Pinot Noir

The is one of those "Good things come to those who wait" stories. I bought six bottles of this wine two years ago without tasting it. I put it in the cellar and forgot about it (well not really). Recently we went to our favorite steak house and I decided it was time to give this wine a try. From the moment the cork came out of the bottle I knew I was in for a treat. The aroma is rich, deep and fills the room instantly. The flavors are distinctly cherry and cranberry, with a very rich mouth feel, medium body and good acid balance. The tasting notes from the vineyard say that it should hold up for the next 10 years or so, but I don't think so. I have been kind of down on Kistler for the last couple of years, they seemed to have lost what they had in the late 1990's. But after this bottle I may have to re-consider.