We've been dying to go to EPCOT's Food and Wine festival for years. Our birthday, which falls around Thanksgiving, is always within a few days of the festivals ending, so over the past few years, we have gone to Disney near our birthday and missed the amazing festival. Not this year! We went to one of the first weekends for the event during Dapper Day weekend. We are lucky - while we live about 3 hours from Orlando, my in-laws have a lovely home near Disney. Since this was a celebration trip (both of Jason getting a job and our 'unanniversary', a random, fun celebration of our anniversary we hold in September every year), we decided to get a hotel room and have me take a half day so we could do our Friday outing in EPCOT.



Jason and I have become big beer drinkers over the years. What started as liking a few certain beers at a brewery in Hawaii opened us up to trying more things and expanding our palettes. While I hate some of them still (I can't do porters or stouts at all), I really love some. For instance - the Shiner Wild Hare Pale Ale in this flight was my favorite of the night. They even had Kona on draft at the Hawaii stand - a beer from that special place in Hawaii I was talking about.



After our initial beers to get us started, we started to get hungry. That's when we started going 'around the world' to sample both the food and drink. I honestly believe this should be deemed the 'Food, Beer, and Wine' festival. Because it all pairs so amazingly.

Pulled pork with pineapple chutney and spicy mayo paired with pineapple wine and Kona Brewing Golden Wave from Hawaii. Jason's fave from the night.

A yummy filet mignon with mushroom and truffle sauce and a Moosehead lager from Canada. (Not as good at the one inside, but for 7 bucks, I'll take it)

My favorite stand of the night? By and far Brazil. These little cheese breads (pao de queijo) were the perfect drinking food, and the frozen caipirinha was delicious and surprisingly strong for a frozen drink at Disney. And not sweet - I don't do overly sweet frozen drinks, and this was exactly how a frozen cocktail should be. Plus, how AMAZING does this stand look, even on a fairly raining evening?



We're going back to the food and wine festival in early November, so look out for more photos from the event then!

This is a little trick I learned from World of Beer that is SO good either in blueberry beer (402's Blue, Sea Dog Blueberry Wheat, Fat Head's Bumbleberry, etc.) or a light ale.



Get yourself some fresh or frozen blueberries. I like frozen because they act like little ice cubes and dye the beer a bit pink. Plus, they thaw while you drink and are delicious treats at the end.



Put a handful in the bottom, carefully pour, and serve. So delicious!

I feel like it's no hidden fact that I love alcohol - I mean, my blog has cocktails in the name - but one thing I never really get into is the history. As I have gotten older, I've really been into learning the history of things, especially the things I eat. The random facts I know about things grow each time I get overly interested and dive into Wikipedia. For instance - did you know that the blue agave plant, which tequila (is supposed to) be distilled from, grows well in Mexico due to a particular type of soil in the region that's rare to find elsewhere. Jose Cuervo Tradicional®  was the first to harvest the plant from this red volcanic soil back in 1795. Here are some other random facts :

• King Carlos IV of Spain granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila.
• The real person who founded Jose Cuervo had a much longer name - Don Jose Antonio de Cuervo. Not quite as catchy.
• Said guy invented the margarita.

So needless to say, Jose Cuervo Tradicional® is pretty old school and pretty awesome. The brand is hitting the history hard in a really innovative way. You can find most of the facts (and more - I had to leave something so you'd watch it ;) ) in the video. The story is told through tiny models of the acts but into actual bottles - hence  Jose Cuervo Tradicional® History in a Bottle. It's probably the coolest thing ever.

PS. Here's the link to this video :)

Getting the opportunity to try this delicious tequila was awesome! Good tequila makes a huge difference in drinks - I personally cannot drink the terrible margaritas with bottled sweet and sour and crap tequila. Not ok! A good, fresh margarita with fresh squeeze lime is delectable. I wanted to do a twist on the traditional Margarita.

So grab yourself a bottle (look for this label) and make my delicious, super refreshing, super limey drink - the Moji-rita. It's basically a margarita + basil :)

Lately, I haven't been making as many cocktails. Mostly being alone and working out almost every night but Fridays leaves me to crave a lot of water and less liquor. I wanted to share with you some of my favorite infused waters. I usually drink an entire pitcher myself on a weekend day - plus I can usually get 1-2 refills with 1 batch of fruit. I was always a Snapple lover growing up, but the strawberry-kiwi flavor now is far too sugary and sweet. But - strawberry kiwi is still an amazing flavor combo and so perfect for a warm day.

I cannot get enough of mojito variations. Really, once you get the main kind down, you essentially need to muddle fruit and herbs, add rum and soda water, and voila, you've got yourself the most refreshing, delicious cocktail ever. This one mixes kiwi, lime, and basil, which was a superb combo guys.

What You'll Need

2 Limes //  2 Kiwis // 1.5 TBSP Cane Sugar or White Sugar // 2 Ounces Light Rum // Club Soda // Ice // Basil Leaves

Muddler // Shaker

Optional :: Basil Rimming Crystals

Squeeze the two lime and scoop out the kiwi into a shaker. Muddle well with a handful of basil leaves, then add 1.5 tablespoons of sugar, and muddle until dissolved. Finally, add 2 ounces of rum, and shake well.

Strain over ice (or, if you prefer your drinks without ice like my husband, add the ice into the shaker part!), and then fill to the top with club soda. And serve!

Part of the greatness of visiting a new area with a friend is getting to explore together. My friend Leah and I spent some time in Fort Lauderdale trying out a new (to us) brewery and exploring downtown. I loved the name 'Funky Buddha' for a brewery - and while I enjoyed their beer, there are so many other amazing places that this kind of pales in comparison (maybe the absurd amount of breweries in Pennsylvania has spoiled me). Anyhow - we still had a wonderful time nonetheless. Craft breweries always are such a fun thing to explore!

dress :: agaci // belt :: agaci // flats :: seychelles

headband :: free people //  bags :: emma fox

Have you heard of Eppa? It's a great sangria-like wine that is perfect if you aren't really into wines (or red wines) yet and need something a little sweeter to start. It's also not too sweet - and has great flavors like pomegranate in it. It's actually the wine that got me a little more open to red wines a few years back when Jason and I got it from whole foods at Easter.

Sometimes, I enjoy making super easy cocktails. I want to start giving some easier recipes that just kick things up a little bit with only a few ingredients. This cocktail is simple - a red wine (sangria or something else that is fairly fruity like a merlot or beaujolais) , a good Kentucky bourbon, and a fresh lime is all you need. The lime adds a nice tartness to the wine that really brings out the fruity flavors, and then bourbon for a nice oaky taste as well.

Squeeze half a lime into a cocktail glass.

Pour 1 shot of bourbon and mix well.

Finish with chilled red wine. Try serving with an orange slice or strawberry!

I love mojitos! They are absolutely, hands down, one of the most refreshing, delicious drinks ever. They are pretty simple to make - minus the muddling (that's the only hard part). I got some Mint Herb Crystals from Fresh Origins and knew they would be perfect for adding an extra mint kick to a mojito.  Here's what to do.

mint leaves // lime // light rum // sugar // mint rimming crystals

For each drink, rim a high ball glass with the mint herb crystals by using the juice from the lime to get the crystals to stick.

Add 1 Tablespoon of sugar, 1.5 ounces rum, a handful of mint leaves, and 1/2 a lime to each glass. Muddle well until the sugar dissolves a bit and the mint leaves are well bruised.

Add 3-4 large ice cubes, then fill with club soda.

Look around my blog - type in beer. You'll find me with a pint in my hand quite often, or visiting a brewery to try a local beer. But, believe it or not, there was a time when I didn't like beer. Yes, I didn't LOVE beer. I didn't even LIKE it. And then, then I went to the Kona Brewing Company.

While on a vacation in Hawaii and searching for a ukelele, we came across the Kona Brewing Company. Nowadays, I find their beer on tap even in Pennsylvania, but back in 2011, I had not heard of them or even seen them in stores. We were anxious to try a local brewery, and I was determined to hopefully try a beer I liked. And did I! The Hula Hefeweizen (unfortunately, only available on site at the brewery there in Kona) was the best beer I have ever had and I loved it. It opened me up to really enjoying wheat beers, and even more since then. The atmosphere is amazing - incredibly open - I couldn't tell if we were inside or outside because the line is so blurred, as it is with so many restaurants in Hawaii. The food was amazing -it was one of the first places we got roasted garlic as an appetizer, a recipe I have featured on the blog, and I owe it to Kona to opening my eyes to it.

I can't tell you how sad I am that during this part of the trip I decided to keep the DSLR in the room and only take our point and shoot. But at least I got some photos of some of the best food I have ever had. You can read my full review from back then on Yelp, here.