Welcome to summer in Florida. At least this weekend the forecast isn't flirting with the triple digits...it's just kind of giving them a come-hither smile from the other side of the room.

But it's still the kind of heat that makes one glad there's plenty of fresh seafood nearby, and plenty of crisp wines to go with it. Firing up the grill this weekend? I just ran across a recipe for jerked shrimp that sounded really good. I'll admit, I've never tried wine with jerk seasoning--I'll let you know next week how it worked out. Or put some salmon on the grill and pull out the dry rose.

Add a little fruit juice to sparkling wine for a light refresher...serve with quiche for Sunday brunch, or add a green salad and some crusty bread for an easy dinner.

One of my favorite things about cooking is making it up as I go along (aka being creative). Last night was one of those "what's in the pantry" nights that is really good for sparking creativity. Then this morning I asked Shayne, one of our top wine guys, about wine pairings--I didn't have any last night, but I did want some ideas for the next time I made this.

Okay, so I ended up making salmon patties without the help of a recipe--or at least, I looked at a standby recipe for crab cakes (standby recipes are the ones you can go to when you don't have anything but the basic ingredients) and adapted it. Personally, I liked the results, although there are a couple of things I'll probably do differently next time. You know, if I planned it out ahead of time.

With what I had in the pantry, though, t ...

I was looking for the perfect wine/food pairing idea this morning, when I suddenly (finally?) remembered we've got a long weekend ahead. Glad I figured that out before Monday.

Memorial Day weekend seems to be one of those weekends that, even in Florida, where you can pretty much break out the grill whenever you like (although some months are better for that than others), calls for barbecue. It's probably the latent Yankee in all of us transplants. A while back I posted a good rib recipe, and you've probably got your own just waiting for you to fire things up.

But what are you going to serve with it? If you're a wine lover, you might spend more time choosing the wine--then deciding what food to serve with it; if you're a "foodie," you'll probably spend it choosing the food. I'm a foodie, and I think about wine in cooking terms. Not because I'm cooking with it, but because I'm imagining the way the finished food is going to taste...and what I w ...