The stakes are rising fellas'! Valentine's Day is almost here and what are you going to do? Cooke a romantic dinner? Buy Flowers? or something different?

We vote for something different and we think it's time you learned how to make some craft cocktails that show her just how much you mean to her. The folks over at Cruzan sent over these recipes to give us a head start, so let's dive in!

Are you lucky enough to have a partner that loves beer almost as much as you do? Well then I've got a great Valentine's Day gift suggestion for you!

Frankly though, they have a lot more than stuff for the women in our lives and you will have as much fun shopping as she will in receiving it. Of course, if you are lucky, she will remember this place when it comes time for your birthday or fathers day since it has some great gifts for guys too!. 

It's time to raise your glass and celebrate the holidays with a toast among friends! BourbonBlog.com, ChickVacations.com, FlowSocialMedia.com, and I have joined up with other bloggers and brands who agree to celebrate the holidays and the arrival of the new years with a world-wide social media virtual toast and we want you to join us as well.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dr Pepper Snapple Group. All opinions are 100% mine.

7UP is a great mixer that should be on your holiday shopping list right there next to lights and mistletoe and so I was excited when I was invited to join this campaign to share with you some of my favorite cocktail recipes using it.

San Diego has tons of craft beer bars and great wine is in no shortage either but the craft spirits industry is also growing rapidly here as well. One of the shining stars there is El Agave Artesanal tequila and so I was thrilled that the folks at El Agave Restaurant invited us back to try some additional menu items as well as a tequila tasting led by one of their experts.

Wine vending machines, delicious pizza, and good friends to share it with - what more do you need in life? That's exactly what I found at San Diego's Toast Enoteca & Cucina when I visited there a couple weeks ago and we had a fantastic dinner that would be equally good as a "date night" or as a place to hang out with the guys after a Padres game.

San Diego is an awesome town that is sometimes forgotten about or dismissed as simply a surf town, but what I have discovered over the past year is that there is an incredible amount of awesome things to do here beyond the beach including touring some of the almost 100 craft breweries, exploring vineyards in nearby Temecula and Romona, as well as visiting the Zoo, touring historic military ships and some of the best burgers and tacos in the country.

Schlitz is a beer that your father or grandfather probably recalls fondly but it isn't at the top of mind for most beer lovers today. That's about to change as the same company that brought PBR back from obscurity is now working to promote the Schlitz brand as well and what better way to do that then do a nationwide tour with a 1920's themed boxing night including cigars, dancing girls, orchestra, and of course... ice cold Schlitz beer!

The new Margaritaville Island Hotel located in Pigeon Forge on The Island, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, has opened phase one of the hotel with 55 guestrooms and suites. The grand opening of the 132-room property and event space will be in January 2015. The vacation destination hotel is in the heart of everything the area has to offer and minutes from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park known for its extraordinary beauty, breathtaking views, and abundance of outdoor activities.

Beer is good - beer is delicious when shared with friends but beer really shouldn't be pretentious. Instead, this is a blue collar drink that should be shared after work, to celebrate a day of fishing, hunting, skiing, or just relaxing on the beach. That being said, there is always a space in any market for an "ultra premium" beverage and that's what Affligem is all about. 

To help them spread the word, they invited me to join them at an event in San Diego last month where we got to learn more about the history and how to pour the beer properly using the "Body and Soul" pour with special glasses.

The folks at Islands Restaurants invited me out for a happy hour last night to watch the Chiefs and Patriots game... no, I wasn't up north... I was in warm sunny San Diego and we do football happy hours different down here.

For those of you outside of Southwest US (California, Nevada, Arizona), Islands is a casual American style restaurant / sports pub similar to Fridays or Applebees but with an awesome Hawaiian theme, great burgers, tiki cocktails, and frankly super gracious staff.

You've been to beer fests and wine festivals but there aren't that many spirits festivals that are open to the public unfortunately. If you are a fan of spirits and craft cocktails it seems that you're passion is best explored at a bar buying expensive cocktails and new liquors only to find out that you made an expensive mistake and are forced to either finish or let it go to waste.

The San Diego Spirits Festival on the other hand offers new as well as seasoned fans a chance to explore spirits brand new to the market as well as celebrate with friends over tasters of familiar friends like Don Julio, Stoli, and Woodford Reserve. 

Happy National Rum Day! It seems like there is a "national _____ day" just about every time we turn around, but when it comes to something as delicious as aged rum we really don't mind! The nice folks over at Bacardi sent over a bottle of their new 8 Anos rum to help us celebrate and we hope you can get in the mood too with their recipe for "Old Cuban".

Some love Laphroaig as the flag bearer for Islay Single Malt Scotches because they love the peaty, smokey, almost overpowering flavor profile and other's don't. But this is certainly a unique manly spirit that I like to celebrate as part of my personal collection. The folks at Laphroaig know that I have been a long time fan of the various releases (especially the Laphroaig Triple Wood released last year) so they shared their latest with me as well, Laphroaig Select!

There's no shortage of awesome beer festivals in San Diego and since we have some of the most talented brewers in the world it is never boring to see the same cast of characters week after week.

However, it is always exciting to see something different and that's exactly what Sierra Nevada delivered with their Beer Camp Across America tour this summer.

Happy National Tequila Day!

Not sure about your plans, but we're celebrating with some delicious margaritas and tequila cocktail recipes that we've rounded up from around the world. Which is your favorite?

As you know, I LOVE daiquiris and so when the folks at Cruzan sent over a recipe and some rum I just had to try it out I just had to give it a whirl!

If you are old enough to legally enjoy Jägermeister then you probably are already familiar with the most common way to enjoy the spirit - as an ice cold shot. I thought it was time to explore some other great drink recipes to celebrate the herbal liqueur, so the folks at Jägermeister helped me put together this list of Jägermeister cocktail recipes.  

I love to drink bourbon, the sweet brown spirit that tastes so good in a rocks glass or mixed together with other ingredients to form a delicious old fashioned, a whiskey sour, or a mint julep. But bourbon also works great with cooking and baking too and luckily I am not alone in my love for exploring the application of bourbon with preparing food, so I did a quick roundup of some of my favorite recipes that include bourbon in them!

The first is my all time favorite recipe featuring bourbon! It is a recipe forWhiskey, Caramel, Marshmallow, and Bacon Bark from Endless Simmer.

I actually discovered this on Pinterest and have made it several times since then. Unfortunately I am not as clever of a cook as they are but the nice thing about this recipe is that even if you have some extra crystals in the caramel or you make the chocolate too thick or the bourbon infused marshmallows are too runny... don't worry! It always tastes great! 

While deserts are great, Bourbon is a fantastic ingredient to use when creating the ultimate glaze for pretty much any protein you can imagine. In this case, we LOVE this recipe for Maple-bourbon Glazed Chicken Wings from Yummly.

As we continue our tour of mixing bourbon and proteins you can't miss the iconicBourbon Chicken with this recipe I found on Yummly.  

This recipe for Bourbon Glazed Salmon that I found on Yummly and hammers home the point that bourbon makes a remarkably find ingredient to put on just about any kind of grilled protein! 

Let's end this roundup with some delicious Bourbon Banana Bread from Smitten Kitchen.

 NOTE: image credits are from the linked-to website below the image. If you are the owner and would like me to remove the image and link, please let me know and we will remove it immediately.

Norwegian Cruise Line has been giving Carnival a run for its money recently with two great new ships and now a series of drinks based on their favorite destinations around the world. Created by Gabriel Orta of the Miami-based Bar Lab Cocktails this new series features unique drinks on different ships and highlights fresh local ingredients.

This includes guests on the Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Dawn where they can enjoy a traditional Dark and Stormy featuring Bermuda's favorite son, Gosling's Rum and ginger beer or the Breakaway Mai Tai below.

While we can't think of much better than cruising on some of the world's best ships we think it might be easier to follow these recipes rather than setting off on months of travel :)