No visit to Milwaukee is complete without a stop at Leon's Frozen Custard located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin - just outside of Milwaukee! Since 1947 they have been a center of the community and you'll see rich, poor, English-speaking, and non. This is a place that people come to, united by one thing... a search for a great experience. 

If you are anything like me, road trips and snacking are synonymous and that can either be a fun experience for everyone involved... or like I found out a couple years ago, not so much! See, normally I'm pretty straight-edge and go for cookies or crackers, and maybe some Twizzlers Twists or other candy that doesn't melt. During a stop in Maytag, Iowa though I was overcome by how cheap Maytag blue cheese was and so I just had to buy some. Let me tell you - after a few hours sitting on the dashboard a few things happened. First - the car smelled really bad. Second - I started to feel sick (eating blue cheese in a hot car during the summer is just dumb). Third - my brand new car earned it's first "love mark" since the cheese melted a bit and the enzymes and grease ate a spot on the dashboard that two years later I still can't get rid of!

It's almost summer and that means it's time to break out the grill again and hopefully shine as the dinner time hero you know you are. However, even the best grill masters out there didn't get that way without some practice, common sense, and advice passed down to them from their elders.

Spring is a time of new beginnings, of new relationships and one of the peak wedding seasons. Let's take a step back in time though... before wives and girlfriends, before kids, to a time when all that mattered was a quick and easy dinner with minimal cleanup that tasted awesome and could be made for just one person. When meals consisted of frozen entrees and freezer fries?

Do you remember those bachelor days now? 

One of the great things about traveling is trying different foods and seeing how those foods morph and adapt as they are embraced by one culture and then another. I can't think of any dish that has been adapted in so many ways than a simple curry, which likely originated from southern India but is now the national dish of England, with variations found in Thai, West African, Caribbean, and American cuisine today. It is even popular as a type of sausage street food in Germany, known as currywurst. 

Today though, I am going to share my own interpretation that is super quick and easy to prepare and while it tastes delicious on day one - it's even better the next day, so make a big batch and be prepared for easy to re-heat leftovers!

It's national grilled cheese month and I still have some corned beef brisket left in the fridge since St Patrick's Day and I was looking for something special to make with them that was different than the corned beef and cabbage I've already had a few times. Instead, I decided to make an ULTIMATE grilled corned beef and havarti grilled cheese sandwich. 

I get hungry like everyone sometimes and honestly I'm not myself when that happens. You Probably get the same way but that's when I like to grab a Snickers. Yeah, I know that sounds like a cheesy intro to another sponsored post, but it's the truth. Traveling can be tough with changes in time zones, unfamiliar locations, and lets face it you aren't at home with easy access to your fridge and microwave either for a quick snack. However, one thing I love about Snickers is that it has the perfect balance of sugar sweetness, chocolatey deliciousness, and protein from the peanuts (or almonds). It's really a great snack to stick in my backpack for those moments when you need something to pick you up a bit.

I've finally found it! I knew that San Diego had to have a restaurant that was equally good at ambiance as it is in service, preparation, and presentation. Earlier this month Heather and I were invited to have dinner and check out Greystone Steakhouse - one of the older restaurants here in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter.

Greystone Steakhouse just recently celebrated 15 years of operation here and after the amazing dinner we enjoyed, I can see why it's been able to survive so long and I am sure they will continue to have great success for many more years to come!

It's Valentine's season again and every year it seems that it gets longer and more complicated, so I've created a unique recipe that is SUPER easy to create but will make you look like a rockstar when giving it to someone you love! The basic concept is that love should be sweet, fun, surprising, and maybe even a little bit sticky.

That sounds just like the classic red velvet cake and so when I learned that Walmart had the exclusive on the new Red Velvet M&M's® and they were looking for fun recipes I got pretty excited!

Sometimes in life you discover great new things completely by accident. That's how we found Viva Bar + Kitchen actually... we had gone to have dinner at a different place that sadly we left feeling we needed to go somewhere else to eliminate the "bad feeling" left in our belly. When we walked by Viva, the super friendly hostess on the sidewalk told us it was "taco Tuesday" and so we figured, "what the heck" and walked in to check it out.

That taco and that experience was good enough that before the end of our snack that we had already booked our New Year's Eve dinner here the next day.

Since 1969, when Byron and Virginia Hardin opened their first location in Ocean Beach, Hodad's has been a legendary burger joint in San Diego. With an atmosphere that borders on kitschy tourist trap but somehow manages to stay authentic, this is a must-visit location for anyone visiting the city. However, what makes it even more awesome is that it is more than just a "cool place" to grab a bite, it is serving up some of the most amazing burgers in the whole world. 

For those of you who have never been to Ocean Beach, it is a beach town located just north of the city and is full of hippies / surfer culture, so it is also great for people watching.

A scene from Top Gun was filmed here, their bartender loves to create artisanal tequila cocktails and to top it off, San Diego Magazine's readers just named their chef, Accursio Lota, as "Best Chef" in San Diego - so who was I to say no when they approached us recently and invited us to stop by for dinner!

Honestly, I am not typically a fan of Italian because I usually associate it with kitschy bottles chianti, heavy but tasteless spaghetti sauce covered pasta and pictures of the pope or mobsters on the walls. Over the past couple years though I am starting to warm up to it. What I discovered at San Diego's Solare Ristorante was a delightful interpretation of classic Italian but merged with the essence of the Southern California farm-to-table movement.

If you aren't familiar with Carmel California, I bet you are familiar with it's cousins of Pebble Beach and Monterey. Don't worry though, there's a lot to offer in Carmel itself including a great beach, great food, unparalleled driving experiences in Big Sur, sports, and of course it is one of the most dog friendly cities in America. Oh yeah and many celebrities call Carmel home so don't be surprised if you see them walking around town including Brad Pitt and former mayor of Carmel, Clint Eastwood.