Charlotte Katz's Bonita Springs Real Estate Blog

I was tired of oatmeal or toast or cereal for breakfast. Eggs are wonderful, but who really has time to make eggs before work on a weekday? This week, I decided to hunt for muffin recipes, thinking that I could stockpile muffins in the freezer and pop one in the microwave to thaw for [...]

St. Joseph’s Day is celebrated on March 19 in many Christian faiths to honor Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus. Joseph is said to be a model for fathers and throughout his life displayed humility and holiness; among the countries that observe it, the holy day is often spent by visiting friends and eating a variety of meatless dishes, including bread baked in various shapes. In Italian homes, especially Sicilian ones, zeppoles (fried dough) and a St. Joseph cake made with ricotta cheese are [...]

One of the greatest ways of entertaining friends and family during this busy season is entertaining at a brunch. Most of us think of brunch as strictly an American invention. Not so, according to H. L. Mencken, who wrote, “Brunch, designating a combination of breakfast and lunch, eaten about noon, appeared in England about 1900. It was 30 years later before it began to make any headway on this side of the water.” [...]

Here is this week’s FYI … food [...]

We really like pasta. We must. What else could explain the seemingly endless number of Italian restaurants that sprout up like weeds on side streets and strip malls? How else would every other new restaurant opening have a name that ended in a [...]

Big Cypress Marketplace introduces the Big Cypress Dinner Theatre. A section of the Marketplace has been transformed into a performance space, complete with an original stained glass sign and posters from the now-closed Naples Dinner [...]

You don’t have to fall down a rabbit hole like Alice to have a Mad Hatter tea party. Teavana at Coconut Point, Estero, offers all the makings for magical happenings. The store is part tea bar and part tea emporium, where Rene Brown, general manager, offers a tea education and taste samples. [...]

You don’t have to fall down a rabbit hole like Alice to have a Mad Hatter tea party. Teavana at Coconut Point, Estero, offers all the makings for magical happenings. The store is part tea bar and part tea emporium, where Rene Brown, general manager, offers a tea education and taste samples. [...]

Here is this week’s “The Dish” … a conversation with Annie [...]

Here is this week’s “The Dish” … a conversation with Annie [...]

Here’s this week’s FYI … food [...]

It has been two weeks since the beginning of Lent. The 40 days of this religious event marks a period of enforced deprivation and a time for internal, as well as external [...]

It’s a sweet deal for area residents awaiting the long-anticipated opening of Sweet Tomatoes in Naples. The restaurant is hosting a fund-raising event to preview its new location in the Granada [...]

At sunset on Saturday, the Jewish holiday of Purim will begin. The two-day festivities commemorate the deliverance of the Jewish people from a plot to annihilate them by order of Haman, the royal vizier, during the rule of King Ahasuerus in ancient [...]

There’s something unique and surprising about Vietnamese spring rolls the first time you try [...]

Cuban cuisine has been part of the Floridian diet since the mid-1900s when Cuban cigar workers descended on Tampa’s Ybor City. This was the dominant force behind Florida’s melting pot food culture. Key West also contributed to the influence of Cuban cooking since the city was the main entrance to thousands of Cubans from the near-by island. Only 90 miles separates Cuba from the Florida [...]

Here is this week’s FYI … food (beginning Wednesday, Feb. 24, [...]

As a child, I never had a cookbook. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t into cooking — on the contrary, I spent countless hours helping my grandma making gnocchi or watching my mom prepare our dinner. It was a time when adults more often than not didn’t have cookbooks. Recipes were just passed down from memory; they were family heirlooms just like the porcelain flatware set from grandma’s wedding or the backpack grandpa brought back from the [...]

A conversation with Jerry [...]

Here is this week’s FYI for [...]