I like martinis. I like vodka. This recipe is the way I make my vodka martinis. I used Russian vodka (of course). I still have a little bit from my trip to Russia. This vodka came from Kursk and it's delicious - very clean and dry with no harshness. Russians know vodka.

For a long time, I used one garlic stuffed olive and one jalapeño stuffed olive for my garnish. Lately, I've been using pickled garlic and prosciutto and mozzarella stuffed peppers. My local grocery store has them in their olive bar and they are absolutely wonderful. I know purists may scoff at pickled garlic and the like but some of the best martinis I've had in restaurants were garnished with things like pickled leeks and gorgonzola stuffed olives. Live a little.

I only use pimento stuffed olives for gin martinis. I don't want to overpower the subtle juniper flavor of the gin. To me, that's what makes it gin.

I like this method of chilling the glass and the vigorous shaking in the shaker. I know this adds a bit of water to the martini from water left in the glass and ice shards in the vodka. But, this is a small price to pay for a really cold martini. Besides, I often put a little water in good whiskey and I like the little bits of ice.