Top Ten Family Games, Part 1
Family activities are important ways to spend time together and although a family member or two may be reluctant to play a game that’s not on a screen, the attitude usually changes once the game gets underway, especially if television and the internet are not options In our home and especially during the summer after dinner, we gather around a big circular table and often play one of the following games: Read more 
Kakawa Chocolate House
On a local street that winds around the historic district of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a small chocolate store called the Kakawa Chocolate House – an ode to all things chocolate and Santa Fe. Well known in warm drink circles as the place to go for hot chocolate, the store serves a variety of this rich intense elixir made from recipes that date back hundreds of years.Equally famous for their chocolates – truffles, caramels, mediants, and Chili d’Arbols, Kakawa is also known as an artisanal chocolate source where the chocolatiers make their own blend of 80% dark chocolate. Nary a milk chocolate in site, which is how the artisans dedicated to balancing tradition with cutting edge want it. Read more
Food Allergies? Try the Tasterie
For people with food allergies or parents struggling to find nutritious and tasty snacks for their kids with food sensitivities, allergies or special diets, consider the Tasterie, a company whose mission is to find delicious and healthy food and snacks for a wide variety of dietary needs. Read more
The Excalibur Fruit and Vegetable Dehydrator
My daughter turned 17 recently and when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she replied “an Excalibur” meaning a food dehydrator, not the sword (big sigh of relief). Dried fruit is a favorite snack in our home but finding dried fruit without additives, sugar, or preservatives is difficult and often expensive. An Excalibur Food Dehydrator is the Cadillac of home dehydrators with the three attributes every dried food enthusiast wants: sufficient cubic space, a timer, and accurate temperature control. Read more
Mamie’s Cheese Wafers
Mamie’s Famous Cheese Wafers are an old-fashioned southern cheddar cheese and pecan appetizer made of five ingredients: cheddar cheese, flour, butter, pecans, and cayenne pepper. Crunchy and nutty with a sharp Cheddar cheese flavor, Mamie’s Cheese Wafers are convenient (kept in the freezer), super quick to make: slice and bake (12-15 minutes in the oven), delicious…and addicting. Read more
Build-A-Bar at YouBar
Have you ever spent 20 minutes in the nutritional bar aisle at the grocery store reading ingredient lists on the back of energy bar labels hoping to find the perfect snack bar? Maybe you read a label and thought a certain bar would be great if only it didn’t have whey powder, or nuts, dairy products, or dried fruit, or an added sweetener. If so, YouBar is the go-to resource for you or anyone who truly appreciates customization because at YouBar, you create your own bar by choosing every single ingredient. Read more
Simple and Crisp
Simple & Crisp is an organic and gluten-free snack food billed as “the perfect pairing” with wines, cheeses, ice cream, yogurt, tea, chocolate and even prosciutto. Extremely versatile, the crisps are dried fruit slices that are not too sweet and thus offer a perfect complement to so many other foods. For those who want the crunch of a cracker or cookie but without the wheat, dairy, nuts, or seeds, Simple & Crisp offers an alternative to the usual crackers and savory cookies on the market. Read more
BAKED Granola
There are more than a hundred types of granola on the market and although I’ve never tasted a granola I didn’t like, there are only about a half-dozen that I can say I truly love: BAKED Granola is one of them. Made by a bakery called BAKED in Brooklyn, New York, BAKED Granola is the go-to granola when I want a wholesome cereal made with all natural oats, grains, lots (and lots) of nuts and a hint of cinnamon (the House Blend). Delicious with milk but downright decadent on top of yogurt, BAKED Granola is a truly nutty, crunchy, delicious treat.
Read more
When Only a Perfect Ending Will Do….
Purists prefer to use fresh butter and eggs to make a homemade cake rather than buying a store-bought version but for those special occasions when an exceptional cake needs to be sent as a gift (and arrive as beautiful as it looks in a picture and taste better than a homemade cake), look no further than a Perfect Endings Vintage Cake. Perfect Endings of Napa, California makes a line of vintage cakes – Coconut, German Chocolate, Red Velvet, Banana, and Devil’s Food – reminiscent of what a layer cake should be: fluffy, moist, and delicious. That the cake looks as good as it tastes is….well….icing on the cake. Read more
Meduri World Delights Dried Fruit
Meduri World Delights create some of the most delicious dried fruits – unsulphured and preserved naturally without artificial colors or preservatives. The company chooses the highest quality fruit from growers all over the world – Sweetglow apricots from California, apples, cranberries, blueberries, Rainier and Bing cherries from the Pacific Northwest, Morello cherries from Eastern Europe, peaches, sugar plums, raspberries and blackberries from Chile, Mandarin oranges from China, lingonberries from Scandinavia, and strawberries and grapefruit from Mexico – and prepares the fruit using the “Meduri Method” which means the fruit is placed in shallow trays and dried in small batches with a very small amount of sugar, sunflower oil, citric acid and/or ascorbic acid added to preserve the fruit naturally. Read more
Paddock Post 