Bobbysue’s Nuts
Bobbysue Kobren has been making her family’s fantastic, generations-old recipe for spiced nuts – crunchy almonds, cashews, and pecans coated with a delicate meringue, and lightly roasted with a bit of sugar, and a special blend of spices – for years but waited until 2008 to follow her entrepreneurial spirit by opening Bobbysue’s Nuts in Chappaqua, New York. Savory, slightly sweet (but not too sweet), Bobbysue’s Nuts are addicting: it’s impossible to open a jar and eat just a few nuts because one taste of these scrumptious nuts leaves you wanting more…and more….and more. Read more 
Kee’s Chocolates
A visit to Kee’s Chocolates of New York City should be on every passionate chocolate lover’s bucket list. Named for the master chocolatier – Kee Ling Tong – who opened her flagship store in Soho twelve years ago, Kee’s Chocolates are the kind of chocolates that make you step back and think you’ve entered a sublime universe where nothing matters but chocolate and getting more of it because each perfectly hand-made bonbon is rich, decadent and unquestionably exceptional. Read more
The Ice Cream Cone Dilemma
Where I grew up in northern New Jersey, there were two places to go for ice cream: Dairy Queen and Van Dyke’s Ice Cream. Dairy Queen, the local standby was the default choice when we wanted soft serve ice cream after dinner but on weekends or summer afternoons, we would ride our bikes to Van Dyke’s in Ridgewood for rich, creamy, locally made ice cream.
Scooped by hand into impossibly big round balls, the ice cream would be placed on top of a cake or sugar cone. The star of the show was the ice cream – summer cantaloupe, deep chocolate, minty chocolate chip – but the cone was best supporting actor. Within minutes, the ice cream was melting down the sides of the cone and we would be frantically licking the drips to keep the sweet cream from spilling all over our hands. The best bite was the last one: the semi-soft tip at the bottom of the cone – part melted ice cream and part crispy sugar cone and total bliss. Read more
Big Spoon Roasters
Big Spoon Roasters makes ten handcrafted nut butters from scratch in Durham, North Carolina. Each nut butter starts with freshly harvested nuts (peanuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, or brazil nuts) that are roasted, ground, and then blended with wildflower honey which enhances the flavor and serves as a natural preservative – eliminating the need to refrigerate the butters. A touch of sea salt, stone ground chocolate, organic cocoa nibs, organic coconut oil, cardamom, clove, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, black pepper, or crystallized ginger are also added, depending on the variety. Read more
Dr. Kracker Crispbreads
There is something deeply satisfying about eating Dr. Kracker Crispbreads – large rectangular shaped crackers loaded with whole grains and seeds that possess flavor, texture, and a nutritional punch in every bite.
The rich, toasty flavor of organically grown whole grains and seeds makes these European inspired crispbreads delicious to eat right out of the box or as vehicle for bolder foods – guacamole, cheese, nut butters, dips, and spreads. Deliciously crunchy, Dr. Kracker Crispbreads are a great alternative to ordinary crackers or bread.
Pascha Organic Dark Chocolate
Pascha Organic Dark Chocolate makes eight decadent dark chocolate bars in an allergen-free beans-to-bar facility to ensure the purity of their chocolate. Free of nuts, peanuts, soy, dairy, wheat, gluten, and egg with no genetically modified ingredients, the bars have full ingredient traceability. Rich, dark and delicious, these bars are the essence of simplicity, made with the firm belief that the less you touch a food product, the more delicious the taste. Read more
Pasta d’oro
Two friends recently e-mailed me about a product called Sam Mills Pasta d’oro, which one had discovered in an Italian restaurant in New York City when she ordered a gluten-free pasta dish. Expecting a bland pasta, she was pleasantly surprised by the flavorful pasta with a firm texture so she asked the server about the dish and he told her the restaurant uses a gluten-free pasta called Pasta d’oro – a corn pasta made with corn flour and water.
Made by the Sam Mills company of Rumania in a gluten-free facility in the European Union, Pasta d’oro is free of gluten, dairy, soy, egg, and cholesterol and full of taste, texture, and deliciousness. Read more
Rawxies
To describe a Rawxie as a delicious cookie is an understatement. Made primarily of oats, dates, nuts, and coconut palm sugar (which has a low glycemic index of 35 compared to cane sugar with 68 or honey with 55), Rawxies are a hybrid of nutritional food bars and an indulgent dessert, according to Callie England, the creator of these scrumptious treats. Made in Kansas City, Missouri, Rawxies are heart-shaped cookies made in four selective flavors: Lemon Poppy Seed (my favorite), Mint Chocolate Chip, Mocha Almond, and Banana Nut Bread. Read more
The Mulberry
Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, Here we go round the mulberry bush, On a cold and frosty morning.
Most people remember the popular nursery rhyme “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush,” and yet, the mulberry is rarely seen in the fresh produce department of most grocery stores. A small fruit that usually grows to be about an inch long, the mulberry is typically white or a pale color when immature turning pink, red, and then a dark purple or black when fully ripened looking remarkably similar to a blackberry when mature. Read more
Simple Squares
There are few foods more gratifying than the simple ones: raw nuts and honey among them. Add vanilla, sea salt and herbs and simplicity becomes deliciousness with Simple Squares: natural, organic snack bars made with non-GMO verified ingredients. Made primarily of nuts (cashews and almonds), Simple Squares contain no wheat, gluten, dairy, corn or soy and are made without refined sugar, brown rice syrup, or agave. Honey is the sweetener of choice in the six savory flavors: Read more
Paddock Post 