Where does your $1 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Go?
If you’ve participated in any of the thousands of fund-raising activities for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or shopped at CVS, Target, Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Brooks Brothers, GNC, Claire’s, or Kmart, then you’ve probably been asked at the cash register to make a donation to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. More than likely, you’ve said yes, as evidenced by the $976 million (nearly $1 billion) collected by the ALSAC (American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities) – the fundraising organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – for the year ending June 30, 2013. Read more 
Better Brittle
Better Brittle is a West African style peanut brittle that resembles the peanut brittle that many baby boomers recall from our childhood only without the rock-hard corn syrup that has been known to crack a tooth now and then. Made with three simple natural ingredients – freshly roasted peanuts from Virginia and North Carolina, fair-trade organic evaporated cane juice, and sea salt, Better Brittle is really better than traditional brittle. Read more
“Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes”
Love the short story for what it is: a handful of glorious pages that take you someplace you never knew you wanted to go. Ann Patchett
Few people appreciate the short story although most are better written and clearly demand less of our time and attention than the novel. For me, short stories have always reminded me of those beautiful wooden Advent calendars with small doors. Beginning December 1st and continuing to December 24th, a numbered door is opened to reveal a small present – a ring, a chocolate, a key chain, perhaps, and sometimes a clever clue that if answered correctly leads to a treasured surprise: a scented soap, a kitchen utensil, a candle or a lovely writing pen. Each morning is filled with anticipation and then sheer happiness that lasts all day. Read more
Sunday Newspaper Inserts Hit a New Low
One of life’s little pleasures is the all-encompassing Sunday newspaper that contains all the news of the week and, of course the Sunday inserts from Target, Walmart, Best Buy, CVS, Walgreen’s, and this week’s special sales brochure from Shoot Straight which not only advertises the Smith & Wesson M&P 15-T, a tactical semi-automatic rifle with a 30-round detachable magazine for $949 but also the Smith & Wesson 15-22 Rife with a 25 round magazine for $399 for those who want to spend less. That the M&P 15-T is “designed specifically for the needs of military and police around the world” according to Impact Guns, is obviously besides the point. Read more
Original Parmesan Crisps
Kali, “the baking goddess” is the creator behind Original Parmesan Crisps – gently baked crispy crackers made with one ingredient: parmesan cheese. Inspired by a trip to Parma, Italy, Kali set upon capturing the culinary culture of the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy by changing the region’s most famous cheese product into a simple delicious cracker . Each tangy, crunchy melt-in-your-mouth bite will remind you of those beautiful chunks of parmesan cheese for which Italy is so famous for. Read more
Marco Paolo Chocolates
Mark Lewis is the founder and genius chocolatier behind Marco Paolo Chocolates – an artisan chocolate shop known for its distinctive double layered chocolate truffles that taste as decadent as they look. Instead of a single flavored truffle, Lewis combines two complementary ganache flavors using fruits, flowers, spices, herbs and seeds to create a tasting and sensory experience.
One of the most popular truffles is the Coconut Cilantro Dark Lime Truffle: white chocolate coconut ganache enlivened with cilantro teamed with tart lime dark chocolate ganache: two distinctive fruit flavors (the jury is still out on whether coconut is considered a fruit or nut) enhanced with spices and then enrobed in dark chocolate make for one scrumptious tropical truffle. Read more
Salty Wahine Passion Fruit Chili Pepper
A friend of mine whose food preferences run towards the crunchy and the spicy gave me a 4 ounce grinder of Salty Wahine Passion Fruit Chili Pepper with the promise that I would forever look at chili pepper in a different way. She was right. I was hooked with the first grind, as was my whole family. When we recently found ourselves traveling to three different places, we all began scheming to see who was going to get the Salty Wahine Passion Fruit Chili Pepper in their suitcase, which led me to order three 2.5 ounce grinders – one for each of us. Family war successfully averted…phew. Read more
Brewers Bars
A Brewers Bar is a chewy-crispy fruit and seed (no nuts) granola bar created by Granola Lab of Brooklyn, New York with organic rolled oats, organic rice syrup, brown sugar, barley malt, organic pumpkin seeds, organic dried apples, organic dried apricots, organic malt syrup, organic dates (with oat flour), hemp seeds, olive oil, organic sesame seeds, flax meal, organic vanilla extract, and salt. Sounds like most energy bars…but it isn’t because of one ingredient: barley malt. Read more
“The Secret History”
It is easy to see things in retrospect. but I was ignorant then of everything but my own happiness, and I don’t know what else to say except that life itself seemed very magical in those days: a web of symbol, coincidence, premonition, omen. Everything, somehow, fit together; some sly and benevolent Providence was revealing itself by degrees ….
While J.D. Salinger revealed the tortured soul of a teenager in an exclusive private school in Catcher in the Rye, it is Donna Tartt who opens our eyes to young adulthood when she takes the reader into the underworld of a small liberal arts college in The Secret History. Published in 1992, 41 years after Catcher in the Rye, The Secret History tells the story of six young adults at a liberal arts college (the fictional Hampden College in Vermont – not unlike the college Tartt attended: Bennington College in Vermont): Read more
Perfect Fuel Chocolate
What do you get when you take two organic super foods: dark chocolate and ginseng – and blend them together? The Perfect Fuel Chocolate Energy Bite: a single serving (0.5 ounce or 14 grams) raw super dark chocolate (74%) bar with no refined sugar made from five organic ingredients: cacao, cacao butter, coconut palm sugar, vanilla bean, and American ginseng (500 mg).
Made by Boston-based Perfect Fuel Chocolate, the Perfect Fuel Chocolate Energy Bite is gluten-free, soy free, vegan, kosher and powerfully delicious, with the only caveat: you have to like dark chocolate. Who knew that dark chocolate and ginseng could produce the perfect snack? Read more
Paddock Post 