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
Garofalo Gluten-Free Pasta
I’ve never met a dish of pasta I did not love. A Wise Person
How to make a great tasting gluten-free pasta has been a big challenge for pasta makers worldwide over the past decade. Knowing that pasta made without wheat could not have the same flavor or texture as traditional pasta, Garofalo – the Italian pasta maker – set upon creating pasta with a different flavor, making gluten-free pasta a cooking opportunity for everyone and not just those on a gluten-free diet. Equally important was to create a healthy product which led Garafalo to combine corn flour (70%), rice flour (18%), and quinoa (3%) with corn starch and a small amount of oil to make some of the best tasting gluten-free pastas on the market. Read more
The Piebox
Transporting a pie is never an easy task, especially if the pie is deep dish, warm or topped with chiffon. Cardboard boxes are flimsy, Tupperware containers seem to be better at storing a pie, and baskets are just impractical (as cute as they look).
Professionally trained pastry chef, Adrienne Blumthal along with co-founders Carol Blumthal and Steve Metzer solved the problem by creating the Piebox: a reusable wooden pie carrier that will keep your pie safe and intact whether you’re walking, driving, biking, or even flying (yes, TSA rules allow you to carry pies and cakes through the security checkpoint: TSA Traveling with Food or Gifts). Read more
Videri Chocolate Factory
There’s a special place in a chocolate lover’s heart for bean-to-bar chocolate makers like Videri whose founders are committed to creating great chocolate while following the tenets of social responsibility and providing warm and friendly customer service. Truly a labor of love, the beans-to-bar operation is a fascinating process and one worth understanding to truly appreciate.
The Videri Chocolate Factory, located in Raleigh, North Carolina starts with what is referred to as “The Process” purchasing organic and fair-trade cocoa beans from Central and South America, whenever possible. Read more
Herrell’s Hot Fudge Sauce
For hot fudge sundae connoisseurs, the two most important ingredients of a hot fudge sundae are the ice cream and the hot fudge sauce. Purists tend to prefer hard vanilla ice cream covered with a rich, thick chocolate sauce like Herrell’s Hot Fudge Sauce which is made with pure cane sugar, butter, fresh cream, fresh milk, cocoa powder, and cocoa liquor. There are no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives in Herrell’s Hot Fudge Sauce – it’s the real deal: thick and sinfully delicious. Simply open the jar, place in the microwave to warm or in a shallow bowl of hot water to warm, and scoop or pour over ice cream. For an added bonus, lick the spoon! Read more
“Never Mind”
Patrick lay awake. His heart was pounding. He knew it was his mother, but she had come too late. He would not call to her again. When he had been waiting on the stairs and the door opened, he stayed to see if it was his mother, and he hid in case it was his father. But it was only that woman who had lied to him. Everybody used his name but they did not know who he was.
Paddock Post 