KUR Delights
KUR Delights are, for lack of a better word, delightful organic individually wrapped sweet treats that are easily packed in a lunch box, backpack or purse. Ideal as a mid-day snack – with absolutely no added sweeteners – Delights are naturally sweetened with organic raw dates (a fruit with a natural sugar content of about 80%) to which four to seven other raw and organic ingredients are added to make the three flavors: Brownie, Dark Chocolate Mint, and Coconut Cream. Certified USDA Organic, Gluten-free, Non-GMO verified, and Kosher, Kur Delights are a pure and healthy product for those who have a passion for dates. Read more 
“How To Be Alone”
I wonder if our current cultural susceptibility to the charms of materialism – our increasing willingness to see psychology as chemical, identity as genetic, and behavior as the product of bygone exigencies of human evolution – isn’t intimately related to the postmodern resurgence of the oral and the eclipse of the written: our incessant telephoning, our ephemeral e-mailing, our steadfast devotion to the flickering tube. Read more
Peppermint Peppies
Last summer, while attending the Fancy Food Show in New York City, I reluctantly tasted a sample of peppermint bark (after all, it was June) that made me stop, pause and reconsider my aversion to eating “holiday” candy in the summertime (it was dumb logic, anyway). The delicious treat was called a Peppermint Peppie: creamy white chocolate blended with peppermint oil, cloaked in rich, dark chocolate and then sprinkled with red and white peppermint crunchies. Rich and decadent, Peppermint Peppies give a new modern meaning to peppermint bark. Read more
Those Dang Chips!
Dang Chips are toasted coconut chips with a strong, sweet aroma, a very satisfying crunch, and a sweet, slightly salty taste that will make you say “Dang, that’s good.” Made of three ingredients: coconut, sugar, and salt, Dang Chips are made in Thailand where Vincent Kitirattragarn’s mother, Dang (hence, the product name) grew up. Read more
Penne with Butternut Squash and Zucchini
Butternut squash is a colorful and nutritious vegetable but also a bit bland and mushy which is why this year-round vegetable is often used as a base for soups or served mashed. Combining butternut squash and pasta may seem like a double mushy idea but the addition of seasonings for flavor, green zucchini for color, and toasted almonds for crunch make for a delicious main course or side dish. Easy to make in a large skillet, the dish takes 30 minutes from start to finish (with 20 minutes of the time allocated to cooking). Read more
“You Are Not A Stranger Here”
You and all the inheritors of wealth who think life is a matter of perfected sentiment. You are wrong.
Adam Haslett’s first published book, You Are Not A Stranger Here was a both a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002 and the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. – a notable achievement that few writers attain. A collection of nine short stories, You Are Not A Stranger Here was written by a master storyteller who skillfully weaves psychosis, devotion, death, clairvoyance, neglect, suicide, abandonment, and homosexuality into the lives of his characters. Cleverly written, many of the stories contain a train wreck the reader rarely sees coming which is the beauty of Haslett’s writing – the element of surprise. Read more
Nature’s Path Qi’a Superfood Breakfast Cereal
Nature’s Path Organic Qi’a Superfood Breakfast Cereal is more aptly known as Qi’a (pronounced Kee-ah), a trio of seeds and grains – chia, hemp, and buckwheat – full of plant-based protein, fiber, and Omega 3’s. Certified gluten-free with no added sugar or salt, Qi’a is also certified organic, non-GMO project verified, and vegan. Loaded with protein – 6 grams per 2 tablespoon serving – Qi’a also provides 4 grams of dietary fiber per serving with no added sodium. Read more
Charles Chocolates Bars
Charles Siegel is the creative genius behind San Francisco based Charles Chocolates, a company with a total passion for producing the finest confections. Established in 2004, Charles Chocolates makes a variety of sweets: truffles, cremes, nuts, pralines, caramels, orange twigs, gourmet S’mores, chocolate covered nuts, edible chocolate boxes (really!), and my favorite: the Charles Chocolate Bars. Made by hand in small batches using the finest ingredients – chocolate, organic herbs, fruits, organic cream and butter, and nuts – and traditional artisanal techniques, Charles Chocolate Bars are decadent, rich, and deeply satisfying. Read more
Millet: The Pearl of Ancient Grains
Millet – and specifically pearl millet – is a widely grown grass that gives off small grain seeds which are hulled and used as a cereal food. Creamy or yellow in color, round, and small, the tiny circular grains of millet hail from Asia where it has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years.
Able to grow quickly in dry, high temperatures, millet has until recently been used as an ingredient in bird seed in developed countries (but it’s really not for the birds as USAID recently – July, 2013 – awarded Kansas State University nearly $14 million dollars to research millet and sorghum). Millet is gluten-free and a complete protein, with 1/4 cup of dry millet providing 7 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, magnesium, calcium, B6, iron, folate, and zinc. Read more
“Night”
NIGHT. No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes.
In May, 1944, 15-year old Elie Wiesel and his family – his mother, father and three sisters – were ordered from their home in Sighet, Transylvania (the central part of Romania) and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Separated from his mother and sisters, Wiesel and his father managed to stay together for eight months, before his father died in January, 1945. Three months later in April, 1945 the camp was liberated and Elie Wiesel began the journey of “one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night…” Read more
Paddock Post 