Friday, January 30, 2009

Luna's Pick of the Day: Marshmallows!!

I had the opportunity to try the Marshmallows from Butter Baked Goods and all I can say is 'wow'.

These soft, pillowy little babies delight the tongue in ways you cannot imagine. I tried all the flavors and each was better than the last! Matcha, Raspberry, Toasted Coconut and Strawberry were are all perfectly flavorful, not fake tasting at all.

Any of them would make a bomb addition to s'mores or cocoa and for $6 a bag you can't beat the price for the quality!

http://butterbakedgoods.com/

Friday, January 23, 2009

Violet Wine

How do you make Violet Wine? You go here!

http://www.kinkeadridge.com/htm/violet.htm

interesting.....

The Trends at the Fancy Food Show 2009

The trends have been clear: innovative, spicy, organic, and natural ingredients.

Foods that help heal, have low salt, are good (and fun) for you and your kids are the order of the day. There are some great new companies offering wonderful new products and old favorites rolling out new items.

Some of the highlights were: Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the first purveyor in the U.S. to hire a humane auditor in an attempt to change the face, and the reputation of the foie gras industry.

Zebra Mix, whose creators made healthy, easy to use cookie and cupcake kits for kids and their adults.

Coco-Luxe, whose Devil’s Food truffle is simply not to be believed!

Fentiman’s makes a delightful series of drinks: my own favorite was the Dandelion and Burdock which is just fantastic!

You need to try the Firecracker candy Bar by Chuao. It has chipotle chili, sea salt and popping candy! It was a really fun treat in the mouth. They also come in mini pods.

The Dry Soda Company has introduced two new flavors to their already fantastic set: Vanilla Bean and Juniper, each of which adds just that extra bit of yum to your drinking power.

A special shout out to the girls from The Dry Soda Company, who were delightful and let me hang out at their booth a lot.

There will be blogs on my favorite new items and even better ambush interviews with Dulcet, Zebra Mix, Fentimans and more!

Next week I will be unveiling a contest, so make sure you tune in to the show!!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Is this ranch?

In 1991, my eldest cousin got married in a very posh joint in Pasadena. There are several things about that trip that stand out to me in great detail.

One of them is that his sister, my favorite cousin, sent back her Gazpacho at the beginning dinner because it was cold. The waiter tried explaining that it was meant to be but she wouldn’t hear it. My dad teased her about that for years….

The second is a story so strange no believes it is true. Since we were there for a few days, my family made a real trip out of it. My sisters’ and I went to Hollywood to see Grauman’s and other attractions we had not since we were kids.

On this particular night, we met up at a restaurant with some assorted ‘extended family’, you know those people who you are not really related to, yet feel as though you are. So there we were in Denny’s-type establishment for dinner.

We ordered, and it was a decent sized table, somewhere between eight and ten of us. My dad ordered a side salad with ranch. Upon tasting it, he flagged down our waitress (and don’t email on this. She was not a server. Trust me.) to ask her if he had indeed gotten what he ordered.

Without missing a beat, she leaned over the table, plucked a bit of lettuce with dressing off my dad’s plate, popped it in her mouth and then said “Yep, that’s ranch.”

This, of course, left us all slack jawed and staring at each other. What the hell had just happened? My dad very calmly called over the manager and explained what happened. She was so embarrassed she took care of the entire tab.

The next night, my sister and I went back, just for kicks. Since both she and my mom have been waitress, it was a pretty crazy outing for us. When she told the se3rve what had happened the before, she comped our food too.

Let this be a lesson to you: be careful who you ask what. You may not like the way they answer!