tipsy

I am a fan of salt. I choose salty over sweet any day. I've got Salt: A World History on hold at the library, I drink caesars when I go out and in the past I've created my own vodka based "salty dogs". Now I've found the holy grail of sodium-rich olives...may I introduce you to Sable & Rosenfeld's Vermouth "Spiked" Pimento Tipsy Olives. Oh my! These babies are a natural addition to any martini but if you're like me, these olives will have you snacking to no end. I have to limit my olive intake to two olives per day (they are loaded with fat and sodium, after all), but I enjoy those 2 olives immensely! Now if only I could find those citrus gin soaked olives in a store close by...

post merry, pre happy

I hope everyone had wonderful holiday times because I sure did! Lots of games and friends, too much chocolate and a short little getaway helped to make the season bright. For the first time in a long time, our new years plans will rest on the quiet side. No dancing shoes for me tonight! It's a bit sad, but I think hanging out with friends and drinking fancy drinks will take my mind of the fact that my feet ain't moving.

Happy New Years, everybody! I leave you with some nice design crafts at Design Without Reach and an amazing painting via BoingBoing of Angelina Jolie as Mary and Walmart as hell. See you in 2007!

thanksgiving

Ah, I love long weekends...especially when they are filled with sunshine! This past Thanksgiving weekend was perfect. Documentaries were watched at the VIFF, a Thanksgiving feast was enjoyed, a corn maze was bewildering and a pumpkin patch was visited.

Thank you.

a sweet not

I like to use this journal to keep track of things I treasure or value or just want to keep close to me. But this post is anything but...except maybe a reminder to stay the hell away! After reading poco-cocoa's top 5 food list, I figured that I should actually give kettle corn a chance and when I spotted some at the Gourmet Warehouse, I immediately picked some up. True, I'm sure fresh kettle corn is a heavenly thing, but yikes, this was a big $3.99 mistake. From what little I know of kettle corn, it should be sweet & salty...but this bag of SweetPops is only sweet...despite any claims to being salty on the bag. Too sweet in fact. I feel like I have to brush my teeth and eat a whole bag of salty pretzels to counteract the sugar rush I got from this popcorn. SweetPops is a sweet not in my book.

Play with your food!

When I first got cable a few years ago, I was all over the Food Network. I fell head over heals with Nigella and Jamie and all the tasty things they could create in just a half hour show. But then my interest waned. Every time I turned on the tv, I'd be faced with that ungodly smile beast (aka Rachel Ray) and would literally shudder and click away as fast as I could. Sure, I did manage to discover the lovely nature goddess Ina who for the first while totally puzzled me with her name. Ina Garten? Was it just some fancy Germanic/Dutch way of saying "In a Garden"? After all, she always seemed to be picking fresh herbs or carrying handfulls of fresh flowers.

But lately, there is a new show that is calling me back to the realm of the Food Network and that show is Food Jammers. It's basically 3 thirty something artist dudes who take a crazy idea to build something out of trash and bike parts (or whatever) and then cook. I've seen them make and cook up a 10 foot sausage for a backyard barbeque and make a deep fryer out of car parts. Great music, great animations, and great ideas make a most perfect tv show. It's about time!

Check them out on the web:
Their website (it's awesome!)
The Food Network Food Jammers site

larabar, oh my!

I've never been interested in "energy bars" or any kind of sports-specific food. But I recently went on an 8 day bike tour of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast and having an extra bit of energy to help me climb those hills was more than essential. So in preparation for my trip, I went into my local health food shop and discovered the delicious bounty of the Lara Bar. Raw food bars with no more than 6 ingredients, these babies taste amazing. I've sampled the "Chocolate Coconut", "Chocolate Mole" and the "Chocolate Mint" --- hmmm, can you see there is definite chocolate pattern here? They taste like little bites of brownies without the guilt. Next, I really want to try their "Cherry Pie" bar. Yum.