Food & Beverage

Will your kids be as adventurous with food as you are? Make sure they are by introducing them to WonderToast!  With this charming toasty character, they can explore the world’s great culinary delights and learn some really cool facts about the origins of exotic dishes. Check out WonderToast’s comic book/coloring book that teaches the ABCs through adorable illustrations such as “K is for Kimchi”, “Q is for Quesadilla”, and “Y is for Yorkshire Pudding”!

Put those COOL DESIGNS on KIDS CLOTHES, and you’ve got a recipe for success!  Deck out your baby in an organic onesie that sports “N is for Nigiri” or for the pre-school set, try a t-shirt with “F is for Falafel”.

FOODIE PARENTS just can’t go wrong with WonderToast.  For something extra special, pick up a gift set: shirt with an autographed book all wrapped up in a colorful chinese take-out box.  Artist Anna Woltz will even include a fresh little drawing along with a personalization for your little one.  Need a baby shower gift?  Or maybe a child’s birthday is fast approaching? You’d be sure to impress with WonderToast!”

Does the title make you hungry?  If not, some of the pictures will.  Nibbles of Tidbits is a Food Blog published by Shelly Borrell, a Freelance Copywriter based in Costa Mesa, California.  It specifically emphasizes the good, the bad and the funny regarding food, by featuring many terrific meals and recipes, as well as those dishes gone wrong.  There?s no shame here.  The writer hopes you?ll learn from her mistakes and others, and hopefully not your own.  Nibbles of Tidbits includes restaurant reviews, cooking tips and experiments, taste tests, and stories about all things food-related.  Shelly Borrell has been cooking and writing for more than twenty years and has extensive knowledge regarding food.  She?s also been lucky enough to win a couple recipe contests.  As a matter of fact, she won the Grand Prize in the Soup category in a contest sponsored by Milk.  Her picture and recipe ended up in a Gourmet and Bon Appetite Magazine issue.  Nibbles of Tidbits is updated daily, so check back for the many informative posts to come. 

Must Love Food is a social network for foodies. The site is up and live in a very basic version and is now accepting foodies who wish to join. In the coming months, the site will take on a lot of changes but since it is free to join why wait? And what are the upcoming changes you may ask? Well, talking to Mark, the former chef extraordinaire, a recipe section will be added that is streamlined to make it easy to add your recipes with photos, the existing blogs, events and groups section will receive a face lift and improved functionality and there will be a complete redesign. That sounds like a lot of work to me but Mark has assured me he want to make Must Love Food the best site for foodies on the web.

As a general rule of thumb, good chocolate should have a high percentage of cocoa about 55-75% is a good number. Of this, some 30% should be cocoa butter. Most of the remaining 25% or so of the bar consists of sugar.  The best is made with natural sugars. When looking for good chocolate, a good rule of thumb is to first start with dark chocolate.  Swiss Chocolate is one of the best tasting chocolates.

Some fell that that good chocolates should be “shiny.” This is an indication of the cocoa butter content (which is higher if it is shiny). Watch out however, that the chocolates do not contain paraffin which WILL make them nice and shiny. Some chocolatiers put it in to make the chocolates keep their shape &  look better when you get them. The paraffin takes away from the taste & makes them slightly “waxy” even though it does not harm you to eat it. If the chocolate is “whitish” or has a “grayish cast” don’t bother with it…the chocolate has seen its better days. This is called “bloom.” The most destructive type of bloom, sugar bloom (when the sugar crystals rise to the surface of the candy), can develop if moisture contacts the chocolate (which happens easily in the refrigerator if you’re not careful). You will NOT find this in the all natural animal product free VEGAN CHOCOLATE.

You may also go by how the gourmet chocolates taste and smell. Ultimately taste and smell is rather personal; if you (or the person you’re buying for) likes the flavor and aroma, you’ll do fine