Whenever I can, I choose to shop independent businesses. They are just more inspiring, creative, fun and local. I wrote about the benefits of shopping locally in an article this past July. And now, even though farmers’ market season comes to a close in the next month or so (at least for us in the North), there is still time to advocate for the Eat Local cause. That goes for restaurants, of course, but here I’m mainly speaking about food shopping. Locally grown stuff.
I’m sure you’ve noticed. There is a whole Locavore (or Localvore) movement going on.  A locavore is [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Are we all counting the days when our youngins’ head back to school? I am already thinking about the 160 lunches I will have to prepare for my daughter throughout the year. Yikes! Plus this little 6 year old has been a vegetarian since she started eating solid foods. Thank goodness I discovered these Pure Organics bars. Veroncia Bosgraaf created these bars when her 6 year old daughter made a conscious decision not to eat meat again. They are raw, organic, gluten-free, kosher and full of fruits and nuts with no refined sugars, no chemicals, no genetically-modified [...]

Think of summer, think of fun & colorful “adult” drinks in novel drinking glasses and fruit garnish. Well, that’s what some of us think of first…  And, for us, there’s the “Spike Your Juice” kits, a new way to transform all those kiddie, summery juice flavors into sparkling boozy beverages. All you need is…

Your favorite juice, a 64 oz bottle
One Spike package, poured into the bottle
Seal the bottle
Wait 48 hours
Enjoy…

The fizziness is part of the natural fermentation process. Most juices will create an alcoholic beverage with about 14% alcohol.
Though I don’t think that this will satisfy the chichi palates, I’m [...]

Grilling season is upon us. I just know that you are looking for an eco-friendly alternative to the fuel imbued charcoal briquettes. You probably also prefer that your food taste like food and not like gas? Well, you will want to know that coconut charcoal is the new cleaner alternative. Co.co.nut??
Indeed. Coconut Charcoal is made from the inner hard shell of a coconut.  When carbonized coconut shell is burned as charcoal, it achieves high heat and maintains that temperature for up to two and a half hours. The condensed fiber of coconut shells creates hotter, longer and cleaner burning charcoal [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
I got this great cookbook for my husband for his birthday this month. It is called Latin Grill, Sultry and Simple Food by Rafael Palomino. It is a cookbook full of simple, fresh recipes. The other night my husband made the Grilled Chicken Mini Brochettes with Avocado and a Mango-Honey-Mustard Glaze (incidentally, it’s the recipe pictured on the cover of the book and grilled to perfection in our rendition, as seen in the photo below). I never thought about grilling avocados but it turned out fantastic. Use almost ripened avocados. They seem to ripen to [...]

I bought the à la card chicago deck of cards at OneofaKind Chicago show this past December. It’s been the best $30 I’ve spent all year and I only regret not having mentioned it here earlier. The à la card chicago is a 52 card deck, each card a $10 coupon valid at the 52 chef-driven, owner-operated restaurants in Chicago. The à la card peeps explain it best:
We’ve basically created a consortium of 52 Chicago restaurants–and not just any restaurants, but the best in the city. The restaurants span 25 different neighborhoods, various cuisines and price points, but they have [...]

I have a new crush. His name is Jamie Oliver. Not only is he cute and British, but he’s also on a mission. That’s pretty sexy. Actually, more like a mission to create a revolution. A Food Revolution.
“I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It’s time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food!”

Jamie is – justifiably – outraged at the current quality of our food in general and [...]

We are so much more “aware” consumers nowadays and we want to know what – exactly what – we are putting in our mouths, on our skin, in our homes. Is it healthy? Is it safe? Is it sustainable? Thanks to the GoodGuide, we can now verify this information on over 70,000 food, toy, personal care and household items.
While still in beta mode, the GoodGuide already “provides the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of the products in your home.” It analyzes and rates food, personal care products, household cleaners and [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Contributing Editor
Before Christmas I went to visit my BFF Anne-Marie in Chicago and she treated me to a chocolate tour she found on Groupon (she loves Groupon and wrote all about it here). It was a walking tour of downtown Chicago and it was a wonderful way to see the city while sampling some amazing chocolate treats. One such treat was a delightfully and creatively delicious chocolate bar from Chocri, a German company that customizes chocolate bar(s), each made-to-order. At the time, the company had not yet launched in the U.S., but Chocri is here now, [...]

For all the crazy running around caused by our “obligations” to the season, there are many rewards. One of them would be the abundance of the bubbly stuff, Champagne if you’re a purist, or some much more affordable sparkling wine like a Prosecco (which Audrey wrote about here).
It’s when I saw our son attempt to pop our Champagne for a party last week that I realized that some of us need some training in the art of uncorking and pouring the bubbly. It’s not supposed to happen as it does in the movies. No, the cork should not fly across [...]