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 [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Contributing Editor
This summer, my mother-in-law, Betty, came to visit us and brought a package of  Salba® with her for me to try. She knows that I put wheat germ and ground flax seeds in everything – from muffins to meatballs – and thought Salba has even more health benefits than those two combined. Hmmmmm… could that be possible?
Not that I don’t trust my mother-in-law’s judgment, but I had to check this out myself. So this is what I found out. According to the website, Salba is the richest whole food source of Omega 3 fatty [...]

I discovered the now-my-favorite-spice when visiting Turkey last year. We were served some variation of “tomato and cucumber salad” with sumac at every meal. I loved it. I knew I had tasted the spice before in Lebanese cooking but had never bothered to find out what it was. That is, until I got addicted on day 4 of the trip and then just had to know. Sumac is an essential spice in Arabic cooking, greatly enjoyed for its tangy, sour and astringent taste. The Sumac berries are dried and crushed into a coarse dark purple-ish-red powder. Evidently, I bought a [...]

I discovered this product, haphazardly, by surfing the infinite web and reading an article about the  Miracle Noodle® on NaturalNews.com.  A noodle with ZERO calories, ZERO fat and less than one gram of carbs per serving? Just rinse and eat? Are you kidding?

The too-good-to-be-true alarm went off for a second, but knowing the natural advocacy zeal that burdens NaturalNews, I was pretty sure there was no BS here. Indeed not.
Turns out that the “miracle noodle”, aka Shirataki, has been around in Asia for quite some time.

I ran into Chris Sack’s Great Lakes Tea & Spice booth at a recent trade show. I was immediately stopped in my tracks as all my senses came alive as I neared his booth. It was scented of all the marvelous teas and spices that were on display in their elegant and colorful packaging. I’m a little crazed when it comes to exotic spices, finishing salts, fancy sugars and chichi imported teas. And I could tell that Chris was too.  I felt right at home.
For Chris and his wife, Heather, it all started with a love for foreign travel and [...]

Seriously. Best. Chocolate. Cake Mix. Ever. And, as if anyone would ever know the difference, it’s gluten-free. No one in my family has celiac disease, but I do try to stay away from gluten whenever possible. In my case, it just makes me swell (ankles disappear) and for the kids, my homeopath trained me years ago to limit gluten products whenever any of us was sick or had a cold. Gluten is glue and makes everything in our insides stick.
So, all that to say that I’m always on the lookout for – tasty – gluten-free alternatives. I was shopping at [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Contributing Editor
As the Galeos bottle states “You’ve waited long enough. World’s Best Miso Caesar Salad Dressing”! Don’t let the word Miso dissuade you if you are not a fan of soybeans or miso.  If it was not on the label you would never know it is a Miso dressing.  Not only is this truly the best Caesar Salad Dressing I have ever tasted (that includes my own fabulous homemade version), it is low in fat  at 1 g per serving, and low in calories:  only 14 calories per tablespoon!!  I tend to be a bit generous [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Contributing Editor
I delighted in discovering these yummy Crisps when I went to a cocktail party a friend of mine was having. I was familiar with the very cocktail-friendly Margaret’s Artisan Flatbread by the same company, but these Crisps were entirely new to me.  Our hostess paired the Cranberry Pumpkin Seed Crisp with goats cheese and hot pepper jelly.  I have a favorite expression for such oral delights: I use the MO acronym in public (Mouth Orgasm). And, MO these crisps cause. I have kept a box (or two) in my pantry ever since.  I love the [...]

I’ve been waiting for this website to be a little further along in its development before I shared it with you (there were only three food artisans featured on the site when it first launched very recently). With a still growing array of food merchants now featured on the site, I can no longer wait…
Foodzie.com is an online marketplace, like Etsy, but in this case showcasing delights of the edible kind. Foodzie focuses on gourmet and organic health foods, allowing small producers to set up storefronts to display and sell their products.  Food producers are featured through their own web [...]

I bought this product at Whole Foods the other day, really prompted by having seen the really fun retro-coll website that the company created for the Batter Blaster Pancake & Waffle Mix. I wanted to test whether its product was as cool as its website. It is.
The Batter Blaster did not disappoint. Really easy to make: shake & point & shoot & flip. The pancakes