Most people are familiar with mint chocolate. But how about chocolate with lavender? Rosemary?
Dagoba Organic Chocolate wants you to “Seed The Day” and invent a new flavor of bar. The company, which popularized chocolate bar flavors that include Lavender, Lemon-Ginger, Mint, Roseberry (raspberry and rose hips) and other fruits, wants you to create the next garden-inspired chocolate bar.
Flavor submissions are being accepted through October, 31 2008. By the end of December, five winners will be randomly selected to win a year’s worth of Dagoba Organic Chocolate. Winners will get twelve bars of Dagoba Organic Chocolate each month for the twelve months in the 2009 calendar year (approximate retail value, $415). But to us, the biggest honor is that one of the flavors submitted will be selected to be turned into a Dagoba chocolate bar, which will be released in Fall 2009. Your own Dagoba chocolate bar—that’s some holiday gift to give to one’s friends and family!
You can also sign up for free seed packets of favorite herbs found in Dagoba chocolate bars (like lavender, mint and rosemary), which will be mailed out next spring in time for planting season. Log on to www.dagobaseedtheday.com.
The pomegranate has sure been one busy fruit as of late. It has been cropping up in everything we’ve been eating—sorbet, salad, chicken, etc. This versatile fruit is definitely becoming a staple in the American diet, no doubt due to its health benefits. There is significant research to suggest that the antioxidants in pomegranates may prevent a slew of diseases, including prostate cancer and heart disease. We definitely have no problem jumping on the pom bandwagon and wanted to thank POM Wonderful for helping us plan this lovely fruit fiesta.
A themed dinner party can introduce
guests to new flavors and styles of
cooking—a pomegranate dinner party is
definitely one way to tout the benefits of
this super fruit to your friends.
The market may be down, but the stars are out. If you have $150, put on your best Halloween costume, get a balcony seat for dinner and rub shoulders at the cocktail reception with food, fashion and Hollywood A-listers at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. On Friday, October 31, 2008, at the annual Hulaween benefit for Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project, more than 1,000 guests will be entertained by Gloria Estefan, the Miami Sound Machine and Emmy award-winning comedian Kathy Griffin (on the D-List and proud of it). American designer and “Project Runway” judge Michael Kors will pick winners from the crowd for the annual costume contest. Alice Waters, internationally acclaimed chef from Chez Panisse in Berkeley, will receive the “Wind Beneath My Wings” Award from Bette Middler for her pioneering advocacy for locally grown and sustainably harvested food that has become a model for restaurant and home cooking all over the world.
A special committee of celebrity chefs will honor Waters by making their signature appetizers for the cocktail party, including: April Bloomfield (The Spotted Pig and The John Dory); David Chang (Momofuku Noodle Bar), Tom Colicchio (Craft); Lisa Fernandes (Mai House); Kurt Gutenbrunner (Wallse, Café Sabarsky and Blaue Gann); Jonathan Waxman (Barbuto); and Andrew Zimmern (SuperTarget Meal Adventure Guide and Host of “Bizarre Foods” on The Travel Channel).
For tickets and information about Hulaween, call (914) 579-1000 or visit www.nyrp.org.
It’s over in San Francisco, but if you live in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia or Seattle, you can still catch a free Campari cocktail as The House of Campari and SWINDLE magazine present “The Art of Cocktailing.” At bars and lounges, the project also presents silkscreens by artist David Weidman, as part of Campari’s century-long commitment to the arts. Campari, a bitter aperitif, was invented in Italy by Gaspare Campari in 1860; the original recipe is still in use today, although many countries have shifted to an artificial red colorant from the original natural carmine cochineal coloring derived from insect shells. The chairman of GruppoCampari is the only person in the world who knows the entire formula for the recipe, which includes quinine and other bitter herbs, rhubarb, spices, ginseng, bergamot oil and orange peel. It is often mixed with soda, and two popular Campari-based cocktails, the Negroni and the Americano, have been emjoyed by historical and fictional figures, including Ernest Hemingway and James Bond.
Cannellini beans, also known as white
kidney beans, are one of the many
nutritious, delicious beans that are also
beautiful.
Do you remember the classic schoolyard chant, “Beans, beans the musical fruit?”* For years, children have recited variations of this memorable chant, even though beans are a vegetable, not a fruit. (But then, what rhymes with vegetable?) Now, you can right this wrong, win $5,000, a trip to New York City and a meeting with Drew Lachey (recording artist and “Dancing With The Stars” winner). Sponsored by Bush’s Beans, you’ll need to compose a chant and upload a video of yourself performing it. Visit BeanChant.com for details, and you and three pals may be in Times Square with Drew, as you perform your winning number. Here’s the chant Drew wrote to kick off the challenge:
Beans, beans have protein to spare Call them a fruit? I won’t even dare They’re a veggie that makes you grow up big and strong And with beans on the table, your meal can’t go wrong
Beans have more protein and fiber than any other vegetable, You don’t have to struggle with kids to eat their veggies: 4 out 5 like beans (according to a 2007 survey conducted by Impulse Research on behalf of the makers of Bush’s Beans). With 30 varieties of beans, from kidney and garbanzo to black and pinto, a family can try a different kind each week. Read more about them in THE NIBBLE’s Glossary of Beans & Grains. Visit VegetableWithMore.com for 1,000 delicious bean recipes.
The contest closes closes December 12, 2008.
*Beans, beans the musical fruit
The more you eat, the more you toot
The more you toot, the better you feel
So eat your beans with every meal!
