So I've been going nuts over strawberries lately and I finally figured out why I can't get them off of my mind. Strawberries, one of my favorite fruits, are only available (ok you can get them almost all year long but really a strawberry in January isn't that good) for a limited time. Like the Kate Moss for Topshop collection, strawberries are a limited edition fruit. The simple fact that you can only purchase, consume, and enjoy the red berries for a certain amount of time makes them that much more covetable and that much more delicious. So get em while they're hot and get them now. Today I've got a swift, easy dessert recipe where the luscious perfection of the strawberry is enhanced by its cousin, the raspberry. Like me, you know you just cant get enough strawberries so, read more

Oh viral marketing, will you ever get old?
The latest company to use the power of the internet combined with the ever bored office work force is Grolsch Beer (you know, the one with the signature swingtop). They just launched Grolsch Gardens, a new website that is one half commercial and one half murder mystery game - actually let's make that 3/4 commercial and 1/4 murder mystery game. When you get to the site, you're put right into the middle of a film-noir inspired mystery revolving around a lady, a painting and some mobsters. Along the way you pick up items, search for clues (this is where, no matter how hard you try, you can't forget that you're navigating a Grolsch ad) and try to figure out what has happened to the heroine. One of the clues you actually get is "She has hidden the painting in one of the rooms. She left a trail to find it."

Now, I normally don't fall for this sort of stuff, but I ended up wasting spending about 20 minutes of my day on it. I never did find the painting, or find out out what happened, but I collected a monocle and some beer along the way. I also saw a glimpse of a lady showering (don't worry, her NSFW bits are fogged out). Either way, like I said before I spent over 20 minutes on it and sort of craved a Grolsch when I was done. Damn you marketing people, I've fallen for your schtick again! And it looks like it will happen again, this is actually just the first in what looks like to be Grolsch film-noir installments.

Oh and if anyone figures out where the painting is, let me know okay? Everyone was making fun of me, so I stopped before I could figure it out...

Sunday was the first day that I got to eat dinner outside! I was extremely excited as the weather was warm, the pork tenderloin was grilled, and the beer was icy cold. When eating outdoors, where things are completely casual and 100% informal, I think it's best to use certain equipment. An easily cleanable outdoor tablecloth is a must, as are fun, plastic plates. The last thing you want is your fine china shattering into a thousand pieces poolside. Plastic plates ensure that you can tan, swim, and frolic outside without worrying about glass in your toes. That being said, I need you to help find me some new ones! I want them to be good quality, dishwasher friendly, and with fabulous summer colors/prints. No flimsy baby plates please. Save the plates you find in the Yum Market with the keyword tag Outdoor Plates. Happy hunting!

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• Have you ever heard of kaiseki? Something tells me this 500-year-old traditional Japanese menu is going to be the next big thing in high-cuisine. - LA Times
• Here we go again with the labeling thing: if you think truffle oil is made out of truffles, you might want to think again. Plus, with all the food scares recently, it makes you wonder, who's watching what we eat? - New York Times



• As a generation of folks used to fine dining retire, senior living centers must step up the quality of their cuisine. - The Oregonian
• On the other end of the age spectrum, foodie parents are feeding their little ones gourmet baby food. - Houston Chronicle
• Discover which wines go with what's sizzling on the grill. - Sacramento Bee
• Love Pizza? Love Beer? How about a pizza flavored beer? - CBS2 Chicago



• Here in San Francisco, there's a new pie shop in town. Mission Pies supports a local farm that supplies ingredients and hire local teens as servers. - San Francisco Chronicle
• If you're lucky enough to be in Seattle this weekend, be sure to head down to the annual Seattle Cheese Festival. You can eat lots of cheese and see Mother Noëlla Marcellino - a Benedictine cheese-making nun. And if you go, pick me up some Beecher's flagship cheese, okay? - Seattle Times

Although this week I am all about the Bachelorette Party, I thought it would be helpful if I also discussed my bridal shower ideas. While the bachelorette party revolves around the bride's best girlfriends, the bridal shower involves all of the important females in the bride's life (mother, grandmother, aunts, cousins, etc.). Like the wedding, the bridal shower should reflect your personal style, attitudes, and preferences. Love to cook? Have it at a cooking class. Crafty? Host a knitting, pottery, or painting bridal shower. Pamper you and your ladies with a spa shower. Other ideas are a picnic, outdoor activity (horseback riding, white water rafting, etc), psychic reading, salsa dancing, sleep over, and tea party. Themes make planning the event much easier and so will my party tips so read more

We've all done it, we've bought lettuce with the perfectly good intention of turning it into salad, only instead of making a salad, we throw it in to the back of the fridge and forget about it for a while. We come back a few days later and find that the leaves look a bit sad and wilted. Well, what do you do? Do you toss it out? Nope! You soak it! Place washed lettuce leaves in a bowl (preferably stainless steel) filled with cold water, lemon juice and ice cubes. Soak for an hour in the refrigerator, then drain, dry and enjoy! Oh and let's be realistic here folks, if your lettuce is starting to turn to soggy mush, no amount of lemon juice is going to save it.

I blame my unhealthy college eating choices on the fact that there we were located on top of a hill with miles to the nearest store and the only thing providing sustenance between the hours of 9pm and 6am was a nearby vending machine. I cannot tell you how many papers were finished with a diet coke in one hand and a bag of chips in the other. Imagine how healthy I could have been if there had been, oh say, a vending machine that dispensed healthy treats instead.

YoNaturals is a rapidly expanding network of healthy vending machines called: Yo!Zone and YoThirsty? (which are snacks & drinks). With their distribution circle growing wider by the day, the machines are currently found in some offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, etc. They offer more than 100 types of natural snacks/beverages including: Clif Bars, Vitamin Water, Horizon Organic Milk, Bumble Bars and Stacy's Pita Chips.

After all my vending binges in college, I sort of made a pact to myself to avoid them whenever possible. However, if we had one of these in our office, I know I'd hit it up more often than not.

Technically risotto is a slow cooked, creamy Italian rice dish that involves roughly 20 minutes of constant stirring. However if you are in a rush and need a quick fix dinner, a scrumptious risotto-made with instant white rice is the ideal recipe. With boneless, skinless chicken breasts, a hefty amount of baby spinach, and a sprinkling of cherry tomatoes this recipe is a complete no brainer. No time consuming stirring yet all of the tasty goodness of a classic Italian dish. This would even work wonderfully for an impromptu dinner party-your guests will think you spent hours slaving over the stove when really the meal was made in mere minutes. If you are a beginner, new to cooking, I encourage you to give this recipe a whirl before you make the more lengthy original version. For the recipe, read more

The funnest part of planning any bachelorette party (after picking out a male stripper of course!) is picking out the specialty cocktails. I wanted to find ones that will allow Julie and her best friends to lose their inhibitions and really party hard. I've been keeping the party as classy and chic as possible with a strip class (so Julie can give Scott a little dance on her wedding night!), lingerie gifts, elegant invitations, and a tasty menu. But even I have to add a little bit of sleazy slutiness and I'll do so with the alcohol. To see what I'll be serving up to wash down the savory finger foods, read more