cookiesinheaven

Labels: Music, YouTube

Labels: New Orleans, New Year, peace

Entire 20,000-bottle shipments of burgundy sell out within hours in Tokyo if he so much as looks at a glass, South Korea's biggest film star is lined-up to play him in a TV drama and he has converted thousands of Asian women into the most discerning oenophiles.

In the rarefied world of superstar sommeliers, there may be none greater than Shizuku Kanzaki. The only snag is that he is a cartoon. - TimesOnLine

Labels: Japanese, Movie, Napa Valley, Sideways, Wine

Pat Willard takes readers on a journey into the regional nooks and crannies of American cuisine where WPA writers—including Eudora Welty, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, and Nelson Algren, among countless others—were dispatched in 1935 to document the roots of our diverse culinary cuisine. With the unpublished WPA manuscript as her guide, Willard visits the sites of American food’s past glory to rediscover the vibrant foundation of America’s traditional cuisine.

Trader Joe's. Need I say more?

Labels: Cookbooks, LATimes, Recipes, restaurants

Labels: business deathwatch, closings

Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins said Monday it is launching a new line of better-for-you ice cream treats just in time to help New Year's dieters trim their waistlines.

The line, called BRight Choices, will include light and reduced fat, no sugar added ice cream as well as dairy-free sorbet and fat-free frozen yogurt. It will be sold in stores beginning today.

...The chain will offer a free scoop of any BRight Choices flavor on Jan. 15 to any consumer who can show proof of a gym membership. - BusinessWeek

Labels: Giveaways, Ice Cream

They have one of the best appetites for work anyone has seen.

A herd of goats has started to take a bite out of TV Hill in Santa Barbara, to chew through the brush and reduce the fire dangers.

The Buellton based company "Brush Goats 4 Hire" has 50 goats on the steep, rugged terrain for the next month.

The end result will be a substantial reduction in chaparral, weeds, and tall grass. - KEYT

Labels: fire, goats, Santa Barbara

On Thursday, Kellogg Co. closed on a $12.1 million deal to acquire the recipes and trademark of Mother's Cake & Cookie Co., former sister company of Archway Cookies.

Mother's Cake & Cookie Co., which manufactures iced animal crackers, sandwich cookies and wire cut cookies, has a devoted customer base in California and the western United States.

...Also bidding on the bankrupt cookie companies Wednesday was Charlotte, N.C.-based snack manufacturer Lance, Inc., which won a bid to buy almost all of Archway's assets for about $30 million.

Lance also placed an undisclosed bid to acquire Mother's Cake and Cookie Co., but lost to Kellogg. - Battle Creek Enquirer 

Labels: bankruptcy, Cookies, corporations

Priced at $ 2.45 million / $ 1.05 million / or together at $ 3.5 million - Two landmark and immensely popular Santa Barbara restaurants are now available for purchase for the first time in over a decade. This is an extremely rare opportunity to own a part of Santa Barbara history with the turn-key purchase of two successful restaurant operations. - BizBuySell.

Labels: For Sale, restaurants, Santa Barbara

MISSION: To help the Santa Barbara community make conscientious seafood choices that support sustainable and environmentally sensitive fisheries.

...We want to shift our community’s seafood consumption to sustainable sources, consumer by consumer and restaurant by restaurant.

By helping restaurants and markets replace unsustainable seafood items with sustainable ones, we hope to shift thousands of dollars spent supporting unsustainable fisheries to supporting the new sustainable seafood movement. - SBMuseum of Natural History

Labels: Environment, restaurants, Santa Barbara, Sustainable

Move over sugar. Make way for salt, fennel, rosemary, chile powder and even curry. Across the country, bitter, salty and savory flavors are working their way into a growing number of dessert menus and specialty chocolates. It is a trend towards innovation, as well as a move away from saccharine-sweet desserts and confections that often overwhelm with sugar. This new generation of sweets possesses uncommon flavor dimensions and provides a shortcut to sophistication.

...It may be having a gastronomic moment, but [the savory-sweet combination] is nothing new, says Iacopo Falai, chef/owner at his much-acclaimed namesake Italian restaurant in lower Manhattan. “The contrast between sweet and savory is one of the most basic in food, somewhat like the contrast between cold and warm. It is a way of expression, a way of playing with things in the kitchen. The idea of adding salt to chocolate, for example, is 5,000 years old. It is our heritage.” - Specialty Foods

Labels: Chocolate, Food, Food Trends, Recipes, Spices

Labels: For Sale, restaurants, Santa Barbara

Labels: celebrity chefs, magazines, Santa Barbara, TV

Holy guacamole! An avocado shortage is looming next spring.

California farmers expect to harvest the smallest avocado crop since 1990 and possibly even as far back as 1980. Hot weather in June, at just the wrong point in the growing season, is responsible for the shortfall. - Latte Times

Labels: Agriculture, avocado, Chocolate, food prices, shortages

Labels: Big Sur, California, Open Table

Labels: California, Horse Racing, Santa Anita

• 2006 Alma Rosa El Jabali Vineyard Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay ($30) Richard Sanford shows his longtime talents with this lavish, ripe single-vineyard Chardonnay. 

• 2006 Epiphany Cellars Camp Four Vineyard Santa Barbara County Grenache Blanc ($23) From an offshoot label of Los Olivos' Fess Parker Winery comes another terrific vintage of this versatile Rhone grape. 

• 2006 Kenneth Volk Santa Maria Cuvee Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir ($26) We enjoyed several of his 2006 Pinots, but this blend was especially winning for its lighter food-friendly profile and approachability. 

• 2006 Rusack Vineyards Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir ($36) Again, John and Helen Falcone find the right mix of fresh fruit and earthy depth in Rusack's mainline bottling. 

• 2006 Tablas Creek Vineyard Cotes de Tablas Red ($25) The Paso Robles focal point of American Rhone varietals had a solid '06 lineup, but its more affordable Grenache-dominant red in particular seemed to overperform. 

• 2005 Presidio Artistic License Presidio Vineyard Santa Barbara County Syrah ($39) Douglas Braun's certified biodynamic vineyard just outside the Sta. Rita Hills appellation again shows its extraordinary potential for aromatic Syrah. 

• 2005 Star Lane Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($50) Former Missouri banker Jim Dierberg's project in Happy Canyon is setting a high standard for Central Coast Cabernet, with help from winemaker Nick de Luca and consultant David Ramey.

• 2006 Kunin Pape Star Central Coast Red Wine ($18) At a time when Rhone-style California wines seem to come with Chateauneuf-like price tags, Seth Kunin's tribute to that famed appellation remains a terrific find. 

• 2006 Palmina Honea Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley Barbera ($40) In Lompoc's wine ghetto, Steve and Chrystal Clifton have committed themselves to Italian varietals like few have in California. Honea is essentially their estate plot, and this latest Barbera is as exotic as it is compelling. 
  

Labels: Wine, Wine Country

The one and only Eartha Kitt has passed away.

A family friend of the sultry entertainment legend has confirmed that she died of colon cancer today. - Black Voices

Labels: Passings, YouTube

Labels: Gift, Holidays, Top Chef

Starbucks is offering up some new drinks beginning January 3.

* London Fog Tea Latte (Hot)
* Black Tea Latte (Hot or Iced)
* Vanilla Rooibus Tea Latte (Hot)
* Apple Chai Infusion (Hot or Iced)
* Berry Chai Infusion (Hot or Iced)
* New Green Tea Latte Recipe

Labels: Starbucks

Labels: retail, sale

Labels: Elvis, Music, YouTube

Labels: Chris Issak, Christmas, Music, YouTube

Labels: Christmas, Finland, Holidays

A brand-new restaurant concept for Macy’s Home opened Tuesday at South Coast Plaza. Signature Kitchen, which encompasses three casual eateries in an upscale food court environment, is the first of its kind in the nation.

The three restaurants within the larger restaurant are Cat Cora’s ‘Que, or CCQ; Marc Samuelsson’s Marc Burger; and Nancy Silverton’s La Brea Bakery. - South Coast Plaza Blog

“This is not your average rib joint,” Cora says. “The twist is incorporating global flavors and presentation.”

CCQ’s menu will be limited, but varied. Meat is the focal point—slow smoked beef brisket, pulled pork, and smoked chicken. Customers can choose from platters, salads, or wraps, which Cora calls “the barbecue version of a burrito.” Vegetarian choices will include fire-roasted vegetables, a signature chopped salad, and sides of beans. Rounding out the menu will be seafood dishes such as skewered shrimp with a Basque rub, chili or lemon zest, garlic, and olive oil.

“I started out with a huge menu, but for fast-casual it has to be formulated and pretty tight,” Cora says.

Consumer health also played a role in Cora’s menu design. CCQ’s meats will be all-natural and cooked with minimal oil. “Smoking and grilling are great options for lots of flavor with not much fat,” she says. - QSR

Labels: Iron Chef, Restaurant, shopping

Labels: Holidays, LOL cats

Labels: Christmas, Music, YouTube

Labels: bakery, bankruptcy

Labels: Financial, Los Angeles, Restaurant

Labels: Food Trends

Labels: Christmas, Cookies, Food Network, Holidays, YouTube

The historic Sebastiani Vineyards in Sonoma has been sold to the Foley Wine Group.

...Foley Wine Group, based in Santa Barbara, manages a portfolio of vineyards and wineries in California and the Pacific Northwest, including Foley Estates Vineyard and Winery, Lincourt Vineyards, Firestone Vineyards, Merus, Altus, Goodnight Cellars and Three Rivers Winery. - San Francisco Business Times

The decision by the Sebastiani family to sell their namesake winery rather than conquer their internal divisions will bring to an end a family business that formed Sonoma's wine identity for more than a century.

"This is a benchmark transaction because the Sebastiani name has been synonymous with Sonoma and with California," said Robert Nicholson, principal of International Wine Associates of Healdsburg. "I am sure it was a difficult decision within the family of pioneers in the wine business. But sometimes selling is the right decision. - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

With a background in professional snowboarding and no money, self-taught filmmaker Robert DaFoe decided he wanted to leap into the winemaking business.

With a camera at his side, DaFoe was compelled to track his experiences from harvest to bottle, and all the strife in between — mainly the struggles to find cheap or free wine-related essentials. Things like grapes. And barrels. Oh, and a place to produce it all.

But what’s notable about DaFoe’s film, “From Ground to Glass,” is that he goes beyond merely tracking his own successes and failures — he’s able to get a rare glimpse into the livelihoods of some of the biggest names in the tri-county wine industry. Though the film premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival two years ago, it was released earlier this month on DVD, bringing the faces and histories behind the area’s biggest labels into mass distribution. - Pacific Coast Business Times

Labels: Sebastiani, Wine, Wine Country

$179,000 - First Class Commercial Kitchen Rental Business. Ideal For Growing Catering Business. Fully Equipped And Versatile. Turnkey Facility. 200,000 Remodel And Buildout In 2005. Act Now! Possible Conversion To A Full Service Restaurant. Price Reduced For Quick Sale! This Is A Versatile Food Service Facility For Many Different Food Concepts. - BizBen

Labels: For Sale, Kitchen, Santa Barbara

Labels: closings, Restaurant

Labels: mea culpa

Airborne to pay $7mil for false advertising. Ouch. I know the stuff works for me and for many of my friends in "fighting off a cold", but I never thought that it could actually "cure a cold." Geez. We can put a man on the moon, but we still can't cure that pesky common cold. Guess I'll be passing this by in the Trader Joe's aisle.

Airborne Health Inc has agreed to pay $7 million to settle investigations by 32 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia over the past marketing and labeling of its products.Airborne did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement. It previously settled two matters involving similar claims.

The privately held company makes popular dietary supplements with vitamins, minerals and herbs that it says help support the immune system.

...According to Blumenthal, Airborne agreed to certain prohibitions against making claims over the benefits of its products. The company also may not demand where a retailer puts its products in stores, he said.

Blumenthal also said Airborne agreed not to market a product with directions that would result in a person ingesting 15,000 International Units of Vitamin A or more per day.

Airborne previously reached a $23.5 million settlement of a class action lawsuit and a $6.5 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The company said the FTC settlement funds would be paid only if the class action settlement does not cover all consumer claims submitted by September 18. - Reuters

Labels: healthcare, products

Labels: Restaurant, Santa Barbara

It's looking like another local restaurant "bites" the "bye-bye" bruschetta and heads to Craigslist to look for buyers.

Labels: closings, Restaurant, Santa Barbara

Rumour among foodie locals is that Epiphany will be closing, too, as it's "sister" restaurant, Sesto Senso is now shuttered. For those non-locals, you might have gotten a glimpse of the restaurant during the second season of Top Chef; the "infamous" episode where Cliff and his knives are sent packing for trying to shear the Foam King's (Marcel) hair.

Labels: closings, Restaurant, Santa Barbara, Top Chef

Say it ain't so!

My computer crashed.
My friend needed to borrow her own laptop I was borrowing.
I've been without a computer for sometime...and I'm going crazy without the internet(s) action.

Guess what I'm hoping Santa will bring my way.

Sign of some tough times for local restaurants?