Archive for the ‘shopping’ Category

Dean & DeLuca Fall 2008

September 21st, 2008

Yay! I just got the new Dean & DeLuca Fall Catalog. They have a lot of new items, especially for Halloween. As always, Dean & DeLuca have the most mouth-watering pictures…here are some of the ones that have caught my eye:

Fall Cupcakes – 9 for $55, Three each of Pumpkin with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Icing, Cinnamon with Mayan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and Vanilla with Vanilla Frosting.

Pumpkin Truffles – $36, These truffles are filled with white chocolate ganache with a hint of nutmeg and wrapped in dark chocolate. The flavor sounds so interesting!

Caramel Apples – $48, I love caramel apples and nothing says Halloween quite like these caramel & chocolate dipped ones.

Pumpkin Cake – $120, This cake is too cute! It has six layers of vanilla spiced cake with praline butter cream and also a layer of chocolate fudge.


Apple Crate Cake
– $200, This cake is almost unrecognizable! It really looks like a crate with apples inside. No wonder it costs so much.

Green Tea Truffles – $42, The color of these green tea truffles definitely caught my eye.

Chocolate of the Month – $180-$720, I’ve heard of monthly wine clubs, monthly coffee clubs, even monthly fruit clubs, but a Chocolate of the month program is definitely something new and more my style. You now have the opportunity to try a new assortment of chocolates each month and have them delivered right to your doorstep. There’s a 3 month, 6 month, and 12 month program.

The Ultimate Chocolate Truffle: La Madeleine Au Truffle -$350, The description says its a “1 oz. fresh tuber melanosporum dipped in a dark chocolate ganache“. Ok, I know what you guys are asking…what is a tuber melanosporum? Well, that’s just the scientific name for a Black Truffle. And it’s not to be confused with chocolate truffles. Although in this case this Truffle is in a way a chocolate truffle, more like a chocolate truffle truffle. Anyway, Black Truffles are those very expensive fungi found in France by specially trained pigs or dogs. I’m not sure how you would even eat this ultimate truffle, just bite into it? And I’m also curious about the taste…I like chocolate truffles and I like Black truffles in dishes, but the two together seems like a pretty odd combination.

Kitchen Gadgets

August 2nd, 2008

Just found some cool kitchen gadgets by Chef’n.


GarlicZoom– I have a garlic press and it never seems to work well because the garlic just gets stuck and doesn’t squeeze out those tiny holes well, but this wheelie seems like it would be a great alternate. Just pop a clove in and wheel it around like you would with hot wheels. Here’s the demo.


VeggieChop– I don’t have a veggie chopper yet, but this one seems cool because it doesn’t require any electricity or batteries…all you have to do is pull the handle. It’s sort of like cranking up your lawn mower or chainsaw…but then again I’ve never done either so I probably don’t know what I’m talking about haha. Here’s the video demo for the VeggieChop incase I’m confusing you guys.


Emulstir– This gadget I definitely want. I’ve been meaning to make my own vinaigrette salad dressing at home, but I always opted not to because I never had any empty bottles to store it in for future use, but now this gadget lets me make it and store it in one! There’s no demo video for this gadget, but basically you put your ingredients in the bottle, press down the lever and the green stick inside stirs it all up for you.

Adagio Tea

July 9th, 2008

I just purchased this starter set from Adagio Teas…it comes with a 16oz teapot infuser, 4 tea samples in little tin boxes, and the “A Guide to Tea” book. I’m in my tea phase at the moment, ever since I went to this afternoon tea place and I saw them using this very same teapot infuser. I didn’t know much about loose leaf teas, but apparently they’re much better than the tea bag kind which has all kinds of dust. The thing that makes this teapot infuser so awesome is shown in this demonstration video. So the infuser steeps your tea, then just put it over your cup and dispense! The infuser has a filter that retains all the leaves, so you’re left with a nice cup of leaf-free tea. It’s easy to make ice tea with it too, just put ice in a glass and dispense and wa-la you have iced tea! I chose the herbal tea selection for my starter set, which comes with blood orange, chamomile, rooibos, and spearmint. If any of you would like a $5 off any Adagio Tea purchase feel free to enter your e-mail address in the box and I’ll be happy to send a coupon your way. And stay tuned for my Adagio Tea starter set review!

Enter your e-mail address here for a $5 off Adagio Tea coupon:



Dean & DeLuca Wish List

June 20th, 2008

Dean & DeLuca – you guys really know how to make a food loving girl go crazy…I just got the new catalog in the mail the other day and I have NEVER salivated so much in my life. Every page was filled with decadent gourmet food that I could only imagine how amazing it would taste. I totally felt like a poor stray dog staring at the the delicious meat hanging from the butcher’s shop window. This catalog is my new favorite reading material, because I enjoy reading it over and over again. As far as my wish list from Dean & DeLuca…if I could, my wish list would contain their entire inventory, but since that’s not possible, here are a few of my top picks from their Summer catalog.

1. Lobster Rolls – 8 for $135, This by far is the most amazing picture in the entire catalog. Every time I look at it, all I can think is “WOW that looks delicious!”.

2. Wagyu Ribeyes– 2 for $140, So the first time I heard about this kind of beef was during the season finale of Top Chef last week, and apparently its suppose to be the “caviar of beefs”.

3. Crab Bennies – 6 for $75, I love eggs benedict and this just brings it to a whole other level!

Now on to the dessert!

1. Gateau Nuage Cheesecake – $70, Typically, I don’t eat or even like cheescake due to a traumatic childhood experience which involved vomiting and a trip to the ER. But, I must say this picture of cheesecake actually makes me want to eat cheesecake! So, Dean and DeLuca you could possibly turn this cheesecake hater into a cheesecake lover once again!

2. Gavottes – $25, I’ve been looking all over for these! A friend of mine had given me a sample of these lovely cookies when she came back from her trip to Paris and since that day I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a box.

Cupcake Charms

June 18th, 2008

You know cupcakes are the biggest trend when Tiffany & Co. designs some cupcake bling for you to wear! Now you can have your cupcakes and Tiffany’s too!

Cupcake charm with pink enamel in sterling silver. $200

The blingest cupcake of them all! With blue sapphires, pink sapphires, and tsavorites, in yellow & white gold. $2,850 for the charm & bracelet…probably the most expensive cupcake you’ll ever buy!

Cupcake Goodies!

June 16th, 2008

Came across these yummy finds on Shana Logic:

Cupcake tote!

Cupcake necklace

Cupcake Charm Bracelet (warning: expensive! $60!!!)

Sprinkles are not just for cupcakes, they’re for necklaces too! Super Sprinkle Heart Necklace

And to wash all that yummy goodness down, here’s a Mr.Milk plushy!

Cupcake Stand

June 10th, 2008

How precious is this!?! A very cute handblown cupcake stand available at Fred Flare for the low price of…$60! No, that’s not a typo and yes, it really is $60. Why are all the cute things you want always ridiculously expensive???

Giant Cupcake Pan Dilemma

June 4th, 2008

Ok, so I just found out that Williams Sonoma has come out with a new item…The Great Cupcake Pan! Essentially it’s exactly them same as Wilton’s Giant Cupcake pan except for the cupcake top which is a little different in design and the price. Wilton’s pan has a more rounded top, while Williams Sonoma has a very swirly top and as for the price, Wilton beats Sonoma by just more than a few dollars. You can buy Wilton’s pan at Target for $27, but Sonoma has you paying a hefty price of $35! So, usually I would just go and buy the cheaper version, but this got me thinking…there must be a reason for the $35 price tag…the brand, the quality, but what else??? I need to know if I should buy the the expensive one over the cheap one. Can anyone tell me their reviews about the Wilton cupcake pan? Or if anyone has already bought the Williams Sonoma one, let me know your reviews too! Any help would be greatly appreciated to end this dilemma! Thanks!

Williams Sonoma – The Great Cupcake Pan

Wilton’s – Giant Cupcake Pan

Torch Time

April 30th, 2008

During my trip to Vegas a few weeks back, I was had some of the best creme brulee. I’m usually not fond of creme brulee, because 1) I’ve never really had great tasting creme brulee before and 2) there’s no chocolate in it & I tend to not order non-chocolate desserts (that’s just the chocoholic in me). But, the creme brulee I tried in Vegas made me see creme brulee in a new light and see how versatile and delicious it could be. The creme brulee dessert I tried, was a duo of creme brulee, one was classic vanilla and the other was deep chocolate. I was surprised to see a chocolate creme brulee, this was new to me and boy was I excited. So, now I’m sort of in my creme brulee phase and craving it more than ever. I’m in the process of looking for a creme brulee torch, so that I can whip it up in my kitchen, but I’m stuck on whether I should invest my money into an expensive professional one or just get one of those dinky creme brulee torch sets. Bed Bath and Beyond, sells a creme brulee torch set that comes with a torch and 4 ramikins for $19.99. This sounds much more tempting than the Williams Sonoma torch for $39.95 which sadly comes with nothing else. Oh, decisions decisions.


Bed Bath & Beyond Torch Set
Pros: $19.99 and I can use the 20% off coupon. Sweet!
Cons: there’s probably a 90% chance that the torch will be a dud


Williams Sonoma Kitchen Torch
Pros: you could probably torch to your heart’s desire with this baby
Cons: $39.95…and this torch probably won’t be used very often in a regular kitchen

Cupcake Apron

March 20th, 2008

For all you cupcake fanatics out there! Here’s an adorable cupcake print apron by Jessie Steele. It’s so cute and I love the bow details.