Spork or Foon?

Perfect Flavor Ice Cream - I'll Never Complain About the Price of Hagen Daas Ever Again.

Imagine this.  A small operation out of Waynesboro, VA, allows you to create your own ice cream flavors, where they will hand-churn each individual batch from local and organic ingredients.  You can purchase your creation in batches 4 or 8. You log onto the Perfect Flavor website, your imagination flowing.  Decadent combinations of organic cream bases and exotic mix-ins float through your head. Should you go with sweet cream?  How about French Custard. Oooh, Cheesecake sounds so good.  But you've never tried mousse ice cream before.  

After some wrangling, you decide to go with Sweet Cream, a perennial favorite. You excitedly reach the next step in this choose-your-own-ice-cream adventure:  The base flavor.  Chocolate, Vanilla, Caramel, or Coffee.  Four strong contenders.  Moving almost independently of your brain, like an Ouiji board planchette, your mouse clicks on Caramel. 

Now for the fun part: Mix-Ins. Do you go with Mexican Aztec Chocolate?  A double-dose of creamy caramel? Have a little fun with hot chocolate and marshamallows?  Create a spiced-up blend of cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise? Do a little savory saffron and white pepper? Get a little earthy with hibiscus and cloves? Make a breakfast out of it with scones and biscotti?  Go all Frenchified with crisp Macarons? Relax yourself with Rooibox Tea? Seduce someone with truffles and raspberries? 

Being the ice cream purist that you (I) are (am), you go for Cinnamon buns and a drizzle of caramel sauce. You give your flavor a name - Fatty Bom Batty Breakfast Pint (you'll work on the coining next time) and add this bad boy to the cart while you whip out your Visa.

Well, you'd better put that away and grab your Amex Black Card, because for 8 pints of this ice cream, you're paying a whopping $194.99!!! BEFORE TAX.

You read that right.  One hundred and ninety four dollars and ninety nine cents for 8 pints of ice cream.

Lets do that math. That is TWENTY FOUR DOLLARS AND THIRTY SEVEN CENTS A PINT.

And that is for the 8 pint deal!  If you want to limit yourself and only order four pints, you're paying $41.25 a PINT. A PINT! 

I'm sorry, but the last time I checked, we were in a recession.  Now don't get me wrong. Ice cream is my weakness in which I can eat it morning, noon, and night. But who has two hundred dollars lying around for ice cream right now?  Or ever?  This ice cream could be hand-churned by the Dalai Lama, washed with holy water from The Pope himself, blessed on a Talmud by the highest Rabbi in Israel, and sprinkled in dust from the surface of Mars, I still would have a hard time paying for a $25 pint of ice cream right now.

All kidding aside, I don't mean to give the company a hard time. Not at all, actually.  I completely embrace the concept. The flavors and mix-ins are outstanding.  My mind was racing when going through the site.  And I am sure they produce an amazing product, of which the price is completely justified (they are HAND CHURNED). I wish them only the best of luck with their enterprise, as I hope I can begin my own culinary enterprise one day. And if I had the money I would absolutely support them, because I think we all should support businesses like this right now, and I think they have an outstanding product that they are selling. 

But for now, I'll have to stick with my pretty little red Cuisinart Ice Cream maker.  But hopefully one day, I won't have to think twice about buying a $25 (or $40) pint of ice cream.  I'll just make that pint last a looooong time. 

If you can, definitely check out the site! And support them!

Pepper Fork and Salt Spoon

What is almost as good as a spork (or foon)?  These pepper forks and salt spoons. 

WANT!

Octopus Cake Pan

I saw this on Dave Leibovitz's site (my new favorite site). I searched far and wide for it (thanks Google). 

I want it.

I don't know why I want it. I don't know why or when I would ever use it. This, again, is from the store that will run my bank account dry, the wonderfully evil Williams Sonoma.  They don't sell it anymore, except maybe in their outlet stores, so I totally missed the boat on this one. But there is always Amazon.com!

And look at what you can make!

Now, we all know that I am, like, totally amazing at decorating cakes? I mean, just look at my boobed dragon (IT'S A WOLF!). 

But we can all learn!  So I'll buy it and practice!

Someone stop me...

Reason #193858023 Why Williams Sonoma Will Make Me Go Broke.

Cup-a-Cakes, AKA Individual Cupcake Holders. Do I even need this? No. Am I going to buy a set of them? 

Absolutely.

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And the Hits Just Keep on Comin'!

Seriously. Williams and Sonoma. What are you doing to me? In times of an economic recession, I still can't resist your bakeware. A Chocolate Bar Brownie Pan? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???

Conversely, if I buy this, I'm helping out the economy. 

Right?

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Foodzie. It's like Etsy, but for food.

KA-CHING! Click here for the best website this side of Spork or Foon (HA! I keed, I keed!). Foodzie a fantastic site where you can purchase food from small artisan producers and growers. From chocolates to cheeses to exotic olive oils (blood orange olive oil!!!), this is the go-to place to get those unique items that you can't find in your local grocery store. 

Not only can you purchase these amazing items, but you can sell on here as well!  No capital to start your own bakery?  Maybe you can start up your own little company to carve out your niche in the world of food!  Set up your own store and get some customers. This could be the start of something great! You do need to rent from a commercial kitchen and have insurance (in line with the laws from most states about selling foods from "home"), but it beats paying rent and other forms of overhead! 

The possibilities are endless! 

Click here and prepare to be amazed! 

Ah, Williams-Sonoma, you get me every time.

Pop-up sponges? Made in France with all-natural materials? They can go into the dishwasher? 

It's like Danny Tanner's dream come true.

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Ice... on the rocks.

"Nordic Rock is mined from ancient Swedish pollution-free base rock. It is the purest way of cooling your drink - literally 'on the rocks'. Stone does not melt, which means no unclean water in your glass. They are also reusable making them very eco-friendly."

I can't get around the fact that these look like they would make my drink taste like a cavity filling.

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Zoom Lense Coffee Mug

At least if I have to deal with camera woes, I can calm my nerves while drinking out of the lense of my dream camera.

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Milk and Sugar Mug. Not for the Uncoordinated.

Like me. All of that sugar would plop right in to my coffee. And I, being lazy and needing a caffine fix, would drink it anyways, run around twitching and screaming like a mad(wo)man for four hours, and then become cranky and tired. Never fails.

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