tea cups

I found these cute tea cups to share with your pals and warm up on those cold winter mornings- from Pol’s Potten, a very cool home accessories design store from the Netherlands.  Check out their site if you are not familiar with the brand.  They make everything-  I wish I could order/ship to Toronto.  Amazing home decor/furniture products.

via elle.com

chocolate organiko

I think I am subconsciously craving chocolate because I have featured more cool, new chocolate brands on my blog this month than ever before.  Either that or I have a thing for minimalist packaging.  I think it’s a bit of column A and a bit of column B. 

So back to more important things, my new chocolate find: Chocolate Organiko is a boutique chocolate operation out of Madrid, Spain where cacao beans from the Caribbean are imported and designed into extraordinary confections.  The team behind Chocolate Organiko hail from both the chocolate world and the design world (easy to tell) and in 2006 combined their talents and passions to launch a brand.  The chocolate is organic, hence the name Organiko and is available all over Europe, in North America and in Chile and Taiwan.  I have yet to see Chocolate Organiko on any shelves in Toronto and unfortunately the company website does not list its retailers in the city.  Let the game of hide and seek begin!

via kitsune noir

via bien manger

via the life in luxury

via mequemaelbolsillo

raspberry dacquoise

I just found a dessert that would look stunning served at an intimate dinner party or event called a raspberry dacquoise.  I first learned about a raspberry dacquoise from my teacher’s wife who used to cater these things to friends and family in Toronto.  Apparently this was her go to cake and specialty.  She was clearly experienced in making this dessert, she had a photo album and busted out several stunning photos of her accomplishments.  When I spoke with her, she was preparing  dozens of sugar cookies for her daughter’s upcoming wedding and told me how she had baked a huge raspberry dacquoise for her daughter and son-in-law to be’s engagement party.   That conversation must have taken place over a year ago and only now, when I read a blog post on Chocolate and Zucchini about a raspberry dacquoise, did I decided to look into this dessert and blog on it myself.  From my understanding, a dacquoise is a layered/stacked dessert made with meringue and whipped cream or buttercream, served chilled with fruit.   This is a general description of the basic components of the dessert but if you think about it, such a general description is wide open to interpretation.  Therefore, there is plenty room for creativity when constructing this dessert. 

Martha Stewart has a recipe for a mocha dacquoise here while the food network has posted a lemon and fresh strawberry dacquoise here.   A dacquoise looks pretty simple to make but that is me talking from absolutely no experience.  My family and I recently renovated our kitchen and were planning on having a big kitchen warming party in a couple months.  Maybe I’ll test out my dacquoise making skills and share with you my experience! Finally some pictures to tempt your senses and to show you how creative you can get with this sweet.

via flying kiwis

via a merrier world

via st phillips bakery

via chefnini

smile chocolatiers

I have a whole bunch of new posts to write and share.  My week last week did not leave me with much time in between teaching yoga, interviewing and organizing an up coming event so I put blogging on the top of my list of things to do this week.  Here is the first one.  I found this company Smile Chocolatier, that produces a tea infused chocolate bar called Choclatea.   I warmed up to Joanie Freeman’s story (the chef and chocolatier behind the Smile Chocolatier operation) when I read the line that changed her career path from Cordon Bleu chef to chocolate maker when her cousin who had recently purchased a chocolate factory asked her”Do you want to play in chocolate?”  Smile Chocolatier was born.  Joanie’s infusions of Belgian chocolate, herbs and tea resulted in a killer product offering 12 different tastes made of four types of fine chocolate.  To read a review of a couple of the flavours, Katrina from Tea Pages has some good words to say here.

vie the dieline

via candysnob

Dos Palillos at Casa Camper

I think the design of Dos Palillos in Berlin is the way restaurant should be designed- with the kitchen as entertainment and center stage so guests’ senese can be aroused by the sights, sounds and smells of meal preparation in an intimate yet lively setting.  Dos Palillos opened this month (Jan 2010) in hotel, Casa Camper Berlin, a luxurious, innovative, friendly/functional boutique hotel chain that has two locations under its moniker.  If you go to the Dos Palillos website, you can see a video of people sitting at the counter eating and being served.  It looks pretty fun, if you ask me!  Dos Palillos also has an outlet in Barcelona.  They serve asian and tapas food at this hotspot and the restaurant was designed by the Bouroullec Brothers, Ronan and Erwan.

via hello design

via design boom

via dezeen