Creamistry in Cerritos, CA

My little suburb has quickly become a southern California food destination where the latest and greatest in food innovations can be had in a couple of square miles.

Creamistry, a customizable made fresh with nitrogen ice cream shop, had a soft opening right around my son's first birthday. Naturally, his first bite of ice cream was going to come from this event.

Let's talk about how to order. Anyone who has ever been to Cold Stone creamery is likely familiar with the idea of making one's own ice cream flavor. First, pick a size. Second, pick a base. Then, pick the mix in and toppings. You can even make a float, ice cream sandwich, sake, whatever.

Now, many people might experience sticker shock when they see the prices on the cups. I have to bring this up because the comments on the price in the store were audible, despite the fact that it didn't stop anyone from actually ordering.  I'd like to say that you get a lot of ice cream for the price. You don't. What you get is extremely fresh ice cream, made to your flavor specifications with high end ingredients. And a reminder that ice cream is a sometimes food.

At Creamistry, there's a choice of 4 different base types. Original or Signature Premium, as they like to call it (very creamy), organic (less creamy but non-GMO), fruit sorbet (real fruit, no dairy) and wait for it... Dole. Yes, as in the same Dole that tastes exactly what goes into a Dole Whip Float at Disneyland. It's like Disney food without an entertaining way to walk off the calories.

This is where the signage is a little confusing. The creamy and nutty flavors can only be had with the Signature Premium or Organic base. The fruit flavors can be had in Signature Premium, Organic or Sorbet base. These bases are only the flavor listed and do not include any mix-ins. For isntance, the Captain Crunch base only tastes like Captain Crunch cereal but does not actually have crunchies in it... yet.

Then, for $1 each mix in or topping more, the ice cream creations begin. You can have Captain Crunch in your Captain Crunch so that you can crunch while you captain your ice cream experience. If you're more of a skipper type, there are combinations that you can just order without having to make those pesky toppings decisions.

I should also note that this method of nitrogen freezing ice cream really keeps the mix-ins crunchy, unlike premade ice cream where the mix-ins have melded and softened. Like with Oreos, or the aforementioned cereal.

I took a video to share with ya'll because the dry ice smoke is what puts the -istry in Creamistry. There is glass between the "lab" and the customers but right by the nitrogen mixers, there are gaps between the counter and the glass so that every time a mixer gets opened, the fog drifts out of the bowl, past the glass and over the counter. It is a very cool visual effect.


It was so impressive that I felt for sure the ice cream would not be good because it looked like a huge gimmick. The ice cream, however, was surprisingly good. The vanilla was among the best I had ever had (and the best my son had ever had since he's never had any ice cream before), the Dole pinapple sorbet was as good if not better than the Dole whip found next to the Tiki Room and the coffee was just perfect.

This is definitely better than Cold Stone as the ice cream stayed extremely cold for a long period of time without being hard, while Cold Stone's ice cream is always instantaneously mushy because it's been pulverized while the mix-ins are added.

It is on par with homemade ice cream, in a fraction of the time, without having to buy all the ingredients. Even with the long lines and the long wait for the orders to be completed, it's still faster than making my own.

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#MKGlam Summer Sun-Kissed Essentials Review

Mary Kay and Influenster so kindly sent me this Mary Kay Sun-Kissed Glam Box perfect for the summer and to get me out of this new mom rut. There is nothing that motivates me to take the time to primp myself pretty in the morning than new beauty products.

Being the conservative girl I am, I like simple makeup that doesn't scream "Am I pulling off this peacock blue eyeshadow?" or "I used all the colors in my Urban Decay palette!" And, truth be told, I've always been kind of biased against Mary Kay. Something about the multi-level marketing aspect partnered with visions of obnoxious women with big, outdated hairdos, driving around in pink cars. Wait, am I getting this confused with Avon?

Color me surprised when I received this box and was pleasantly surprised with some of the items I received.  They were all items that would be universally flattering, on trend while being extremely wearable, even for a suburban mom like me.

Here's a review of the items I tried.

Gel Eyeliner with Expandable Brush Applicator. Of all the items in this box, this is my absolute favorite in the box. I like gel eyeliner in the first place and previously used the very popular, highly reviewed, Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner. This Mary Kay version is better. It creates a sharp liquid eyeliner like line with the ease of a pencil. As my grandfather would say, "A+, Number 1." $18.

Translucent Loose Powder. Apparently, the secret to long lasting foundation is loose powder! This powder is great for leaving a smooth but not cakey finish. $16.

Cream Eye Color Apricot Twist. Apricot twist is the perfect slight shimmer to compliment a summer tan, smooths on exactly the way you want a cream blush to feel on delicate eyelid skin and is surprisingly long lasting! I am not brand loyal when it comes to cream eye color but I have a feeling this Apricot Twist will be my go to daytime eye color this summer. $14.

Mineral Cheek Color Shy Blush. It's hard to compete in the blush arena with NARS Orgasm and Benefit Coralista being so universally flattering. This blush is a pretty shade of pink that would look great on tanned skin though. $12.

Lash Love Mascara. This was a decent mascara.  I'm not a fan of short rubber tipped wands and I didn't feel like this was very volumizing. Personally, I'm still in love with Benefit's "they're Real" Mascara, which was the first mascara to make me brand loyal. $15.

Bronzing Powder. Bronzing powder is hard to get right. It needs to have enough shimmer so that the shading doesn't look dated but subtle enough so the wearer doesn't look like a child. Mary Kay's Bronzing Powder is in this sweet spot and better than the drugstore brands like Physician's Formula but doesn't do as well as my preferred Lancome bronzer.  $18.

NouriShine Plus Lip Gloss Mango Tango. I'm not a big lip gloss girl so when I saw this vibrant color, I didn't think I'd like it. But, in the interest of giving Mary Kay a fair shake, I applied it and was pleasantly surprised at how wearable the color was on my lips! It also didn't dry out my lips after wearing like in my previous lip gloss experiences. $14.

Cream Eye Color/Concealer Brush. Brushes are something I have tried a lot of and this one falls somewhere between not as good as a MAC concealer brush but better than a Sonia Kashuk brush of the same purpose. $10.

Have you tried Mary Kay lately? What did you think?

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Charred Bacon Brussels Sprouts Recipe

Brussels sprouts used to be a mystery to me.  Always ordered in the restaurant, never attempted at home, except for a few lackluster attempts that never lived up to the restaurant version's perfection.

What is a perfect brussels sprout? Nutty roasted with crispy charred leaves, a tender inside and no bitterness to be found.

Turns out, with this vegetable, like as is the case with so many others, less is more. Don't fuss with it too much and it'll bring its glory to the surface.

First, bacon makes every delicious. Olive oil and salt with an oven set at 400 degrees is the fool proof method. Lemon juice balances out any bitterness that might occur.  And a dusting of mizithra or other similarly hard and salty cheese rounds it all out.

Turns out, if you pick fresh brussels sprouts with tight leaves and don't cut them in half, the inside of the sprout will steam itself into soft goodness while the outside gets a nice char.

Seriously simple. 

Ingredients
1 lb of brussels sprouts
2 slices of bacon
1/4 a cup of olive oil
2 teaspoons of salt
1 wedge of lemon
2 teaspoons of mizithra cheese


Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop the stems off the bottom of the brussels sprouts and remove any yellow leaves. Rinse and let dry.
3. Slices the bacon into slivers and lightly sauté to wick off some of the fat and separate the pieces.
4. Toss the brussels sprouts and sautéed bacon in olive oil and salt.
5. Spread out the coated brussels sprouts and bacon on a cookie sheet and place in the preheated oven.  Let them bake for 30 minutes or until the outer leaves of the brussels sprouts are mildly charred.
6. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and squeeze some lemon juice over the brussel sprouts. Dust with mizithra cheese.
7. Enjoy the wonders of this amazingly simple dish.

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The Great UGLee Pen Review + Giveaway

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

 

 

Trust me when I say, I'm no newbie to the pen game.  I'm a pen user from way back. Click pens, cap pens, colored pens, gel pens, tri colored pens, you name it.  I'm a writing fiend.  But old age and computer use has really slowed my game. I can't even do marathon thank you card writing sessions anymore because the inklings of carpal tunnel start setting in. (See what I did there?)

 

Enter the world of ergonomic pens. Attempts at this genre have been around forever, from the Pilot G-2 to the Dr. Grip and Evo. They all attempt and fail at what the Uglee ergonomic pen succeeds in providing: the perfect grip.  In all the other pens, either the grip is too thin to make a big difference in the padding, or the padding comes loose and unwieldy, others change the shape of the pen so the act of writing isn't familiar but a practice in learning how to write with a un-pen-like instrument.  In the Uglee Pen, the grip covers a long length of the pen allowing for the user to choose how high up or down low the user wants to hold it.  Further, the grip is comfortably squishy while the pen is very light.

 

Now, the Uglee Pen is an inky ball point and I prefer gel.  And it comes in black, blue or red ink and as a crafter, I'd love it to come in a million other colors.  But if I were going to pick up any pen, to say finish up writing the slew of tags on five dozen party favors, I would pick this one because regardless of the fact that it's not gel and not in the perfect shade of gold, my hand isn't going to cramp up and force me to take a break from writing.

 

Which is efficient. And I love efficiency like a fat kid loves cake.

 

Lucky for you, my small but wonderful group of readers, they're going to send the winner of the giveaway below a pen to try so you can see for yourself.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends on March 23rd.  And you know what they say: you can't win if you don't enter.  Good luck!

Congrats to Cynthia D.!  She's our winner!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Pine Bros Softish Throat Drops Review

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

If I had to describe Pine Bros Softish Throat Drops, I would say it is the prepster of cough drops: Understated, classic and somewhat unexpected. And totally comfortable in Martha Stewart's home.

Which puts these drops ahead in my book because I loves me some prepster style and Martha Stewart's home.

After my review of Ricola's new cough drops, getting a sampling of three of the Pine Bros throat drops gives me the opportunity to be the Cough Guru I always dreamed of. Being the generous Guru that I am, I shared this with the Hosh and two of our friends who happen to have great taste in cough drops.

Normally, when talking about something that goes in my mouth, I would start with flavor but instead, I'm going to talk texture.  What does "softish" even mean?  It's a cross between a hard candy, gummy and a caramel. 

Once, I made caramels from scratch and let them heat up a little too hot in the sugar boiling process and ending up with a caramel that really stuck to my teeth while also standing up to a bite.  If you were one of the people I gave those caramels to, you now know the texture of Pine Bros drops.   Except they're honey, cherry or licorice flavor.

Let's talk flavor.  These don't taste anything like those in-your-face, all about the menthol cough drops.  Actually, they're pretty much like candy.  Subtle candy that takes a long time to eat and might keep some rowdy children quiet longer than the average candy. In fact, I bet that I could give these to children and they'd never know it wasn't candy.  The honey flavored is the best honey candy I've ever had.  The cherry flavored has the taste of real cherries (as opposed to the outlandish artificial cherry flavor found in so many cough drops.) 

One my aforementioned friends with great taste specifically noted that she never experienced a pronounced cherry flavor.  It was like an ebb and flow of cherry, never quite peaking in the way she had come to expect of cough drops.  I'm not sure she thought this was a good thing and I'm not going to put any words in her mouth, unless that word is PINE.  You know, because the drops have the word PINE formed on them.

The Hosh is the only one who likes licorice flavor so I let him at a whole bag, a bag that he almost completely demolished in one sitting. My thought?  Gross!  But when I tried one, it was the most pleasant licorice flavor I've had since my days of drinking Jager.  Oh, how times have changed.  He also  said this was the flavor he would most like to have if he was sick because he felt it was more effective on this throat.

Which brings me to effectiveness. My friends said that they didn't feel these drops would be effective while they had a cold.  Again, the characteristic understated nature of the drops just doesn't try to compete with the full blown medicine in the mouth experience with which the other cough drops define the industry. 

But maybe that's why they're called "throat drops."  I found my throat was soothed after eating a Pine Bros drop, given I wasn't ever sick or coughing while I tried these.  And it's a possibility that popping one after another just made my throat feel soothed because it was forming a thick coating of the softish sugar.

It's also worth noting that these drops had a short list of ingredients that I could actually identify if I saw them in their natural state. Things like Gum Acacia, Honey, Corn Syrup, Water, Sunflower Oil and Carnuba Wax. Elderberry Concentrate is found in the Wild Cherry flavor.  Caramel and Anise Oil can all be found in the Licorice flavor.

For those who would rather lean on all natural cough remedies, I would definitely recommend Pine Bros as honey, elderberry and anise are all known to help the immune system fight colds and flus.  Plus, they also come in these awesome pucks which would make it easier to administer to children who are feeling under the weather instead of some kind of cough syrup. They'll think it's candy.

Though I'm not entirely sure this isn't candy.  


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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4 Ingredient Chocolate Truffle Recipe

Is there anything better than a delicious dessert that can be made with only 4 ingredients?! One of my favorite items from Trader Joe's is French truffles but after trying this recipe, I'll probably opt to make them myself.

I had a bunch of my girlfriends over and we tried our hand at making these just in time for Valentine's Day.  I have to warn you that this is messy.  Some people do buy truffle molds so they don't have to hand roll the truffles but that isn't truly "artisan" is it? (Read: Simply not glory worthy.)  The girls felt it was on the messy side but I think they liked their finished product.

Enough with the chit chat, here's the recipe:

Ingredients
12 oz. chocolate chips with 60% or more cocao
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dutch processed cocoa powder or chopped nuts to coat

Directions
1.  Heat the heavy cream on low until simmering.
2. Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, like a Pyrex, on half power for 30 seconds at a time taking care to stir between each 30 second interval.
3. Pour the heavy cream into the melted chocolate and stir until fully corporated and smooth. 
4. Stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Allow to cool.
6. Use a melon baller to scoop the chocolate and roll into a ball by hand. Place on a plate or tray until all the balls have been formed.
7.  Roll the balls in the cocoa powder or chopped nuts.

Additional Notes
Make sure the cream is hotter than the chocolate.  The chocolate doesn't have to be fully melted but adding colder cream to already heated chocolate will cause the chocolate to seize and it will not melt smoothly.

You can place the chocolate in jars in a slow cooker filled with hot water to melt the chocolate and keep it at the right temperature if you are making a large amount.  Make sure no water gets into the chocolate or that will also cause the chocolate to seize.

The chocolate can be place in the freezer to speed cooling but I wouldn't recommend it.  The best tip I ever heard from a professional chocolate maker was that the slower a chocolate cools, the better the texture and flavor of the end product.

I placed each finished truffle in a mini cupcake liner and kept them in a sealed container in the fridge.  Allow to come to room temperature before eating if you place them in the fridge.

 

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Hand-tied Bouquet How-to DVD Review + Giveaway

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

 Some people go to the market for silly things like food.  Not me, I prefer my groceries in the form of inedible flowers. I grab a few bunches of flowers willy nilly and then slap them together in a vase in an arrangement that inevitably looks like I bought them at the grocery store.

 

 

Lucky for me, the nice ladies over at FlowerDuet kindly sent me over a DVD from their flower arranging series.

The DVD runs about 30 minutes long and takes the viewer through picking flowers, prepping flowers and then arranging them using a European wrap technique. 

The editing of the videos is on the awkward side which provides a bit of comedy what is otherwise a very informative video. 


I bought a couple of bunches of flowers from the supermarket and followed their tips and got an arrangement that looked like it came from the florist.  This particular DVD actually shows how florists arrange flowers in a way that the stems align beautifully. 

The same techniques can be used to make your own bridal bouquet or wedding centerpieces!  The video would be great for the DIY bride who wants help arranging her own flowers.  Just get this DVD, gather up your wedding helpers, have some martinis, watch the video and arrange some flowers!  (Martinis can be substituted with the beverage of your choice.)

I would go through all of the very valuable tips, like cutting the stems of flowers at a 45 degree angle underwater to make sure they are able to drink in the most water during the preparation but instead, the FlowerDuet is allowing me to do a giveaway!

Enter below and the raffle ends on February 9, 2013!  Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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