Cacao: Breakfast of Champions

Getting bored with your breakfasts? Try having some chocolate! 

Click the link below the photo for a DIY chocolate treat that's fast, easy, satisfying and best of all guilt free!

Chocolate. One of natures most perfect foods.

Holy Smokes!

Promise you've never had smoked salmon like this! Another treat from the Mainland, Cap'n Mikes Holy Smokes makes some beautiful alder smoked wild caught salmon!

Smoked salmon has a long history not only in the Pacific Northwest, but in the Hawaiian islands. Salted and smoked salmon and other meats were traded by sailors when stopping to refresh their supplies in the Islands. Lomi lomi salmon is a popular lu'au dish with roots in some of the contact with haole sailors.

Unfortunately, most of the salmon you find in Hawaii today is farmed raised or laced with preservatives and artificial colors (and there's nothing grosser than liquid smoke! bleh!). According to the Environmental Defense Fund wild Alaskan salmon is among the safest fish around and high in precious Omega-3 fatty acids! Click here for more about safe seafood and portions.

I feel in love with all the Holy Smokes smoked salmon I tasted while on the Mainland! I'm getting hungry just looking at the pictures! Mmm... I need to make an order. The real thing blows all the other store bought kine out of the water!

Shaka to you Cap'n Mike!  Keep those fires smokin!

Farmhouse Culture Sauerkraut

Despite my German roots I never really took a liking to sauerkraut. Possibly because I never really gave it a chance even while in Germany. Little did I know that the stuff I had been so skeptical about would become an instant favorite! Now, I suppose that everything happens for a reason and in its own time. I guess I just wasn't ready for the awesomeness of the kraut!

Fermented foods are something I've been getting into more recently. Aside from eating factory farm uber-processed yogurt growing up (which I'm not sure I really count), fermented food wasn't on my radar.  Over the past year I've developed a major kimchi habit, but after tasting fresh delicious sauerkraut I've got a new crush!

Farmhouse Culture, a Santa Cruz, CA based company, changed all that. While shopping at a San Francisco farmer's market, my friend and I stopped by the Farmhouse Culture booth to sample their krauts. We ended up taking home two crocks full of delicious mouth watering krauts. The company is committed to local organic ingredients and uses badass ceramic company branded re-usable crocks (optional with a $2 deposit!). I brought one home with me. Two dollars and some priceless inspiration is a great deal for a souvenir I'll cherish forever.