Big excitements in chocolate land! June 11, 2009

My original idea for the font of the bonbons boxes was to somehow make it my (deceased) grandmother’s handwriting, based on an old journal of hers. I couldn’t figure out the logistics for how to work it, sadly.

I just came across an interesting tidbit in Dessert Professional magazine (specialty magazines, YES). They were reviewing Valrhona’s Tainori chocolate, and placed it in the “expensive” range of chocolates. A helpful guide at the end of the article explained their chocolate designations by price point:

• Low: less than $4/lb wholesale
• Moderate: $4-7/lb wholesale
• Expensive: $7/lb.

Lagusta’s Luscious currently uses organic, fair-trade chocolates that are between $8-$15 a lb, wholesale. Until today, most of my chocolate was Callebaut organic and f/t, which is about $8.50 per lb. I also use some Taza chocolate in the Vandanas, which is in the $9/lb range and the Vandanas also include just a bit of Hawaiian-grown chocolate, which is, I kid you not, $15/lb. Not including shipping, of course. (And no, chocolate is not particularly light. And yes, it has to be Fed-Exed. From Hawai’i.) It’s a really small, sweet company, and I only use a little bit of their chocolate. I’m not complaining about the price, I’m just putting it out there so people know why products from small, independent, ethical companies cost more. (And it could be worse! Amano’s by-all-accounts-excellent choco is $20/lb, wholesale!)

The same day I read that review, I was planning on blogging about my excitement that Theo and Tcho, two bean-to-bar companies I’ve been watching, both just started wholesaling. Theo’s prices are about $9-$11/lb which makes me so excited because it means I might be able to start ordering some of their chocolate and reduce my dependency on the largest chocolate company in the world, Callebaut. Theo is the only bean-to-bar certified organic and f/t wholesaler in the US, and I’ve been crushing on them for ages. I’ve been bugging them for wholesale prices for about a year, so this is a big event. Their wholesaleable chocolate is a bit bitter for my uses (70% is their sweetest), but I got some samples and really enjoyed it. I think I can work it in somewhere.

Tcho, though.

For some reason, I had decided it was pronounced “choco.” Why I decided this I can’t really explain, but for the record it is pronounced “cho.” The thickly-accented old-school gentleman wholesale sales rep for Tcho, Beat Herrmann (best name ever!), very politely and cutely refused to tell me their wholesale prices until after I tasted the samples he’s sent (“Aye vill vait to talk about zee speeefics until you taste, my dear. Just taste! Zen ve vill talk!” Seriously, this is how he talks. And he signs his emails “Thanks for your interest in TCHOPro and I remain, with best regards, Beat Herrmann”).

So Veronica and I, and then Jacob and I, had a tasting of the, let’s just say, very generous, samples he sent. It was a LOT of chocolate. Which was good, because as it turned out, I need to do a lot of tests. Because: I FUCKING LOVE THIS GODDAMN CHOCOLATE and am making it the official Lagusta’s Luscious house chocolate!

(Sorry for the swearing, I just got really excited.)

Let me back up a little. Veronica and I both agreed that their 60.5 is just about the most smooth, inviting, non-challenging, all-around YUMMY chocolate we’ve ever had the pleasure of wrapping our tongues around. And we’ve had a lot of those kind of pleasures.

If you love chocolate in the way most people I know love chocolate, you sometimes want a very wild, rough, intense nibble. You don’t eat Hershey’s Kisses before bed—you tuck into 80% chile-infused deep dark masterpieces made by mad geniuses who started their companies by maxing out their credit cards and hoping someone somewhere would love their insane creations. That’s all well and good for super sophisticated choco lovers, but I want my chocolates to be user-friendly. As I’ve shamefully admitted before, I am not a super sophisticated choco lover. I want rounded sweetness, warmth, and friendliness in my chocolate. I want buttery, happy, melty, deep, soft, just slightly toasty, eminently tasty chocolate. TchoPro’s 60.5% is my dream chocolate.

My supertaster of a sweetheart, Jacob, thinks it’s perfect for the truffles and bonbons, but privately he thinks it’s a tiny bit shallow. It’s not the most sophisticated chocolate (of course, compared with the trash chocolate most of America eats—Hershey’s and such—it’s as avant garde as it gets), and that’s just fine by me, because I dress it up with nuts and fruit and alcohol and chilies and salt and everything else under the sun. I need a chocolate that plays well with others. TchoPro 60.5% was made just for me.

I told Beat I had fallen hardcore head-over-heels for the chocolate, and was pretty much terrified that I wouldn’t be able to afford it. He finally sent the pricelist, and it literally took my breath away: with shipping from San Francisco, Tcho is going to cost me just about the same as Callebaut.

I read his email on my phone in the car on the way back from the Kajitsu dinner and I was already on a major high, so when I nervously opened his email and this realization sunk in, I, quite literally, gasped. Then squealed. Then talked very fast for too long. Then just sat back and smiled. Let’s parse this:

Remember my horrible horrible chocolate woes? Gone. With Tcho as my main supplier, I can just order the chocolate directly from the people who make it. No middleman. (No middlewoman, either. God, middlewomen are the worst.) It sounds so easy, but it’s been so hard for me.

Even better, I feel much better about using Tcho than Callebaut. As I said above, Callebaut is the world’s largest chocolate maker, and I am perhaps the world’s smallest chocolatier. As I am determined to stay small, I want to work with other small companies. It makes me happy.

There’s something else, too. Who knows what’s really happening with organic and fair-trade certified chocolate, you know? I’ve heard horror stories. I feel much better going with a company who is upfront and honest about their sourcing practices—no slavery, peeps. For real.

Oh boy. My cup of choco excitement runneth over! Things are happening in the chocolate world, people! My heart is beating wildly. It’s getting better. I really believe this. People are buying better chocolate: better tasting, more ethically-produced, and yes, more expensive chocolate. This is as it should be. We are paying a real price for our treats: My suppliers are paying their bean growers a real price, I am paying a real price for their chocolate, and I am paying my sous chef a fair wage.

Now if I could only work it so I make more than $2 an hour, we would be getting somewhere.*

*That’s because I figure that I basically work, in some capacity, pretty much every hour of the day when I’m not sleeping. Talking to people, eating at restaurants, reading food blogs and magazines, researching, testing, cleaning, cleaning, again with the cleaning, shopping, paperwork, emailing clients, washing dishes, commuting—it’s all somehow tied to work, right? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

can I offer you a chocolate—or some salad? June 9, 2009

In the next two weeks, NYC peeps and Upstaters will have not 1 or 2 or 3 but FOUR opportunities to nosh on incredible edibles made by my very own hands and donated to good causes by my very own heart. Two are free, one is cheap, and one is a bit on the pricey side.

1) This Friday, Feministing is throwing a giant party for their five year anniversary and I’m not sure it’s possible to have a party for a feminist website without salty chocolatey vulvas, right? Tickets are on a sliding scale and no one will be turned away! I would so love to go to this, as my ultimate hero Kathleen Hanna will be there, but instead I’ll be working. I’ve got to get some Saturday work done on Friday, because:

2) This Saturday, I’ll be at the Phillies Bridge Spring Farm Festival in Gardiner, NY, talking about improvising amazing salad dressings from scratch with whatever nice local veggies and herbs are in your CSA share. I’ll be making almond-based creamy dressings, flavor-forward vinaigrettes, and literally oodles more dressings using the tasty Phillies Bridge herbs, veggies and lettuces. Come say hello, it’s free! I’ll even be wearing a chef’s jacket—fancy fancy. Also, I will be handing out a mini-manifesto on improvising salad dressings that you can only get by coming to the event! I’ve been working on the handout for the past few hours, and it’s pretty damn amazing. I love stuff like this!

3) Then next week, be sure to hit up the Mercy for Animals launch party at Moo Shoes! June 18 and totally free.

4) The next day, bring $100 and hop on over to the fundraiser for “Standardized Testing” (a film about the horror that is biomedical testing) at Peter Max’s studio! June 19.

(those mushrooms just jumped into the photo—what attention hogs!)

chocolate brought us together May 24, 2009

OMGZ OMGZ OMGZ!

PEEPS!

OK, calm down calm down calm down,

I know it’s super dorky to get this excited about this, but

VANDANA SHIVA JUST EMAILED ME! For reals! Or, for as reals as you can ever be sure about an email. But still!

Dudes. You don’t even KNOW. I am MADLY TERRIBLY HORRIBLY in love with Vandana Shiva. She’s such a crazy wild heroine of mine, my cheeks flush with ridiculous pride to think that

VANDANA SHIVA KNOWS I EXIST!

That means that something I’ve accomplished in my life has merited the attention of someone who has done more good work in the world than almost anyone else living on this earth today.

Seriously. Oh, I’m not going to hide it: I’m proud.

See, in college I was deep into the philosophy of ecofeminism. I still am, but I got tired of explaining to people that feminists who refuse to separate their environmentalism and animal rights practices from their analysis of gender relations have a special sort of feminism all their own, so now I just say I’m a radical feminist, which I am too. (I like categorizing myself, OK?). And the philosophy of ecofeminism practically wouldn’t exist without Vandana (yes, we are on a first name basis). She is a passionate believer in the idea that putting women in charge will lead to a better-functioning world, and that in order to dismantle patriarchy we need to all move closer to a historically-devalued connection between women and the earth.

…everywhere, women were the first to protest against environmental destruction. As activists in the ecology movements, it became clear to us that science and technology were not gender neutral; and in common with many other women, we began to see that the relationship of exploitative dominance between man and nature, (shaped by reductionist modern science since the 16th century) and the exploitative and oppressive relationship between men and women as prevails in most patriarchal societies, even modern industrial ones, were closely connected…

-Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism, introduction.

Staying Alive and Ecofeminism were such important books for me during college, and I’ve been a careful reader of her articles in Resurgence and whatever else by her I can get my hands on since then. She balances serious revolutionary zeal with a down-to-earth sensibility and zest for life that makes reading her such a pleasure.

(There is so much of hers out there I haven’t read yet, too—oh, someday I will sit and read everything I’ve been meaning to read. What a wonderful thought.)

So, I emailed her to see if I could send some of the chocolates named for her, and at the last minute got super nervous that she wouldn’t be OK with me using her likeness on the box or maybe she hates chocolate or something and wouldn’t like having a chocolate named after her. I didn’t consult with any of my chocolate honorees before I printed up the boxes (though I asked Noel if it was OK if I named an X-rated chocolate after her and outed her as a former model in her little bio on the box—she’s the fiercest lesbian I know, and doesn’t exactly make a point of talking about the years she spent modeling pantyhose and cinched-waist dresses in the pages of Seventeen and Mademoiselle), so now I’m going around and trying to make sure everyone is aware of them.

Here’s what she wrote back to my email:

Dear Lagusta
Thank you so much!
The address for mailing is xxxxx
Much as I would like to taste the chocolates at the earliest, maybe we should wait till after the summer. Don’t want your wonderful creations to melt at 48degrees celsius.
Please send them in Sept if that is possible. And visit us in India some day.
With love
Vandana

“Visit us in India”!!!!! I’m on a plane tomorrow! Or, maybe next fall.

Oh life. You’re just too ridiculously wonderful to be believed sometimes. Thanks, chocolate!

Also, making the Vandana chocolate and talking it up to people (because, really, it is the tastiest, if I am being perfectly honest) I have realized that we have a major thing in common: everyone mispronounces her name too! It’s “vahn-DAHN-ah” (it’s Indian, yo) not “van-DAN-uhh.” (it doesn’t rhyme with “bandana,” yo). And for the record, mine is “la-GUS-ta” —hey, just like it’s spelled, imagine that!—not “la-GU-sta”—yes, also like it’s spelled, I’ll own that–like you’ve probably been saying it in your head.

Monday Miscellany: trifles, truffles, trimesters, tits, and truths. May 19, 2009

2 AM on Monday night is still Monday, if you ask me.

Sydney, my sweetheart’s mom’s too-cute-for-words pup

Scrapbookin’: LL’s BBs mentioned in the PokJo!

*

This email made my life:

Hi, Lagusta—it’s [my awesome client]. I just have a quick question for you: do you have a record or remember when I  started getting food from you? Someone asked me how long I’ve been a vegan and I just didn’t know…let me know if you know.
I really love your food and am now completely into being a vegan and an animal rights activist.
Keep up the good work!
[My awesome client]“

Even more awesomely, the answer is: January 2005!

*

I’m not exactly hating on her, because her book looks moderately interesting, but I think it’s weird that this Ayelet Waldman (wife of Michael Chabon) lady gave a fairly professional, intellectual interview to LenLo last week (the comments on it are hilarious, by the way, gotta love those WNYC jaded listeners!), as well as a weepy, no-details-about-the-abortion-spared, secrets-spillin’ interview to Terry Gross on Fresh Air (and, as befitting a national NPR audience, the comments are pretty ridic.). Were they edited this way, or did she tailor her responses to fit the tone of the shows, or was it a coincidence, or what? Either way, I can’t say I respect anyone with 4 kids (I’m an old school ZPGer*), but I sure like this lady’s crazy honesty.

Terry was mad shook up by her frankness though. Here is the actual transcript: “Well, well Aye-, Ayelet, I, I, I really appreciate how much pain, um, this abortion caused, and, wh-, what what it’s like to, to, you know, re-, re-, reveal the first one you had, I, I, I just want to thank you for, —you know, sharing that part of your life with us, so. Let me, let me tell our guests who I’m I’m I’m speaking to. My guest is Ay-, Ay-, Ayelet Waldman…”

It look me about twenty listens to type that all out, but it was worth it: I love it when Terry gets flustered!

*

The only difference (well, let’s say, the major difference) separating the nouveau hipster burlesque thing from the old school stripping thing is class consciousness: my feelings exactly. It started out being truly interesting and subversive and—quelle surprise—has devolved into cash and ass. Totes.

*

Hey, Veronica, look! We were just talking about the giant cooking-beans-in-salted-water debate!

*

And to end on a downer: this Troy Davis fiasco is just horribly depressing.

*Which reminds me: over the years, a few feministy mothery women have told me that the “I’m allowed to openly hate any couples with more than 2 kids” zero population growth argument I always spout doesn’t hold water from an environmentalist point of view. No one has ever explained why I should change my position to my satisfaction, so I’m staying ZPG-smug (technically I am negative population growth smug, which is very smug indeed) unless someone smarter than me changes my mind. Give it a try! I’d like to hear your best! Until then, I will be the one glaring at the families of three and above. (Full disclosure: I glare at all families! But you knew that.)

to do: FUN May 17, 2009

Photo: Than Luu

I’ve been keeping a list of places to go in NYC (and around the world) on my computer for a while. It’s wildly random, but why not toss it on the blog?

The notes are from reviews or hearsay I’ve read. I’m a little bit too lazy to make links to them all, but I bet you know how to use Google?

OK, Here’s where you learn a deep, dark truth about me, and will begin to understand why my friend Than calls me “Lagusta Yee”: all I care about in the world is Japanese noodles. I try to hide it most days, but wanting noodles takes up roughly 90% of my waking hours. Thus, a lot of my go-to restaurants involve noodles and/or Japanese food of some sort that might tangentially involve noodles.

Have you been to any of these places? Give up the dirt! Noodle porn? Send it right along, I live for it!

NYC

Matsugen: pricey Jean-Georges noodle shop.

Ippudo NY: homemade noodles

Kyotofu: Japanese veganish sweet treats. Jacob went and liked it.

Kajitsu – Via Veronique. My new favorite restaurant I’ve never been to. It looks like it could be a contender for best meal ever, which was a 4 hour meal I had at a (vegan) Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto. From their website: “Kajitsu serves shojin cuisine, an ancient Japanese cuisine developed in Zen Buddhist monasteries. Following the Buddhist principle of not taking life, Shojin cuisine does not use meat or fish. Meals are prepared from fresh, in season vegetables, legumes, wild herbs, seeds and grains, chosen at the moment in the season that best reflects their flavor. At Kajitsu we make our delicious and wholesome dishes from high quality ingredients prepared with traditional Japanese culinary techniques.” Dying, dying dying DYING TO GO. With any luck, I’ve got a group of pals all ready to go next week. Report coming!

Rosanjin: a kaiseki (the Japanese ceremonial, elaborate meal that began as an accompaniment to tea ceremonies) restaurant on Duane Street. The New Yorker made it sound good. Then the NYT did the same, gave it a beautiful two-star review and made a point of mentioning their vegetarian kaiseki menu. $105 prix fixe vegetarian menu–Jacob has a birthday coming up, what do you say? Let’s do it!

Cho Dang Gol: Korean restaurant at 55 West 35th Street (212-695-8222). Selma went here and said reported that they have great homemade tofu. As with all Korean restaurants, be sure to ask a million questions to find out what has fish sauce, and don’t eat the kimchi (fish sauce guaranteed)!

Taim: NY Mag voted it best falafel 2006. 222 Waverly Pl, 212-691-1287.

En Japanese Brasserie: NYT called it “A Paean to Tofu in a Japanese Pub”!!!!

Amma: apparently good Indian with lots of veggie dishes.

Pho Grand: I’m sure the pho isn’t vegan [insert long long rant here about this one place in Honolulu (Super Pho!) that makes vegan pho and how much I adore it], but I hear they have an avocado smoothie (called “avocado juice” on the menu) as well as a shave ice dessert that both sound like Hawaii and happiness to me. 277C Grand St at Forsyth, 212-965-5366. Also, something called “pickled lemonade”!

(Going through my files, I am physically restraining myself to not start writing a giant food lovers guide to NYC—Kalustyans! Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks!!—another day, another day.)

Photo: Than Luu

JAPAN

Shinyokohama Raumen Museum, Yokohama, Japan. Ramen museum, need I say more? Pitter patter goes my heart. RAMEN MUSEUM!!!!

Nakaiseki Sen, a vegetarian restaurant in Kyoto (they have a cookbook called Saisai Gohan by Yumiko Kanou)

Ichiwa, a mochi shop/stand in Kyoto that serves just one thing: aburi mochi (grilled mochi rolled in soy flour and served with a sweet miso sauce). The proprietor’s family has been making aburi mochi for 23 generations. How can this be??

Ikkyu, a shojin ryori (Zen Buddhist veggie food) joint in Kyoto (this might be where my magical meal mentioned above took place. I never got the name!). It’s outside the Daitouku-ji Zen temple.

Kawamichi-ya, a noodle shop in Kyoto

Okutan, a tofu restaurant in Kyoto

(The above Kyoto picks came from a Saveur Magazine article on Kyoto from May 2007)

Photo: Than Luu

ELSEWHERE

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

• Anne of Green Gables stuff, obs. But also:
• P.E.I. Potato Museum!

CHICAGO

• Alinea. I’ve read so so SO much about it. They’ve got to have some vegan stuff, right??

UPSTATE

• Also via Veronica, Cow Jones, a vegan shoe + other awesome stuff shop in my very own neck of the woods!

EUROPE (Flea markets in Paris)

Marché Popincourt, R. du Marché-Popincourt, 11th, Paris: flea market! (Sat-Mon)

Les Puces de Saint-Ouen, 7 R. Jules-Valles, (Marché des Antiquaires) bet. Porte de St.-Ouen and Porte de Clignancourt, just outside the 18th, Paris: flea market! (Mon-Sun)

Marché D’Aligre, Place d’Aligre, 12th, Paris: flea market! (Mon-Sat)

Marché aux Puces e Montreuil, Ave de la Porte de Montreuil, 20th, Paris: flea market! (Sat-Mon)

Marché aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves, Ave Georges-Lafenestre at Ave Marc-Sangnier, 14th, Paris: flea market! (Sat and Sun)

(all these, via an article in Gourmet)

To be continued!

things I didn’t know I hated: ribbon edition April 22, 2009

Isn’t it funny to think that there is a whole world of things to hate out there that you don’t even know about? (Or, if you’re so inclined—as I am so tragically not—to love.)

I’ve spent the evening researching ribbon.

I bought a lot of vintage beautiful ribbon at the Hudson Valley Materials Exchange (whose website could so deliciously be read as HV Material Sex Change! Let’s call it that from now on, shall we?) that I’ve been using to tie the pyramid boxes. It’s nice, honest, strong, lovely, unused yet maybe 40-years-old reclaimed ribbon, but it’s a giant pain to thread it through the tiny holes of the boxes. Half of the time it rips the box, the other half if gets loose at the last minute and the box doesn’t close tightly. It’s not slippery enough, it frays too easily, and it’s too thick.

So the ribbon search begins.

Do you know anything about ribbon? I’ve been a devoted Martha Stewart Living reader for about ten years now (did I just let that slip? Oh god.), and Martha is really into ribbon, so you would think I would have picked up something along the way. I can tell lovely grosgrain from trashy curling ribbon, beautiful velvet from icky satin, but apart from that I don’t know shit about ribbon.

Everyone says I should just use cord, preferably an easy-to-thread satin cord, but I just realized that I hate cord. Who knew, right? I don’t think I’ve given cord more than two minutes of thought my entire life, but suddenly I have a visceral hatred of cord. Tying the boxes with cord seems like tying them with a shoelace. Cord is dead to me.

So the search continues. While wading through ribbon site after ribbon site (and of course trying to find eco-friendly ribbon too, which of course makes everything exponentially harder), I discovered that I absolutely loathe all ribbon except grosgrain and velvet.

Sadly, grosgrain is absolutely the wrong kind of ribbon to use for the boxes—its very name means fat! Even worse, I suspect that the neato recycled ribbon I reclaimed at the Materials Exchange is silk grosgrain—which I have no problems with since it’s not new, but which I refuse to buy. And of course velvet is completely wrong for the boxes too —too thick and way, way too expensive.

Megan and Sarah sell a nice biodegradable ribbon that I will soon be using as gift wrapping ribbon, but it’s way too thick for the pyramid boxes. A search on “thin ribbon” has led me to the discovery that the military totally owns that search term for their various medals for killing babies or whatever the fuck the military gives out ribbons for. I found some very nice “eco-grosgrain” ribbon at made-in-china.com. Sigh.

But! Look at this! It starts out thin, then you can untwist it and it gets fluffy and fat! And it all hippie eco-friendly and all that. It’s of course too expensive and will fuck with my profit margins, but it will be the dry-aged steak in the steakhouse, and I will trust that there will be enough vegans coming to dinner to offset the costs.* Anyway, I ordered it. We’ll see. If it’s good, I’ll see if I can get it wholesale.

I’m blown away by having such strong preferences I never knew existed before tonight, but I’m also totally up for the challenge of finding that perfect thin, pretty, hopefully non-planet-rape-y ribbon. It might seem a little silly, but these little bricks are what a meaningful life is made of, in my mind. Caring about every little thing, and learning about every little thing. So what if I just spent two hours researching ribbon? Now I know all about ribbon. And I know that it will mean the difference between looking at the boxes and constantly thinking: “Hot damn, that box is gorgeous,” and “well, I sure saved a lot of money by buying that uglyass curling ribbon.” Who wants to think that for the rest of their life? Ugh, curling ribbon is truly the trailer park of ribbon, is it not?

Vive le grosgrain! And the Eco-Twist? We’ll see.

*Does anyone outside of the restaurant industry understand that analogy? When you—not you, my pretties, you do not go to steakhouses, I know that—go to a steakhouse and order a green salad and baked potato, you are paying exponentially more than your icky friend who dragged you to the steakhouse who ordered a super expensive dry-aged steak. His steak is more expensive on the bill, but proportionally you are paying much more, because the restaurant is charging you ten times more than they paid for your food to offset the fact that they are charging your friend only twice as much. This is why vegans should eat at vegan restaurants!

TMI hangover April 18, 2009

OK, internet! I think I need a few days off from you. Be back soon!

In the meantime, peep the photos from the infamous Bluestocking Bonbons launch party!

Bluestocking Bonbons at the Go Green Expo this weekend! And and and. April 15, 2009

Some quick notes:

If you’re heading to the Go Green Expo in NYC this weekend, be sure to stop by Sarah & Megan’s Treeo Design booth, where they will be repping the new bonbons as well as their amazing recycled paper wrapping papers, boxes, and biodegradable ribbon.

Also: Than pointed out to me that Karen O (SWOON!!) wore blue stockings on Letterman last night—blue stockings are taking over!

Orlande, will you be mad if I post a link to your Bluestocking Bonbons awesomeness here? ‘Cause it SO made my day. I’m not sure if people can see it if they aren’t Facebookerz, but let’s see.

And can you believe I got another email from this lady? Just one snippet:

This is an opportunity  for you to have your product placed in the hands of some of
the most  influential celebrity mothers and their  children.!
We are nearing our deadline for  this opportunity so please reply  at your earliest convenience if this is  of interest!
Celebrity mothers remain a hot  media topic, so we  will be creating specialty
gift boxes for some of  Hollywood’s most talked about moms. Join us in acknowledging these
“working  mothers” [WTF WITH THE QUOTES?] with gifts for both them and their kids.

We will use our  direct access to top talent and our reputation for pampering the world’s  biggest trendsetters
to introduce the most fabulous of products to these  stars (and their families)
Celebrity  product placement is a  tried and true method of differentiating your product from  the
masses….
Please note that we have selected  celebrity moms who have children under the age of one;
your gift should  either be appropriate for a child this age or for a mother of any  age.

Shipping deadline:  April 27, 2009
(All products will  be packaged and delivered the week of May 4th, just in time for Mother’s Day  on May 10th)
Quantity:  30 (includes 5 Press  Samples)
Inclusion Fee: $1,500

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy fuck, this turns my stomach.

Back to work!

placeholder to guard against shallowness April 13, 2009

I am so humiliated by my hair blogginess that I am putting this post up to fill space until after I go enjoy this gorgeous weather (seeds to plant! bikes to ride! 55 degrees and sunny!) and can write a proper non-hair post.

I love this truffle note so much, despite my 3 AM handwriting. How awesome are my customers?

(Hey, person who asked me to include this note in your order: let me know if you want me to take this picture down!)

Also, it looks like someone managed to hitchhike in 2009 an hour from NYC without getting murdered, so maybe things are not so horrible out there in the world. I spotted this sign in New Paltz:

Success!

A sneak peek of tonight’s post: Passova without ova. Yes, a matzo ball soup recipe!

holy shit i fucking love life today April 8, 2009

Oh my god, no one is around right now and I just have to vent (but it’s really the opposite of venting) about something:

I LOVE LIFE!

Yesterday was the grand launch of the new website, and since then I’ve been getting so many amazing emails and orders from truffle customers and friends. I feel so…um, what’s the word? Understood. I did this weird thing, made these chocolates named for my mom and my 73-year-old b.f.f. and a bunch of other crazy broads, and I gathered all these rad people around me to help make the project happen for real, and now it’s out there in the world, and people are really getting what I was trying to do. People totally feel me. It’s weird. I’m not used to that.

I think the lesson is: if you put yourself out there in the most honest way possible, people will respond. I can’t be a typical business. I don’t want to sell my chocolates to Whole Foods. I want to keep on selling them directly to the same lovely customers I’ve had for years, people who I’ve attracted just because they feel what I’m trying to do.

I’m sorry to be so gushy, but it feels so, well, triumphant. Can a line of chocolates signal that maybe a wonderful new world is on its way? A part of me feels like these are signaling just that. I know it’s mainly because people who don’t understand the chocolates (aka most of the world) haven’t been ordering or emailing, but what a triumph I’ve pulled off in finding my people.

A (small!) selection from the emails:

“Sending you congratulations and wishing you all the best with this new venture. It is so great to see conscientious business women succeed!”

“YAY for the new creations!”

“oh my god, your new line of chocolates, the packaging and the new website are SO fabulous i’m beyond words.  for real.”

“How could you make even more delicious chocolates!!! You are evil!”

“Gorgeous, Girlfriend!!  Absolutely Gorgeous!!! :)  Products and packaging!  Ya still interested in doing a trade?” (From the FABULOUS Allison of Allison’s Gourmet! Yes of course I’m still interested in a trade!)

“ohmygosh… I’m in love with the boxes! and the website!!  and….I love it all!!! You inspire me to further learn web design and create such beauty!!”

“Hi Lagusta, It’s ——.  Remember me from long ago when I ordered your meals?  I just received your email about your new chocolate line and wanted to congratulate you.  The chocolates look delicious and the packaging is beautiful.  Continued success to you!”

“…I was excited to receive the announcement of your new chocolate line, and charmed by the story of your friendship with Selma…”

“WOW! Everything looks beautiful– very nice website– everything! Congratulations! I can’t wait to check some of these out.”

“What a wonderful product and an amazing website. I’m in awe!!!
bravo.
will be ordering soon!
hope it goes well.”

“Wow, Lagusta, it is all sooo gorgeous!  I am very touched and proud of what you wrote.  I would  immediately order if I could figure out how to sign up for Pay Pal; I trust Carolanne will help me with that in a day or two. The whole design of the announcement is beautiful.  Much luck with it!  Love, Selma” [Aww, as if I would let someone buy the chocolate that is named for them! Care pkg is in the mail, woman!]

From my mom: “People at my office went crazy about the candies (I only took 2 kinds in, the rest are at home)!
Also, I discovered that after you eat the candies you can unfold the boxes and they make cute little trays that you can use for paper clips or anything else! I am using one for that now!”

Also: Check out this heartwarming write up of the launch party by Kara!

OK, that’s IT. I promise you, I’m done after today. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to stop blabbing about chocolate.

Maybe I’ll share my thoughts on how annoying the Felice Brothers show was last night! Here’s a teaser: If you introduce a song by saying that it’s about “getting drunk and killing your girlfriend” and everyone woos loudly and triumphantly, I will storm out of your show and wait for you backstage so I can scream at you. I was prevented from doing this last night by Felice-lovin’ (and Felice apologist) friends, but I was very close….