So your in-laws are coming over for dinner and you want to finish the evening with a lovely dessert that you can’t possibly screw up. Additionally, since you will presumably be drunk by dessert-time as a means of dealing with your mother-in-law, said dessert will really have to be idiot proof. Well, I have your answer….Bissinger’s Chocolate Lace.

Okey Dokey, here’s what you do. In advance, order a box of the Bissinger’s Chocolate lace. It is simply molasses dipped in dark chocolate. I will repeat that again folks, MOLASSES DIPPED IN DARK CHOCOLATE!….YUM!!! So anyway, buy a box online. I promise you, a box will last you a really long time so try not to get too hung up on the $25.00 price. Then at the grocery store, buy a small carton of heavy whipping cream and a bunch of lovely fruit (strawberries, blueberries, ect.)

Then, when it is dessert time, simply whip the cream with some powdered sugar with that little hand-held blender thingy, (I can’t remember what it is called,) until it is firm. Then place a dollop of home-made whipped cream on each pretty dessert plate. Add a handful of fresh fruit, preferably cut up if you have had time. Then stick a piece of the Chocolate Lace into the whip cream. If you have whipped it a sufficiently long period of time, it should be stiff enough…(wait a minute that brings something else to mind?…Can’t quite place my finger on it?…oh well, never mind.)

Anyway, thats it! It makes such a lovely, light dessert, especially perfect for hot Summer months. And it makes for a really pretty presentation. You can’t miss with this one.

Parched hair does not actually want “deep conditioning” as most hair product commercials would have us all believe. If it did want that then we could all just pour Olive Oil over our heads or slick it through with a bit of Crisco and it would bounce to life.

I can only assume there are others out there who made the teenage mistake of putting Mayonnaise all through their hair after seeing Julia Roberts doing it in Dying Young?? What?…no?…well never mind, me neither then.

Anyway, what dry hair really wants is a perfectly balanced combination of stuff that I am far to ignorant to specifically know by name, but I certainly know products that have found this balance and work.

The full name of one such product is…Dove Advanced Care Sheer Moisture Leave In Replenishing Mist for Normal to Dry Hair…seriously, is that not the most absurdly long product name you have ever heard? However, this is great stuff. It really, really works and costs around five bucks! An extra note, do not buy the coordinating Dove Luminizing Leave-In Mist or the cream version as the Sheer Moisture as they are crap.

Okay, so this is the funnest (don’t think funnest is a word is it?) meal you will find at any crappy restaurant near you.

The Horton Hears a Who Who-Cakes at IHOP are so damn cute and shockingly tasty. Admittedly, they are nothing more than a gigantic pile of dessert under the guise of a breakfast item. Hence, like I said, they are the “funnest”.

IHOP also has a couple other Horton themed meals that have things like eggs & ham, but whats fun about eggs & ham for breakfast? The Who Cakes on the other hand are hands down the best cheesy movie tie-in meal that any substandard restaurant has ever carried.

If you have small children and you don’t take them to IHOP for Who-Cakes, well then you are simply a bad parent. If you don’t have any small children near by that you can take as your cover, it is truly okay to just go anyway. Seriously, did I mention that the syrup/icing stuff is Blueberry flavored? You know that ridiculously sweet blue Icee type of flavor? It’s just like having a big plate of happiness. Now that should over-ride any potential embarrassment that may be stopping you from heading to IHOP.

Some people just have more delicate stomachs than others. Some of us experience nausea at random times, by no fault of our own. Some of us have no idea why we are nauseous and therefore cranky on a semi-regular basis. Some of us really hate those of you with “Iron Stomachs” and jealously watch you eat anything and everything with wild abandon and no consequences after the fact. Some of us just have really wimpy, pathetically sensitive, should have their little stomach asses kicked stomachs!

And now, some of us have come across Dramamine. Forget about motion sickness (which I guess it is primarily meant for) this little product is a honest to god life saver in dealing with basic nausea.

Nausea can truly be debilitating when it just sticks around for no reason. It’s just awful. But one Dramamine can make a tremendous difference.

It’s Dimenhydrinate which per the website is benign enough for even children as young as two to take and it is a pregnancy category B. It costs $5.00-$6.00.

It’s a terrific little product that is surprisingly effective. Even works on hangovers.

Now I realize that I am not charting into unique territory by recommending something from such a huge chain as Macaroni Grill. And admittedly it pains me to not have a more creative dish/location to suggest (I would love to be trendily obscure here) but regardless, I gotta tell you, the Penne Rustica at Macaroni Grill is fantastic!

This is one of Macaroni Grill’s signature dishes and runs $12.99. It consists of penne pasta with whole shrimp, grilled chicken and prosciutto in a to-die-for parmesan rosemary cream sauce.

Now, a lot of food review posts include a “Nutrition Facts” section for your information, but really I see no reason to add such a needlessly sadistic twist to things. This is a positively delicious dish that I am quite sure is meant to be enjoyed without the delightful addition of knowing exactly how many dimples of cellulite it may or may not add to your ass. So I give you this review unmolested by the likes of evil saturated fat content specifics.

The Macaroni Grill Penne Rustica is a subtle yet very richly flavored dish. It will also give you really bad breath…a sign of all great Italian dishes. Now, I’m not saying the Penne Rustica will change your life, but it’s absolutely “Super Great”.

I just look really sad when my hair is limp. By sad I mean like a dork, not so much sad as in tearful. And so I use a really fantastic product that you might not have heard about.

Stila Hair Powder is meant to be used for those days when you don’t want to wash your hair and need volume. Or as I have found, even if your hair is freshly washed, it is excellent for adding thickness.

This product is not to be confused with the other somewhat known hair powder product by Bumble & Bumble. The B&B Aerosol Hair Powder Spray is very odd and when I bought and tried it, it totally reminded me of those late night “spray on hair” infomercials for balding men. Not a fan. However, I have found the Stila Hair Powder to be a great product.

A few helpful tips for use…

1.) Is best for somewhat lightish hair shades since it is a whitish color.

2.) Only put it on the roots (except as specified below). On the rest of the hair it just kind of makes hair clumpy.

3.) Do not use if you have extensions.

4.) Especially fabulous if you have fine hair.

5.) Makes hair really “grippy” for an updo. It is wonderful for this and this is the one circumstance where you would want to apply the powder throughout your hair.

6.) Do not buy the “Creme Bouquet” scent, it smells weird. Only buy the “Jade Blossom” scent which is lovely.

This product, if used correctly, basically makes you look like you have a lot more hair. It is $28.00 a bottle and a bottle lasts a really long time. When I use Stila’s Hair Powder, I don’t need mouse or hairspray or teasing, (of my hair that it). It’s a fabulous product.

Peeps make the world a better place….period. If you think otherwise, then you are clearly a communist.

Everything about the Marshmallow Peep is wonderful; from the continuously expanding shape diversity to the almost magical weightlessness of the little guys to the crystal-like color scheme. You know I have actually convinced myself that each different color is a different flavor. Yes, I am aware that in actuality it is all just plain colored sugar, stop trying to ruin it for me.

There is a whole community who find the Peep phenomenon fascinating. In fact, there is even a site dedicated to better understanding Peep behavior and environmental influences. They focus on Peep Research such as the effects of smoking or alcohol on the Peep and the fear response in the Peep specimen. (Warning: some of the peep images on the site are quite graphic.)

Now, I am going to let you in on possibly the most important and elusive secret within the Peep world… ***When you purchase one of the little boxes, you must first cut a line along the wrapping and let the Peeps “age” for about two days. Just let them “air out” a bit. Only then will you be able to experience Peeps in all their glory. The crystal sugar coating gets ever so slightly hardened and perfects what hardly had any room for improvement to begin with ….I am right about this one, try it, you’ll see.

You know that feeling you get when you see those stories like how a German Shepard “adopted” an orphaned baby deer and loved it back to health? Or how that tiger in Thailand is friends with all those little piglets? Well this is like the human version of one of those unbearably touching stories…The Love Ladder.

Okay, I don’t have any kind of chronic bad breath issue or anything, but I am a bit anal about fresh breath…hence, my love of Crystal Breath. Most people I mention it to have never heard of it, but it is a truly useful little gem.

Now you don’t chew on these little capsules. You swallow them (a couple) with water after you have eaten something particularly fragrant, and thats it! They “Freshen your breath from within”…really.

The ingredients are completely benign, nothing scary at all. They are not the cheapest breath fresheners out there, the least expensive I have found are $6.65 for one pack. But one pack lasts me a month or two.

They are also a bit hard to find. I have not seen them in the stores in the past 5 + years, and on-line is almost as hard to find them as well. But the manufacturer’s website is a reliable source to buy from.

These little drops are super great and amazingly effective.

I’m a little scared. I have stumbled across the fact that there is now out there a sort of crack cocaine in cake and cream form; you know, makes you feel really, really good but is horrifically addictive and bad for you. This my friend is essentially what we are talking about with the new Oreo Cakesters. These little suckers are amazing and evil.

Just FYI, they don’t taste particularly like an Oreo, they have their own distinct thing going on. They are of course a send off from the old fashioned “Whoopies” which have recently made a come back in the culinary world.

They cost $3.50 for a box of 12 cakes and even if they cost $35.00 a box, that would be more than reasonable really. They are better than you can imagine.

Mark my words, some day soon there will be a special on National Geographic, dramatically narrated by Lisa Ling about the new addiction on the streets that is ruining young people’s lives at an alarming rate.

You have been warned.