When Tara Met Blog: December 2009

Skechers Shape-ups Review

For the last two months, I've been wearing a pair of black, grey and blue Shape-ups from SKECHERS. If you haven't seen the commercials or displays for them, they are sneakers that have an extra inch or two of padding--a wedge insert to be exact--at the bottom of the shoe so that you roll as you walk.

Why would you want to wear such a thing? Well, they are designed to:

promote weight loss
tone muscles
improve posture
strengthen the back
firm calf and buttock muscles
reduce cellulite and tone your thighs
reduce stress on knee and ankle joints
increase cardiovascular health

Personally, what sealed the deal for me was the following line printed on their materials about the product, "Get in shape without setting foot in a gym." Done!

I also suffer from lower back problems and can always use better posture after sitting at a desk all day. The shoes even come with a DVD that shows you how to use the product, but basically you walk heel first and roll as you step forward. They simulate the resistance of walking on sand. It's quite easy, but I find that it requires taking more steps than I would if I was walking normally, which I suppose is beneficial right there. I also noticed initial soreness in my calfs, which I took as a sign that it was doing what it said. The best part though is that it gives me a much needed extra inch to my height, lol.

Besides sneakers they come in boots too, which I have my eye on. Also, I prefer their black colored "Action Packed" line than their solid colored ones as I don't think you can tell I'm wearing shape-ups due to the darker less noticeable colors. However, I've been loving that when people spot me wearing them, they ask me a bunch of questions about how I'm liking it and it's kind of fun having them before they are too popular. The only bad thing is that they can run you around $110 and up, but I saw them the cheapest at DSW.

According to Sketchers, on average women wearing Shape-ups for 6 weeks lost an average of 3.25 pounds while their body composition was reduced by an average of 1.125%. Meanwhile, back strength was increased by 37%.

The new Domino's pizza?

You may have read about Domino's Pizza delivering a change in its core pizza recipe, well if not FYI they changed their pizza recipe. Since today only a few of us are in the office working the grave yard holiday shift. I ordered some pies for my colleagues and I to "review." I did NOT receive these pizzas for free, but I have been in touch with their PR department to discuss the differences in their new recipe and received the following information.

Domino’s CMO Patrick Doyle wrote:

The fact is, we love our pizza, but as times change, so do consumer tastes,”said Russell Weiner, Domino’s Chief Marketing Officer. “We’ve created a pizza to reflect what consumers are looking for. We’re not talking about a slightly-altered version of our previous pizza. It’s a completely new pizza reinvented from the crust up, and we are proud of it. To us, it’s as big as McDonald’s changing the Big Mac, or Burger King reinventing the Whopper. We spent the last 18 months reinventing the brand in anticipation of our 50th anniversary.”

What's changed? There is a new crust (seasoned with butter, garlic and parsley). New cheese (100% real mozzarella shredded instead of diced mozzarella, with a hint of provolone). New sauce (sweeter, with a red pepper kick). The recipe apparently was created during a two-year process, where dozens of cheeses, 15 sauces and 50 crust seasoning blends were consumer tested for this newer product.

The new crust is not as spongy as I remember, but I expected the crust to be more garlic flavored though like their pasta bread bowls, which is what I typically order when having Domino's. Most of us noticed that the sauce was spicier and that the cheese was thicker and more tasty. However, some could not tell the difference and all thought it still tasted very "dominos-y."

Another thing I want to point out is that I love ordering via their new online ordering system. It even tracks the process of your order as it's being prepped, baked and then delivered. I had a way too much fun watching this tracker, lol. I also like how it pulled in social sharing tools like "Share on Facebook" button, which then displays your order on your Facebook wall.

For more info about the new pizza go to www.pizzaturnaround.com

That's a Latte Holiday Drink Recipes

I recently attended a Got Milk? / Toma Leche Holiday Latte blogger event with award-winning barista Heather Perry who was concocting some yummy winter flavored latte's. Below are her recipes for some perfect drinks to warm you up this season.

Eggnog Latte (the one I'm sipping in the photo)
Hot Latte Recipe

Ingredients:
6 oz. milk
6 oz. eggnog (store bought works fine)
2 oz. espresso or strong brewed coffee

Directions:
Warm milk and eggnog together by either steaming or warming on stove. Put espresso at bottom of cup and top with eggnog mixture. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Latte
Hot Latte Recipe

Ingredients:
2 oz. espresso or strong brewed coffee
2 tbsp. pumpkin pie mix out of the can
8 oz. milk

Directions:
Combine espresso and pumpkin pie and mix well. The nice thing about the pumpkin pie mix is it already has all the spices needed. If you only have canned pumpkin use 2 tbsp. canned pumpkin and ½ tsp. cinnamon and ½ tsp. nutmeg. Top with warmed milk and enjoy this traditional holiday treat.

Tres Leches Latte
Hot Latte Recipe

Ingredients:
8 oz. milk 2 tbsp. sweetened condensed milk 2 oz. fresh espresso or strong brewed coffee 4 oz. heavy whipping cream 2 tbsp. powdered sugar To finish: whipped cream and maraschino cherry

Directions:
Combine whipping cream and powdered sugar and whip until they forms stiff peaks.
In a mug, combine freshly brewed espresso and sweetened condensed milk and mix well.
Steam milk and pour on espresso. Top with a scoop of fresh whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.

Holiday Frozen Hot Chocolate
Cold Latte Recipe

Ingredients:
8 oz. milk
2 tbsp. powdered non-dairy creamer
3 tbsp. powdered chocolate
(If you don’t have powdered chocolate, you can make your own by combining 2 parts sugar to one part cocoa powder)
16 oz. ice
To finish: whipped cream and sprinkles

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour into a tall glass and top with whipped cream and sprinkles.

Best of LA Cupcakes Tour with Chevy

On Saturday, my L.A. Cupcakes MeetUp group was made more mobile thanks to Chevrolet, which provided a group of 17 of us with four roomy fuel-efficient 2010 Equinox crossovers and a hot Bumble Bee Camaro, Transformers edition to go on a cupcake tour of the city. Usually my group can only go to one place each meetup, so this cupcake marathon was a new fun experience. For the tour, chose four cupcake shops in Los Angeles to visit -- Crumbs Bake Shop in Beverly Hills, Sprinkles, Susiecakes, Vanilla Bake Shop.

Unfortunately, the tour landed on one of the rare days it chose to rain in Los Angeles, but it didn't stop us. Instead, it just gave me a reason to don my knitted cupcake hat that I bought on etsy.

Harley, the owner of Crumbs met us at his store and charmed everyone with his visit and HUGE cupcakes. My favorite has always been their Raspberry Swirl, but was also introduced to their Pistachio, which I didn't think I'd like but the almond extract totally wooed me over. Everyone thought it was the friendliest of all the shops and most chose it as their favorite cupcake too.

We then walked two blocks down from Crumbs to the famous Sprinkles, which I've never thought was worth the hype, line or attitude. As one member in the group said "Sprinkles was forgettable." I find their cake dry and their flavors run-of-the-mill.

Next was SusieCakes, where I always eat their Strawberry cupcake, which tastes like strawberry shortcake, but also had a holiday Gingerbread cupcake special that people enjoyed.

Lastly, we went to Vanilla Bake Shop, which I usually like their red velvet, but selected their Key Lime Pie, which unfortunately was pretty hard and cold as if it was refrigerated prior. We were also told not to take pictures inside the store, which was pretty deflating to our camera happy group, they also told us pretty rudely. It's not like we were taking photos of some top secret bomb after all. Whatever.

My friend Kathleen and I used two flip cams to record our journey in the Chevy vehicles to the cupcakeries. Take a look:

You can follow future Chevy Best of Tours on twitter - @bestoftours. You can read more from Pretty Sandy Feet and Happy Go Marni.

Top Chef Viewing Party with Michael Voltaggio

Since it was announced that my client, The Langham Huntington hotel's edgy and talented Michael Voltaggio chef of The Dining Room was going to be on this season of Top Chef, I've of course been glued to the show. Each week, I kept hoping that he wouldn't be asked to pack up his knives and go, but thankfully his skill pushed him through to the finals and eventually to be Top Chef.

At a viewing party at the hotel yesterday evening, we all watched the season finale anxiously. I'm such a geek that I got teary when they announced Michael as the ultimate winner as the competition was fierce. The whole place erupted into cheers and the Voltaggio brother was surprisingly shy off camera and smiled and shrugged a thank you to everyone and thanked everyone for being there. Of course he's probably known for some time that he won, but it was all hush hush up until this point.

He was very approachable as strangers at the party came up for a photo or autograph. With encouragement from Jo of My Last Bite who is Michael's #1 fan, I also asked him for his John Hancock on the November issue of Pasadena Magazine, which he graces the cover of.

Raphael and I also posed for pictures. I particularly liked his necklace that featured a butcher's knife, very cool. He also mentioned how his mother was treated like a cast member in the final episode and that they actually filmed the ending back in October.

At the party they were passing out some of his hors d'oeuvres, which included a pastrami crouton with jellied horseradish, pineapple wrapped in prosciutto, sushi (lots of wasabi, so hot!), short rib sandwiches and some sort of puff, which unfortunately never made it to me. Luckily, I had experienced his food before at a dinner in The Dining Room back in August just before Top Chef started airing. Raphael and I have already been talking about going back again soon.

Oh and Marcel, the second season runner up from the show, was also in attendance.

New Huffington Post Blogger

Last week, the popular online news site The Huffington Post launched a Los Angeles edition and I was asked to be one of their Los Angeles bloggers. I of course said yes, after doing a happy dance that is. Basically, I can write about whatever I want as long as it has a L.A. tie. I've already submitted a few posts for review and the first of which went live yesterday, Are your Tampons Green? which is about enviroment/health friendly options for women. I wanted to write something a little edgy, but was afraid they'd hate it, but luckily 4 comments so far and lots of retweets!

Despite it being such an intimate product, I know that I've never paid much attention to the ingredients on tampon boxes. But then again, I'm also just learning to look more critically at labels when it comes to the ingredients in products and their effect on my health and the environment. As a result, I learned that rayon and rayon-cotton blends are widely used in the manufacture of tampons and that the common sanitary pads sold today, contain a blend of chlorine-bleached pulp, polypropylene, polyacrylates and plastic. More...

On a side note, I'm liking the black and white profile pic that they put up alongside my post, very Wall Street Journal. My second post just went up as well How To Be a Los Angeles Frugalista.

Sharpie Make Your Own Holiday Gifts party

The makers of Sharpie kindly sent me a several kits with instructions on how to make some fun holiday gifts/decorations for those on my list this year. So, I decided to make a party out of it and invited a couple of friends over, all of which are more crafty than me. We sipped wine and champagne cocktails (sparkling wine with Chamboard), played holiday music and of course Sharpie'd different objects!

My favorite hoilday Sharpie craft was decorating some blank Christmas balls with Sharpie markers, which is both cost effective and easy enough. It was also amzing to see what everyone came up with. I drew silver snowflakes on my red ornament and the year. It's only the end of 2009, yet for some reason I stupidly wrote 2008, grr. Personally, I blame the yummy Kim Crawford Wines! I was able to salvage my ornament though by going over the number in a red Shapie and re-writing the 9.

My friend Sarah made her blue sphere into an amazing globe (I doubt I'd even be able to draw the outline of all the countries on a piece of paper never mind on a frosted ornament like she did). Another girlfriend made her pink ornament into a chic plaid print, another wrote fun holiday words like joy, love celebrate, etc on hers and another turned hers into a zebra print. I wanted to keep them all! Here they are all together:

Next, we Shapie'd some white t-shirts and here is where my artist friend Zendi stole the show with her strategically placed cupcakes, lol.

While Nicki went for an I Heart NY style tee and also decorated a blank cardboard heart box that she brought with her.

We Sharpie'd picture frames in both black and white too. I chose black though and used it to decorate a Vegas weekend pic that I had from 2006:

I also Shapie'd a pink stocking for my cat, which she approved of with a sniff.

Lastly, some friends decorated champagne flutes with holiday Shapie flair as well:

As you can see, I'm not the greatest craftster, but it was easy to make these Sharpie inspired gifts and yet still be proud of the result. It's also not as messy or expensive as some crafts and not as time intensive as scrapbooking either. In fact, we enjoyed this girls-only party so much that I'm hoping to make this an annual party. For more Shapie holiday craft ideas click HERE!

Disclaimer: I received Shaprie product and items to Sharpie for this party. Also, Sharpie is a Weber Shandwick Chicago client, but I'm not affiliated with the account.

Biggest Loser host Alison Sweeney helps Crest Feed America

Crest Glide Floss and Alison Sweeney, host of NBC’s The Biggest Loser and the award-winning actress on NBC’s Days of our Lives, have partnered up to help Americans "glide" easily through tight spaces and to raise money for Feeding America, the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity.

For every person who tweets about the "Tight Spaces" in their lives using the hashtag #GlideTightSpaces through December 31, 2009, Crest Glide will donate $1 to Feeding America. So get tweeting!

Also, in honor of the partnership, Crest offered me the opportunity to interview Alison:

What was or is your tight space?
Alison Sweeney: "I find myself in “tight space” when my schedule is packed and I’m headed from one commitment to another. From set, to the gym, to an event and so on! It’s those days when it’s most important to take care of myself and make sure to keep my health on track. I always try to pack healthy snacks before I leave the house and making sure to floss with Crest Glide every day."

Which contestant on The Biggest Loser has inspired you the most and why?
Alison Sweeney: "Getting to know Abbey has been an amazing experience. She is truly such a strong person, and listening to her share her story, to see her open herself up to us, made us fall in love with her! She’s so willing to be open, to be cheerful, to be positive, in the face of all she’s been through in her life, it’s impossible not to be inspired by that."

Badges of Honor

Our floor's layout at work is being reorganized. As a result, I had to move offices, which thankfully forced me to throw away a lot of junk that I've collected from different clients and events over the last two years here.

One novelty item I had collected were the admission badges from the different media events that I've attended as either press or staff. I used to hang them from a hook, but it soon became too heavy that another hook had to be added. Now, I'm finally letting go of these badges of honor and tossing them into the garbage. I did keep a few of my favorites though (Tribeca Film Festival, The Grammy's, I Love You Man premiere). Take a look:

My new office doesn't have any windows, but I'm psyched to have the private space as it's so much easier to concentrate. The only bad thing is that this particular office smells like a smelly gym bag. I brought in a vanilla reed diffuser and even sprayed some DEMETER Laundromat fragrance. Yet, each time I walk into the room I smell an icky locker room that merely sprayed with a vanilla laundry perfume. Hopefully it will eventually air out.

Thankful for my Thanksgiving vacation

For Thanksgiving, Raphael and I took my mother and his father on a 7-day Mexican Rivera Cruise on Princess. We stopped at Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, but most of all we ate, lol. I'm not the type to complain about gaining a pound or two, but for the next few weeks I'm definitely going to be eating my Lean Cuisines for lunch. Here are some of my favorite photos.

All aboard:

The Los Voladores (Indian Flyers):

The cliffs of Cabo:

Self explanatory store sign:

Mazatlan Cliff Divers:

My mother among waterfront statues:

Cheese: