If your service, company or products are broken, watch out. Mark Hurst gives customers an outlet for their grievances on This is Broken. It is an extension of his work at Creative Good based in New York.

For those of you who live in the New York-New Jersey Area, New Jersey Life magazine included one of our brands, New Jersey Concierges, in their November/December issue : in "The Lust List: Surveying a new way to surf the high seas, the state's one-stop boutique for pampering your pooch, a Montclair butler for hire, and Mrs. Peacock, in the library, inBernardsville?"

Before fixing today's lunch of Croque-Monsieur and Baby Spinach salad, I visited Chocolate and Zucchini. Clotilde has been writing for the past few days about various local products from the Basque Region.
Today she highlights the ham from Aldudes Valley. She started her Basque pieces with local peppers known as Piment d'Espelette (the picture).
As for my Croque-Monsieur, I will use today: whole wheat bread (2 slices), french ham (la Madrange, from Canada actually, 2 slices), asiago cheese (2 slices), a couple of pieces of butter on top. 7 minutes in the oven (about 400) or until golden brown.
For the salad, I just toss it with my homemade (no pre-made dressing for me) vinaigrette ( whole grain mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar..twice as much oil as vinegar).

A beverage manager who believes in responsible drinking fell in love with Barritts 'Bermuda Stone' Ginger Beer. He decided to offer it to his customers. Its understated British elegance fits naturally with his sense of style. This soft drink made of ginger from the Carribean and Africa is aged in stone crocks and island spices and citrus give it its distinctive finish.

While getting my daily dose of up and coming companies on the Web by visiting Techcrunch, I discovered Fotolia. Fotolia is a new company that offers 100.000 photos for either web or print use. You can preview all the pictures on their site. The prices go from zero to $ 2000.00 depending on the rank of the photographer. The popularity of their offerings determines their ranking.
You can also sell your own pictures of course. Their blog offers more details on the company.

On Thursday, November 17, Move Ahead 1, has a morning session with Seth Godin at the Holiday Inn in Edison, New Jersey. If you like to get new thinking going, this is a morning session to attend.
Check the Event Link for more details.
Seth Godin's more recent book is 'All Marketers are Liars' and he is the original spirit behind the Big Moo project.

It is always pleasant to find original items. This holiday season ETSY whose tagline is "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade" might be one place to go. I discovered the company on Techcrunch . They wrote a detailed review of the company. I can see my friend Susanna Sueldo of El Jacaranda using their services, she sells leather goods made in Argentina.

The first batch of Contributions to Wine Blogging Wednesdays #15 (including ours) was posted on Gastronomie SF yesterday. I hope it helps you make some wine discoveries. To stay with the food and wine topic, I will be sharing some Thanksgiving recipes (courtesy of pastry chef Glenn Schwabik) and wines ( courtesy of Sharon Sevrens) to go with them later this month. Philippa Davenport wrote about the Best Dressed Turkeys in last Saturday's edition of the Financial Times.

You might be in the mood for baking over the week-end (or just want to make your mouth water), in that case try the recipe for 'Pear Tartlets' offered by Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini on NPR's Kitchen Window this week.
It is inspired by Pastilla, a traditional dish of Morocco otherwise known as Pigeon Pie, check the traditional recipe by Paul Bloxham, a chef from the UK.

We had the pleasure to have a lunch discussion in Montclair (New Jersey) with Stephen Shapiro while he was researching his book. The results of this listening tour will be published in December as 'Goal Free Living' (Wiley). Stephen is featured in a 2 page article of the current issue of Oprah Magazine. To celebrate the article, he is giving away one section of the book. You can get it by e-mailing him at [email protected] and entering "GFL Bonus" in the message line.
We should host a Lunch or Dinner discussion with Stephen Shapiro in Montclair, in January 2006.