I’m a sucker for sweet and salty snacks. Chocolate-covered pretzels have lonnnnng been one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Anytime you can pair cream cheese with jam, I’m sold. Sweet and salty. Sweet and savory. Get in my face.

I recently had the chance to taste a new Boulder-based snack that fits into this “snackable perfection” category like nothing I’ve ever tasted. I was sent three glorious boxes of Snackle Mouth All-Natural Granola Nut Clusters: Almond Berry, Almond Maple Pecan, and Peanut Cranberry. Now, typically I prefer Almonds over Peanuts, but the peanut-buttery awesome taste in the Peanut Cranberry ones… I think I ate the whole box in one sitting.

And here’s why I didn’t feel bad about that. Snackle Mouth is made awesomely, with awesome ingredients, AND:

• Combine All Natural and Organic Ingredients
• Mix in the Best Nuts We Could Find
• NO Refined Sugar, NO Trans-Fats, Low Glycemic
• Cool new name, Snackle Mouth®
• Most Fun Package Design on the Planet
• End Result, Great Tasting Granola Nut Clusters

More on Snacklemouth (directly from their website):

Based in the heart of Colorado, Snacklemouth is a granola nut clusters snack you can feel good about giving to your children that they will actually eat. Using simple ingredients such as Organic Blue Agave as sweetener, low glycemic index Brown Rice Syrup, nuts and whole grains, we strive to be the modern-day, healthier alternative to Cracker Jacks. All of our products are low sodium and have no additional sugar added. Our current flavors are Peanut Cranberry, Pecan Maple and Almond Berry.

Oh! Oh! Oh! And they’re sponsors of Bloggers in Sin City. Which means all the attendees will be receiving a box in their gift bags. Which is awesome, trust me. You’re going to want a snack that doesn’t make you feel like crap (and instead makes you feel like awesome) in between all the amazing things we’re going to be doing.

Disclosure: All opinions are my own and I was provided with samples of each of the three above flavors. 

Guest post by Matt Schexnayder

All you wine connoisseurs out there know that wine storage is an extremely important concept. Many people dream of having their own personal wine cellar at their home, but for most that is what it will remain, a dream. Not only do we not have a prime location, but many of us are in the bad practice of storing our wine incorrectly. If you want to get serious about how to properly store your wine, you might be surprised to know that one of the best locations is one most people have not thought about: a self-storage unit.

Self-storage facilities are the perfect solution to storing a large collection of wine, especially if you are constantly traveling or planning to take an extensive vacation sometime soon. They are safe, convenient and are far less expensive than building your own wine cellar. Now storing the wine in there doesn’t just mean you place the bottles on the floor and you are done. There are multiple things you must do in order to assure that your wine remains as delicious as possible.

When choosing your unit, the most important feature you want it to have is the ability to control the temperature. Storing wine in too cold of a temperature can cause freezing and storing at too cold of a temperature can cause leaks in the cork. The advantage of climate controlled units is that each one can be set to a specific temperature, ensuring that your bottles are kept in the optimum environment for reserving taste.

In general, the average temperature for storing wine is 55 degrees Fahrenheit, but red and whites actually do have slightly different requirements for proper aging. If you have a massive quantity of each, the ideal situation would be to rent to units, and keep each one set at the appropriate temperature.

If you are going to be storing red wines, they are best kept at the standard temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit (if you use Celsius, sorry but I think you can do the conversion yourself). Red wines include merlot, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and zinfandel. White wines, which encompass chardonnays, sauvignon blancs and pinot grigios, should be stored at a slightly lower temperature, right around 45 degrees (champagne can also best stored with these wines as well). And because they are well preserved by their sugar content, dessert wines don’t have to be stored at a particular temperature. As long as they are kept relatively cool, their content should be just fine.

If you value your collection, aside from temperature, it is also important that you keep your bottles under a certain set of circumstances to prevent oxidation and promote proper aging. The following tips offer the best practices for proper wine storage.

1. Store bottles lying on their side. To be more specific, the most preferable position for storing a bottle of wine is with the cork facing downward at a 45 degree angle. To do this, you can buy an inexpensive rack, or just build one yourself (it’s much easier than you think). This will prevent the cork in the bottles from drying out and exposing the wine to air.
2. Keep wine away from sunlight. The UV rays from the sun can change the taste and even the smell of wine. Most storage units don’t have windows, so it should not be too difficult to do this one.
3. Avoid excessive movement. Bottles should be moved as little as possible until they are ready to be consumed. When placing them in storage, position them strategically as to avoid this from happening
4. Isolate the wine. Don’t store wine with anything else, especially something with a strong smell because the odors can actually get into your wine, ruining the taste.

Keeping your precious wine collection in a self-storage unit is the cheapest and best alternative to building a wine cellar. If you are serious about your wine inventory, you need to move away from home storage and keep your wine someplace more appropriate. I hope you use these tips to keep your wine in in perfect drinking condition for many years to come.

This article was written by Matt Schexnayder, who is on the SpareFoot marketing team. SpareFoot is the largest online marketplace for self-storage with more than 5,000 self-storage facilities listed nationwide. SpareFoot offers consumers the most complete comparison shopping experience in the storage industry.

[Photo credit]

Today’s guest post is from Heather. Heather is a coffee and book addict, belly dancer, singer, song writer, musician, lover of words and anything pretty. Her guest post adventures include writing for You Move Free, a Texas-based apartment-finding service. You can find her on Twitter @yesthatgirl, and visit her blog, Musings of a Girl.

Many apartments I have seen do not have what I dream of: a big kitchen. You are usually stuck with a small one. Believe it or not, surviving in a small kitchen can be done! I’ve been doing it for over a year.

The most important thing I can tell you when faced with a small apartment kitchen (most can usually hold 2 people at a time, if that), is this:

ORGANIZATION saves lives, people!

(Just kidding, but really, it works)

When I moved in with my two roommates over a year ago, we had to figure out a way to make cooking in the kitchen work. First, we started by organizing the cabinets and the few drawers we had. We each moved into the apartment with our own things. That’s a lot of kitchen stuff. Pots, pans, utensils, bowls, plates, etc. We kept out what we were going to use and put the rest in our storage area. We hung a dry erase board on the wall by the fridge to easily jot down things we needed at the grocery store. This had become a really great tool, and now we even have one on the back of our door to write messages on.

With the three of us, cooking has become easy. Because we have different schedules, the kitchen is usually free to use. If someone wants to cook for the apartment, we will usually set up nights where we will all be home and go from there. I love the family feeling I get when everyone is around the table. Clean up works the same way. We usually like to clean the kitchen as we are cooking, or right after we are done eating. It makes keeping the kitchen clean a lot easier. We try to run the dishwasher at night because it’s loud so as not to disturb those in the other rooms. Whomever is first to the dishwasher usually unloads it.

Let me tell you, teamwork and communication are the key. If you have those two things, you can make living with a small kitchen work!

Rich, creamy, and delectable. Cavatappi, a corkscrew-shaped macaroni, has the right amount of crevices for the cheese to cling onto. The Gruyere perfectly complements the sweet, delicate flavor of the lobster.

You would be surprised to learn that you can find this dish at an airport. Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport, most often referred to as “T2,” in fact. It might very well have the best dining options I have seen at any airport. If you happen to be early for your flight or have a long layover, you won’t have to worry about good food choices! There is such a wide variety [you can even go wine tasting!], you’re bound to find something that fits your palate.

You can find the infamous Lobster Mac ‘n Cheese at Cat Cora by Gate 55. At $14, it doesn’t hurt your wallet any more than other airport options.

When the Lobster Mac ‘n Cheese arrived, I was very happy to find that there were chunks of lobster throughout the dish. As you can see in the photo above, there’s no skimping at Cat Cora SF.

Finally, airport dining that doesn’t make a gal cringe! Cat Cora gives me a reason to take a few extra hours off work to get to the airport WAY too early for my flight. Check it out the next time you find yourself in T-2!

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and I can now only vouch for one time when this statement legitimately sucks – after tasting the amazing goodness of Pick Your Poison Bake Shop. Because as of now, cupcakes this good don’t travel well, which means for those of us outside the tasty confines of the 702 area code, we’re truly missing out.

And while we’re on the subject of smashing societal norms and other annoying cliches, who says a night of drinking in Downtown Las Vegas can’t pay off? That’s exactly how and why Pick Your Poison Bake Shop came into existence. “After discussing different ideas and concepts we decided we should make cupcakes but give them a facelift. This is after many Stella’s and shots of whiskey of course…” says the Johnson and Wales graduate, Robyn.

These are much more than your typical run-of-the-mill shrink-wrapped barely moist vanilla cupcakes; these are unique flavor combinations and liquor infusions that make you wish you could actually bring a little taste of Las Vegas back with you, wherever it is you hail from. Yes, liquor. As in, you must be 18 to ride this train. Or 21. Whatever. My parents were turn-the-other-cheek-kinda-folks.

You might recognize the name, or the two saucy tatted up dames behind PYP, Taryn and Robyn as finalists on one of the most recent episodes of Cupcake Wars.

Although they didn’t win the $10,000 grand prize, they surely won my adoration, which if you know my love for cupcakes, surely pays dividends. And gets articles written.

The flavors are broken down into categories, so obviously it makes sense to start with the alcohol-induced flavors. And since these were the only variation I tasted during my weeklong stint in Vegas, I can only vouch for the Alcohol Creations. But don’t fret; I can vouch for each and every one except for the Guinness and have committed their flavors to memory.

Alcohol Creations:

Margarita, Guinness, Strawberry Champagne, Irish Coffee, Drunken Pineapple, Red “Wine” Velvet, Jagerbomb, Jack and Coke, Irish Car Bomb, Mimosa and Lemon Drop

Their most popular creation (and my personal fave) is their Strawberry Champagne cupcake, made with fresh strawberries (never frozen) and rose champagne cake with almond cream cheese frosting. Currently salivating as I type.

And remember, Taryn, the mastermind culinary genius behind PYP can make cupcakes to fit any party or event. They can customize favors alcohol or non to fit the individual’s personality and really make the event personal and special. These girls are up for the challenge – you did see them on Cupcake Wars, yes?

One of the baketenders herself, Robyn, has her own favorite: the banana cream pie cupcake made with fresh banana cake and banana pudding filling along with cream cheese frosting topped with pie crust. As Gwen Stefani would say, “That Shit is Bananas – B-A-N-A-N-A-S.”

Chocolate and Other Creations:

S’mores, Cookies n’ Cream, PB&J, and Turtle

Soda Pop Creations:

Vanilla Coke, Cherry Dr. Pepper, Grape Soda, Orange Soda, Root Beer Float and Shirley Temple

Fruit Creations:

Strawberry Shortcake, Banana Chip, Pina Colada, Banana Cream Pie and Caramel Apple

These baketenders are ready to bring you an order. Here’s how to get ahold of them – for now, you can email your tasty order to pickyourpoisonlv@gmail.com, but stay tuned. The gal pals are hoping to open a Las Vegas storefront this year thanks to all the buzz and notoriety from appearing on Cupcake Wars! Not to mention all their return customers (hi, me!) that keep coming back for more.

If you’re in Vegas and want a few recommendations on food and drink from insanely personable now-locals, here’s what they had to say: We are huge fans of La Cave at the Wynn. It’s an intimate tapas restaurant with a wonderful wine selection. We also love Botttles and Burgers at Tivoli Village in Summerlin. Great burgers, killer private label wine and wide-open lively atmosphere. Now if someone wants a great bar, Taryn and I suggest Frankie’s tiki room. It’s a Polynesian themed bar with killer custom tiki drinks and a great jukebox.

702-741-1382 | pickyourpoisonlv@gmail.com

I recently attended a wine-tasting event at Taste on 23rd in NW Portland. The wine bar and bottle shop featured wines from French winemaker, Gregoire Pissot. The event was awesome, and the shop has become one of my favorite places to enjoy a glass of wine.

There’s a certain feeling of walking into a friend’s living room, and I’m not sure if that’s the charming decor in the renovated northwest house or if it’s because the owners, Jim Crabb and Shannan Shute, and the bartenders (so far I’ve met Ari and Kat) are so welcoming. Either way, in the last week, it’s been a great place for a wine-tasting event, a sunny spot to meet my girlfriends for happy hour, and the perfect late evening spot to do some writing, sip a new red, and learn about Gamay blends from the colorful, friendly blonde behind the bar.

Something tells me it’s only a matter of days before I find myself back in there.

Taste on 23rd | NW Johnson at NW 23rd, Portland, OR | @tasteon23rd

El Sabor De La Vida, Tamarindo

Gallo pinto, “spotted rooster” in Spanish, is a traditional Costa Rican dish served mainly as part of breakfast. The name is said to originate in the multi-colored or speckled appearance that results from cooking the rice together with beans.

We were a bit surprised that even a simple dish like this could vary so much from soda to soda.

The sodas I’m referring to aren’t the beverages that we would normally think of. Instead, they are diners or small restaurants that are typically family-run and are an excellent option if you’re looking to eat like a local and on a budget in Costa Rica.

A typical breakfast includes a serving of gallo pinto, eggs [scrambled or fried], fried plantains and a slice of white cheese.

Soda Mima, La Fortuna

Soda La Hormiga, La Fortuna

Of all the breakfasts we had during our week in Costa Rica, our favorite helping of gallo pinto was at Soda La Hormiga in La Fortuna. While it isn’t the most photogenic, it outshone all other gallo pinto we had eaten. It was so flavorful that what you see on the plate above disappeared rather quickly into my stomach!

Having a Costa Rican breakfast each morning certainly gave us enough energy to start our day!

Hey Portland! Wanna get your eat and drink on tonight? For FREE?

Taste on 23rd is hosting a wine + food event in their adorable NW space this evening. Join Cave de Lugny winemaker Gregoire Pissot, for an evening of wine and food pairings. Food like cheese. Because cheese and wine pair nicely together.

Tweet with @PasternakWine and use #CaveDeLugny.

See you there?

Winner announced! Congrats, Manda – entry #8!

I have this belief that the preference for either cooking or baking over the other one is an indication of personality. For instance, the best bakers I know are typically Type A, Control Freak types who looooooove doing things with perfection and precision. I envy their attention to detail and focus while I’m running around my kitchen instead throwing dashes and splashes of herbs and oils into whatever I threw together in the skillet.

I typically prefer the experimental mixing and matching of flavors — a dash of this, a pinch of that — over exact measurements, the variation of which could drastically change (or damage) the end result. I find that very, very scary.

Am I afraid of failure? Do I lack patience? Maybe. Maybe I’m just soooo creative that I need a no-measurements allowed, do what feels good, free-love kind of kitchen.

Either way, I put my Big Girl Apron on and put all of that aside this week as I baked myself a Gluten-Free Applesauce Cake. And liked it. The process AND the cake.

I KNOW, RIGHT?

Outrageous Baking, based in my one-time-for-a-year hometown of Boulder, Colorado, offers the perfect solution for folks, who like me, want to add a few quality baked goods to their I-can-cook-that repertoire. BONUS: all of their products are gluten-free, and many of the recipes on their website are low-sugar and/or high protein.

Get your cupcake on, indeed.

For folks like me, there’s a handful of recipes on their website that are super simple. For folks like the rest of you who bake more than I do, you can substitute in this gluten-free flour for regular flour when you bake, making your favorite cookies, cakes, and breads gluten-free.

Don’t bake at all? Don’t sweat it. For you, the work is already done. Outrageous Baking also offers pre-baked goodies like Chocolate Zucchini Bread, Lemon Poppysead Bread, Pumpkin Bread and Coffee Cake. I frequently picked up the zucchini bread at various Boulder-area coffee shops when I lived there, and devoured the loaves they recently sent me to sample. They’re so good. Crumbly, moist, perfect. You can find all of those here.

Don’t believe me? Try it yourself!

Outrageous Baking is giving away a prize pack to one lucky Nomadic Foodie reader. In said prize pack, the winner will receive:

• Three 2-lb. loaves of their choice
• One 5-lb bag of gluten free flour mix to test out in your own recipes

You have three chances to enter. To do so, leave a comment below for each of the three entries you complete.

• Mandatory entry: Like Outrageous Baking on Facebook and follow @obgfbaking on Twitter. Leave a comment below letting me know you did so.
• Bonus entry #1: Answer me this: do you prefer cooking or baking? Why? What’s your favorite thing to cook or bake?
• Bonus entry #2: Follow @doniree on Twitter and like NomadicFoodie on Facebook.