Hi everyone!!

This is Adina from the adorable One Lucky Duck office and headquarters. I just wanted to say hi and let you all know that I am VERY excited that there are some new Sprout products on oneluckyduck.com. (In case you aren’t in the loop, I make them all!) There’s a lavender sea salt special for your stressed out brain or your stressed out face, a rich sugar scrub so you can smell and taste good in the shower, and a face exfoliant made from ingredients in your pantry! They’re all seriously so great (and affordable) that we’ve started referring to their super powers at the office. And although we can’t make any official claims, we’re pretty sure it’s true.

Check out Adina’s products here.

Join us for a special four course tasting menu created by Chef Neal Harden on Monday, March 29th at Pure Food and Wine. When you purchase this menu, you’ll receive a free voucher to see FRESH the movie, making its theatrical debut in NYC. A portion of the menu price will also go to support the grassroots movement that is FRESH. Check out their website for trailers, to sign a petition urging congress to stop the corporate giant, Monsanto and more.   The movie features small farmers dedicated to ending the food monopoly that is making Americans sick.

“We all know about the problems with the American food system, but what about the solutions? FRESH is a bracing, even exhilarating look at the whole range of efforts underway to renovate the way we grow food and feed ourselves.” – Michael Pollan

Our menu will feature local and in-season produce from Union Square Farmer’s Market and comes with DESSERT! Call 212 477 1010 for reservations. This menu will only be available on Monday March 29th.

Like most romantic, cozy, candlelit restaurants in NYC Pure Food and Wine is currently booked for Valentine’s Day, but don’t fret – we are taking a detailed wait list. In this city, most think that means  a shot in the dark to get a table, but our hosts really are diligently calling names from our wait list in the order that they were taken, as spots open up.  We are even toying with the idea of extending our hours for that night, so it might be your lucky day if you are up for dinner at 11pm (could be sexy, no?)  Here’s a teaser of what you and your Valentine (or brother/sister/friend etc) could share that night ($72 per person Prixe Fixe for reservations call  212 477 1010)

Valentine’s Day 2010 Prixe Fixe

I.

Salad of Fennel, Pomegranate, and Avocado

blood orange saffron dressing, fresh herbs

or

Quinoa Polenta Cakes with Chimichurri Sauce

fuyu persimmon, flowering African blue basil, tahini

II.

Beet and Pineapple Gazpacho with Snap Dragons and Marigolds

III.

Sweet Corn and Banana Tamales with Marinated Chayote

guacamole, hibiscus crema fresca

or

Portabella Mushroom Braised with Herbes de Provence and Stuffed with White Truffle Scented Almond, Fig, and Shallot Chutney

creamed garlic haricots vert, lavender and thyme balsamic

IV.

Coconut Strawberry Terrine

strawberry lavender compote

or

Chocolate Cake

mango and roses

That’s right! We’ve opened the doors for good at our newest Chelsea Market location, (some of you may have seen us the first time we opened-we had to go back to the nest and re-vamp a few things). If you are in the NYC area, stop by for a juice or a lunch break while perusing the dozens of great shops found at one of NYC’s most famous marketplaces. There are endless places for any food lover to drool over, and now you can refuel with an organic fresh juice, stock up on Norwalk pressed bottled juice or take a load off at our cute communal tables and munch on a salad, falafel, or a raw mallomar. In fact, we are requiring you to get a mallomar. Seriously, they are the best! Come visit us   Hours are Mon-Sat 10am-8pm and Sunday 10am-7pm. (Enter at Chelsea Market main entrance at 9th avenue and 15th Street, walk through the market and then make a left across from the lobster joint, or enter at 425 W15th street and we are the first store on the right…see you soon!!)

Join Pure Food and Wine this New Year’s Eve in counting down to midnight. Our chef Neal Harden, and pastry chef, Jana Keith-Jennings, have crafted an elegant 4-course tasting menu to ring in 2010! Celebrate the end of this decade and the beginning of a new with our pure food and wine family, your friends, good food, sake cocktails and of course… Champagne!

 If you want to save your seat call 212-477-1010 to make your New Years Eve reservation!

New Years 2010 Menu

I.

Salad of Wild Arugula, Fresh Citrus, Candied Pistachios, Neus Organic Arbequina Olive Oil

Or

Shiitake and Scallion Pancakes, Ginger Red Pepper Puree, Pea Shoot Salad, House Made Kim Chee

ii.

Fennel and Saffron Broth, Fennel Julienne with Shallot and Picholine Olive

iii.

Herbed Sweet Corn Polenta, Broccoli Rabe, Basil Crème Fraiche, Garlic Oven Dried Local Hothouse Tomatoes

Or

Sake Drunken Salsify Noodles, Almond Butter Sauce, Mung Bean Shoots, Baby Bok Choi, Bell Pepper, Crunchy Almonds, Thai Chili Marinated King Oyster Scallops 

iv.

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Fig Compote, Candied Orange and Honey Walnut Crisp

Or

Jasmine Tea Cake with Plum Wine Poached Pear Sorbet

………………….

Tasting Menu is $72 per person

Executive Chef, Neal Harden.

Our holiday nog recipe, created by the Executive Chef of Pure Food and Wine, Neal Harden, is the perfect (healthy) replacement for that classic holiday beverage, eggnog! We forgo the milk, sugar, and egg and use nuts, chia, and agave to create an unbelievably tasty and rich concoction.

What’s better than our holiday nog this holiday season?  Our holiday nog with sake!  For an “adult beverage” try mixing 1 part sake to 2 parts Holiday nog

YUM

NEAL’S HOLIDAY NOG

½ Cup Pine Nuts, soaked & rinsed

1  Cup Almonds, soaked & rinsed

1/8 Cup Agave

½ Vanilla Bean

½ Nutmeg Nut, grated

¼ tsp Cinnamon

1 Tbsp Chia Seeds

1 ¾ Cup Water

Pinch Himalyan Sea Salt

Combine all ingredients in Vitamix or High Speed Blender and blend until smooth.  Squeeze mixture through nutmilk bag, chill, and serve.

What’s the best part of a cake, cupcake, or frosted cookie? THE FROSTING! Skip the sugar belly-ache this holiday season and frost with something as healthy as it is yummy – One Lucky Duck’s frosting recipe – it’s quick and easy to make!  Our frosting is cashew based and we use healthy sweeteners like agave and maple syrup powder instead of processed sugar. We have PICTORAL “Cream Cheese” Frosting Recipe below, as well as a Chocolate Frosting variation. Let us know what you think!

What are your favorite One Lucky Duck Cookies to frost?

Ingredients for “Cream Cheese” Frosting: Cashews, Lemon Juice, Agave, Filtered Water, Vanilla Extract, Coconut Oil, Optional:  a few drops of Liquid Stevia to taste

Equipment: High Speed Blender

Add 1 1/2 cups Cashews

Add 2 Tbs Lemon Juice

Add 2 Tbs Agave (optional: add few drops liquid stevia to taste)

Add 1/2 cup Filtered Water as needed

Add 2 tsp Vanilla

Add 1 Tbs Coconut Oil

Blend on High until Smooth and Refrigerate to set

We like to frost our snowflake cookies with "cream cheese" frosting!

To make Chocolate Frosting, follow the same recipe pictured above and substitute maple syrup powder for agave nectar, use just 1 tsp of vanilla, and add 2-3 Tbs of Cacao Powder to taste before blending. Try making chocolate frosting cookie sandwiches with our Chocolate Chip Cookies.

FUN TIP: Coconut Flakes are a great alternative to sprinkles

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ONE LUCKY DUCK

Hi Duck News Readers, 

Sarma, the proud mama of One Lucky Duck, has a special note to all of you regarding the holidays and gift giving… We hope you enjoy

HOLIDAY SHOPPING FAVORITES (and free gift cards) 

It feels like summer just ended and now all of a sudden Thanksgiving is next week and after that, the winter holidays. The season of shiny red and green decorations every where we look, TV ads about holiday shopping, traffic jams at the mall, holiday parties, Christmas cake, cookies, and candy all over the office, and morning news segments about how get through the holidays without getting fat. FUN! I can’t wait.  

Open a magazine and you’ll probably find an article about how to “survive the holidays.” What does that mean? What’s the result if you haven’t survived? You ate an entire Christmas smorgasbord, and the chaos of shopping, traveling, and your family was just too much and you’re in a ball rocking back and forth drooling egg nog, waiting to be carried off by the men in white coats? You literally transformed into a Christmas fruitcake? 

I don’t think that needs to happen. But it can definitely feel like a lot of pressure! I should know, I’ve skipped out on the holidays altogether for 3 of the last 4 years. But I don’t want to do that anymore. Things don’t have to be as hard as we sometimes make them, by being too ambitious in our desire to make everything perfect and/or then delaying sorting out the details. (Being a perfectionist and a procrastinator is not an easy combo of traits to have!) Anyway, I’m getting much better in these areas. This whole post is about my favorite (perfect) holiday gift ideas from One Lucky Duck, and how we can hopefully make your holiday shopping and planning easier, so you can feel organized, prepared, and more relaxed.  

Gift cards! Probably the easiest present to buy of all time, unless you just transfer cash directly into someone’s paypal account, but that wouldn’t be much fun. Maybe you know someone who can’t eat gluten, or is vegan, or just likes cool stuff, or could use a nudge in the direction of being healthier. And our gift cards look cool. Or is it just me? (AND even better, they can be redeemed not only online, but at our takeaway store on 17^th street or at Pure Food and Wine).  

If you have a pile of office mates, employees, employers, book club friends, neighbors etc. that you always get a little something for, you can get them something different, fun, and healthy. One year, my landlord left in front of everyone’s door holiday gift tins full of shiny wrapped cheese blocks, sausage logs, mini pretzels, jars of weird dip, artificial chocolate and sugar candies, and other assorted grossness. I read the long list of unpronounceable mystery ingredients on each item with morbid fascination. How many of those are sold each year? (on top of the 50+ to my building). And how is giving someone a bunch of stuff that clogs your arteries a gift? I know the intention is good and it was a really sweet gesture (from a landlord!). Still. Another year my lawyer sent every one of his clients (unless I’m just special) a gigantic poinsettia plant (these are, btw, apparently poisonous to cats). Now, if my lawyer sent every one of his clients a One Lucky Duck gift card? With a note, here’s to a healthy and happy holiday season… that would be original, FUN, and I think much more appreciated than a Christmas plant that might kill your cat and will die anyway, or sausage/cheese log baskets. Right? 

Gift cards aren’t just for holidays. You know when you want to send someone a Thank You gift, a welcome-to-college-gift, a congratulations on anything gift, an I Love You gift, a last minute oh-%&*#-I-almost-forgot birthday gift? And you don’t want to deal with shipping a package either? You can just slide one of these sweet cards in their little sweet envelopes into another envelope and send it off. You just need to stockpile some in your drawer. 

To this end, we’re doing an extra free gift card thing until December 20: For every one you buy, you’ll get another free as an extra, so you can have a little something for the postman, your hairdresser, dog walker, etc. For details on getting free gift cards, and to get a huge chunk of your holiday shopping out of the way (yay!) with a few clicks, click here. Shopping done easily and early means more time for holiday parties. 

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Speaking of parties, COOKIES! If you’re going to eat, gift, or serve cookies, it’s nice if they’re the kind without butter, white sugar, gluten, or anything artificial. And totally yummy. The most festive cookies we have are the new snowflake shaped sugar cookies. My all time favorite new cookie. Also the cinnamon stripe cookies are new (or replaced the spirals, we just decided stripes are cooler). Raspberry filled almond thumbprints, wait these are my favorite. Expensive yes, but they’re made with raw Italian almond flour, the best coconut butter, and raspberry jam that we make. Finally, our gingerbread cookies are also perfect for presents and cookies plates, and they taste like fresh spicy ginger (maybe b/c we actually use fresh ginger, not the powdery stuff?). Finally if you want something manly for a bowl by the fireplace, the spicy cashews are my dad’s favorite. I don’t like to have them around because as turns out it’s near impossible for me to eat anything less than an entire bag at once.  

Bee Yummy Skin Food

OK moving on to skin care. The single best skincare present for anyone is Bee Yummy. Everyone goes crazy for this. It’s good for guys too. Because it’s so healing, it helps keep razor bumps away, and other undesirable skin bumps, spots, etc. It’s even good for burns or scars. And on top of that, I love that it comes in such a bright and pretty jar. I’m a sucker for good and colorful packaging. And things that smell good. If you like chocolate, How Now Brown Cacao is the thickest chocolate-y smelling body lotion. It’s made w/ organic raw cocoa butter, you’ll want to smell yourself a lot. It’s always good to smell like dessert. And sparkle. Glitter Butter is a sweet stocking stuffer. I’m not 13 years old but I glitter myself up all the time before I go out.  

Kyocera Ceramic Peeler

Stocking Stuffers? I love my ceramic peeler, and pretty pink Himalayan ceramic salt grinder. What else…cute little bamboo ankle socks! Softest socks ever. Pretty squares of organic Skinny Skinny soap come already wrapped in magazine paper. If soap is cool then this soap is definitely the coolest. A more glam stuffer would be Rose Marie Swift’s RMS Beauty Living Luminizer. The single best totally clean cosmetic product ever. Most everything in the glow section of one lucky duck can be a good stocking stuffer, since most of it is less than stocking sized. 

Vita Mix Blender

More extravagant gifts? How about getting someone the juicer they’ve been wanting, or Vitamix blender. A dehydrator? Unless you’re blending hot dogs and cheese whiz, juicing boxes of Jujubes, or dehydrating veal (true story, a chef friend of mine borrowed one of my dehydrators for a couple days… turns out he was dehydrating veal something or other! Eiw, gross, sad!), these are all presents that make it much easier for someone to prepare interesting and yummy fresh raw food, juices, shakes. Another really nice present is a rebounder. I LOVE mine. SO MUCH fun. Also, good for people who may be a bit older, injured, or otherwise shouldn’t be doing high impact exercise. Keep in mind all these things take longer to arrive so best to order early. 

Living Raw Food

So how could I forget? I happen to know of two books that make really nice presents, Raw Food Real World, and the follow up, Living Raw Food. Oh, guess who wrote them? I’ll sign them too, just tell us who you want them signed to and I’ll do it. And they pair nicely with a One Lucky Duck gift card.   

OK, so now that I’ve thoroughly pimped out my favorite of our products, and my own books, I want to say I hope everyone has a truly healthy, happy, and stress-free, or at least stress-minimal, holiday. Of course it’s been a hard year for a lot of people, and not everyone can buy lots of presents for each other. So I’m wishing everyone lots of gifts, whether of love, good fortune, time to relax, or just fun. Everything’s going to be okay. Or, I hope so. I have to remind myself constantly to stop and breathe and remember what’s important. Friends, family, and really good health. Eat well, be well! 

Happy Holidays,

‘Tis the season to give gifts, which is why we are giving YOU extra gifts with every gift card you buy online! Now you can give more gifts than you ever imagined.  The bigger your gift card amount, the more your free gift is worth! So whether you keep it for yourself or decide to share with friend, this is one gift that GIVES BACK!  Our gift cards can be used online, at both One Lucky Duck locations (Gramercy and Chelsea Market), and at Pure Food and Wine for dinner.

It’s is better to give than to receive, and we just made giving easier

The Gift That Keeps Giving* Details:

When you buy a $50 – $99 gift card you will get a $10 gift card for FREE*

When you buy a $100 – $199 gift card you will get a $20 gift card for FREE*

When you buy a $200 – $299 gift card you will get a $40 gift card for FREE*

When you buy a $300 – $399 gift card you will get a $60 gift card for FREE*

When you buy a $400 – $499 gift card you will get a $80 gift card for FREE*

When you buy a $500 + gift card you will get a $100 gift card for FREE*

NOTE: Your FREE gift cards will automatically be added to your order; no promotion code is needed. The promotion does apply to the TOTAL amount you spend on gift cards per order. For example, if you buy a bunch of smaller denominations like 4 $25 gift cards for a total of $100, you will receive 1 $20 gift card for free!

*Offer only applies to gift cards purchased online and must be purchased before December 20th, midnight.

Gift cards can be redeemed anytime, with no expiration date