ShopEatSleep

This Saturday, Nov. 24, is Small Business Saturday. Support your favorite local small business in between getting your deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some of my favorites include Goo Salon, Giant Robot, Valerie Confections and just about every restaurant in Los Angeles.

Yes, Small Business Saturday is a movement founded by the large business American Express, which charges all businesses a lot for its services (that’s why a lot of stores won’t accept AmEx), but it’s still a good idea to shop small when you can. Small businesses give your city, your neighborhood, character, as well as provides jobs (duh!). If you haven’t seen the commercial, here it is:

If you have an AmEx card, sign up to get $25 back one time when you spend $25 at a qualifying small business on Nov. 24.

Happy shopping!

Valerie Confections SUPER CHOC-O-FOOD

Still scrambling for holiday gifts? If you’re shopping for people who like food, or should like good food, then look no further than these L.A. options:

Valerie Confections: While Valerie Gordon is know for her toffees and cute-as-a-button petit fours, an interesting gift would be the SUPER CHOCO-O-FOOD, a huge block of milk chocolate with a hint of caramel loaded with dried pears, apricots, golden raisins, macadamia nuts, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds and peanuts. The packaging comes from Commune Design, and each color (pink, violet, aqua) corresponds to part of a triptych image found under the label. Valerie now also has teas blended by the American Tea Room just for the shop, including the Black & Blue, which was inspired by her Black & Blue jam and contains black tea from Nilgiri, blackberries, black currants, blueberries and blackberry leaves.

Kiss My Bundt Baking Academy: Chef Chrysta Wilson of Kiss My Bundt, formerly on West Third Street, is now teaching baking classes at Surfas in Culver City. The first class will be on January 15 and will focus on baking with winter citrus. And if you purchase a spot in this class before December 24, you’ll get 20 percent off. If you’ve ever had Wilson’s bundt cakes, you know they’re a treat.

Monsieur Marcel at the Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax: This gourmet foods store has all kinds of delicious treats, including European chocolates, fancy vinegars and oils, flavored salts, cheeses, wine and all kinds of fun stuff. This place will have lots of variety, so you’re sure to find something for the gourmand on your lift.

Eat My Blog, the charity bake sale that benefits the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, is back, bigger and better than December’s inaugural event. This time there will be more than 70 bakers, including the foodies behind the blogs Delicious Coma, Diana Takes a Bite, Eating L.A., Ravenous Couple, plus donations from local chefs, restaurants and mainstream media luminaries Evan Kleiman, Ludovic Lefevbre, Debbie Lee, Drago Centro, Valerie Confections, Starry Kitchen, LAist, Los Angeles Times’ Daily Dish, L.A. Weekly’s Squid Ink, and many more. Check out Gastronomy Blog for a complete list of participants.

The event is taking place this Saturday, June 19, at the West Hollywood Tender Greens from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Look out for noms such as Nutella blondies, carrot cake cookie sandwiches, browned butter brown sugar cookies, matcha mocha bundts with red bean filling, ube cupcakes and much more (complete menu here). There will also be The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf beverages to help wash it all down. The best part? Every is priced between $1 and $4 and all proceeds go to charity.

Valerie Confections Pour Elle box

Valerie Confections: This L.A. chocolatier has themed boxes for Valentine’s Day, with intense flavors in both. The Pour Elle 11-piece box comes with white chocolate and rose petal hearts, and dark chocolate and passion fruit ganache hearts. The Pour Homme boxes come with semi-sweet chocolate hearts made with toffee pieces and fleur de sel, and dark chocolate hearts filled with liquid caramel. I actually prefer the Pour Homme sweets — the liquid caramels are to die for — though the passion fruit ganache is really nice, too. (Full disclosure: Valerie Confections’ owners are my neighbors, and I received these chocolates as a gift.) Check out the Web site for more options, including a Pour Homme gift set with single malt scotch truffles!

Wanda Gale Design: This Falling Heart necklace ($69) made from either gold or silver and semi-precious stones (shown below in gold and citrine) is a cute and fashionable way to say “I love you” — or “I like you a lot.” Whatever. Or buy it for yourself because you love yourself!

Wanda Gale Falling Heart necklace

Charmed Circle: For the guys, there are these Nut and Bolt cuff links ($165 for silver) that are super cool and chic. There are also cool gifts for gals on here, too, including really unique and playful charms. The envelope, bird in a cage, and chandelier charms are ingenious.

Charmed Circle Nut and Bolt cuff links

To celebrate Halloween and the coming of fall, Valerie Confections is holding an open house all this week with free goodies for anyone who drops by its store. There are different sweets featured each day from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Keep Reading