Photo by julie wilson world via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr COMPETE IN THE 4-SQUARE CHAMPIONSHIPS Or just sit back and watch. The Nike-hosted event will be happening tonight at The Montalban. Every Sunday night this venue will house a different sport. This week, the L.A. Dodgeball Society is helping out by bringing back the classic game of 4-square. Look out for wild costumes and that giant rubber ball. LISTEN TO SOME......

Sunday brings the 2nd annual TasteTV Luxury Chocolate Salon to Los Angeles, and chocoholics and the sweet-toothed can score discounted advanced tickets until 6 p.m. today online to the indulgent event. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Pasadena Center dozens of local confectioners and chocolatiers will be on hand to sample and talk about their tasty treats, along with the chance to see demonstrations and taste wines. Last year's event was a......

After a successful visit last year, TasteTV's Luxury Chocolate Salon is returning to the area next weekend. If you are a fan of chocolate, it's your chance to taste and experience the finest in artisan, gourmet, and premium chocolate in our great culinary metropolis.......

It was a lovely evening of bookish folks gathered about to celebrate books and to kick-off the LA Times Festival of Books which begins today and runs through tomorrow afternoon. The awards ceremony for the Book Prizes was short and sweet, the acceptance speeches were both funny and poignant and the after-party had a full chocolate buffet, complete with ice sculptures. What more could you ask for? Ah, the winners. Here are the winners of......

It'sNational Chocolate Week. It's always chocolate week for me, because I eat it daily. I take offense with the term "chocoholic" because it sounds like a problem. Chocolate is good for you! It's not an obsession that needs to be cured. Well, obsession - yes. Cure? No. Case in point: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels, which are only seasonal. That is tragic, because they are one of the greatest edible delights in the......

This banana bread recipe is so good. So good that you'll find you've finished half a loaf without noticing. No. Really. So good that it's totally worth waiting for those bananas to turn black and attract a swarm of fruit flies. (Well, maybe don't wait THAT long). So good that you might just find yourself talking to it while it's toasting up in your toaster oven the next day. "There's a good lass. Only a......

I am a peanut butter freak. And my Mom knows it. No matter how old I get (and I’m waaaay past the age of consent), she makes my favorite cookies – Peanut Butter Kisses – when I come home for Christmas. Typically, I’ll be sleepwalking through the door straight from a redeye from LAX to the east coast with nothing but the sofa is calling my name. But there’s always a stack of PB......

One of the highlights of holidays past for me has always been getting to taste some of the the delicious chocolate goodies that seem to appear everywhere this time of year. So the idea of checking out and tasting some of our city's finest chocolate makes absolute sense, which is where next weekend's Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon comes handily into play. The event, which is presented by TasteTV, will include speakers and demos, as......

1. family and friends who love me even when I forget to return their calls, don't call often enough, get indecisive or irrational, or move 3,000 miles away 2. Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan 3. the big piles of raked leaves at my parent's house in Boston when I got here for Thanksgiving 4. the open road and anyone who will drive into it with me 5. cheese......

Last Sunday night, whilst many Angelenos were trying to make complete sentences out of what was left between all the bleeps heard during the MTV Movie Awards, I was down by the beach at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica, checking out an event called "Dessert Decadence." Billed as a sunset poolside minglefest, the event featured neither a sunset (too overcast and ran from 5-8, just a bit too early) nor a poolside (we......

Have a food-fanatic on your shopping list? May we suggest some local sources for fabulous gifts, both big and small. LAist will help you Eat It, Use It, Learn It, and Read It with our food-focused installment of the Holiday Gift Guide. Some of these items will last for just a few precious bites, and some will let your lucky recipient get their own hands dirty. Since the clock is ticking, you'd best high-tail......

This week’s pick: Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Triple Chocolate Fudge Chip When you first crack the lid of 15.5 ounces of fine Betty Crocker culinary delight, you expect an aromatic blast of chocolaty goodness. That won’t happen, because there’s a foil seal. Once you overcome that pesky obstacle, you will be greeted by a dark and decadent looking substance that beckons your spoon. As you take that first exquisite bite all you can......