International Fancy Food Show - tasting on Day 1

Last week, I had the amazing opportunity to exhibit our gourmet cookie mixes at the International Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. Going to that show is one of my favorite things to do for the whole year! This picture is our booth on set-up day.

Well, normally, I'm a complete pig when I get to this show - there is no other way to put it! Imagine yourself confined to a convention center for 3 days where there are literally several miles of aisles of booths, all sampling gourmet and specialty food from around the world! It's hard to not eat your way through the show.

This year, I decided that I was going to approach my sampling habits at the show a little differently. On Day 1, my goal was to wait until the last hour of the show to start sampling, and then to only sample 5 items! Yes - sounds crazy for a pig like me, but I had to try. And, it was very interesting (to me, at least). As I walked through some of show booths, I would scan for something that looked "tasteworthy". There were many items that I would have eaten "just because it was there" if I had not made my 5 tastes goal. I saw a few things that I've had many times before and absoultely love, but I know where to get them after the show is over (one favorite was specificially those Guylian seashell chocolates), so I passed them by, too. As I talked to representatives from each of the companies listed below, I decided to document each "taste" with pictures of the product, too.

Now for the moment you have been waiting for......here's what I tasted and my thoughts on each...

1. Jer's Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares - delicious peanut butter middle with krispy cereal pieces, all coated in milk chocolate. The company is from Salt Lake City, and they have a fabulous line of chocolates!

2. Three Twins Organic Lemon Cookie Ice Cream - super creamy ice cream with a great flavor! No weird aftertaste like you get with some fake lemony flavored desserts - all natural and delicious! I meant to go back the next day and taste their Cookies and Cream flavor, too, but forgot to - however, I'm sure it's delicious!

3. Braswells Balsamic Sweet Onion Jam - this won a Gold SOFI award last summer, so I had to taste this jam. I absoultely loved it! They were serving it over cream cheese with crackers. I'm sure there are a lot of more complicated things you can do with this, but why? It tastes so wonderful and this is so simple! The guys at Braswells have outdone themselves with this one!

4. Olympus Authentic Greek Feta Cheese - maybe this is a lame thing to taste, but honestly it was about time for the show to close and I was only on taste 4! I do love Feta cheese, and wondered what "authentic imported from Greece Feta" tasted like. Well, let me say that it's pretty much like what I get at the grocery store.

5. this is hardly worth mentioning and certainly not worth a photo, but......after taste #4, I looked around and realized that the booths were closing, and no one had samples out anymore. So, I just went back to the Olympus booth, where they had another cheese to sample. It was a semi-hard cheese, and it was just OK.

After my experiment in tasting, I decided that Day 2 would need a few more tastes, and it would have to start a little earlier in the day. More to come...

Sorry we are so lame!

Well, first I need to apologize to all 14 of our loyal followers! It's been a REALLY long time since either one of us posted anything. You would think that with all the cooking and baking we did during the holidays, we would have posted SOMETHING, but NO! Instead we just enjoyed each and every bite of it without sharing any recipes or ideas with you. :( Of course, we kept intending to post all of the yummy food, but it just didn't happen. We will try harder to be more consistent - in fact, as of right now, it's a New Year's Resolution!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

My kids wanted breakfast for dinner so we decided to try these pancakes I heard about.. I'm not sure you could actually call it dinner, but they were fabulous!  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Pancakes:
The easiest thing to do is make your favorite pancake mix and add the cinnamon swirl while cooking.. If you don't use mixes, here is a pancake recipe:

1 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C milk
1 T oil
1 egg

Mix all ingredients together and set aside..

Cinnamon swirl:
1/2 C melted butter
3/4 C brown sugar
1 T cinnamon

Mix together and put into ziploc baggie.

Cream Cheese Glaze:
4 T butter
2 oz cream cheese
3/4 C powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla

Melt butter and cream cheese.  Whisk in sugar and vanilla until smooth.

Heat griddle over medium-low heat.  Spray with cooking spray.  I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup and poured batter onto hot griddle.  Snip end of ziploc baggie (with cinnamon swirl mix) and swirl around onto pancake.  (keep a bowl close to put baggie in or you will have a huge mess!)  When pancake bubbles, carefully flip - get the largest spatula out that you own! Cook 1-2  more minutes and remove from heat. 

 Serve with warm cream cheese glaze! 

(You definitely won't need butter or syrup on these!
 Enjoy then go run a few miles to work it off!! :)

Cranberry Relish

This relish is easily the fastest way to "WOW" a crowd! I'd had this at family gatherings but had never made it - mostly because my husband loves cranberries, but is allergic to them. I had to track down the recipe which originated with my niece, Donna. Without tasting it, you may wonder about the ingredient list - but trust me, it's amazing!

This past weekend, I hosted a bridal shower and made this as part of the luncheon. More than half of those attending asked for the recipe!

For all who asked, and those who didn't - here ya go.... Super Easy Cranberry Relish

1 12oz bag of fresh cranberries
1 c sugar
4-5 green onions
cilantro (about 2/3 of a bunch or about 1/4 cup chopped)*
2 seeded jalapenos
2 8oz packages of cream cheese
crackers (prefer Wheat Thins)

Rinse cranberries and pat dry. Place in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to mixing bowl. I chopped the green onions, cilantro, and jalapenos until very fine, but next time I will try them in the food processor, too. Combine veggies with cranberries, then add sugar, and mix well. Refrigerate at least an hour for flavors to mix. Serve over cream cheese. Enjoy!!

*Cilantro note: I've always wondered the best way to chop cilantro. My sister once told me to cut all fresh herbs with scissors, but that can be tricky. While making this relish, I searched for a better solution and found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuRhkopm06A. I found it very helpful - especially about what part to use!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

When the weather starts to get cooler, and the leaves begin to turn colors, the first thing I want to do is bake something with pumpkin! I know - it's a weird thing, but I can't help myself! Try to get me to use pumpkin in the spring and summer, and you'll find that it just won't happen.

Since it's a very busy weekend, and the fact that I've been experimenting with recipes that start with chocolate chip cookie mixes, I varied from my normal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. To simplify my life, I started with a Sisters' Gourmet chocolate chip cookie mix to make these yummy cookies. Any cookie mix may work, but I've only tried this one, so far.

Here's the recipe:
1 jar of Sisters' Gourmet chocolate chip cookie mix
2 eggs
1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) softened butter
1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves
1 tsp vanilla
1 15 oz can of pumpkin

Just put everything in a large bowl and mix! How easy is that! I used my KitchenAid mixer.

Scoop about 1 1/2 inch balls onto baking sheets and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until you can gently press on the cookie, and it doesn't make a dent (bounces back).

Cool on pan, then frost if desired. My good friend and master cookie baker, Julie Chambers, taught me that Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies should always have a little bit of frosting on top. I'm not sure why this is so, but you can't go wrong with frosting! And, you can't go wrong with any cookie that Julie makes! :)

It's just a simple frosting of:
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter
4 cups powdered sugar
4 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Enjoy!!

Triple Layer Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Yes, this is another chocolate chip cookie dough project. I have a few more ideas that may show up on this blog, as well, so keep watching for them!

This is a variation of the peanut butter filling bars from a few days ago. Basically, these have a cheesecake filling instead of peanut butter. I know what you're thinking - rocket science! I never said my recipes were complicated - just that they are rich and tasty!

You will need:

about 3 cups of chocolate chip cookie dough

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Prepare a 9x9 baking pan with vegetable oil spray. Preheat oven to 350. Spread about 1/2 of the cookie dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the cookie dough. Finally, crumble the other 1/2 of cookie dough over the cheesecake mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until golden on top. Cool completely before cutting.

We ate them both warm and cold, and definitely preferred the chilled version.

As for the peanut butter vs. cheesecake filling preference, it was a mixed review. The peanut butter was a lot richer, but the cheesecake was quite good, too. I guess in the end, I would say that the PB won - mainly because none of us preferred the cheesecake, but just said it was "as good" as the pb, whereas the pb got a couple of favorite votes. So, there you have it! Enjoy!!

Triple Layer Chocolate Chip Bars with Peanut Butter Filling

Sisters' Gourmet is in full swing this time of the year, getting our cookie mixes produced and shipped out for fall baking. With production comes the "reject table"! You may think of this as a bad thing, but it's really not. Pam, our Quality Control Manager, is very good at what she does! Among many other things she is watching for, she makes sure our layered cookie mixes always LOOK good in the jar. If the layers are in disarray, or it otherwise just doesn't look nice, she rejects the jar. Hence the reject table.

Each of us takes home cookies from the reject table to bake for friends, neighbors, family (of course), and we give some away to anyone else who deserves cookies that day (i.e. truck drivers, vendors, etc.). Now, don't take this wrong, but sometimes I get tired of baking the same cookies. It's not that I won't EAT the same cookie day after day, but I like to be creative when I'm baking them.

Long story short.....I'm going to be exploring other recipes that use basic chocolate chip cookie dough, since that's what is on the reject table this week. Today's recipe uses about 3 cups of prepared chocolate cookie dough, but it can easily be adjusted to use more or less. I will just list the cookie dough as an ingredient. Of course, you can substitute your favorite recipe, some refrigerated dough, or mix up a Sisters' Gourmet cookie mix!

Super easy.......You will need:
about 3 cups of chocolate chip cookie dough
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Prepare a 9x9 baking pan with vegetable oil spray. Preheat oven to 350. Spread about 1/2 of the cookie dough in the bottom of the prepared pan. Mix the remaining ingredients (will be thick) and spread over the cookie dough. Now, crumble (or spread, depending on the consistency of your dough) the other 1/2 of dough over the peanut butter mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until golden on top. Cool completely before cutting unless you enjoy a peanut butter and chocolately mess!

I've got a crowd over tonight, and everyone is loving these bars! The best way to describe them is that they are something like a peanut butter bon bon surrounded by chocolate chip cookie. Enjoy!!