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Hi everyone,
We have a wonderful new market near our home… Fresh Seasons Market. Their philosophy is one of being a special place to shop, but providing quality and value. They have a superior produce department, their meat and seafood department carries only the best available. The deli and bakery sections are the same. Quality and value are the mandates of the store and when you throw in a caring, friendly staff – that is what it is about these days for us.
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Hi everyone,
Last week, my husband and I took another class at the Kitchen Window. We are pizza snobs and proud of it. Whenever possible, our pizza of choice is made at home with our own dough. The class was “Better-than-Pizzeria Pizza” and making the perfect dough was the premise for the class.
The dough was ready for us so we could start cooking. We were paired in groups and off to work. We assembled two types of pizza and then spent a rotation at the dough station. Our group was so much fun and we worked well together. Our Bacon-Cheeseburger and Chicken Taco pizzas were delicious. Never thought I would eat a pizza with dill pickles on it! The Pear and Gorgonzola just melted in my mouth. My least favorite was a Roasted Vegetable (which I normally love) and I think it was because of the potatoes. I would have preferred peppers, artichokes, zucchini, and onions, which is the great thing about pizza – you can make it your way
John Michael Lerma (the instructor), of Food Network fame, was ill so a local chef, Scott Hurlbut, taught the class for him. He walked in at the very last minute and taught an amazing class.
Hi everyone,
December 2 already – where did the year go?
Now we turn to the holidays and gift giving. This year everyone is feeling the pinch and so it is a good time to think about giving the gift for the meaning rather than just because it is a gift.
Gift cards have become the norm and can be a well thought out gift if the card fits the person. Here are some ideas for gift cards for the favorite foodie on your list.
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Hi everyone,
After a wonderful adventure in tasting the Columbus Salames, olive oils, cheeses, vinegars, and, of course, the chocolate, back on the bus to the Kitchen Window.
While Chef Royal prepared a superb lunch, he talked about each of the dishes and the subtleties in bringing them up one more notch on the flavor level. Our luncheon menu included several of the items we saw or tasted at Great Ciao.
Hi everyone,
I’ve been away from my blog for awhile. With the end of our CSA season, it is time to post on fall and winter activities in the Minneapolis area.
This past Saturday my husband and I went on another field trip. If you read my blog during the summer, our last one was to Midtown Global Market and the result was Molly’s Midtown Market Salsa recipe.
The field trip we took last Saturday was quite a bit different. We are fortunate to have the Kitchen Window, in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, as a wonderful go-to spot for high quality kitchen items that are on your “required”, “must-have”, or “want really badly” lists. It is rare that we walk in that store without finding at least one thing from one of those lists. However, I am also content to wander around the store and add to my wish list.
The Kitchen Window also offers cooking classes, both participation and demonstration, as well as special events and food tours. The last weekend was an exceptional food tour – The Grand Ciao Market Tour. Because of Kitchen Window and Chef Royal, we had access to an incredible warehouse of gourmet and everyday goodies. The group of 20 participants, led by Chef Royal Dahlstrom, were taken to Grand Ciao, which is a distributor of superior quality food items purchased by many local restaurants and stores. It is not a place where you can just go and shop. It is for the trade only.
At Grand Ciao, Jeff Price, a former chef and now food marketing guru, treated us to tastes of wonderful cheeses, meats, olive oils, and vinegars. Before we tasted, we took a tour of the warehouse. Shelves of oils, vinegars, tomatoes (canned and dried), olives, fruits, sticks of tuna in olive oil, spices (the sweet scent from fennel pollen came right through the plastic packaging), salts, peppers, pasta, oriental ingredients, chocolate, and two separate rooms in the cooler. One room for was the meats and cheeses and a separate area for the cheeses that needed cool, but less humid air.
