Foodie Finds

We made our way up to the new Farmer's Market in our 'hood this evening and made off with some porcini butter from the 'shroom Shack. Their butter is a creamy blend of: butter (cream, salt), dried porcini mushrooms, mushroom broth (water, mushrooms {brown beech, oyster, crimini, king trumpet}, rose petals, parsley flakes, garlic powder, rice vinegar. A melting pad on a rib eye slab later and I am in love. Rose petals actually materialize as it melts!Le Caramel is my other most favorite recent foodie find. Their caramel is a blend of: sugar, Creme Fraiche and salted butter. To try it is to crave it nightly and reject all other caramel impostors. I know because I do.

Have You Tried This Yet?

Eating Trader Joe's peanut butter was always a guilty pleasure, while eating their almond butter was pure torture. But pair those almonds with some roasted flaxseeds, and I suddenly don't miss the peanuts in my butter (or in my PB&J) one single bit. It's really yummy on bananas. And the kids like it too. So there you go.

Photo credit: Living Trader Joe's

Potato Peel Pie

Typically when I host book club, it can be challenging to serve a dish that hearkens back to the book. That was not the case when our club recently read the wonderful The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Without question, I knew I would have to serve a potato peel pie. Googling a recipe was easy. Luckily, so was making the pie. Peel the potatoes. Boil the potatoes. Combine the peels with some flour, salt and onions. Press the peels into a pie dish. Make a mashed potato filling. Bake. Sprinkle with beet root. And tada!Everyone bravely dug in, declaring it an appealing side dish with a roast beef, for example. The potato peel pie crust really did have a surprisingly nice flavor and texture, and you can't go wrong with a mashed potato filling. Even our youngest members tried it, although they were more game for the chocolate cake I served in case the pie was a bust. The last word: great book, pretty darn good pie.

John Juan's Spicy Carrots

Our dear friends recently started making and selling spicy carrots. It's a labor of love that requires them to spend half their Saturdays peeling and chopping carrots. Their dedication shows because these are the best, most addictive spicy carrots I have tasted anywhere, and that's saying something when you live 30 miles from the border. We gifted them to neighbors and Snook's teachers over the holidays, and the reaction was unanimous: "Those were THE BEST spicy carrots," and "Where can I get more?" Farmers' markets have come calling, a website is in the works, and shipping details are being finalized. But if you want a container (or better yet a case) of these babies right away, you can let me know and they are yours.I forgot and snapped this picture after we'd already dug in, but the container arrives brimming with spicy goodness. And there's even a funny tag line on every label. The one above says, "Hot in the Mouth. Easy on the South." The holiday label said, "Frosty Can't Stand the Heat. Can You?" Delicious and funny. You gotta try them.

Yuck!

I'm all about convenience, but I draw the line at hard-boiled eggs in a bag. My sweet H picked them up for me at Trader Joe's the other day because Snook eats hard-boiled eggs by the - bagful? Anyway, I tried one this morning and gag, spit, blech. It was disgusting. Kind of tasted like a rubber ball with a dry, gritty center. Maybe they're not meant to be eaten plain. I don't know, but I do know that despite the fact I haven't shown my family much in the kitchen as of yet, I CAN hard-boil a pretty mean egg, and will continue to take the extra 10 minutes to do so. As a side note, Snook liked the bagged egg. She's always been an odd duck.