Shop Small Business Saturday 2014

Hope to catch up with you all at our ONLY retail event this Holiday Season!  Midwest Pantry's Shop Small business Saturday  If you can't make it to the event you can still pick us up in the Specialty Cheese Department of these great retailers!

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Rhythm of the Season

Eating seasonally is the natural extension of eating local.  It connects us with the rhythm of the growing season and adds a cozy structure to the year.  As Andrew Zimmern said last week on MPR's Appetites, in the fall we stop craving tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella salads and start turning our minds to roasted root vegetables, and hearty soups.  Many of you, like me, will spend the next few weekends canning the last of the summer tomatoes and dreaming of how it will perk up your winter chili.
At Lucille's Kitchen Garden we are literally buried in apples and pears as our customers turn from the bright flavors of strawberries to the comforts of cinnamon and ginger. This week I was thinking about how we all benefit from the fact that we crave things when they are in season.  First, our produce doesn't have all the food miles created by shipping heavy items like apples and pears across the country.  We still carry many of the flavors throughout the year, but we can usually stock up on them now.  Secondly the price of raw ingredients is about 1/3 less when they are in season, which allows us to keep a competitive price point and make our products available to a wider audience of people.  Finally, it just shows how many of us have embraced this natural rhythm of the season in our food lives.
I was especially excited this week to see that The Heavy Table combine our Ginger Pear Jam with Donnay Dairy's Granite Ridge, amazing aged goat cheese in a fantastic sandwich that I will be making this weekend.  Check out the blog and let me know how it goes.  Don't worry, in about 9 months we will be back to pure bliss at the idea of a caprese salad!

Our Two New Holiday Baskets

The Finished Pizza

The crust was light and crisp. I like to bake my pizzas in a 385 degree oven, I find that it keeps the crust from becoming too hard. The combination of the mascarpone, duck, chutney and onions was a delight. A very full mouth mellow flavor with a tart finish. Amy and the rest of us loved it! I used some of the left over dough to make fresh buns and made duck confit cranberry chutney sandwiches for lunch. A very tasty experiment! We won't be at the Winter Market at Local D'Lish this Saturday, but Ann carries our products in her store so I highly recommend trying this one out!

Duck Confit Update # 3

Place duck meat into sterilized jars and cover with duck fat. Place lid on and refrigerate. The fat becomes solid so you can pull the pieces of duck out without getting chunks of the fat. However the fat gel is very rich and flavorful, so a little sticking to the meat enhances the flavor. I have read that the duck confit is good in the refrigerator for a month to 6 months, but as this is my first time making it, and because I am using cooked duck from the start I am not sure how this will affect the shelf life. For now I am concerned with the long anticipated pizza.

Duck Confit Update Number 2

Here is what I completed last night. So far so good.

A Quick Garlic Tip

I process A LOT of fresh Garlic for our Garlic Pepper Jam. We use this wonderful garlic that we get from Swede Lake Farms. The quickest way to undress fresh garlic is a gentle blow from a meet mallet. You don't want to crush it, just crack the skin off a bit. If you break the top off the bulb and use the corner of your mallet to hit the base, most of the cloves break away and lose, at least, some of their skin.

The Duck Confit Adventure Part One

We love duck confit. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. In fact, Amy's favorite thing to order in the whole world is the duck confit pizza at Pairings Food and Wine Market in Minnetonka I have looked into making my own duck confit, as buying it is out of the question, and have found several snags. First of all most recipes call for dedicating a whole duck purchase to the venture, which makes it as costly as just buying the confit. Secondly, most recipes only recommend using farm raised duck. Now, while I do purchase and enjoy farm raised duck, we eat a lot of game, which means wild duck. Wild duck tends to be much lower in fat then farm raised duck and rendered fat is an essential element of duck confit. Some recipes say to add pork fat, but I didn't want to dilute the flavor. So. . .I decided to save and freeze all the leftover duck and duck fat from the past three times that we have had it. We have it about once a month. The last time it was partially smoked, since once I fire up the smoker I tend to grab anything in the house and smoke it. (See my smoked garlic blog). So I assume that my confit with have a mildly smoky flavor to it. I have just completed phase one. Since the thawed duck had much of the fat stuck to it I decided to start the rendering process by putting the whole bits of leftover duck into a pot and melting it off. I wish that I could say that the duck confit is a fabulous success. . .but I don't know yet. I just finished part one and am now sharing it with you.

Also, since my goal is to make Amy her favorite pizza (with my own twist) I have also begun the dough from Zoe Bakes recipe book "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day" , I have started a fresh batch of that as well. It is the most practical bread recipe that I have come across and you can add whatever grains etc. that strike your fancy. We always have a batch in the fridge and use it every Friday on our family Pizza and a Movie night. I will let you know what happens next. . .

Bread and Butter. Cheese and Crackers

This past Wednesday evening we were invited to be a part of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretums annual fundraiser, Toast and Taste Event. The event featured over 20 of the best restaurants and local breweries and wineries. We shared a space with Steve Young-Burns of Pastureland, which is a cooperative of farmers from the southeastern portion of MN. They raise 100% grass fed cows, which result in their amazing Summer Gold cultured butter and artisan cheeses. Wednesday evening they were serving the first of this years butter. It was a beautiful yellow gold in color from all of the nutrients in the spring grass that the lucky cows of pastureland have been feeding on. The butter immediately melted in our mouths , flooding our taste buds with a sweet, creamy flavor. I can honestly say that I have never tasted butter like this before. They also sampled their aged cheddar that had all the flavors of a great ageing process, but stayed surprisingly soft and rich.
It did not take long for Steve and ourselves to figure out that our products worked well together and we quickly traded in the cream cheese we had brought along for pairing with our Raspberry Garlic Jam and our Blueberry Pepper Jam, for Pastureland's lovely Aged Cheddar and Summer Gold butter.
And so in the gorgeous evening among the height of the early summer blooms of the MN Landscape Arboretum two new and wonderful ideas for your next brunch or evening appetizer were born:

1 crusty fresh Baguette
1 Jar Lucille's Kitchen Garden Blueberry Pepper Jam (or your favorite other flavor)
1 Pound Pastureland Summer Gold butter
Simply slice baguette and spread with Summer Gold and top with Blueberry Pepper Jam for a savory twist on bread, butter and jam.

1 Package of your favorite Herb Cracker
Pastureland Aged Cheddar Cheese
1 Jar Lucille's Kitchen Garden Garlic Pepper Jam or Raspberry Garlic Jam
Serve up the classic cheese and cracker platter with some of the finest Minnesota flavors from Pastureland and Lucille's Kitchen Garden to your guests or just make a plate for yourself on days when it is too hot to cook. We like to have it with one of the many great MN wines, such as the Chardonnay from Saint Croix Vineyards.

Rhubarb Strawberry Basil Fool

Rhubarb season is in full swing at the Mill City Farmer's Market and to celebrate we have dusted off our favorite Rhubarb Strawberry Basil Jam recipe and sent Amy's mom, Jackie, to round up any of the neighbors extra rhubarb. If you have grown rhubarb before, you know that there is always extra; the rhubarb have and have nots if you will.

If you are one of the rhubarb haves, then you probably will understand the search for recipes that answer the question, "What am I going to do with all of this rhubarb?" That is exactly the question that led us to find one of our favorite non-low fat, non-lactose free desserts. The rhubarb fool.

I have tried to find the origins of this tasty goodness and am afraid that I have come up short, other then that it is a delightful treat which seems to originate in Europe, though the exact country of origin is a bit of a debate. The Swedes have a version that is primarily served with milk, while the Scottish and English go all in for the whipped cream. In our house, the whipped cream one wins. The process, however can take a bit of planning, and I am staunchly opposed to too much planning during our short season of beautiful weather, and an embarrassment of riches of fresh foods, so I tweaked the recipe to make it quick, easy, and delightful. The best part is that you don't need to be one of the rhubarb haves to enjoy it!

I recommend that you serve it with Bramblewood Traditional Shortbread. Amy, the founder of Bramblewood, uses her great grandmother's recipe to create this delicious Scottish treat. It is available at the Mill City Farmer's Market in a variety of flavors, however my favorite is the simple, classic butter flavor the really pulls out the flavors in the Fool. We hope that you enjoy this rhubarb season, and this new twist on an old classic. We will see you at the market.

Rhubarb Strawberry Basil Fool
Ingredients:
Ø 1 Jar Lucille’s Kitchen Garden Rhubarb Strawberry Basil Jam
Ø One cup heavy cream
Ø 2 tbs Sugar
Preparation:
Ø Whip heavy cream and sugar to stiff peeks with mixer on high
Ø Gently fold in ¾ to 1 jar Lucille’s Kitchen Garden Rhubarb Strawberry Basil Jam into the whipped cream. You don’t want it completely mixed; just make sure that the jam is spread throughout the cream. A butter knife works best for this.
Ø Serves nicely in chilled Martini glasses and can be made several hours ahead and kept in the refrigerator.

For One Week and For Our Blog Readers Only

The Mill City Farmers Market has been in full swing for about a month now and we have been delighted to find that many of our blog readers are regular Mill City Farmers Market shoppers. In light of this information we have decided to offer a discount to our most loyal customers.

We are offering a pre-order special price of $4.50 per jar of your favorite Lucille's Kitchen Garden products on all orders of 4 jars or more received by June 5th, 2009.

You simply mention this offer when you pop us an email at lucilleskitchen@gmail.com , we will send you a pay pal invoice that you pay with your credit card or checking account, and we will have your jars of jam waiting for you to pick up at the Mill City Farmers Market on Saturday, June 6th between 8AM and 1PM.

You can order our regular online selection of Lucille's Kitchen Garden Products including:

Raspberry Pepper Jam

Garlic Pepper Jam

Green Pepper Jam

Blueberry Pepper Jam

As well as our farmers' market only flavors:

Raspberry Garlic Jam

Rhubarb Strawberry Basil

Loser Pie dedicated to Sue Zelickson

I was recently at a Women Who Really Cook meeting, an organization dedicated to helping local women in the food business to network and share information. Local D'Lish, one of our favorite stores, was hosting the meeting. Ann asked us to serve some of our jam and we were given the an opportunity to say a bit about our company. Sue was the MC at my first pie contest in which I made my pie that has now been fondly renamed Loser Pie. You may have read about it under the blog RNC MEDIA PARTY AND THE PIE THAT LOST. Sue was nice enough to remember my Loser Pie and ask me share the recipe with the group, as it is a pretty great pie even if it did lose. I did my best from memory, but promised to re post it on my blog, so here it is. I recommend serving it in small slices, like you would cheese cake as it is very rich. It goes nicely with a crisp white wine and has a tendency to disappear quickly, so you might want to make two. Click on the recipe if you are having trouble reading it. Have a great day and we will see you at the market!

Lucille's Kitchen Garden Available at Whole Foods Market

We are very excited to announce that Lucille's Kitchen Garden is now available at Whole Foods Market in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN.

For a complete map of all of the retail locations that are currently carrying us visit our website at http://www.lucilleskitchengarden.com/

Mill City Farmers market starts Mothers' Day Weekend May 9th from 8AM to 1PM. Remember to preorder your favorites, pay with pay pal, and pick up at the market. Email us at lucilleskitchen@gmail.com for your preorder. We especially recommend it for the crowd favorite Raspberry Pepper Jam.

Earth Day 2009

We are getting super excited about Earth Day 2009, which we will be celebrating with Local D'Lish on Sunday April, 19 from 10AM to 4PM. Bring your family and join us for some great cooking demo's, local food sampling, kids activities and much more. Eating locally produced foods is one of the easiest ways to lower your carbon foot print, and contribute to the economy in your area. Check back as we add more details. For now here are the basics:
Lucille's Kitchen Garden and Local D'Lish Celebrate Earth Day 2009 on April 19th
208 North 1st. Street
Minneapolis, MN 55401
phone: 612-886-3047

Eight Holiday Greats # 3

Lucille's Kitchen Garden Eight Holiday Greats #3!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brie with Savory Sweet Raspberry Pepper Jam(The Three Things you need to be a hit at your holiday party)

Ingredients:

1. One small wheel Brie

2. One Jar Lucille's Kitchen Garden Pepper Jam of your choice.

3. One fresh baguette sliced medium/thin

Instructions:* If possible warm the whole wheel of Brie to soften for about 5 min at 300 degrees. If you don't have access to an oven, no big deal. It is going to taste great anyway.* Pour jar of pepper jam over the top* Garnish with fresh fruit if you like and serve with baguette.

More recipes available at: www.lucilleskitchengarden.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entertaining With Lucille

This time of year is full of holiday parties. Just this upcoming week we have onefor our daughter's school, one with friends, a small gift exchange, and that doesn'tcount the two we went to last weekend.The challenge is to bring something that is a little unique, and little thoughtful,and a lot good! A friend of ours told us that she had picked up a couple jars ofour jam and this recipe for her son who was beginning his first round of post college,grown up parties. He brought the above mentioned appetizer and it was a hit. Laterthat night he overheard an attractive lady raving about the dish, and before he could say anything he watched as another guy stepped in and tried to claim the appetizeras his own! The moral here is to stick close so you get the credit!

Very Sincerely,

Zoie Glass

Owner: Lucille's Kitchen GardenPassionate About Local Flavor!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eight Holiday Greats #2

Eight Holiday Greats From Lucille's Kitchen Garden #2
Our family, at Lucille's Kitchen Garden, shares the second of our eight favorite holiday food traditions.

In This Issue
What to do with all that turkey!
Upcoming Events
Holiday Gift Boxes

Email to order your Holiday Gift Boxes for teachers, coworkers, and hosts.
Receive Free Delivery on orders of $40.00 or more in the Twin Cities Metro Area!

Check out Our Upcoming Events to Pick up our "Market Only" products like Lucille's Kitchen Garden REAL Apple Butter!

Upcoming Events
December 5th and 6th: City of Lakes Waldorf School Holiday Fair and Open House

Free Shipping.Free shipping on orders of 12 Jars or more! Get all your host, teacher, and coworker gifts out of the way in one stop!
Our Price: $60S & H: $0($17 in savings!) When you order online before December 1st!

Left-Over Turkey Sandwiches on Corn Bread with Garlic Pepper Jam

Ingredients:
Left over Thanksgiving turkey off the bone
1 jar Lucille's Kitchen Garden Garlic Pepper Jam
1 large loaf cornbread
1 medium diced onion

Preparation:
Place leftover turkey in roasting pan, add any leftover turkey juices and water to create 1/2 inch of liquid in the bottom of the pan.
Add Garlic Pepper Jam to taste and mix in diced onion.
Cover and place in a 250 degree oven for one to two hours, checking to see that there is a minimum of 1/4 inch liquid in the pan.
Slice corn bread in medium thick slices, brush with olive oil and toast in oven until the outside becomes crisp.
Pile turkey on corn bread and serve open faced
**I like to crumble a little fresh Mexican cheese like Queso Blanco over the top and garnish with cilantro.
More recipes available at: www.lucilleskitchengarden.com

Entertaining With Lucille
I am one of those people who can not decide which part of Thanksgiving that I enjoy more:The actual Thanksgiving feast with steaming turkey and heaping piles of mash potatoes or the day after when you have all those great ingredients left in your house to make some really spectacular, quick meals like the one that I have shared with you above. This year, in edition to the traditional holiday fare, I will be smoking a whole salmon, glazed with Garlic Pepper Jam for our vegetarian friends. We have the wonderful tradition of going to see our dear friends the Rundholts and contributing to a table filled with delicacies that represent the myriad of cultures of the people who attend.
We are truly grateful for being able to share our families pepper jams with you and the amazing year that we have had doing so!
We hope that your family enjoys this second Great Eight favorite as much as we do!
Very Sincerely,
Zoie Glass
Owner: Lucille's Kitchen Garden
Passionate About Local Flavor!

Free delivery applies to a single destination within 30 miles of 55104 Saint Paul, MN. Free shipping is limited to a single address within the continental United States of America. Please allow 7 to 10 business days after paypal invoice has cleared for delivery. If unsure of delivery qualifications please email to : lucilleskitchen@gmail.com for information.

We have had a few emails leading up to the Thanksgiving Holiday asking for our Zesty Fresh Cranberry Sauce recipe, so I am reposting it. You can add a dash of Brandy as it cooks if you like and have a great Holiday!

Apple Season is Here

Apple season is starting with some of the early varieties and we spent the weekend with the family in Appleton, MN picking apples with Amy's Mom and Dad and getting peppers from Uncle Lowell. We want to share with you where we get much of our produce and the people who have been so generous in helping us!

Crepes at the MN State Fair

We have had an exciting week her at Lucille's Kitchen Garden. We were at the MN state fair in the Eco Exoerience building doing a jelly crepe demo and talking about the Mill City Farmers Market and local food. We ate so many crepes on the weeks leading up to the fair that I think we will hold off on crepes for a bit. I thought that I would share with you my crepe recipe and a few words on crepes.

Crepes are a great Saturday morning family breakfast. Miss Lucille, all of 6 years old, helped with the demo by putting the jam in the crepes rolling them up and sprinkling the powdered sugar over the top with a flour sifter. She was so fond of the flour sifter that I needed to stop her a few times, as the crepe began to look like it was stuck in a snowbank.

Crepe batter should look like a thinner version of pancake batter. I used an 8 inch pan with a tsp of butter to oil and poured a touch over 1/4 cup of batter in the middle, rotated the pan to coat the bottom and cooked the first side over medium high heat for about 3 min. or until the top looks dry. I then flipped the crepe and cooked for an additional 30 seconds to a minuet. It is actually easier to flip the crepes with the pan, then with a spatula since crepes are so thin and tear easily. Here is our crepe recipe, and see you at the market!

Crepes with
Lucille’s Kitchen Garden
Pepper Jams
www.LUCILLESKITCHENGARDEN.com

Ingredients:
1 cup of flour, 2 eggs, ½ cup milk, ½ cup water, ¼ teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons butter, melted, 1 tablespoon of Lucille’s Kitchen Garden Blueberry Pepper, Green Pepper or Raspberry Pepper Jam

Preparation:
· In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
· Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using ¼ cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
· Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side.
· Take 1 tablespoon of Lucille’s Kitchen Garden Pepper Jam and apply.
· Roll crepe and sift powder sugar on top; Serve with fresh fruit.

Raspberry Chipotle Salsa

We had a salsa tasting this week at the Mill City Farmer's Market. I brought recipe cards, but they disappeared quickly, so I said that I would post the recipe here so that anyone who wasn't able to get one could print it. A few quick things about the recipe. I like to use zucchini in salsa, because it has a flavor and texture that is very similar to avocado, with substantially fewer food miles. Feel free to adjust amounts of ingredients to your liking, such as adding more peppers if you like it spicier. This recipe usually turns out medium to spicy. I hope that your family enjoys this recipe and we will see you at the market!

Raspberry Chipotle Salsa

Ingredients:
2 medium sized tomatoes diced small
1 small zucchini peeled and diced small
1 small red onion chopped small
3 chipotle jalapeño peppers chopped (see note on roasting)
¼ cup Raspberry Pepper Jam
2 TBS cumin
1/2 Tsp salt
3 TBS lime juice
www.LUCILLESKITCHENGARDEN.com ¼ cup finely chopped Cilantro

Preparation:
· Whisk together pepper jam, cumin, salt and lime juice
· Combine the rest of ingredients and pour whisked mixture over the top, stir all ingredients together gently, careful not to crush the tomatoes
· Serve with chips, over fried cornbread cakes or fried polenta

~~Chipotle peppers are simply fire roasted peppers. For the best flavor I recommend roasting them on your grill. In a pinch you can roast them on a sheet pan in the oven at 450 degrees. For either method you want to roast them long enough to cause even blistering and slight charring on the entire jalapeño. When this has happened (only a few minutes over direct flame and 10 to 12 minutes in the oven) sweat the peppers in a plastic bag until cool to the touch. Remove the stem and the skin, which should slide off quite easily and use immediately or they should be good in the refrigerator for about a week. I keep a little of the browned skin to add to my salsa, as it carries most of the smoky flavor. The seeds and veins inside of the pepper hold the heat, so if you wish for a milder salsa, you can remove some or all of these, however you do lose flavor by doing so. ALWAYS USE RUBBER GLOVES WHEN TOUCHING JALAPENOS!