Recently I was sent another great product to review. I was contacted by Hazel over at Freida’s Inc. about a new, fresh garlic product that is now on the market. Hazel told me that the product is made using all natural ingredients and no preservatives: fresh USA-grown garlic, canola oil, lemon juice and salt — that’s it. It sounded too good to be true, a dream come true product review. Something that sounded great and totally fell into pace with my Mediterranean eating habits. So of course I agreed to sample it.

The package from Frieda’s arrived overnight in a cooler with ice. I recieved the original Freida’s Garlic Delight as well as the chipotle flavor - imagine my delight. Immediately I checked out the ingredients and it was just as Hazel had said - all natural and no preservatives! Each tub is 7 oz. and so my head was just swimming with ideas of what to do with these tubs of garlicky goodness.

This package could not have come at a better time. It arrived the same week that Roberto’s mom arrived here from Rome. So I thought it would be great to get everyone’s opinion of the product. The first thing we did with the original flavor was to make garlic bread - what better, simple way to showcase the flavor of this product? Good garlic bread’s merit is based on the subtle, yet earthy flavor of garlic. When I opened the tub, I was immediately hit with a lovely, sweet and nutty garlic aroma - similar to the smell of roasted garlic. As I dipped my spreader into the container the spread was light and fluffy. All good signs.

Some of us got adventurous and decided to put a piece of prized Iberian Acorn Ham, a lovely gift from Nuria, on top.

I must say I am very pleased with this product. The garlic bread was so good that we decided to try the spread with several other recipes: we put it in hummus, in a dipping sauce for sweet potato fries, as well as the Koftas and Buffalo Wings we made for Movie Night. Everything turned out great.

With the Chipotle flavor we used it as a sauce for a spicy shrimp pasta that we served when my mom was here this weekend to celebrate Mother’s Day. We included her in Movie Night and enjoyed this delicious pasta dish, while watching Into The Wild, a movie that stays with you long after the watching. Similar to garlic, that stays with you long after the tasting.

The chipotle garlic spread was a perfect smoky heat with a great garlic punch. I think it would be delicious as a sauce for fish tacos, in cole slaw, or slathered on hot, fresh corn on the cob!

Each tub comes with a recipe and there are two other great flavors, Sun Dried Tomato and Green Olive, both of which sound wonderful! You can also get other recipe ideas on the Frieda’s Inc. website. I honestly thought when I received this product that it was a great idea, but that I would never really use it myself - I have fresh garlic cloves that I use in nearly everything I cook and I don’t get products that overlap. But after sampling this, I changed my mind. The texture and taste is so good, and it is just so convenient, that I told Roberto I might need to be buying this soon.

If you would like to learn more about the various products that Freida’s Inc. offers, including organic, tropical and latin produce, as well as gift ideas and gourmet foods, please check out their webpage. If you would like to know where you can purchase Frieda’s Inc. products near you, please click here or check the produce section at your grocery store or market.

I have a confession to make….I forgot to do something…and I feel really bad about it….

I get a lot of offers to do product reviews for a variety of different companies whose products either are or relate to food in some way. Some products I just refuse right away because I cannot support the ingredients - either they are not healthful or just full of preservatives. Then there are the many that I do try that just aren’t very good – either once I get the product I realize it is full of nasty ingredients or the taste is just bad– so I won’t feature them on this blog because it is not fair to you, my faithful readers.

But there has been one very strong exception to the rule, and here is my confession. I received 2 boxes of Matisse and Jack’s Bake at Home Snacks a loooong time ago and I tried them and LOVED them. But for some reason the first box I made, we forgot to take pictures and then it took me a while to make the second box – which I did do very recently.

Here is why I love these products:

1) They are all full of good for you ingredients that are all natural.

2) They are customizable – meaning you add your own goodies to them, and they give you plenty of suggestions – you can even make them vegan.

3) They are as easy to make as a prepared cake mix – you just add wet ingredients (like yogurt or applesauce) to the dry, mix and bake. It could not be easier.

4) Best of all – they taste great – perfect for breakfast, snack or dessert with a bit of ice cream for an a la mode.

5) They are helping the environment by reducing waste that usually comes with conventional energy bar packaging.

So finally here is a great product line that I can support, and feel good about! They are full of good ingredients with a wonderful taste AND a mind for helping control environmental waste! There is just so much to love about these products!
I am just so sorry I took so long to do the write up and let everyone know about these delicious bars!

(I hope the great folks at Matisse & Jack’s can forgive me! )

Have you all experienced what I have lately? Family members and friends who are asking for your “list”. Items that you would like to have as a holiday gift. If you are like me, and you love food, cooking and all things kitchen related, I may have just done your work for you. Following in the footsteps of PB&Julie, Pixie and Emiline, and I am sure others, I have put together a list of my favorite kitchen related items from this year, a la Oprah Winfrey. There is a variety of items and prices. These are things that I have and love, as well as a few things from my own wish list, that I may not have had the pleasure of using yet.

Lisabeeen Coffee
I have spoken quite often about Lisa and her amazing beans. She hand-roasts them lovingly at home in a coffee roaster she made by converting an electric grill. To see how she does it, click here. She has a small cottage industry going on from her home in beautiful Bennington VT. Try some today!

Kalamata Gold Greek Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 500 ml bottle
I love olive oil and for Mediterranean cooking (my favorite) you must have a good olive oil, no scratch that you must have an EXCELLENT Olive Oil, Extra Virgin, please. I know everyone has their favorites, but I favor Greek Olive Oil (I know, I am a bad bad Italian). It is like liquid gold – full of freshness, floral hints and a peppery afterbite.

Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health
Speaking of the Mediterranean Diet, this cookbook is a must have. It is a culinary tour through all the regions of the Mediterranean, from Italy to Greece to North Africa, Spain, The Middle East and Southern France. It is full of SUPER healthy AND delicious recipes that feed your spirit, tastebuds and stomach, in that order. I could not LIVE without it. Seriously. To read more about it, click here.

Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen
Speaking of Italian things and cookbooks, this is one of my new favorites. I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Gina DePalma, the author and pastry chef for Mario Batali’s Restaurant, Babbo, through cyberspace. I was able to join a few other American Expats in Italy by trying several of Gina’s recipes and it was a wonderful experience. Through the experience I realized I had found another “can’t live without” cookbook! Thanks Gina! To read more about the event and contest click here and here

Bialetti Moka Express, 6 Cup and Shin Bistro Milk Frother By Bodum
Continuing on the Italian theme (see I am redeeming myself after confessing to preferring Greek Olive Oil) here is a product I use EVERY DAY. I love it and when using Lisabeeen’s coffee, I now cannot go out to get good coffee without complaining, because this is just SO MUCH BETTER. To read more on this topic – my devotion to coffee, click here (Don’t worry Cris, I will be talking about Brazilian coffee very soon!)

Sherry Vinegar 6.8 oz
I don’t know how I lived without this product for so long. I just didn’t get it. I thought with Balsamic, Red Wine, White Wine, Rice Wine and Apple Cider, you had all your bases covered. I wasn’t feeling all these extraneous vinegars. I mean how many vinegars did one person need. I already have an olive oil problem (too many!), I didn’t need to start on the vinegars. How wrong was I. Since I discovered this Sherry vinegar, I have been converted. We had it at the cooking school where I work, and I added it to a red pepper dip I was making, and it turned that dip to magic. It was amazingly better. So I knew this was something I needed to add to my repertoire!

So this begins my own wish list section!

NEW! Short Hair Black Cat Cork Bottle Buddy Wine Stopper
Enough said. I love all things Black Kitty as they remind me of my own sweet kitty (even though this one looks lke a boy cat and she is a total GIRL).

Solid Pewter Coffee Scoop with Matching Hook, Floral Design, Made in USA (Handcrafted)
Tin Woodsman is an Oregon company that makes handcrafted kitchen “jewelry”. It is so beautiful. Paula Deen uses the fish measuring cups and spoons on her show and they have more than just cups and spoons, they have things for tea and coffee, salad spoons, and even holiday things. Really cool stuff! Also made in the USA, by a true artisan. Love that.

Vita-Mix 1321 Professional Series, Ruby
This is the ULTIMATE in kitchen appliances. We have one at the cooking school and I have so enjoyed using it. I always describe it as a manual vs. automatic (in car terminology). There is an on-off switch but there is also a speed dial that allows you to easily control the blending, grating and pulverizing this machine can do. Yes, it is expensive, but with it, you replace a blender, food processor and coffee grinder. It even comes with a HUGE cookbook that has many tasty recipes! It is very very cool and comes in a lot of wonderful colors like Ruby, Onyx and Platinum. I like the red.

Also guys, help a fellwo foodie!!! There is a wonderful new blog that Jennifer at ….and the eggs has started called: People + Food. It is all about people and their relationship with food through a food memory. I am being featured today so please go and check it out! She is looking for more participants so please send her your food memory TODAY!!!! For more info check out The Leftover Queen Forum

Coming up:
Holiday Cookies
A Gift From Brazil

This has been a lucky year full of wonderful surprises and accomplishments. I stepped out of my comfort zone to pursue my dream of working in food, turning my passion for Mediterranean cooking and leftovers into a job description I made up for myself:
Professional Foodie. I am still not exactly sure what path lies ahead of me, but I am sure I am at least going the right way as it seems I have been rewarded each step of the way. I have met so many lovely foodies online from all over the world and have gotten little signs everywhere confirming that I am on the right path. One of these signs is a great honor I have been given. I am so excited about it that I can hardly contain my enthusiasm. I have been asked to participate in a very special food blogging event.

Shelley from At Home in Rome lives in Rome (Obviously), which just so happens to be Roberto’s hometown. She also just so happens to know Gina DePalma, the pastry chef for
Mario Batali’s Babbo Restaurant in New York City.
Gina’s newest cookbook: Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen has just come out and in order to commemorate this event, Shelley, along with a few of us fortunate food bloggers have had the honor to try two recipes from Gina’s new cookbook and blog about it. How fun is that?!

But that is not where the fun ends – oh no siree – you too can join in too. Go blog hopping with us and comment on each Dolce Italiano post on each of our blogs and you will be entered in a contest to win a Dolce Italiano cookbook signed by Gina herself (who is such a nice person to boot!).
Here is how you enter: Check out each of these blogs on the days mentioned (if you are just hearing about this contest for the first time, be sure that you go to visit all these blogs for their posts THIS week) and then comment on the post about Dolce Italiano. Do the same next week and you will have 10 chances to win that book! Here are the other great blogs and the days you need to visit them:

MONDAY: Sara – Ms. Adventures in Italy
TUESDAY: Ilva – Lucullian Delights
WEDNESDAY: Sognatrice – Bleeding Espresso
THURSDAY: Shelley – At Home in Rome
FRIDAY: Jenn – The Leftover Queen - RIGHT HERE!

Gina DePalma’s Dolce Italiano is a must have for foodies that love Italian food. Even for someone like me, who does not fancy herself a baker or pastry person, despite all the baking I have been doing through the Daring Bakers, I found the recipes to be well-explained, unique and wonderful – just full of the flavors of Italy. It is also a fun book to read! I can really relate to Gina’s intense passion for the food she makes and also her story as an Italian American deeply in touch with the foods of her roots. I am so excited to have this wonderful cookbook in my collection as I know I will be using it often!

So on to the great recipe!

One of my choices of recipe just had to be Salame di Cioccolato. This is a dessert that every child in Italy has had. It is like Nutella, ubiquitous when talking about the foods of Italy for kids. I first heard about Chocolate Salami from Roberto when I asked him what the first thing he remembers cooking was. This was it. Apparently there is (at least when he was a bambino) what he describes as a Disney/ Boy Scout guidebook for kids in Italy known as Manuale delle Giovani Marmotte (Jr. Woodchucks Guidebook) and a recipe for Chocolate Salami was in his version of the book. In his memory it was crushed up cookies and cocoa powder rolled up, chilled and then sliced. Well, as soon as I saw the upgraded, new and improved version in Gina’s new cookbook, I knew I had to make it for Roberto and bring him back to his childhood. So we spent the afternoon in the kitchen making this delicious concoction and having a wonderful time. In his opinion it is WAAAAY better than the one from Manuale delle Giovani Marmotte, shocking, isn’t it?

Try a chocolate salami today!

Read more…

Everyone who reads my blogs knows that my passion for coffee is deep and strong.

I just love the complexity of different beans and blends. I love the originality of coffees from all different regions of the world. They are all so unique. Some are rich and smooth and chocolately; others taste of berries or citrus; some are earthy giving off flavors like tobacco, bitter, earthy and verdant. Coffee is like wine in a sense. There are rituals involved in the making of, the preparation of and the aging of. There are connoisseurs who spend years perfecting blends and roasting methods or traveling the world in search of the perfect bean. It is all so fascinating. Coffee may not grow in New England climates, but I believe the soul of coffee is in New England. People in New England know what to do with their coffee, to bring it to the next level. Everywhere you go in New England you can find excellent coffee. Even gas stations serve up Green Mountain Coffee and McDonalds has Newman’s Own Organic Coffee. But the real unique ways of preparing coffee are found in the local coffee shop in those picturesque towns in Vermont or Massachusetts. No matter how small the town is, you can always find a local coffee joint. There are Starbucks to be found of course, but people generally prefer their local coffee place. There is excellent competition between coffee houses which for the consumer means there is great coffee to be had around every corner.

That was one of my major goals of our recent trip to New England. I wanted to go back to all my favorite coffee joints and boy was it ever a treat!

Read more…

Well guys, I am just posting obsessed. I just couldn’t leave for 10 days without posting yet another fall favorite to really get me in the mood to go to New England! I have been gearing up by drinking apple cider and hot chai teas and eating things with maple - but this is such a unique take on a comfort food - pan seared chicken.

This is a recipe we tried from my “bible” of Italian cooking – Italian: The Definitive Professional Guide to Italian Ingredients and Cooking Techniques. This is a Barnes and Noble book my mom picked up for me years ago – and it contains all the classic, regional Italian dishes with step-by-step, pictures and instructions. There is also 120 pages discussing Italian ingredients and how they are used regionally. Very informative! The funny thing about it is that it shows up in the households of many Italian Americans I know!

It has become my bible because everything we make from it turns out wonderful and tastes exactly as it should. It is a beautiful books filled with delightful, easy to make dishes! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about classic Italian foods. It has become in-dispensable in our house!

This dish, Chicken Chianti is something I had never heard of before. You cook chicken in Chianti (not unheard of) and GRAPES! It was a wonderful dish full of the deep flavors associated with wine as well as the sweetness from the ripe fresh grapes! Very unique dish! Hope you enjoy it. See you all in 10 days!!!

Read more…

Now doesn’t that look heavenly? That beautiful cloud of frothed milk sitting on top of luscious, deep dark espresso. I mean who doesn’t love espresso coffee drinks?!?! Well then check this out - I made this at home, this morning and I have one every single morning just like this - unless I am having a Greek style coffee frappe, which is a whole other adoring post of its own! I have this great little stovetop espresso machine and it makes better espresso drinks than Starbucks and I can have one whenever I want for FREE.

I really do adore my caffettiera! I have always loved espresso drinks, whether they are lattes, cappuccinos, café au lait, café con leche, Cuban coffee, Turkish coffee, Greek coffee or just plain ‘ol espresso. I always wished I could make them at home, as I don’t have a disposable coffee spending account. So a few months ago Roberto bought me this little beauty, a Bialetti Moka Express, 6 Cup and my life has never been the same! Now I can make my own espresso drinks at home without the expense of a huge espresso machine that is too complicated for my brain in the morning, BEFORE I have had my coffee (seems counter-intuitive to me – give complicated machines to people to make coffee, that they NEED coffee to understand how to work the darn thing!)

This little wonder is so easy to use, that you won’t believe making espresso is so easy and inexpensive! These things are on the stovetops of nearly every person living in Italy as people in Italy are as addicted to coffee as I am and Italy IS the coffee capitol of the world! So if you are like me, and love espresso drinks but don’t have the money to go get one everyday or buy a big expensive machine, all you need is a little stovetop espresso maker and a good milk frother you are GOOD to go, in minutes without complicated pre-coffee technology!

Now for the frothy goodness. My mom bought each of us a Shin Bistro Milk Frother By Bodum and I use it every morning to top my espresso for the perfect Cafe con Latte. For all you health concious people, you will be happy to know that skim milk (I like using organic milk) froths the best in this particular frother. Again, simple technology, the pump, full of little holes, pushes air into the milk frothing it up to triple its original mass. I just throw it in the microwave for 30 seconds and pour it on top of my espresso and voila! Pure Coffee Perfection!

If you are into entertaining, your guests or even your family and friends will love being treated to a wonderful espresso drink. It really lends an air of sophistication to your parties and will certainly be appreciated! There will never be any doubt after that as to whether or not you are a foodie!

As for the coffee, I usually order it from Lisabeeen. She ships it right after she has roasted it and by the time it gets to your house, your beans are perfect and ready to be ground up and put in your new caffettiera!

So the title of this blog is called The Leftover Queen, right?
What kind of Leftover Queen would I be if I didn’t have any Tupperware?
Tupperware is like leftover’s sidekick! You really cannot have one without the other.
Tupperware is what keeps leftovers fresh and easily accessible for cooking. I love the way it keeps me organized too. They are now stackable and easy to store when not in use. I am not a big fan of cling plastic wraps, as many of them don’t work the way they are advertised. Plus it is not good for the planet. With my Tupperware I don’t waste or throw away as much plastic wrap, so it is good for the environment as well! Plus I can use it to transport things to my cooking classes, to parties or anywhere I need my food to travel.
So this week’s product of the week, pantry essential, is none other than Tupperware. Long gone are the days of Tupperware parties, now you can order straight from their webpage all of their Fridge Essentials which are now 35% off through June 29th.
So go check out their webpage – your leftovers will thank you!