Friday, February 26, 2010

Spring is in the air. . . sort of. . .


We have been having some beautiful sunny days here in Walla Walla (thanks to all our friends on the East Coast who are taking one for the team this year). And with those sunny days we are seeing our shelves fill back up once again. There is lots to tell so I'll just jump right in.

The newest edition of Culture Magazine arrived Thursday and I have to say, best issue yet! Really loaded with tons of great information, this really is a MUST for the cheese enthusiast.

The latest issue of Imbibe also just arrived and it too is jam packed with some great articles and reviews. If you haven't picked up either of these you need to, they are truly great publications by people who know and care.

We have several new cheeses that just arrived, the most important being BUFFALO MILK MOZZARELLA! Yes, I have brought it in early this year and we will continue to carry this year round as long as there is demand. I know many of you like making homemade pizzas and you have been asking so here you go. I do what I can for my peeps. Chimay Grand Cru and Biere cheese has arrived as well. For those of you not familiar with these come in and try them, they are fantastic and especially so with a great Belgian beer, more on that later. Fromager des Clarines is back too for those of you who have missed it. Abbey de Belloc is a beer washed, firm sheep's milk cheese that will renew your love of cheese. A beautiful pale ivory paste, with a delicate sweet flavour, almost makes you think it is cows milk. We continue to source amazing cheese from all over the globe and if you have found something you love and must have let us know, we'll try to track it down for you.

Beer! Our latest GUSTIAMO! event was held last night, a tasting of Trappist Beers. We had a great turnout, thank you to all who attended, everyone had the opportunity to taste and buy from a very comprehensive line up of 5 of the 7 Trappist breweries
and everyone got to take home a glass too! We still have many of these beers available for those of you who want to do your own tasting from the comfort of your own home or even sit here at the store and drink one, or two...We can even pair up the beers with some cheese and charcuterie too.

For those of you that haven't yet heard we are also selling great hot dogs and sausages made by Zenner's of Portland. Zenner's has been rockin' P-Town with great sausages for almost 100 years. They have a strong commitment to quality, just like us. So we are selling their sausages by the pound to take home and try AND we are also serving them up in the store for lunch too (all day actually). We even have a special knockwurst sandwich that is getting some great response locally. Come in and take some home or try one here, we think you'll love them as much as we do. We also have our corned beef and hot ham and cheese everyday too!

Speaking of corned beef, St. Patricks Day is just around the corner and we have put up a few extra pounds of our famous house made corned beef just because. We'll have the corned beef sammy's available all the time but we'll also have corned beef that you can purchase by the pound. As an added bonus we'll also be serving our famous corned beef and cabbage in store the week of March 15. Ours is the BEST you'll ever have. Trust us.

That about wraps up the latest news. Come in and try something new and tasty today, you just might find something you love. Cheers.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Hot Dog . . .seriously.

The hot dog is one of the most maligned of all American foods, and probably with good reason. The Jungle, probably scared most of us off at one time from eating doggies. Although a trip to the ball park is hardly the same without one. Call it a guilty pleasure if you will, but I enjoy a good dog from time to time, that was until I started reading the ingredient list on my favorite brand:

INGREDIENTS: Beef, Water, Contains 2% or less of: Salt, Sodium Lactate, Spice, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Paprika, Sodium Diacetate, Garlic Powder, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite, Flavorings. CONTAINS: Soy

Seriously? Soy? And Hydrolyzed soy protein? Is that necessary? All I want is a good honest hot dog. And I think I have found it. Zenner's of Portland has been making quality sausages for 83 years. When I was looking for a good producer of bangers, I went to Zenners. Having a reputation for quality ingredients and craftsmanship I tried a few of their other products. I was impressed. For those of you that tasted the bratwurst we served last winter and spring you know how good they were. Now we are stocking their hot dogs and knockwurst.

We believe that these are better tasting and better for you than any other doggie out there. We will have these available for eat in or take out for the next few weeks and we'll also have them available to take home by the pound to try out for yourself. The all beef hot dogs are $6 /lb and the knockwurst are $7 /lb. Now that's a good doggie. Cheers.

Friday, February 12, 2010

A few things you might be looking for . . .or not.


The most recent issue of Bon Appetit arrived recently and with this usually come the folks perusing the recipes and looking for required ingredients. Two very nice customers came in yesterday looking for manchego cheese for a dates and manchego recipe. This prompted me to go through this issue for other items people might be looking for and/or be in need of. My research was rewarded with the following recipe that I think many might over look simply because they aren't familiar with the ingredients. We have piment d'Espelette, marcona almonds and THE BEST popcorn around. So if you are looking for something unique, strange or unfamiliar, come see us, we just might have it AND we probably know what to do with it too. Cheers.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/02/spicy_popcorn_with_piment_despelette_and_marcona_almonds

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Boeuf Bourguignon (or as my mom calls it beef burgundy. . . )

We are serving our rendition of Boeuf Bourguignon. Which is just as good as the classic recipe, but a little less involved and bit tastier, we think. We are serving this over our house made mashed potatoes, don't even ASK about the use of butter or cream-when it comes to mash just accept it. Suffice it to say that it's pretty tasty. We top it with a drizzle of truffle oil and some crispy lardoons (everything is better with bacon) and voila! Lunch! If you are getting hungry we'll have this all day today and all weekend assuming it lasts that long. . .Cheers.