Category Archives: New Products

A Taste of Portland Roasting Coffee and A Food Gal Giveaway

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Portland Roasting Coffee's Organic Dark Columbia beans.

The Northwest sure does love its coffee.

And Portland Roasting Coffee of Oregon has been satisfying taste buds since 1996 in a most sustainable way.

The coffee company buys coffee directly from growers, adheres to sustainable practices, has opened coffee cafes that are eco-friendly, and commits resources annually to global projects in partnership with the United Nations Millennium Development goals, whose aim is to eradicate extreme poverty. In particular, it is helping to raise awareness of the growing global water crisis, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where the company is helping to fund the building of new water wells.

Recently, I had a chance to try a couple varieties of coffee from this company, which was just named “Roaster of the Year.” The Organic Dark Colombia is rich, earthy and with a faint chocolate note. The Organic French is dark with a bold, wake-me-up-pronto flavor.

The coffees, which start at $9.50 per pound, are available at four cafes in California so far (Sacramento, Nevada City and Grass Valley, but none in the Bay Area yet. They also can be purchased on the company’s Web site.

Just two of the organic coffee varieties you can win.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a sampler of eight varieties of organic coffees: Organic Espresso, Organic French, Organic Honduras, Organic House, Organic Peru, Organic Mexico, Organic Dark Columbia and Organic India.

Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST May 26. Winner will be announced May 28.

How to win?

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Crunch Time for Gluten-Free

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Gluten-Free Multi-Seed Crackers to crunch the time away with.

I’m not even gluten-intolerant, but when samples of Crunchmaster Multi-Seed and Multi-Grain Crackers landed in my mail, I became addicted to them.

Yes, they’re gluten-free, cholesterol-free and low in saturated fat.

But they are big on crunch.

The thin crackers are made from California brown rice flour, sesame seeds, potato starch, quinoa seeds, flax seeds, amaranth seeds, tamari soy sauce and safflower oil.

They taste almost like a sturdier, heartier Asian rice cracker. That’s not surprising when you learn that the method for making the crackers is based on the age-old Northern Japanese technique of baking rice crackers on open grills.

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River Wave Sauces Make Cooking Easier

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Grilled fish gets enlivened by a drizzle of "My Thai Gourmet Sauce.''

Even as a mostly from-scratch cook, I’ll readily admit that I’ve often doctored up jarred sauces for the sheer convenience and time savings.

But they better be darned good jarred products to begin with. Or else no amount of fiddling will help in the end.

You don’t have to worry about that with Washington state’s River Wave  Foods, a line of jarred cooking sauces and dressings that are made from fresh ingredients and are gluten-free.

Recently, I had a chance to try samples of the globally-influenced products.

The convenient jarred cooking sauces.

The Thai sauce.

“My Thai Gourmet Sauce” ($7.50 for a 6.5-ounce jar) is a heady blend of lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, garlic and enough Thai chilies to give it a real kick. I enjoyed it spooned over grilled mahi mahi for dinner.

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Can’t Miss Vanilla Shortbread Cookies and A New Sweetener

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Vanilla and European butter are all you need to make these cookies sing.

There are some people who will turn up their nose if a baked good has cardamom in it. Or raisins. Or coconut. Or even chocolate (if you can believe that).

But nobody ever shuns vanilla.

Nope, not ever.

It’s the most popular flavor for so many things because it is the pure taste of childhood memories.

Of ice cream dripping off cones on a hot summer day. Of birthday cake with candles to blow out. Of cupcakes with a mountain of frosting to get all over your face.

That’s why I guarantee nobody will turn down one of these “Vanilla Shortbread Cookies.”

The recipe is from “Bon Appetit Desserts” (Andrews McMeel) by the magazine’s former editor-in-chief, Barbara Fairchild.

European butter makes these cookies extra rich. Powdered sugar and cornstarch makes them very tender, yet nicely crumbly. With a teaspoon of vanilla extract, the dough gets rolled into logs to chill until firm. Then, slices are baked until golden on the edges.

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Outrageously Good Gourmet Marshmallows

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Strawberry marshmallows to sink your sweet tooth into.

When I was a kid, I thought marshmallows were the perfect food.

After all, they were cute, sweet, squishable, meltable and fat-free. What more could a gal want?

(OK, the fact they were still caloric obviously escaped my reasoning back then.)

Now, the inventive ones by Have it Sweet have me singing the virtues of marshmallows all over again.

Made by a husband and wife duo in Los Angeles, this small confectionary company turns out fresh, delightful marshmallows in mind-boggling flavors. Think bubblegum, cinnamon sugar. apple pie, lemon swirl, and double cocoa swirl.

Produced in small batches to order, the marshmallows are  made of all natural ingredients, including organic and sustainable ones when available. They get their hues from food-based, organic colorings.

Chocolate hazelnut swirl marshmallow (front) and fleur de sel caramel swirl marshmallow (back).

Recently, I had a chance to try some samples.

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