If the Easter Bunny doesn’t leave you some of these babies, don’t despair.
You can get them on your own from San Francisco’s premier chocolatier, Recchiuti Confections.
Malted Dark Revolutions (how’s that for a snazzy name) have turned the classic malt ball on its head. Bite into these glossy orbs and you’ll discover a crunchy malted cookie covered in a proprietary blend of dark milk chocolate.
How would you like to be a proud parent of a budding, baby olive tree?
You can, thanks to Nudo-Italia, an artisan olive oil company founded by Jason Gibb and Cathy Rogers, former TV producers who chucked it all to restore an abandoned 21-acre olive grove in Italy’s Le Marche.
Besides selling wonderful olive oils, they offer a unique program in which anyone around the world can adopt an olive tree for a year. The project is a collaboration between Nudo and small-scale artisan olive oil producers in Le Marche and Abruzzo.
The company’s new spring “adoption box” ($97) includes a personalized adoption certificate and booklet that describes your tree, one 250ml tin of first cold press extra virgin olive oil, three 500ml tins of first cold press extra virgin olive oil from your adopted tree, an invitation to come visit your tree, and a “Grow Your Own Olive Tree in a Tin” with growing instructions. It’s a gift that definitely keeps on giving.
Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will get a chance to try out their green thumb on their own “Grow Your Own Olive Tree in a Tin” (a $7.49 value). Stick it on a windowsill or kitchen ledge, then water. Who knows — this cute little thing might even bear some fruit.
Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST March 31. Winner will be announced April 2.
How to win?
With its barbecue joints, hipster flea market, vibrant DIY food culture and slightly more affordable housing prices relatively speaking, Brooklyn is the “it” city these days.
Thanks to Baked Better, you can bring a taste of Brooklyn home with you. The company, founded by two friends, sells fabulous organic bread mixes that make baking fresh, warm loaves as easy as can be.
I’m not always a fan of mixes because so many of them are not only pricey, but require you to add so many other ingredients that you might as well just make the whole darn thing from scratch. Not so with Baked Better mixes, of which I had a chance to try samples.
You just add water, salt and a sweetener like sugar, honey, molasses or agave nectar to the contents of the bag, along with the enclosed yeast packet. Stir with a wooden spoon, then pour into a greased loaf pan to let rise for half an hour. Then, bake in the oven for an hour.
What emerges is a loaf of bread on par with those at an artisan bakery — moist, tender, very hearty and suffused with a developed grain flavor.
The Bay Area’s Sara Tidhar took hard times and turned them nutty — in a wonderful way.
Six years ago after a divorce, she found herself a single mom trying to take care of her kids and still make a living. It was her son who proved the inspiration for her predicament. He suggested she sell the roasted nuts she had always made for her kids as a snack.
That’s just what Tidhar did, roasting the nuts in small batches with organic canola oil in what she calls a “secret” method that she learned from her grandmother.
Santé nuts are now sold online, and at retailers such as Lunardi’s, Gene’s Fine Foods in Saratoga, DeMartini’s Orchard in Los Altos, Piazza’s Fine Foods in Palo Alto and Chateau St. Jean Winery in Kenwood.
The roasted, seasoned nuts come in nine varieties, including Garlic Almonds, Cinnamon Pecans, Chipotle Almonds, Candied Pistachios and my favorite, Cardamom Cashews, which brings to mind chai tea. They’re addicting to eat just out of hand. But also would be great in your favorite baked goods, tossed into salads or in stir-fry dishes.
The nuts come in 5-ounce bags ($4.99) and new 1-ounce pouches ($1.99). Each individual pouch is one serving with 180 to 220 calories, depending upon the type of nut.
Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a sampler of the nine different nut varieties — four of the resealable bags and eight of the single-serve bags. Entries, open to those only in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight March 17. The winner will be announced March 19.
How to win?
Leave it to Williams-Sonoma to save us the plane trip of flying to New York for Momofuku Milk Bar’s famous, whimsical cookies.
The retailer has introduced three cookie mixes for the iconic “Compost,” “Corn” and “Blueberry & Cream” cookies.
Of course, convenience does come at a price. The mixes are $16 each, and make nine to 12 cookies, depending upon the variety. You need to add an egg and butter; and in the case of the “Compost” cookies, also your own potato chips and pretzels.
Recently, I had a chance to try samples of the mixes. They’re all quite straightforward to make. You do need to chill the resulting cookie dough for at least an hour before baking so the cookies don’t bake up flat.You also need to resist sampling one right out of the oven. The palm-size cookies need to cool so they set up properly. Otherwise, if you bite into one when it’s still quite warm, you might think it underdone.