Category Archives: New Products

Holiday Goodies For You (Or Others), Part I

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A peek inside the Ofner Le Cordon Bleu creme brulee panettone.
A peek inside the Ofner Le Cordon Bleu creme brulee panettone.

Ofner Le Cordon Bleu Creme Brulee Panettone

It’s guaranteed to be a sweet holiday with Ofner Le Cordon Bleu Creme Brulee Panettone.

It’s one of the new flavors this season by the Brazilian company, which also manufactures in the United States, that’s been turning out specialty sweets for 70 years.

I had a chance to try the new creme brulee version of the classic holiday Italian bread. Made with a naturally fermented dough, it’s moist, tender, and a little bready in texture.

There are gobs of cashew nut praline and creme brulee within it, and it’s topped with a coating of white chocolate, cashew nut praline, and bruleed sugar. It is quite sweet, so you do have to like your panettone on the sugary side.

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Get Saucy With New Hodo Tofu & Sauce

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New heat-and-serve Hodo Japanese Teriyaki Tofu & Sauce kits offer up a nourishing meal in a flash.
New heat-and-serve Hodo Japanese Teriyaki Tofu & Sauce kits offer up a nourishing meal in a flash.

Always inventing and reinventing, Oakland’s Hodo Foods has debuted a new line of fully cooked tofu & sauce packages that are sure to make meal prep a whole lot easier and faster.

Made with the company’s organic tofu, these convenient, refrigerated kits come in three varieties: Korean BBQ, Japanese Curry, and Thai Red Curry.

I had a chance to try samples of the latter two. Each comes with a package of extra-firm tofu along with two packets of sauce.

Find the new kits in the refrigerator section of select grocery stores.
Find the new kits in the refrigerator section of select grocery stores.

The tofu is not a solid brick, but rather a clump that has been vacuum-sealed. So, unless you take the time to actually use a knife to cut it into bite-size pieces, your dish will not look exactly like the photos on the packages that show the tofu in nice neat bite-sized cubes. If precise pieces are not paramount, just use your fingers to easily crumble the tofu instead.

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Holidays Mean Lebkuchen

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Plain or chocolate-covered lebkuchen holiday cookies.
Plain or chocolate-covered lebkuchen holiday cookies.

Soft, cakey and a little chewy, they’re fragrant with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and allspice. They taste marvelously Old World, too.

Lebkuchen, German spice cookies made with honey, are especially beloved at Christmas time.

For more than 90 years, Lebkuchen-Schmidt has been baking these popular treats in Nuremberg. Now, you can enjoy them in this country, thanks to New Jersey-based European Deli, its exclusive U.S. partner.

They come packaged in various options, including an embossed blue and gold tin ($49.95) depicting scenes from that German city, of which I received a sample.

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Holiday Sips, Part I

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A holiday-ready 2018 Piazza Del Dotto Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.
A holiday-ready 2018 Piazza Del Dotto Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.

2018 Piazza Del Dotto Estate Family Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

If you’re opting for prime rib or roast duck instead of turkey at the Thanksgiving table, a bottle of 2018 Piazza Del Dotto Estate Family Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon would make for a splendid partner.

Family-owned for more than three decades, this winery with operations in St. Helena and Napa focuses on small-production Cabernet made from estate-grown grapes. These particular grapes come from the Oakville AVA, known for producing wines of powerful yet smooth textures.

This wine, of which I received a sample, is no exception. Deep purple garnet in the glass, it exudes notes of black cherries, currants, graphite and cedar with a touch of anise, and sage. It has firm tannins, making it a robust wine able to stand up to showy centerpiece meat dishes.

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Handcrafted Indulgent Pennsylvania Dutch Pretzels

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(Clockwise from top): Dark Chocolate, Regular, Milk Chocolate, and Extra Dark pretzels from Uncle Jerry's Handmade Pennsylvania Duch Pretzels.
(Clockwise from top): Dark Chocolate, Regular, Milk Chocolate, and Extra Dark pretzels from Uncle Jerry’s Handmade Pennsylvania Dutch Pretzels.

When it comes to snacks, I do love a good, crunchy pretzel.

And Uncle Jerry’s Handmade Pennsylvania Dutch Pretzels are definitely some of the best around.

Founded by Jerry Skolnick in 1988 in Lancaster, PA, it took only two years for his family-owned business to win a “Best of Philly” award, the first time that honor had ever been given to pretzels.

His youngest daughter Misty joined the fold in 2008 to help launch the company’s e-commerce sales. And lucky me was fortunate enough to receive some samples recently.

These pretzels are made with a sourdough starter. The dough is rolled and kneaded rather than extruded under pressure from huge machines, and the pretzels are hand-twisted. They are made without oil, sugar or preservatives.

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