If you know me, or if you've read previous recipe posts, you know I cannot always leave a recipe untouched. So it goes with the following recipe. Sable & Rosenfeld's Mediterranean Olive Bruschetta is delicous right out of the jar. However, I had to add fresh mozzarella (for color) and pine nuts (for texture).
Mediterranean Olive Bruschetta
1 jar Sable & Rosenfeld Mediterranean Olive Bruschetta
6 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut into small cubes
2 oz. toasted pine nuts
1 pkg. TFM Garlic Parmesan French Rounds
Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss until thoroughly incorporated. Transfer to a serving bowl and serving with TFM Garlic Parmesan French Rounds.
Another customer favorite. I don't know how many told me they LOVE pine nuts.
**********
This next recipe I prepared based on a recipe I saw in one of my cooking magazines. It called for fresh corn, but I wanted something that would be easy for my customers (opening a jar can sometimes be more than they want to do so I knew taking corn corn off the cob wasn't going to fly). Stonewall Kitchen's Spicy Corn Relish was the first thing I thought of. Of course it's Hatch Chile season so I had to have that as an ingredient as well.
Spicy Cheesy Corn Spread
1 jar
Stonewall Kitchen Spicy Corn Relish
2 c.
yellow 3 year Cheddar, shredded
1 c. Smoked
Gouda, shredded
2 to
3 Hatch chilies, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/3
c. diced red onion
1 bag
TFM Tortilla Chips
I'm my own worst critic. Not 100% convinced this was a WOW recipe, my taste testerd told me to LEAVE IT ALONE. They enjoye it. With fingers crossed I put this on my sample table. WHEW! Customers enjoyed. It was commented on as "amazing" a number of times. I have to tell you, the men loved it.
**********
With very few hours to prepare samples this weekend I turned to a deliciously easy customer favorite - Earth & Vine Red Bell Pepper and Ancho Chili Jam over Cream Cheese. This was the star of the weekend.
Try it. You'll be glad you did.
**********
I've debated on this, but have decided I want to share. I know I've told some of my regular customers the story about a customer eating the garbage off my table (I have no clue what he was thinking). I've also posted about customers that open product to sample if my sample tray is empty. I even had customers that sample the food and ask afterwards what they just ate AND these customers have food allergies. Yes, what they sampled they were allergic to. I cannot forget to mention those customers who come to sample and treat it like it's their lunch or dinner buffet. I can post all this here because these are not my regular customers and are not interested in getting recipe or product ideas. They would not be reading this. So, here is the latest story in "what were you thinking?!" ....
Yesterday as I was cleaning up from my tasting I stopped to talk with Lorene who was sampling at the front of the store. One customer comes to the table and as I look down is dipping a pretzel into the body butter. Luckily I noticed this as she was about to pop it into her mouth and I stopped her. I recounted this to my husband, son and daughter at dinner. They were all VERY disappointed that I stopped her because they (and yes me too!) would have liked to know her reaction if she ate it. In the end, my son replied, "in her defense it did have butter on the label."
