• Gayle’s Princess Cake Three layers of vanilla genoise cake ~ layers of pastry cream, raspberry jam & whipped cream inside ~ pastel marzipan shell outside ~ sprinkled with powdered sugar ~ topped with a fresh rose.

• Big Cups = for those who like to eat a lot (aka manly)! Oh, and frugal, more-for-your-money types.
• Small Cups = for those who monitor their portion sizes, the less is more, anal, lady-like types!
• Beautiful Cups = for those who are artistically inclined, and latch onto every cool new food trend!
• Old Cups = for the crunchy, tradition-loving, recycling types, who may be afraid of change!
• Disposable Cups= for those always ready for change who have commitment issues and no concerns for their present environment?
  

The tea post got me thinking about drinking vessels.  Do you have a favorite mug or glass?  At our house, we each have an unspoken attachment to one particular coffee mug, glass, or cup.  Also, we don’t use the other person’s favorite vessel.  I guess this is because we aren’t interested in the other person’s goblet, it’s just not OUR favorite.

One of them was chosen by the person for the quantity it can hold, one was chosen for the shape of the glass in one’s hand, and the other one was chosen for its hand-made aesthetic qualities.   I think we could psycho-analyze each of these in conjunction with our food consumption habits (as we also look at the degree to which we are each attached to our own)!

What do you think Aubri and Adrienne?  We need a therapists take on this!

A few years ago my cousin’s wife, originally from Ohio who now lives in Florida, told us about Mom Wilson’s Country Sausage that is actually located in my childhood hometown.  She told us that each time she drives through our hometown in Ohio on her way to Northern Ohio that she stops at Mom Wilson’s Country Sausages to pick up a Smoked Ham. It was weird to me because I had lived near Ma Wilson’s for twenty some years before moving to California and had no idea Mom Wilson’s was that good. I finally figured out that it is a local gem and on todays visit we spotted something too good and too kitschy to pass up, a Candy-Cane shaped spicy “Cracker Sausage.”

Inside Mom Wilson’s they have lots of tastes to figure out what you may want to buy from hot pickles to spicy sausage, braunschwaiger, caramel corn, and other country sausages and cheese. I asked them what their biggest seller was and they told me it was the Cracker Sausage. After tasting it and finding out it was delicious, I looked in the refrigerator and saw a Candy-Cane shaped Cracker Sausage for $5.60. John and I both said, “That is awesome!”

You can’t order it online, yes, that is how local they are, but you can call them and they will ship it out to you. Then pair it with a box of crackers or their horseradish cheese and it’s a unique gift for friends or your holiday party.

Mom Wilson’s Country Sausage
7720 U.S. Route 23 North
Delaware, Ohio 43015

Phone

(740) 726-2636

For the Photo-Foodie:

• The Camera Lens Mug (for Canon or Nikon lovers) $24-30 + Shipping – For the Photo & Coffee Geek by Photo JoJo OR Give the foodie photographer or blogger a Studio Photo-Tent Dome for their plated foods too (OK, just a bit more than $30, range from $35-100)!

For the Mess-in-the-Kitchen:

• Owl Tea Towels $12 Each + Shipping

- Hand screen printed using color-fast ink in red. Washing machine/dryer safe. Absorbent flour sack is 28″ x 29″. Colors: Dark Blue , Arctic Blue (light) , Sweet Pea Green , Clementine , Red Raspberry , Chocolate Pudding Brown

For the OCD-Kitchen Cook:

• 2-in-1 Brush Baster (Classic Bristles & Modern Silicon w/ Rotating locking head) $9.95
• Oxo Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer $20

-Slice your veggies or any food item precisely and more quickly than pulling out your big-old $200 Mandolin.

For the Wine-Lover:

• Been Doon So Long: A Randall Graham Vinthology $24

- James Beard Foundation Book Award Beverage Winner 2010 – Written by visionary California winemaker and founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard (from Santa Cruz!)

• Chinese Zodiac Wine Stoppers $15 + Shipping

- 12 Zodiac Animal Head Choices

For the Sweet Tooth:

• Caramel Toffee Chocolate Chunk Brownie Mix by Vosges Haut Chocolat $18 + Shipping (Read Review of Brownie Mix on Serious Eats)
• Chocolate Pecan Boomchunka Cookie from Cherry Republic $3.95 – 2Pack + Shipping (You can’t go wrong with any of their products – We’ve been sampling them for years! OR what about the Chocolate Cherry Coffee Cake)
• Apple Pie in Jar (3 in an 8oz. Canning Jar) $13.96 + Shipping

For the Fashionable Foodie’s Stocking:

• The Diner’s Necklace $16 + Shipping
• 2 Carat Cup $15 + Shipping + A bag of Verve Coffee Roasters Five Bean Holiday Blend 12 oz. for $13.50 from Santa Cruz, CA
• Dining Room Measuring Spoons $24 + Shipping
• Spoon Coffee Mug $3.95 + Shipping & you could add a personal touch with a bag of homemade marshmallows recipe
• Tuffy Tea Steepers $8.95 + Shipping (or at Sur la table)
• Pomegranate Cocktail Rim Sugar for a Pomegranate Margarita $4.00 + Shipping

For the Herb Lover:

• Vintage Silverware Garden Herb Markers – Set of 4 $24 + Shipping
• The Best Dried Red Chili Powder from the Chili Shop in Santa Fe $7.95 a lb. + Shipping
• Gourmet Popcorn Spice Kit $15 + Shipping (Flavors are: 1)Beer 2)Dill Pickle 3)Kettle Corn 4)White Cheddar 5)Southwest Jalapeno 6)Barbeque 7)Buffalo 8)Chocolate Caramel)

For the Bacon Lover: Are we still loving Bacon Stuff? YES!

• Bacon Jam – $13 per 11oz jar +shipping OR try making your own Slow Cooker Bacon Jam, made some tonight so will update you with it soon!

- This is a savory jam cooked down with onions and spices. – Serve it on sandwiches and such

• Bacon Explosion - 1/2 Bacon Explosion – $17.99 Full Bacon Explosion – $29.99 + shipping

- Quilted Bacon (retains all of the fat, so watch out) with sausage, BBQ sauce, BBQ rub and it is then smoked – Put it on toothpicks to serve because it has a pretty intense, rich flavor

• Mo’s Dark Bacon Bar $7.50 & Mo’s Bacon Chocolate Chip Pancake Mix $12 + Shipping from Vosges Haut Chocolat (I know, I listed this last year but couldn’t help but add this deliciousness again).

When we want to have a really memorable party we have a wine tasting party.  Only certain guests can really appreciate an unsophisticated wine tasting activity.  This year, we told everyone to bring really good bottles.

A Fast Wine Tasting Set-up:

• 3-5 people per group (Give everyone a # and don’t let couples be together in the same group)
• Label each bottle with a number.  Divide up the whites and reds
• Give each group a piece of paper labeled with a number for each bottle of wine. A wine rating of 1-5 will be decided on by everyone in each group.  5 is the best and 1 rating is the worst. (Of course, my group had to start giving 2.25 ratings and 1.75 ratings)
• Designate a number cruncher at the party (Accountant, Actuaries, CFO, or an Engineer paired up with an Artist, Writer, or Teacher = Instant Fun) to figure out the winner.

White Winner (out of 4 whites):

• Chateau St Jean Chardonnay (09 • $12.99 – 07 • #25.99) – (90 PTS WILFRED WONG)

Red Wine Winner (out of 10 reds):

• Dierberg Pinot Noir 07 ($35-40) (Dierberg Pinot Noirs Rate between 90-95 PTS)

Props to our cheese addiction enabler, Michelle, who has fed us many varieties of cheese in the hopes that she can “keep us classy” at BITF. I think you need to feed us even more at an even greater frequency Michelle, you know, to truly sustain what blue is left in our blood.  I am even inventing a new column called “Cheese(y) Party” in your honor!

Cheeses in this Running Party #1:

• Barely Buzzed Coffee Rind Cheese (Flavored Cheddar, American Cheese) ($19.99 lb.)
• Midnight Moon, Cypress Grove Creamline - (Dense, Goat) ($19.99 lb)
• Montbriac ($17.99 lb.) (Brie-like blue with a rustic gray rind) – Stinky!
• Point Reyes Blue ($16.99 lb.) (Creamier style, full-flavored blue cheese)
• Saint Andre ($16.99 lb.) (Triple Creme, cow’s milk French cheese)

Point Reyes Original Blue is aged for 6 months which gives it the deep blue veins and luscious, bold flavor.   This cheese isn’t really all that expensive, surprisingly, either.  It is about $16.99 a pound but we got a .215 chunk and it was enough for a five person appetizer (along with 4 other chunks of cheese).

Link to Blue Cheese Recipes from Point Reyes Blue Themselves!

A Quick Guide to the 5 Types of Cheeses

Cheese Party Tips:

• DO – serve Wine & Cheese from same region, they often work well together.   Wine & Cheese Pairing Guide.
• DO – serve one-half bottle of wine and 4 ounces of cheese per person

• Do, I mean Don’t, I mean DO … over-serve the boos when you are low on money at your next wine & cheese party.  Everything will taste perfect even when you serve Velveta and a Port Cheese Ball.

• DON’T- serve cream cheese & White Zinfandel unless it’s for a Christmas Sweater Holiday Party

* Thanks to guest photographer, Jeremy Ehly with his new fisheye lens!

At the Santa Cruz Downtown Wednesday Farmer’s Market and the Santa Cruz Westside Saturday Farmer’s Market, Farmhouse Culture sells contemporary krauts and new special kraut juice shots ($1) and bottles of kraut juice ($5)!

I’m not sure if kraut juice is a hangover cure, an anti-oxident, pro-biotic, daily vitamin option or what but it’s a tasty pickle juice alternative!  However, unlike pickling techniques Farmhouse Culture’s sauerkraut is not created from vinegar.  Check out their website to read about their lacto-fermentation process and the difference between sauerkraut and pickles.

Their kraut is great too.  We made a kraut and sausage pizza that was a real hit!  We warmed the kraut and added it to the baked pizza crust as to not make the crust soggy!

Michelle, a SF foodie friend, and I were talking about this and decided that the first food maker that we can remember who mixed spices and various combinations of flavors was Vosges Haut Chocolat.   Vosges does make ice cream as well with their creative concoctions.  We are now lucky enough to live in the Bay Area where folks are constantly coming up with creative food combinations.  Michelle said she could remember lobster ice cream and corn on the cob ice cream from summers spent on the east coast.  My favorite ice cream has always been Graeters, a Cincinnati, OH original.  But now there are creative ice cream shops in every major city such as Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream (Chocolate w/ Cornflakes, Queen City Cayenne, Thai Chili) in Columbus, OH and Humphry Slocombe in SF.

Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream is sold at their shop and at a gourmet food market in SF by the scoop ($2.50 a scoop) or pint ($8).

Humphry Slocombe Creative Flavors

I tried the Morning Secret that consists of Jim Beam, flour, corn flakes, vanilla, and butter.  Boy was it buttery and the Beam was subtle!  It actually reminded me of a fancier version of a superman ice cream!  Michelle tried the Pepper-Mint Chip that was a combination of fresh chopped mint with Cubeb Pepper, and Valhrona Chocolate Chips.  She said that the Pepper-Mint Chip was surprisingly a great combination that she expected to fail, but it just didn’t!

Shop:
2790 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94110

A cousin of ours has a family salmon business up in Alaska called Wild Kenai Red Salmon.  They actually shipped us these beautiful frozen and  smoked salmon fillets to try after hearing about our food blog in an annual family Christmas letter.   The fillets were delivered overnight via fed-ex in a Styrofoam cooler, arriving cold and fresh as ever.

We grilled the salmon fillet on a cedar plank with a mild soy-based glaze.

It looks like they have some nice recipes for salmon on their blog too: http://www.wildkenaisalmon.com/blog/

Zach: I have never been a fan of cooked salmon (I prefer it raw).  Nor have I ever had sockeye salmon before.  This fillet knocked my socks off.  It was dense and tasted like a clean ocean spray, not fishy at all.

John: It was amazing how fast the salmon was delivered to us.  The freshness was palpable.  The fresh salmon was better than most cooked salmon I’ve had at restaurants.  The skin was actually edible and did not have that fish-sitting-on-display-all-day taste.

Les: What struck me most about the fillet (delivered frozen) was the amazing color.  I think these fillets would be an amazing foodie gift for friends and family who have it all and love fine foods.

$1.49 & $1.50 & Wow, $12.95 (+$6 shipping for the copper version)
Now that’s a Super Cheap California Foodie Gift right there!

Tomorrow I will give you my Grandma’s famous sugar cookie recipe.