Haul: Seafood City

This has been a great, foodie week for me.  I got to do not one, but two hauls!  Unfortunately, I've had some technical difficulties with the first haul and now it may never get posted.  Fortunately, the second haul went just fine and it's all ready to share with you!

Please let me know if there are ethnic stores you'd like me to check out.  I'd love to hear about your experiences to, so please do comment below!

Ciao!

Cost Plus Haul #2 and Tasting

I couldn't resist, I went back to Cost Plus World Market and picked up a bunch more goodies to try. This time around, I decide to combine the Haul with a Tasting video too.  I hope you enjoy it!

Please do let me know which stores you find irresistible - whether it's for new snacks and new foods to try, favorite beverages, or great stuff for your kitchen (or home), I'd love to hear about it!

Gourmet at Home: Olive Tapenade

We love olives.  We do.  Because we love olives we almost always have a variety of them on hand in the fridge.  Recently, I was checking out the specialty items in the deli at my local grocery store and I noticed some Tapenade - it came in what might have been a 4 or 6 ounce jar - and they were charging $4.99 a jar!  I was both appalled at the price and reminded how easy it is to make yourself.  So I decided to show you how too.



There's really no recipe needed, just use 2 or 3 of your favorite types of olives, chop them up and serve with crackers or bread and your favorite cheeses, charcuterie and fruit or nuts and you have the perfect summer picnic, easy light dinner or cocktail party platter.  Check it out:

Ciao!

Haul: Cost Plus World Market Snacks

Do you ever feel like you're in a rut, food-wise?  I do.  Even though I love food - a good variety of food and love to cook  I have found lately that I am ready to try and experience new foods.  Not just recipes for meals, but snacks too.  I indulge several flavors and styles of chips and crackers, I love popcorn, all kinds of nuts and seeds and even though I mostly prefer to snack on salty, crunchy foods, I also enjoy cookies (rarely store-bought any more), ice cream, chocolate and few other kinds of candies.  Even so, I've often found myself completely stumped recently in the chips aisle preparing for a Gaming session with my friends, unable to decide which chips to get and completely uninspired by the choices.

Solution?  A trip to Cost Plus World Market to pick up a sampling of snacks and goodies from their grocery section!  I have recently re-discovered my love of this store thanks to my co-workers who suggested we shop for Christmas Cards there this past holiday season.  Our office is just minutes away from one of these fabulous, fun stores and I found myself wanting to spend all day there checking out the interesting snacks from all over the world.



A couple of weeks ago, I took a little time off which included leaving the office at lunch hour on a Thursday and taking the following day off as well.  The idea was to go clothes shopping, then spend the weekend with my sister getting pedicures and enjoying the last opera of the season.  I'm not a big fan of shopping for clothes for myself and I had been wanting to stop in to Cost Plus World Market to check out their snack selection again so I made that my first stop - a pre-shopping reward, you might say.



I had a lot of fun there and found so many interesting snacks and treats to try... here's the video:

I did manage to pick up some new clothes and since then I have been slowly trying each of the snacks.  So far my favorites have been the Crab Curry Thai Rice Crackers and the Coconut Candy, but I still have quite a few things to try.  Now that's my idea of shopping!  Next visit, I hope to pick up a couple of great things I saw for the kitchen.



Where do you turn to for food inspiration?  What's grabbing your attention right now with regards to food and, specifically, snacks?  Have you had any of these snacks?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.  As always, please let me know if you like these types of posts/videos by commenting below, following this blog and/or subscribing to my Channel and sharing.

Ciao!

Tasting: Japanese Snack Pack

I have made no secret of the fact that I have been absolutely inspired by the YouTube Channel "EmmymadeinJapan" - and I submit as evidence, Article One Recipe Review: Gyoza.  This post and companion video must then be submitted as Article Two, I suppose.

Not long after viewing Emmy's Gyoza video, I watched Emmy Eats a Japanese Snack Pack.  Emmy has since made a least one additional Japanese Snack Pack Video.  This video really made me curious and excited to try some Japanese snacks and one day when I was placing an order for some cookie cutters I decided to throw in one of these packs to try for myself.

Here is the particular pack I purchased:





The fact that almost all of the labeling is in Japanese characters and that what little I could read in English was still unrecognizable to me added to the fun and adventure in trying these products out.  I was so excited when it all arrived!

There were 6 snacks inside...



This Big Katsu bar was the first snack I tried.  I realize now, that I should have made the connection to Chicken Katsu - apparently Katsu refers to the breading.



This next snack had a really interesting texture - now that I think about it post video, I guess I would describe it as being a sugary toast-like snack.  It definitely had a flavor and texture of lightly toasted bread...



My favorites in the whole pack were these rice crackers...



and these tube shaped, cheesy snacks...



I won't list all each individual snack here, you can watch the video to learn more about it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.  Have you ever tried a snack pack?  What do you like to snack on?  Do you know what any of these are and where I can get more of my favorites?  Also, please do let me know if you like these types of posts and videos by leaving a comment, liking the video and subscribing or following the Channel or this Blog.

Thanks and Ciao!

Savory Nut Mix

This has been a week of celebrating anniversaries. On St. Patrick's day, we got together with family for dinner at a local bar and grill, then all attended the final performance of Les Miserables at the local high school. That was our "house" anniversary celebration. 7 years ago on March 20, 3 great-nieces and 1 great-nephew moved in with us and became "our" kids. 14 years ago on March 21, my wonderful husband and I were married. Since the kids just happened to move in the day before our wedding anniversary, we have started doing something together as a family to celebrate - last year we also went to see the musical at the high school and I think the year before that we went to see Alice in Wonderland together.

Anyway, since Tuesday and Wednesday were the actual dates involved, I tried to have a little something special to nibble on each night. I kept the meals simple since I'm still battling a nasty cold, but I did make savory nuts to munch as an appetizer on Tuesday and a Queso Fundido to have for an appetizer last night (my husband and I were then too full to really eat dinner, but that was ok).

So I thought I'd share the nut mix since it's a family favorite (although in truth I never make it exactly the same way twice).

Savory Nut Mix

3-4 cups nuts, or nuts and seeds
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
parmesan cheese to taste

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread nuts and seeds in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Turn off heat and add spices. Pour over nuts and stir well to evenly coat nuts. Bake until nuts are golden brown. Grate parmesan cheese over top of nuts and bake a few minutes more. Allow nuts to cool. Store in an airtight jar - if they last that long!