After Sunday Service Brunch

Spinach and Feta Scramble

Broiled Tomatoes

Cranberry Coffee Crumble Cake

Coffee, Tea, Mimosas

Late Sleepers Brunch

Puff the Magic Dragon Black Bean and Salsa Omelet

Cheddar Cheese Hash Browns

Pina Colada Parfaits

Espresso, Chai Tea, Sparkling Water

Make Ahead Brunch

Banana Bread French Toast Casserole

Holiday Brunch Casserole

Frozen Fruit Cups

Coffee/Hot Chocolate Bar – offer brewed plain and decaf with flavored creamers, whipped cream, chocolate shavings, marshmallows, crushed peppermints

No matter which brunch you choose, have fun with it! Use Two Sisters Gourmet to complement the start of your day.

Have a blessed happy and healthy Holiday enjoyed with your friends and loved ones.

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Your passport to international flavors awaits you with our new Simmerin’ Sauces! Perfect for your slow cooker, these sauces make dinnertime a snap.

A trip to Italy not in the budget? Our Tuscan Country Simmerin’ Sauce brings the fresh flavors of the Tuscan countryside to your table. It will have you saying (or singing!) That’s Amore……… Try the Simply Delicious Chicken Cacciatore or the Hearty Minestrone Soup — perfect comfort food to come home to after a long day.

Or take a culinary trip to the Far East with our Asian Barbeque Simmerin’ Sauce. Hints of soy, sesame, garlic, chili, and ginger combine for true Asian flavor. From Asian-Style Short Ribs to Hot & Sour Chicken Soup, this versatile sauce is a must for your pantry. It can even be used as a dipper for egg or spring rolls!

Your last stop on our International flavor tour is to India with our Mild Madras Curry Simmerin’ Sauce. Tempt your family with Coconut Curry Chicken, Curried Butternut Squash Soup or use over meatballs for a new twist! The mild spices and coconut milk will warm you from within.

And last but not least, two new additions to our Two Sisters Gourmet Sauces and Dressings line up.

Serious Steak and Grilling Sauce will entice the entire family. Use this sauce to make Pecan Crunch Chicken Drumettes, Sassy Barbecue Beans, or Serious Meatball Appetizers. Also excellent as a marinade or brush on grilled meat – its spicy overtones give it a kick!

Rosy Raspberry Basil Vinaigrette will brighten up any salad with its fresh taste. This versatile dressing can also be used as a dipping sauce for bread or over pasta for a light meal (refreshing after the Holidays!) Try Leafy Greens with Orange & Avocado, Luscious Raspberry Lemon Chicken, and Rice & Apple Salad with Tangy Cheese. This is a pantry must.

Can’t wait to try our fabulous new products? Easy online shopping is a click away…Bon Appetit!!

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Nanaimo Bars

Short on time but still want to participate in your cookie exchange? Try these easy and delicious Two Sisters Gourmet recipes.

• White Chocolate Blueberry-Oat Cookies
• Spiced Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
• Crispy Walnut Cookies
• Cinnamon Spice Cookies
• Fudgy Raspberry-Pecan Brownies
• Blackberry Cabernet Brownies
• Dreamy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

What is your favorite holiday cookie?

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Here are some easy favorites to give.

Spiced nuts: Use TSG Outrageously Garlic for the garlic powder in the recipe. Wrap in a holiday tin or box.

Citrus Marinated Olives:  Wrap in a jar with festive ribbon.

Bread: TSG Perfect Pumpkin Gingerbread Bread or TSG Beer Bread – one loaf for now, one for the freezer. Wrap in plastic and a lovely kitchen tea towel.

Or, for those of you who prefer the dining table to the kitchen stove, we can still help you with these creative ideas:

For the Flavored Coffee Drinker  – why wait at the drive through when you can make an instant latte mix

For the New Homeowners – Taste of Italy gift basket – dried pasta noodles, TSG Outrageously Garlic, TSG Onion and Chive Seasoning Blend, jarred pasta sauce, TSG Garlic Parmesan Vinaigrette, TSG Italian Herb cheese Mix

For the Cookie Lover – try cowboy cookie mix in a jar

For the Novice Cook – assorted TSG spices with recipes so they can start creating their own signature dishes

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Football has been a part of my life since I was a small girl. My first football memories are watching the Pittsburgh Steelers games with my dad and nibbling throughout the day on the “football food” that my mom would prepare (a “make your own taco bar” was a personal favorite!). Over the years dad started to dabble in the kitchen and would prepare our game day fare — elaborate veggie platters with dip (each vegetable was cut into perfectly sized pieces), shrimp cocktails, mini bagel dogs, chicken wings, pickled herring, and guacamole with pretzels. This unusual assortment of goodies was just to whet our appetite for the main game day attraction – Dad’s Ribs. These legendary ribs are eagerly anticipated throughout our family and friends. The process starts the night before by soaking hickory chips in water — this will ensure that the chips will not burn when they are placed around the charcoal. To prep the meat before smoking, my Dad removes the rib membrane (skin covering the back) – his secret to ensure that the hickory penetrates the meat and rib bone. The ribs are then smoked for 2 hours in a kettle grill over indirect heat. After coming off the grill, they are basted with a tangy barbecue sauce that makes these ribs irresistible.

And now that I’ve hosted a few of these game days myself, I would like to pass along to you my winning game day picks.

PreGame – Guests Arriving

• Chips and salsa (I usually serve two types of salsa TSG Black Bean and Corn and a homemade version)
• Hummus and pita chips
• Crudité platter with assorted olives, cheeses, and flatbreads

End of 1^st Quarter

• Buffalo Chicken Dip (made easy with TSG Brazen Buffalo Blue Cheese Blend)
• Quesadillas – try the TSG Mango and Chicken Quesadillas or Tangy Quesadillas

Half Time

• Assorted Mini Sandwiches
• Thin Crust Pizzas

End of 3^rd Quarter

• Ice Cream Brownie Sundaes (made even easier using TSG Breathtaking Deep Chocolate Brownie Mix)

And don’t forget to offer assorted frosty beverages – Go Team!!

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The Basic Skills of Cooking: It’s Simple but Follow Directions

Last week I was humbled by a toaster oven!.  I think of myself as a pretty good cook, but every now and then we all need a “comeuppance” as my Grandma would say!

It all started when I needed to show our SRVP’s how versatile Beer Bread really can be.  We just had a meeting where I handed out the “21 Ways to Make Beer Bread” sheet, and now I really wanted to prove that no one should leave a party with just one box.

So I went to the store and bought ingredients to make 5 different varieties –sweet and savory.  I happened to be in the Hampton Inn where they generously let me their convection oven in the kitchen so I could make them all at once.  Well, convection ovens cook differently, of course.  Faster, but not quite so thoroughly, and I was making so many at once……

After rotating them around, I finally got them the crust looking toasty brown, but they still looked a little wobbly and didn’t sound right.  So I figured I bake a fresh one in a small aluminum pan at work the next morning in the toaster oven.  I whipped it up (Yummy with chocolate chips)  and went to do a few things.  I just about burned the building down!.

My bread was in too small a pan, so it rose into the coils and burned! And SMELLLED! And looked AWFUL! Then I went to cut the loaves from the night before – the crust was like leather and the inside was still a little soggy.  So I salvaged what I could and ….

This week I got a new large size toaster/convection oven. I have some new bread samples to try on my desk so I got to work.  I am now on the 5^th loaf

• the first was a small aluminum pan that rose, but looked like pudding in the middle
• the second was on convection and was almost as burned as the one that rose into the coils (and I accidentally left it on for hours!)
• the third was a slight dark brown with a crust that tasted like more leather

So I bought a real loaf pan….

• left it on convection, turned down the temperature and it was edible (in fact Chris Johnson, our meeting planner ate almost the whole loaf!)
• I’m on number 5 now  – and I ‘ll photograph it shortly.

The moral of the story:

         1.  Read the instructions – they were actually tested

         2. Use the right equipment – if it says 9×5 metal pan, they mean it

         3.    Never leave your oven untended

         4.    Learn how your own oven works, some tend hot or cold

          5.   Expect Disasters – they are part of cooking and make you better

Success at Least! I mean Last!

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We all know that you eat with your eyes as well as your mouth, so food styling for the catalog is very important.  There can be a lot of “bad press” about how food stylists “cheat” the dishes to make it appropriate for a magazine shoot.  Take for example ice cream, it’s impossible to get real ice cream not to melt under hot lights.  But the attitude of companies, savvy consumers and digital photography have changed the issues in shooting food and allowed all of our photography to be much more “natural”.

When we prepare food for the catalog, we actually create and test recipes (that’s a popular day in the office because they get to taste finished dishes, not just product).  At the shoot our fabulous stylist Catrine Kelty  prepares each of the dishes (with leftovers) and then works with our great photographer  Paul Saraceno to  bring it to you in the best possible light.

It’s true that we do help out our dishes a little – after all they do have to sit on the table for hours at a time and need to keep looking fresh.  We spritz the lettuce with water to make it glisten, hand arrange the leaves, stack berries just so, and melt our cheese with a gun that peels paint off  walls so it gets perfectly brown.

Tips to Make Your Table Look Great

Here are the top  tips that Katrine uses in preparing our food whether for photography or your family table.

1. Set the table beautifully – make sure you keep a nice centerpiece and candles ready to be lit every night.
2. Use fresh, high quality ingredients – there’s nothing more sad than wilted lettuce!
3. Light a candle!

Quick, Yummy Quesadilla Recipes

Like those quesadilla?  Well here are two of our great recipes using the Two Sisters Gourmet Black Bean and Corn Salsa, but you can really add your f avorite ingredients and make them your own:

1. Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas
2. Chorizo Quesadillas

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The Working Girl posted an article, “10 Things Cooking Taught Me About Life”  by Kim O’Donnell that not only touched her, but resonates with the cook in all of us. BSVCZRN9VZA6

What Cooking Means to Me:

It made me reflect on what cooking means to me.

1.  I find it therapeutic. If I’m cranky I will chop a little harder.  If I’m moping around I can conjure up smells that take me to the happiest of times – a fresh apple pie to remember apple picking afternoons filled with smiling faces.

2.   Cooking connects me with  the cycles of nature. Think about the  day-long pot of spaghetti sauce project necessary to soak up that whole case of tomatoes from the farmer’s market (what was I thinking!).  The trip to the Farmer’s Market was a delight – a warm sunny Saturday, pouring over fresh produce, seeing friends and neighbors, and knowing that the piles of tomatoes will bring summer memories during a cold evening.

3.  Cooking gives me time to step out of my daily routine and think. When I get to cook on one of these leisurely sessions, I turn on classical music and contemplate the more important things in life. I’m frequently thinking about the kids visiting  for a holiday, when I can see my Mom 2,500 miles away and how lucky I am to have family who loves spending time  together.

4.  Cooking let’s me show I care. To me and to many, cooking is a universal display of love and concern. Sometimes words just aren’t enought.  There’s always the “cheer you up from the lost game” dinner or a “friend hurt your feelings, so here’s comfort food” dinner.  One of my favorites is “let me fix your favorite meal to bribe you to come home” dinner.  The fact that they come and are cheered up are my greatest rewards.

What have you learned about life through cooking? Or describe whose life you have touched with your cooking. After all, cooking is all about bringing friends and family together!

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Thanksgiving dinner is the one time no one in the family will ask me “What’s for dinner?”  Like families all over the country, we have a ritual dinner.  Every year I am tantalized by all the great and interesting recipes in the food magazines that find their way into my mailbox, but I am NEVER allowed to indulge in them. The only time I get to vary the menu is when we open our doors and include traveling waifs who can’t go “home” for Thanksgiving.  We want everyone at our table to have something that reminds them of home, so I get to expand.

Thanksgiving may be officially the fourth Thursday of November, but in our house, and I believe many houses, it’s really at least a four day affair.  This year, we will be having Thanksgiving at the beach, which sometimes means that all the Edwards gather and we have a large and noisy bunch. That’s when I get to try different things, we have multiples of everything, turkeys, stuffing , potatoes, pies – you name it.

Origins of Thanksgiving Dishes and Wishes

This year will be a smaller, quieter retreat.  The older the family gets, the more connections we have to other families, and the more we share the people, the customs and the time.  Traditionally, most Thanksgiving foods are those native to American soil.  Turkey is ubiquitous – over 91% eat turkey on Thanksgiving. They say if you look at your Thanksgiving table you can tell where your family originates within the U.S.

Click on the foods for some great ideas:

Sweet Potatoes – from the South

Corn Bread Stuffing – The South and New England

Creamed Corn – Pennsylvania

Dungeness Crab or Shrimp – The West Coast

Mole and Roasted Corn,  - Hispanic Americans of  Mexican heritage

Lefse and Green Beans – Midwesterners of Scandinavian  heritage (lefse is Norwegian  potato flatbread)

On our Table for Thanksgiving – In addition to the Cornucopia!

1. Shrimp Cocktail and Fresh Hot Rolls
2. Black Olives – lots!
3. Fresh whole Cranberry Sauce (is your family whole berry or strained?)
4. Turkey (don’t forget the Butterball Hotline!) link to other post.
5. Aunt Ida’s Sage and Sausage Stuffing (not sure who Aunt Ida was)
6. Giblet Gravy ( we had to wait till they were a little older for the giblets)
7. Mashed Potatoes
8. Pumpkin and Minced Pie

My Thanksgiving Wishes

What I love about Thanksgiving is that it is the most American of all holidays – everyone within our shores is invited to the table to celebrate.  It’s a day of peace and promise as we gather to be thankful for the blessings we have. It’s a little island of calm before the holiday rush. Food is one of the most fundamental ways of connecting.  I know at our table we will be thankful for family and friends (including those we don’t know yet).  We wish the same for you at this time and hope you will share the season…

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I can’t believe I didn’t know this!

Of all the silly things, you know how when you pull out a long sheet of aluminum foil, the cardboard tube pops out of the box?  Well apparently the company does too! There are instructions on the end of the box to push in a little tab that holds the roll in place so it doesn’t fall out and roll all over the kitchen floor!.  While that makes the dogs happy, it doesn’t do too much for me – so problem solved!  See the photo that led me to it.!

Cooking Your Turkey: Thanksgiving Help!

And while you’re getting ready for Thanksgiving – if you have a question or a crisis, don’t forget the Turkey Helpline from Butterball 1-800 –Butterball (1-800-288-8372) or check out their top ten questions.  They answer more than 100,000 Questions every November and December – so I’m sure they can handle your as well!

Turkey Help from Butterball

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