Evelyn's Blog - Taste of Gourmet

Maine to Mississippi

It's almost March and it's still cold this year in Mississippi!  We've got daffodills blooming all over the lake bank, camellias in full flower and ice on the water puddles this morning!  The weather is crazy - but Spring is on it's way! 

Izabela, My little 4 year old grandaughter in Maine, just can't understand how WE can have flowers and her back yard is still under 4 feet of snow! The two of us spend a lot of time comparing Maine and Mississippi, including what we are cooking for supper in both places! 

Two of Bella and Carter's favorite foods are my Black Bean Chili and my All-American Apple Cake and I make sure those products are well stocked in DeeDee's pantry! 

You know, Deanna gave me the inspiration AND her recipe for biscotti that we turned into Auntie DeeDee's Cranberry Chocolate Biscotti Mix!  Deanna walked me through the process of shaping and baking so that our mix is so simple and so GOOD!  It's Tony's favorite!  A cup of coffee and a Biscotti to dip in it!

Taste of Gourmet and The Crown Restaurant are truly our FAMILY business! We get love and help and inspiration from our family members and from our extended family of Taste of Gourmet Consultants!  We are so blessed!

Plantation Pie Tassies

Do you know what a "Tassie" is?  Here in the Delta, the only time we use that term is a Pecan Tassie that we make for a pick up dessert for parties!  I wonder if Tassie is a dessert in other parts of the country?

I was "talking" before Christmas with Tracey Mizell, one of our Louisiana Consultants who is a geat cook, about Tassies and where the name came from.  (Turns out that essentially it's a French term that means tiny purses filled with goodies.) Tracey had used our Plantation Pie as a filling and had made 48 tiny Tassies for a party.  She used a cream cheese pastry (that's traditional with Pecan Tassies) but I used a plain old refrigerated pastry round from the grocery when I tried it! 

I cut out rounds of pastry, pressed them into tiny muffin tins, filled them with the Plantation mixture and baked them - just until lightly browned.  I kept them very soft and moist!  And talk about wonderful!  Tiny bites of coconut and chocolate chips in the Plantation Pie filling!  What a great idea from Tracey!  (I love to "chat" on line or on the phone about food - can you tell?)

New Serving Suggestions?

We've been busy compiling new recipes and new ways  to use our wonderful Taste of Gourmet products!  Our Consultants have been sharing their recipes and I'd love to get input from all our TOG customers!  Use the comment space on this page or email me directly at evelyntog@yahoo.com!  Nothing I like better than trying new recipes!

Morgan Wood, from Clarksdale, Mississippi, sent me this idea using our new White Chili! Morgan wrote, "The White Chili is my favorite and soooo easy to fix.  All you need is chicken, chicken broth and canned beans and you have a great meal that tastes like you have spent hours preparing it.  Serve it over baked flour tortilla chips and top with cheese, or serve it over rice.  What a wonderful meal for the cold nights we are having."  I absolutely loved it over rice - it's like Louisiana Red Beans and Rice and so healthy! 

I sure do want to hear YOUR serving suggestions!  Taste of Gourmet makes eating well and eating healthy so simple!

Definitely Snowing!

Tony and I are in Maine for a week visiting my son Kevin, Deanna and the children!  We brought Sage and Prescott with us to play in the snow with their cousins and SNOW it has!  Gorgeous on the trees, fun on the sled path in Kevin's back yard and freezing on our faces!  We've lived in a lot of places that had snow - but we have never seen THIS much snow!  Thank goodness, Deanna made Chowder to warm us all up - with haddock and corn muffins!  And I picked up some farmhouse cheese flavored with rosemary at Harris Farms today (where we went sledding for the the second time!)  We'll eat good again tonight!

It's Almost Valentine's Day - Think Chocolate!

We've been saying for years - "A Gift of Food is a Gift of Love!"  And it's really true - especially at Valentine's (or Mother's Day or ANY DAY!)  We've been shipping our Mississippi Mud Cake and our Royal Fudge Sauce out like crazy this week!  And it's not too late for YOU to order for Valentine's Day!  Deep, dark, rich chocolate - like one of our customers in Florida said, "That Fudge Sauce is to die for!"  I admit with no reservations that I often open my personal jar (hidden in the fridge) and dig in with a spoon!  I'm just sure that our Fudge is "Medicinal!"  Chocolate really IS a Gift of Love!

Busy People!

They say, "Busy people can get more done!"  Laurie Phillips, a TOG Consultant from New Albany, is living proof of that old wives tale!  Laurie called today to tell me that their new baby boy, Pearce, was born on Friday! I'm thrilled for them - they have a beautiful family.  Laurie's sister from Memphis was at the hospital on Saturday and mentioned she'll be needing some products soon.  Laurie told her where to find her Catalogs in the car, asked her to talk to her friends and Laurie would place their order this week!  From the hospital bed, Laurie's "working!"

That's pretty normal for Laurie though!  When Marlee was born, Laurie emailed a recipe to me the day they came home from the hospital!  Maybe she got hungry for some good food while she was in the hospital! Her pantry full of Taste of Gourmet can take care of that hunger!

God Bless your precious family Laurie!