respublica

It's peachy

Believe it or not, local peaches are ripe and Eckert's Orchards in Belleville will begin selling theirs on Saturday at the Country Store. According to reports, this is the first time peaches have been ready to pick in May and, the total crop looks to be the largest on record.

You won't be able to go and pick your own peaches this weekend, but Eckert's will have them in baskets ready to sell in their store. May be worth a Memorial Day ride over to Green Mount Road. Take I-64 to the Shiloh exit and head south on Green Mount Road.

Michigan fruit crop devastated

Now this is really bad news. A late freeze after an early warmup may have destroyed 75 percent of Michigan's cherry crop plus peaches and apples.

If you've ever been to Michigan in summer, especially the western side along Lake Michigan you know how plentiful and absolutely wonderful the fruit is. The thought of it being mostly gone is more than awful. Michigan's fruit is some of the best tasting fruit in the nation.

Products you may or may not use

Reading through the new issue of Food Network Magazine I came across a few interesting items related to food. A couple of times my first reaction was, uh no. Some others were very cool.

Nays:

The inflatable ice cream maker for the swimming pool. You buy the round pint ball, fill one side with ice cream mix and the other side with rock salt and ice. Then you wrap it in the inflatable cover and toss it around in the pool or let it bob in the waves as people play. Supposedly you can also toss this thing around on dry land and the actions will turn the mix into ice cream.

A Stem nozzle which turns a lemon into a spray bottle.  Someone invented this.

Yeas:

Kebab Sliders which are made with two prongs to put chunks of meat or vegetables on for the grill. What makes this different is that there is a slider piece at the top which you'd use to pull the food off when done. Clever.

Grill clips which hold things like vegetables in one place so they don't fall through the grill grates.

The Bodum Frykat mini picnic grill is so cute in its different colors. This new item must be pretty popular, especially this fun lime green because it's temporarily out of stock, at least at Amazon. And here's a cool blue one.

 

 

This burger will have you seeing red

In honor of the Cardinals, the River City Casino Burger Brothers restaurant created a new hamburger. 

Named the Red Burg, the burger has brioche hamburger buns that incorporate a high-intensity-red food paste for a shocking presentation.  The burgers are topped with three pillows of toasted ravioli, speared to the bun. The seasoned burger patty is a half-pounder, and with the cheddar, lettuce, onion, tomato, pickle juice, ketchup, and mustard. 

Added together the burger, bun, cheese, 3 toasted raviolis, and the lettuce etc the total comes to 12 items. The 12 stands for the 12 St. Louis World Series titles.

Ok, who's going to try this first?

Illinois' Cottage Law makes farmers markets better

Granite City's Melting Pot Market hasn't allowed vendors to sell homemade goods like jelly and baked goods during its 3 years in business, but that has changed since Illinois enacted the Cottage Law. This law allows vendors to sell these things after passing a 15 hour sanitation test and paying a $50 registration fee.

Here's the line in the story which is arguably the most over the top description of saleable food I've ever read:

"The law allows non-potentially hazardous foods, like apple pie, dried oregano or peach preserves, to be produced in a home kitchen and sold at open-air farmers markets."

 It's nice to know apple pie and oregano are now not considered hazardous. 

In other news, Granite City has a farmers market?

The One, the Only Jambalaya Fest 2012

It's hard to know where to begin to describe what a perfect evening this was here at Concordia Seminary as the new plaza had its inaugural all campus event. The hard working kind members of The Village Lutheran church in Lacombe Louisiana drove up and prepared a cajun feast that was if not unworldly, certainly it was un-midwesternly. This was the 5th year they've come to fix a huge meal and the first year it was done once for the whole campus, students, faculty, staff and families. In previous years they'd done what could only seem the impossible, making the cajun meal twice in one day, once for students and staff and the second for faculty and their families. 

This year having everyone together at the same time saw an amazing sense of community as adults ate and talked and kids ate and played. Some dogs were in attendance too. The weather was perfect and so was the plaza. 

What follows is a quick look at some of the goings on.

Jambalaya

Catfish Po Boys

Amusing and non midwest chips

King Cake

Pastor Paul Ernewein (r) his wife Peggy have their picture taken with Joel Eden and his wife Erica. Paul heads up the yearly Jambalaya Fest and works unbelieveably hard to make it a success. Joel and Paul started seminary the same year.

People spread out all over, but staying near the plaza.

Kids played

Students had a great time enjoying the evening

Puppy dogs

Some students helped serve...beer

And admissions staff helped the people from Louisiana serve up jambalaya

The ladies of Lacombe

The Lacombe lemonade man who is actually from Chicago

Straining the oil at the end.

Time to think about resting

Not only did Pr Ernewein's church come and do all this work, but they presented Dale with a check from the congregation to go towards the work of the seminary.

Such good guys we have here at the seminary

But in the end, we all had to go home. Great memories.

I put up tons more pictures on facebook if you have a Facebook page and are interested.

Thanks Paul and Lacombe Louisiana folks, a perfect night.

And it's Cajun Day at Concordia Seminary

This will be the 5th year members of a church in Lousiana just outside New Orleans come to the campus and fix a huge cajun meal as a way of thanking students for going into the ministry and the faculty for preparing them. Today is the day. 

Last night we sat with the Louisiana folks as they fixed a supper for themselves (and us) that they called Chicago style cajun food. It was a big vat of perogies topped with peppers and onions and sausage. The sausage was of two kinds, smoked and alligator.

I did not know one of the choices was alligator until I'd finished eating.

This I like to believe was all smoked sausage.

Similar to

If you go to someone's Twitter page you'll often find Twitter recommending another page as "similar to".

While looking at Kruta Bakery's page this morning I see Twitter suggests that Schlafly Beer is similar to Kruta's.

Monday morning laugh.

If you have a hankering for Mexican food...

Better not wait til Saturday because you won't get near the door of any local Mexican restaurant in St. Louis due to Cinco de Mayo. In fact so many people go out on Cinco De Mayo that businesses near Mexican restaurants cordon off their parking lots so their own customers can find a place to park.

This doesn't just begin at dinner, it'll start crowding up during lunch and last til closing. Not that I'm trying to keep you from going, but be prepared.

Who knew officials in New York City had such a hatred for booze?

Officials in NYC's Department of Health Policy have been debating the idea of outlawing happy hours in the city. Also, they've been questioning "the legality of liquor in ice cream."

"High-level conversations have gone beyond merely "throwing pencils on the ceiling and seeing what sticks," a Health source revealed. 

Wow, someone doesn't have enough to do out there in NYC department of Health Policy. Maybe that department isn't even necessary. Save some city money and eliminate them not the happy hours.