Blog featuring Recipes Incorporating the Sunchowder’s Emporia Product Line

Photo Shoot with Edible Orlando Magazine..an afternoon to remember

by Wendy Read on February 5, 2012

This past Sunday the weather was so perfect here in Winter Park, warm sun, slight breeze, perfect mid-70′s. I had received an invitation to Pam Brandon’s home several weeks earlier to be a part of a photo shoot for the Spring Issue of Edible Orlando. We were nominated for the best local artisan food find!!! The winner’s have not been announced yet, but we were so honored to be nominated and included in such a wonderful round up of hard working artisans. I had been wanting to meet Tony of Big Wheel Provisions and there he was in the flesh, grilling up fabulous shrimp, onion greens and a lamb donated by Trish at Deep Creek Ranch. He is so dedicated and passionate about what he does, and the food that he cooked was spectacular.

Tony Carving the Lamb

Pam (editor), Katie Farmand (editor) and Kendra Lott (Publisher) of Edible Orlando organized and put together this beautiful table and event! Breadsticks and Boule were provided by Olde Hearth Bread Company. Heirloom tomatoes were provided by Melanie and Roger of Waterkist Farms, you can read a bit about them here: Waterkist Farms. Melanie and Roger are my next door neighbors at the Winter Park Farmer’s Market, and it was such a pleasure to see them socially and so relaxed!!! Raw Blue Cheese was provided by David and Dawn of Winter Park Dairy. Here is a picture of Dawn with one of her twin girls!

Dawn and onf of her beautiful twin Daughters

And, of course, Fresh fruit jams were provided by our company. Here is a photo below of our Raspberry Pepper Jam and Florida Grape Tomato Jam paired with a slab of Raw Blue Cheese.

Raspberry Pepper and Florida Grape Tomato Jams paired with Blue Cheese

Again, my heartfelt thanks goes out to both Pam and her husband for opening up their gorgeous home to us and for the entire team for putting together such a beautiful event and afternoon. I love feeling and being a part of this community. Pam, her daughter Katie and Heather McPherson are currently working on publishing a Florida Farm to Table Cookbook that I can’t wait to purchase too!

{ 9 comments }

Crusty Cheese and Onion Muffin Disaster

by Wendy Read on January 8, 2012

Crusty Cheese Muffins

My first time out baking in the New Year and ahhh….these did not turn out as well as I would have liked! I joined in again for Muffin Monday, as the last muffins that I made a few months back with Baker Street were delicious, wish I could say the same for these The original recipe was printed in the Women’s Weekly and I am sure it is a great one, all of their recipes are delightful–I have a collection of these books that I was able to get while I was in the UK and they are also sold in Canada. I have also purchased them online here Australian Women’s Weekly. The photos are fabulous and their recipes are triple tested and usually come out perfectly. I even purchased a set of Aussie measuring cups (as their cups measure slightly different to American cups), perhaps I should have used those too! I MODIFIED the original recipe as that is the fun of participating in the blog hop–hummmm…. I think I should have left well enough alone! The original recipe can be found on Baker Streets Blog link below. Here is my rendition:

Ingredients:

¼ cup flour
1 ½ Tbsp butter
1 teaspoon water
1 tablespoon Canola Oil
6 oz onion minced finely
1 Garlic Clove minced finely
2 1/2 cups flour
1 Tsp Salt
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup Parmesan Shredded Fresh
1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese
chopped fresh chives, added to topping only
1 egg lightly beaten
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
½ cup canola oil

Method

1. Place 1/4 cup flour into a small bowl, rub in butter, and mix in just enough water to bind the ingredients.
2. Press dough into a ball, cover, freeze about 30 minutes or until firm.
3. Prepare twelve hole standard American cupcake tin, and part of another, this recipe made 17 muffins for me.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the chopped onion and garlic.
5. Cook, stirring, until soft and lightly browned; set aside to cool.
6. Place flour into a large bowl.
7. Stir in half the onion, half the cheese.
8. Add the egg, buttermilk and extra oil.
9. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin.
10. Coarsely grate the frozen dough into a small bowl and quickly mix in the remaining onion and cheese and chives. Sprinkle the mix over the muffins.
11. Bake at 395 degrees for about 24 minutes

My recommendations for changes are as follows. Please visit the original muffin monday post on Baker Street which will have the Women’s Weekly recipe–I would try the original recipe first as I was not pleased with the texture or taste of these muffins after I made my own changes to the recipe which I have listed for you above. The muffins look beautiful in the photos, but the batter stuck to the papers and the taste was bland to say the least! I would have to recommend greasing the tins well and not using paper cups, I would say to use Cheddar Cheese only, not to substitute Parmesan. The original recipe also called for self-raising flour which I never keep on hand, I added salt and baking powder to plain four, but still think the recipe could use either one more egg or more baking powder if you use the ingredients list that I have posted above. This is the first time I have baked since the holidays and what a disaster!!! I am looking forward to a new recipe next week!!!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

{ 3 comments }

Holiday Gift Guide Ideas from Sunchowder’s Emporia

December 7, 2011

With the holidays approaching, and the flurries of gift guides that are appearing, I wanted to put together a little gift guide of my own featuring some of my most popular products! Lots of love and care go into each jar and my preserves and chutneys are made the old-fashioned way, slow-cooked in French Copper Pots. [...]

Read the full article →

Driscolls Berry Moments

November 6, 2011

On November 4, I was fortunate to be able to participate in a Virtual Tasting Event put on by Driscolls Berries. This was in essence a live twitter party in which we syncronized our twitter accounts by logging into a Driscoll’s Platform using hashtag #driscollsmoments. We then joined a live video stream to watch [...]

Read the full article →

Muffin Monday – Apple Buttermilk Muffins

November 6, 2011

I have been wanting so much to participate more in the blogging world as I not only like to make my jams, pickles and chutneys, I love being able to use them both to bake with and to cook with in my own kitchen. I also find that my customers appreciate it when they can [...]

Read the full article →

Biscoff Brown Butter Pumpkin Bars

October 28, 2011

I adore Biscoff cookies and have been wanting to incorporate them into a recipe that also uses my products. What could go better with Biscoff than Pumpkin I ask you? It is my favorite time of the year here in Florida. The humidty starts to lower and all the fabulous squash comes into season–much like [...]

Read the full article →

Apple Spiced Sour Cream Coffee Cake for R’ock-tober #baketogether

October 21, 2011

I am so excited to be participating in my very first “Baketogether” with Abby Dodge for the very fun month of October. We are taking her classic coffee cake recipe and changing it up. I can’t wait to see all the variations that will be posted up with links in the comments section of her blog. [...]

Read the full article →

Whole Grape Jam

October 14, 2011

I have always wanted to try to make grape jam, but the needs of my business have always taken a front row to lots of things I would like to try. I love grapes, I get asked for grape jam probably once a week at my farm stand, so I scoured the internet to research and find some recipes I could work [...]

Read the full article →

Trip to New Orleans for IFBC

October 9, 2011

I visited New Orleans at the end of August to attend my first Food Bloggers Conference. I want to write a separate post about my experience there, but I just had to post up my story first about a little shop called Leah’s Pralines . There was much swag to be had at the conference, and [...]

Read the full article →

The Season for Peach Crisp

August 13, 2011

Peaches began to appear in Florida three months ago! I have watched them come in from Georgia, South Carolina and hopefully very soon, gorgeous peaches from Pennsylvania. Our local Florida peaches were small and beautiful, but I must say they are getting better and better as we move up the coast. I have canned some [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries