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Snacking in the Kitchen

~ Culinary Adventures In & Out of the Kitchen. Recipes, Reviews, Culinary Musings.

Category Archives: Product Review

Yogurt Parfait ~ Ellenos Real Greek Yogurt

23 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by snackingkitchen in Breakfast, Dairy, Healthy, Nuts, Product Review

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Have you had breakfast yet?  For the last few days I’ve been eating Ellenos Real Greek Yogurt.  This locally hand crafted yogurt is exclusive to Pike Place Market and just might give you an extra reason to visit Seattle.  Super creamy and rich, it comes in many varities.  I enjoyed the passion fruit the most – extremely fragrant, with seeds from the passion fruit incorporated with the yogurt.  They pop and burst inside your mouth with every bite you take.

Today, I layered the lemon curd Ellenos yogurt together with their plain variety on the botton of the glass.  Then, sprinkled fresh raspberries and topped with granola.  Could breakfast get any better? 

Be sure to check out Ellenos the next time you are at Pike Place Market and let me know what your favorite flavor is.  Enjoy!

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Bertolli Meal Soup for 2 Giveaway – Tomato Florentine & Tortellini with Chicken

13 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by snackingkitchen in Giveaway, Lunch, Product Review, Soup

≈ 20 Comments

If you read my blog, you know how much I love soup.  Hot or chilled, brothy, pureed, or chunky, I love it all.  On most occasions I make my own soup.  On some occasions I go out for pho, and on special occasions I go to my parents’ for a bowl of dad’s borcht.

I hardly ever buy prepared soup, but was ready to give it a try when the Bertolli people contacted me and asked my review of their new line of Premium Meal Soups for 2.

I stopped by the frozen section at my local grocery store and picked up Tomato Florentine and Tortellini with Chicken Soup.

Scroll down to see what happens next and to enter a giveaway for a chance to try the soup for free!

I also picked up Tuscan-Style Beef & Vegetables Soup that I hope to try soon!

Here’s what the ingredients looked like directly out of the frozen bag.  To prepare the soup, I simply emptied the contents of the bag into a pot and added a cup of water.  Once the soup came to a rapid boil, I lowered the heat, covered the pot with a lid and simmered for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 The soup smelled fantastic.  To be perfectly honest, I would have been happy just with the tomato base – it was cheesy and sweet, creamy and delicious.  I would love to substitute the tortellini and chicken with a sourdough grilled cheese sandwich, but alas, this was not part of the deal.

Are you interested in trying the soup for yourself?  Enter the giveaway sponsored by Bertolli!
The lucky winner will receive:
  • Two tasting certificates for Bertolli Premium Meal Soups for Two
  • Stainless steel soup ladle
  • Woven oval bread basket
  • Bertolli reusable freezer bag

To enter, please leave a comment on this blog mentioning your favorite soup!  Be sure to include your email address so I can contact you in case you win.

To improve your chance to win:

  • Become a fan of Snacking in the Kitchen on Facebook
  • Follow me on twitter @snackingkitchen
  • Retweet this post
  • Subscribe to the blog
Good luck!  (Please be sure to mention in your comment if you have done any of the above for extra chance to win)
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Star Fine Foods Olive Oil Tasting at Cantinetta

27 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by snackingkitchen in Product Review, Restaurant Review, Seattle

≈ 1 Comment

I didn’t discover olive oil until my early twenties.  Growing up, the choice of oil was sunflower. This dark, golden yellow, aromatic, and rich oil made from sunflower seeds was used left and right to dress tomato and cucumber salads, fry potatoes with onions, and drizzle on top of shredded beets with lots of garlic, walnuts and prunes.  For cooking, vegetable oil was the staple, butter, just like olive oil, was pretty much missing from my daily diet.  I never heard the sizzle of butter in a hot pan, or smelled the grassy notes of olive oil, nor did I swirl a chunk of crusty bread in olive oil and balsamic vinegar to soak up its goodness.

My first taste of olive oil left something to be desired; I was not used to the aftertaste, but I was determined to make it my friend and an ally in the kitchen.  Since then, I grew to love olive oil and appreciate its benefits and use olive oil pretty much exclusively.  I was very excited when I got an invitation from Dana of Dana Treat to attend an olive oil tasting at Cantinetta sponsored by Star Fine Foods.  For the evening, Star Fine Foods partnered with Emran Chowdhury, the executive chef at the restaurant, to create a fantastic four-course menu to showcase different varieties of olive oil.


First Course ~ Antipasti: Prosciutto E Melone with Borges/ Star Keren Or Holy Land Olive Oil.  I have to admit, the pairing of prosciutto and olive oil from the Holy Land made me giggle just a bit (or perhaps, it was the bubbly kicking in).  The chef explained that this particular pairing showcased the oil’s buttery notes and low acidity, which complimented perfectly the higher acidity of the melon and prosciutto.  The oil was slightly spicy, which also enhanced the sweetness of the melon.

Second Course ~ Primi: Agnolotti with Local Figs, Goat Cheese and Lemon Verbena with Borges/Star Keren Or Holy Land Olive Oil.  This was perhaps my favorite dish of the night, possibly due to the combination of figs and goat cheese which immediately won me over.  I loved the delicacy of the pasta, made in house.  The fruitiness of the olive oil played nicely with the figs.

Third Course ~ Secondi: Olive Oil Poached Coho Salmon with Yellow Corn Puree and Swiss Chard with 100% California Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Chef Emran explained his use of California olive oil for poaching salmon – the oil is less fruity and has more grassy notes than the Holy Land oil.  He recommended to use this oil for dressing and vinaigrette recipes.

Fourth Course ~ Dessert: Olive Oil Polenta Cake with Olive Oil Gelato with Star Extra Virgin Olive Oil Mediterranean Blend.  The Mediterranean oil had a balance of grassy and floral notes, and fit somewhere in between the Holy Land and California oil in taste and color.  I have made olive oil polenta cake, popular in Italy, and loved this rendition – the polenta in the cake had a slightly coarse texture, yet as a whole, the cake had a very moist (sorry for the use of the word) and rich texture due to generous amounts of olive oil.

There was also plenty of wine involved, but sadly, I did not write down the names.  Also, as often happens at dinners, the lighting did not allow me to take decent photos of the later courses, and I’d rather not post unflattering pictures of the food.

Thank you, once again, to Dana, Cantinetta and Star Fine Foods for an educational and delicious evening, and for sending us home with a bottle of olive oil!  I’m excited to put the California Oil to use in my kitchen.

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Frozen in the Kitchen – Bertolli Steak, Rigatoni & Portobello Mushrooms for Dinner

13 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by snackingkitchen in Beef, Cooking, Pasta, Product Review, Vegetables

≈ 1 Comment

There isn’t much in my freezer.  Sure, I have a few trays of ice, and some individually frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts.  There’s also a bag with celery sticks (to be used for mashed potatoes) and some frozen bananas (that are more likely to be thrown away than being put to use in a banana bread).  I also keep nuts in the freezer, so there are a few bags of almonds and pecans – the pecans are from one of my students whose father has a pecan tree in his yard in Texas.

What you would never find in my freezer is a frozen entree meal.  Afterall, I cook, I eat, I microwave only to reheat.  But, when I received a coupon for a free Bertolli frozen meal, I decided to give it a try.  And this brings us to an evening when I was too tired to cook, and too hungry to wait for Thai take out.  So instead, I reached inside of my freezer and grabbed a bag of Bertolli’s Mediterranean Steak, Rigatoni & Portobello Mushrooms.

According to the bag, all you need is a skillet with a lid and 10 minutes.  I had it all, and was ready to get “cooking”.  I opened up the bag, to find its contents looking pretty good for something frozen.  Inside were pasta, slices of steak, cherry tomatoes, slices of mushrooms, yellow pepper, and frozen chunks of herb butter (according to the website, this was olive oil, I’m not so sure about it).

It was off to the skillet, to be cooked, covered for 4 minutes.  Disclaimer: I decided not to use all of the noodles, so the photo below is representative of mostly steak and vegetables.  
At the end of 4 minutes, I gave the pasta a stir, added sliced onions, a healthy pinch of red pepper flakes, and continued to cook for 6 more minutes.
It smelled quite delicious.  Upon immediate inspection, I think there was too much sauce for the amount of food.  But perhaps, this was because I didn’t cook all of the pasta.  
I was surprised how tender the steak was and how well the pasta came out.  The overall taste of the sauce, unfortunately was a bit bland and needed some tweaking.  I added fresh Parmesan cheese, julienne of basil, and freshly ground pepper.  This seemed to help a bit.  
Will I buy more Bertolli frozen meals in the future?  I think unlikely – I do enjoy cooking, and usually have the means, the know-how, and the time to do it.  But, if you are short on time, and have to go frozen, this might be a good option for you.  Bertolli really does beat a compartmental frozen TV tray meal.  Let me know if you have tried this before or if you plan on trying it in the future!
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New in the Kitchen

31 Tuesday May 2011

Posted by snackingkitchen in Kitchen, Product Review, Seattle

≈ 1 Comment

If sharing is caring, then I’m definitely cared for!

Yesterday, I got a delivery from my sister (aka Mango Tomato).  She recently attended Eat Write Retreat in Washington, DC where she was the official photographer for the conference.  As such, she got a pretty fabulous swag bag and generously shared some of the items with me!  Thanks 🙂  If you are interested, you can read about her experience as a photographer at a conference here.

SoftWorks OXO Stainless Steel LiquiSeal Travel Mug
Mine is actually magenta in color, which is even cooler!  And it’s BPA free, double wall insulated and spill proof.  Since I already have a tea mug, this will be dedicated to coffee.

OXO Soft Works LiquiSealâ„¢ Travel Mug - Silver (13.5 oz.)
Photo from Amazon.com

Multi-functional Apple-shaped Slicer Jacinth (in red)

Multi-functional Apple-shaped Slicer Jacinth
Photo from Gadgettown.com

OXO Good Grips Pepper Mill with Pink Peppercorns from My Spice Sage.  I love the fact that you can see exactly how much spice you have in the spice grinder. And having the hand-operated handle makes me feel like I’m using an ancient appliances.  Trying to figure out what to do with pink peppercorns.  Perhaps truffles! Any suggestions from you?

OXO Good Grips Pepper Mill
Photo from Amazon.com

And last, but not least, my own purchase!  Hand-painted ceramic bowls from Ross.  Now, there’s a story about these bowls that I am not going to choose on line, but if you care to find out what it is, please let me know!  These bowls are not exactly what I was looking for, but they are definitely an improvement from eating out of a plastic bowl.

What’s next in the kitchen?  I’m thinking I am in definite need of a food processor and hand mixer.  What’s on your list?
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My Weekly Kitchen Obsession: Cheese, Crackers & Marmalade

24 Tuesday May 2011

Posted by snackingkitchen in Bread, Cheese, Cooking, Fruit, Product Review, Seattle, Snacks

≈ 2 Comments

Have you seen Andy Cohen on Bravo TV?  One of his shows is Watch What Happens: Live, where Andy hosts one or few guests from the popular Bravo reality show.  What does this have to do with my blog?  Well…patience!  One of the segments on the show is Andy’s list of things he has been obsessed with during the week – it can be an outfit, a particular word, or an incident on one of the shows.  So I thought – why not share my weekly obsessions with you?  Here we go!

While going through a stash of papers, I found a gift certificate to ChefShop that I received last year as a gift from Queen Anne Farmers Market.  At the time, I was working at Kaspars, and Chef Kaspar and I did a demonstration at the market, grilling pizzas – vegetable and rhubarb.  Fastforward a year later, the certificate was to expire the next day, and I had some shopping to do.

I received great service from ChefShop and was opening a box packed with goodies just a few days later.

This weekend I had the perfect occasion to try some of the goodies from the ChefShop box.  A good friend from Dallas was visiting me in Seattle, and as if we weren’t already eating and drinking enough, we thought that a cheese and cracker platter would be a lovely snack. 
And now we are getting to my weekly obsession: Yuzu Marmalade, La Panzanella Garlic Flavored Mini Croccantini and Extra Sharp White Tillamook Cheddar (ok, the cheddar came from QFC, but the other two components were from ChefShop).



photo from ChefShop



Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit that is said to taste similar to a cross between tangerine and lemon.  Depends on your taste buds, you might pick up different notes.  This Yuzu marmalade has only three ingredients – yuzu, sugar, and honey.  To me, the marmalade taste a bit like orange marmalade, but more floral, with a bit touch of bitterness.  But oh, so delicious!
The La Panzanella Mini Croccantini might be more addicting than potato chips.  They are dry and superbly crisp, with a slight hint of garlic.  Try one, and you’ll have a hard time stopping.
photo from ChefShop

The choice of cheese was easy.  I wanted something local, thus Oregon Tillamook, and delicious – Extra Sharp Cheddar.  Creamy and smooth, the sliced Cheddar made a perfect topping for the La Panzanella Croccantini spread with Yuzu Marmalade.

photo from Tillamook

To round up our fruit and cheese platter, we added slices of fuji apple and some Wheat Thins (to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t be bothered with Wheat Thins and concentrated completely on La Panzanella crackers).



And if you couldn’t tell by now, I’m also obsessed with orange and turquoise colors, and often put the two together.

Now that I’ve shared my weekly obsession with you, won’t you share yours?  Let’s try to keep it to the kitchen theme 🙂

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