At a recent conference that I attended there was a presentation sponsored by the Grain Foods Foundation. The presenter is a Nutritionist and a Nutrition professor. She had a somewhat lengthy power point with many facts, figures, and studies but the major point that she would come back to every two or three slides is that “A multitude of scientific studies have shown that by including between one and three servings of whole grains in your daily diet you can reduce your risk of most major diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer by 25%”. WOW! What a simple way to improve our health. There are many delicious foods at DLM that will assist you in adding whole grains to your diet. A few of my favorites are the Seed-Sational and Organic Sprouted Grain breads in our Bakery. One slice=one serving. In our deli you might try the Southweat Quinoa, Forbidden Rice Salad, or Whole Wheat Pine Club Salad. For an easy whole grain snack, pop yourself some popcorn, just go easy on the butter and salt!

You can replicate with ease most of the fabulous food we served at this years Food and Wine Show. We try and highlight some of our favorite items that you can buy or make with relative ease. You can do it at home-here are 3 to get you started.

First off those dates-3 ingredients Medjool dates, real Parmesan Reggiano, and DLM bacon. Pit the date, stuff with a small block of cheese and wrap with bacon. Bake around 350º until bacon is done the way you like it and serve. It is that simple!

The Icelandic Lamb recipe is one of my specialties and super easy-Season the rack of lamb with salt and pepper and then slather with Dijon mustard. Sprinkle chopped garlic and fresh rosemary on the mustard and roll mustard coated lamb in cornmeal. Roast at 375º until thermometer reads 125º Let rest before serving.

The Boneless Prime Rib used only 2 ingredients! DLM Prime Rib Roll coated heavily with DLM’s own Prime Rib Rub. We roasted it on high heat at 450º until well seared (about 30 minutes) and then lowered the heat back down to 350º until thermometer reads 125º  Let rest before serving.

For both the lamb and the Prime Rib it’s just smart to invest in a good probe Thermometer. It will take the guesswork out of the mystery of “Is it done yet?” We have great thermometers available in our meat departments and the School of Cooking. Come by and see us-we are here to help you be successful in your kitchen.

Are you interested in more -like how to do those Tapas? Or maybe you are interested in recreating some of those Hors d’ Oeuvres coming out of our Springboro Kitchen- 

Blog me back and I promise to tell all!

Our DLM homemade refrigerated pizzas from the Deli have been selling better then we ever thought they would. What’s the secret?  Instead of buying dough for the base from an outside supplier (believe me – we tried – and some of what we tried tasted like cardboard!) we went back to the drawing board – the Bakery that is – and developed our own.

A customer named John asked me where we got the wooden produce carts – the ones where the sides fold down for open display, as needed. Actually, they are antiques from the Canadian post office. We saw them being used by our friends and fellow share group partner, Urban Fare, while we were visiting their store in Vancouver, British Columbia. On learning they had some extra ones, we had them ship them to us.  So now you have it – produce carts originally used by the Canadian post office In Vancouver!

 DLM’s Chef Carrie Walters will be one of the judges deciding who makes the best chili in Oakwood (besides DLM).  Yours truly will also be in attendance with an entry but I don’t anticipate it being a contender as I’m a beginning Chili cooker.  Please stop by and say hello and try some of the best chili this side of Texas and help us raise money for the Relay for Life.  See the press release below for details.  I hope to see you all there!

Oakwood Relay For Life Chili Cook-Off November 8

 Do you make Oakwood’s best chili? Now is your chance to be crowned the best chili king or queen in Oakwood during a fun-filled family event.

The first Relay For Life Chili Cook-Off contest to benefit the American Cancer Society will be held November 8 from 1:00-4:00 pm at the Oakwood Community Center. The public is encouraged to enter their favorite chili recipe. The first twenty applicants will be accepted into the contest.

All Relay For Life teams are encouraged to enter, as the money collected from the chili cook-off will be given to teams to help reach fundraising goals. Bring the family! There will be lots of fun and entertainment for the kids.

New Relay For Life team members are encouraged to attend to learn more about, and register for, the Relay to be held on July 10 and 11.

To enter the contest, go to home.oakwoodrelay.com. The $10 entrance fee will be applied to an existing Relay For Life team or can be designated for any other team. Please bring six quarts of chili in a crockpot on the day of the event, and a heavy-duty extension cord. .

Five more days until the Food and Wine show! 

I told you all that I give another update on the menu as we got closer to the date. For my oyster fans out there- this year you are in for a serious treat-not only do we have those freshly shucked oysters on the half shell with all the trimmings -Chef Anne Kearney is making her version of Oyster Rockefeller featured at her restaurant, Rue Dumaine.

Wiley from the Meadowlark is making an Adobo Rubbed Pork that will just melt in your mouth. Yum! After spending some time talking food with Wiley, I decided to highlight another one  her favorite products from DLM-our Worcestershire sauce. At Meadowlark , she likes to make an incredible grilled cheese sandwich with it. I decided to turn that idea into a canape -make sure you try it as we come around to serve you on Thursday night.

At Jack’s Grill, we’ll be grilling off some housemade chorizo and serving mini pulled BBQ Sliders with a dollop of creamy coleslaw. We’ll also be going around with Brunisto, a type of bread cheese , served toasty warm, that is a new product from our Speciality Cheese Department.

I am sticking with my idea of the Icelandic Lamb Racks slathered with dijon mustard, garlic and dusted with cormeal that will be fabulous-come and get them while they last-we went through 50 racks of them last year!

Prime Rib, Classic Charcuterie, Tapas, several varieties of hot and cold Hors d’Oeuvres, Pizza, Pastries, Gelato ..Oh yeah, silly me-Did I forget to mention the wine and beer?!

While the kids are Trick-or Treating you can enjoy the eerie night with some ghostly concoctions fit for adults. We are bringing these wines out of the dark–they are not for the faint of heart. Dracula’s Blood Cabernet is red and rich and goes well with hearty “ghoulash”. Dracula’s Blood Merlot comes straight from his castle and is perfect for Halloween parties this weekend. One of my favorites is Dracula’s Blood Pinot Noir which is from Romania where all great vampires reside. Salut!

Our first stop was up a mountain. I started noticing all the trees looked the same. We stopped at the very peak across from a ski resort and there was a chestnut company. All those trees were chestnut trees. The company made a chestnut flour that would make a great substitute for wheat flour for customers who had trouble with wheat. Or at least we hoped they did. Due to consistancy problems they did add a little wheat to their flour. Again thru the interpreter we tried to find out if there was anyway of eliminating the wheat. And yes people still roast chestnuts on an open fire and you can buy them on street corners in Europe during the holidays. Hint, smaller chestnuts are tastier than the bigger ones.

They also joined us for lunch and served many of their products at a local cafe with a great view. Almost finished another knotch losened on my belt they wanted to serve a pasta dish. We were all shaking our heads no when they explained that they wanted us to try their mushroom sauce including the fresh porcini mushrooms they picked that morning. Okay, twist my arm. What happened next was a spirited discussion on what pasta to use. How will it look, will it capture the sauce, how chewey is the pasta, will it get too soft with the sauce. Lesson learned, not once did I have a pasta in Italy this trip that I recognized in the States. And yes what pasta you use does matter.

Next a pasta maker. I think everyone has bought a product and somewhere on the package there will be a black and white photo of the founder. I must admit that in the past when I saw this I did not give it much thought, but after this trip I understand that past family member was the reason they exist today and probably the heart and soul of the company. This pasta company was the only one to use only Calabria wheat. Most of the others incorporated some Canadian wheat. Price had a lot to do with it but also Canadian wheat to them brought a certain characteristic they were looking for. This company’s recipes came from the grandmother.  She was known to spend hours making her pasta. Her husband decided to start the company with her recipes with one clear guiding principle, don’t mess with her original recipes, hence only Calabria wheat. I could on about all the unique things they do to make it special but to taste it was all you needed to know. His grandfather truly loved the business and instilled that in his son and grandson. His grandson runs the business today and every time he gets a new customer he gets their business card and drops it off at grandfather’s gravesite and then talks to him about it.

Our last stop, again we were running two hours late was another olive oil producer. The olives were the same kind as before so it shared some charicteristics as the others we tasted, but the mouthfeel and finish were slightly different. We had another seven course meal waiting for us so we did not stay long. I think we made it an early night, got home at 1pm. Next a 100 year old drink. ¼/p>

Sure, the calendar says that it is mid-October and the leaves are beginning to rapidly change now, so naturally the wine enthusiast sort of gradually changes the evening glass of wine from warm weather white to cool weather red.  But I say not so fast.

I’ve been enjoying a tasty white wine from the south of France called Novellum Chardonnay and it is technically a Vin des Pays Cotes Catalanes from a small region near the Spanish border, un-technically, it is a fantastic value showing a bit of peach, honey, pear and tons of minerality with out the flabby, oily oak of domestic Chardonnay.

Enjoy it with a delicate fish dish from our seafood department, a roasted chicken or as I tend to do simpy enjoy a late fall Sunday afternoon on the patio with  a glass or two of this fine wine for $13

Maple Roasted Root Vegetables

Fall is finally here and I couldn’t wait for the change of seasons! This means our menu has changed a bit to reflect Fall’s seasonal foods and well worth the wait.  My new favorite soup is the Black Bean Pumpkin-Have you tried it yet? It is almost chili like in consistency, has bits of sweet smoky ham along with Spanish Sherry vinegar that gives this soup a flavor you can’t quite get enough of. I think we should start a fan club -its so good!

One of the perks of working here is that when I get home too late to make a home cooked meal, I just bring with me. I can get my kids to eat their vegetables when I  walk through the door with our Maple Roasted Root Vegetables. They not only look like Fall, they taste like it too! Oven roasting brings out the natural sweetness in beets, parsnips, rutabagas, sweet potatoes and carrots- I like to scatter some of them on a salad topped with a slab of warm goat cheese. My kids will eat them cold right out of the container.

Lately I have been stopping by our Deli to pick up German Potato Salad (which I begrudgingly admit, is better than my Mom’s) Its full of bacon, sliced hard boiled eggs, whole grain mustard and a splash of cider vinegar. I like to warm it up and serve it with some of our store made  sausages. I am getting hungry just writing this! Try some of my fall favorites and let me know what you think.