Upon our return to the west coast, we have randomly chosen TWO lucky winners of our NASFT Fancy Food Show Giveaway Contest. Congratulations to:

Karla Sceviour
Melissa Lawrence

These lucky winners will receive a sampling of some of our favorite Saucy Mama products, as well as a bright red colander and signature Saucy Mama apron- a value of nearly $100. Thanks to everyone who has shown support for Saucy Mama; we appreciate you all! Stay tuned for more upcoming contests…

Back in Oregon…

After five fun and food- filled days, we’re back home in Oregon and ready to show you some great pictures and video from our trip to New York. While we were rather busy chatting with people and cooking up some food samples, we had such a good time. There were international vendors featuring a cultural smattering of treats, and the big trends were evident. This year, new products were all about Gluten-Free, Allergy-Free and we saw lots and lots of HEAT infused into new products.

Our new Saucy Mama Sweet Heat Marinade was met with HUGE accolades. We loved watching people take a bite, chew a few times, and then see their eyes widen as the said, “WOW!” Yes – that’s the kind of reaction this delightful marinade received. And our chicken sautéed in our Saucy Mama Hot Wing Sauce drew crowds – the scent wafting from our booth kitchen just drew people in!

Speaking of Gluten-Free, you should know that Saucy Mama has been ahead of the trend for some time, as more than 2/3 of our ENTIRE collection has been Gluten-Free from the beginning!
Gluten-Free Saucy Mama products include:

Zesty Cocktail Sauce
Smoky Garlic Mustard
Chipolte Mustard
Creamy Horseradish
Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing
Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives
Cocktail Onions
Garlic Stuffed Olives
Jalapeno Stuffed Olives
Pimiento Stuffed Olives
Lime Stuffed Olives
Dirty Martini Olive Juice
Parmesan Garlic Marinade
Sweet Onion Marinade
Spicy Garlic Wing Sauce
Hot Wing Sauce

Congratulations again to our big winners! We’ll be taking another contest live very soon, so please stop by again – or subscribe to our blog posts so you can be the first to know when our next contest launches!

We’re gearing up for the Fancy Food Show in New York this week – always an exciting time for us, as we get to unveil a lot of the new marinades and mustards I’ve been cooking up in my kitchen the past few months.

As we get ready to head out the door, we wanted to give you a chance to sample some of the goods that has made Saucy Mama so popular this past year!  So we’ve put together a basket of treats to give to TWO lucky readers, valued at nearly $100 each!

In addition to the bright red colander you see in the picture, winners will receive a signature Saucy Mama handcrafted apron, as well as the following Saucy Mama condiments:

- Lime Chipotle Marinade

- Sesame Ginger Marinade

- Hot Wing Sauce

- Raspberry Viniagrette

- Sweet Onion Marinade

- Backyard Brat Mustard

- Champagne Honey Mustard

- Chipotle Mustard

You can enter as many times you like, by doing one or all of the following:

1) Leave a comment and like our FB page at www.facebook.com/SaucyMama

2) Follow SaucyMamaCafe on Twitter (www.twitter.com/saucymamacafe) & Tweet about this giveaway:  “I just entered to #win a $100 sampling of @SaucyMamaCafe treats & kitchen gadgets. You can too! http://bit.ly/b8QZcC”

3) Subscribe to our blog

4) Leave a comment here on our blog.

5) 7) Send this giveaway link to 5 of your friends and let me know you did or post this link as your FB status

6) Bring a friend! Tell a friend to join our Facebook fanpage and let us know by leaving a comment on FB or here on our blog.

Like we said, you can enter just by doing ONE of these things.  Or increase your odds by trying any mix of the options listed above. It’s up to you.  We’ll leave this contest open through the end of the Fancy Food Show, on June 30. So please make sure to spread the word!

We’re so grateful to you for letting your friends know about Saucy Mama, and we hope to give you the chance to try out some of these great time-saving and DELICIOUS dinner solutions for yourself!

Thanksgiving came and went so fast!  Actually planning was pretty darn easy now that Irene and Chris have it at their house in Tualatin.  I love of having adult children.  Irene is wonderful; she is a just great at putting a party together while handling being a Mom with ease.  Actually Irene and Chris are a great team and it is fun watching them work together.  All I had to bring was an opening act cocktail, along with an appetizer.  For the main course I made Cranberry Whiskey Mustard Sauce to go along with Irene’s turkey.  For desert I made Grandma Winkie’s Pumpkin Pies.  Grandma Winkie is Jan’s mother and got that name when the boys were very small and she read them a favorite children’s book whose main character just happened to be Grandma Winkie.   The name stuck.

I have a new favorite Whiskey “Snake River Stampede.”  It comes from the folks at Indio Spirits in Cottage Grove, Oregon.   http://www.indiospirits.com/ .  The taste is very smooth with notes of caramel.  I also have a favorite author of cocktail books and that is A.J. Rathbun.  A.J. has a new book out “Dark Spirits” and I decided to use a recipe from that book for a cocktail called WOW made from whiskey, orange juice and water.  It was perfect for our Thanksgiving, and I’m sure it’s going to be fantastic for Christmas.  Before I give you the recipe for WOW I want to highly recommend A.J.’s books, the cocktail recipes are terrific and the books are just plain fun to read.  A.J is a very entertaining fellow.  If you want to check out his blog it is http://www.ajrathbun.com/ .  You can order A.J.’s books from our website.

WOW

2 ounces Snake River Stampede Whiskey

1 ½ ounces freshly squeezed orange juice

1 ounce simple syrup (recipe follows)

2 ½ ounces hot water

Orange twist for garnish

Add the whiskey, orange juice and simple syrup to a large mug

Heat the water to almost boiling (this is where an instahot really comes in handy

Pour water into mug, and stir briefly.  Twist the orange twist over the top and drop it in.  As A.J. says, “WOW indeed.”

A variation for the young ones and non-imbibers in the group:  Take the whiskey out of the equation; up the orange juice by 1 ounce; the simple syrup by ½ ounce and the water by1/2 ounce; and add ¼ teaspoon ground cloves to the mug.

I am going to make a pitcher of the orange juice, whiskey, simple syrup mixture and have another insulated pitcher of hot water so that the guests can make their own drinks.

I am going to stop by my local grocery store deli for my appetizer.  Anyone who has read this blog knows that when in a rush the olive bar and cheese counter are my best friend.  I’ll pick up a nice crusty baguette, cut it into thin slices, arrange it on a platter with sliced hard salami and wedges of cheese, put out bowls of olives and marinated vegetables and I’m done.  Of course I will put out Saucy Mama Mustard to compliment everything.

I’ll make the cranberry sauce a couple of days before Thanksgiving and bring it to Portland with me.

Whiskey Mustard Cranberry Sauce

¾ cup Snake River Stampede Whiskey

¼ Harlequin Orange Liqueur (or whatever orange liqueur you happen to have laying around)

1 cup sugar

1 – 12 ounce package fresh cranberries

¼ cup Willamette Valley Sweet Hot Stone Ground Mustard

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

Bring whiskey, orange liqueur, and sugar to a boil in a heavy medium sized saucepan stirring to dissolve sugar.  Add cranberries and mustard, return to a boil.  Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and stir in orange peel. Allow to cool to room temperature.  If not using immediately refrigerate until ready to use.  Makes about 2 ½ cups.

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!

Yesterday, Mark from our office, said that he had gotten and e-mail from one of the trucking companies we deal with for a great sounding sandwich using our Aviator Brown Ale Honey Mustard.  I am always up for a good sandwich, so I had Mark forward the e-mail. It was from Annette Morris at YRC Trucking’s Yakima Office and wow it did sound really good. She calls it Morris’s ABC Sandwich.
The ABC in the sandwich were apple, bacon and Cheddar.   I made the sandwich just as Annette instructed and it was delicious, but I am never able to just leave a recipe alone so I decided to do the whole thing as a panini.  Man, that gooey melted cheese with the cool, crisp apple and sweet, smokey bacon was dynamite!  Thank you Annette.

And don’t forget, I’m still giving away THREE 6-bottle condiment packages to three random posters who leave me a comment on my blog this week!  Tell me about your favorite condiment flavor right now, and on Friday I’ll select three people at random who will receive a hearty collection of my Saucy Mama condiments!

Morris’ ABC Sandwich

1/2 Sweet Crisp Apple (The Fuji Apples looked great at the store so that’s what I used)
2 slices sharp cheddar cheese (I used Tillamook Extra-sharp and it was
terrific)
2 slices bacon (crisp cooked)
Aviator Brown Ale Honey Mustard

Spread a thin layer of mustard on both slices of bread.  Layer in cheese, bacon and apple slices.  Enjoy.

My variation….Assemble the sandwich leaving out the apple layer. Butter the outside of the bread.  Place the sandwich in a heated panini press or in a heated skillet and weight the top (I use another heavy skillet).  Cook until golden brown on both sides and the cheese is melted.  Open the sandwich and put in the apple layer.

Freelance writer Carrie Jafee-Pickett

was kind enough to visit me at the Barhyte booth during the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco last month.  Loved loved this pic and just had to share!  Thanks Carrie!

Jan and I have made it to Palm Springs and it is pouring rain and cold. I am sitting in our living room watching the steam rising from the pool.  It is beautiful with the palm trees in the background.
 
The house is great.  Very mid-century modern.  I love it.
 
I backed the ice chest with some things from my freezer at home, that I thought would be good for barbequeing down here.  For our  first dinner I planned a salmon fillet that had been given to us by a friend who had been fishing in Vancouver B.C.  I totally scrapped the going outside to the barbeque out of the dinner plans.  It’s wet and 45 degrees out there!  I am cooking it the oven.

Jan and I bought some toasted shelled pistachio nuts on our road trip down so I figure they will be great for the crust along with some whole wheat bread  we found at a small bakery in Alamo, Nevada.  I had also brought parmesan cheese from home that will be good mixed in.  We also have lemon, orange and grapefruit trees in the back yard of house to choose from for cooking.  For this meal I choose lemon.

 
Salmon Fillet with Pistachio Nuts and of course,
               Willamette Valley Sweet N Hot Stone Ground Mustard

 
1/4 cup Willamette Valley Sweet N Hot Stone Ground Mustard
3 Tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup chopped pistachio nuts
1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 lemon cut wedges for garnish
 
Mix together mustard and butter in a small bowl and set aside.
 
Mix nuts, bread crumbs, parmesan and lemon rind.
 
Place salmon fillet skin side down on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Brush with mustard-butter mixture.  Coat the fillet bread crumb mixture.
 
Place in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet.  It should reach an internal temperature of 165 F degrees and flake easily with a fork.
 
Season salmon fillet with salt and pepper.  Place salmon skin side down on a lightly greased baking sheet.