We wish you all a Happy New Year - Be sure to visit us often at www.SplitBeanCoffee.com It is with great pride that we introduce the following Split Bean Coffee News Feature. As some of you may know, Paul is a Native Son of Oklahoma, and it is always extra special when you receive press coverage in your Home State. Eventhough Paul left OK as a small boy, he takes great pride in the following piece by Sharon Dowell of The Oklahoman.
Food Products, Gadgets, head list of Favorites
The Oklahoman
Sampling new food products before they’re available to consumers and testing new kitchen gadgets are just some of the fun aspects of this job.
During a year’s time, I see hundreds of news releases about new food products, cookbooks, kitchen appliances, gadgets and trends.
One new product I sampled and immediately loved was the Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice whole grain brown rice that’s microwaved right in the pouch in just 90 seconds. The product is now a pantry staple. Priced about $1.50 per package, it’s perfect for two people, with little left over, and it’s a great tasting whole-grain food.
I admit to having a bag of the Back to Nature Classic creme sandwich cookies (about $2.50) in my pantry right now. These cookies don’t have all that stuff I don’t need in cookies when I want to enjoy a sweet and chocolatey treat now and then. The cookies aren’t a “health” food, but they can be enjoyed occasionally. And they do taste better than the “other” sandwich cookie.
Here are some other products I had the chance to sample or try out this year:
I was quite impressed with the flavor of the light roast coffee from Split Bean Coffee, a California micro-roaster that also specializes in South American shortbread cookies or alfajores, made in small batches with eight different fillings.
Split Bean co-owner Roger Navas-Balladares, whose parents are originally from Nicaragua and Peru, teamed with Paul A. Stone, who lived in Lawton as a child and whose family has roots in the South, to form their online coffee and artisan food company in 2003.
They also offer chocolate truffles, including a chile variety I’ve not tasted, and marshmallows in a variety of flavors, as well as great almond toffee and peanut brittle. Using family recipes and dedicated to preparing their specialties in small batches, the two have customers in 50 states and 18 countries. They intend to keep the company small and concentrate on quality products. “We want to keep that artisan quality,” Navas-Balladares told me recently in a telephone interview.
This was a banner year for new food magazines, with the release of several titles including Every Day With Rachael Ray. Response to its release in late October was so overwhelming that publisher Reader’s Digest Association had to print additional copies to meet demand for the Food Network star’s publication. Look for it bimonthly in 2006. Cooking With Paula Deen magazine debuted during the holiday season, while Cook’s Illustrated’s Cook’s Country has been around most of 2005. The eclectic Chow magazine puts a whole new spin on what Martha Stewart started years ago with her food-oriented magazine. Check out each magazine to see which interests you most.
I love the simplicity of Riedel’s new “O” series wine tumblers. These stemless and lead-free glasses are perfect for casual entertaining. They’re available in sets of two for chardonnay, syrah, burgundy, bordeaux, etc., priced at $20-$28 at some local shops and online at www.williams-sonoma.com. I splurged and invested in a set for reisling and another for cabernet wines.
Time-starved cooks are investing in bigger and more sophisticated slow cookers. But regardless of how much money you shell out for a slow cooker, the dilemma remains how to clean them with ease. Heat-resistant Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners keep food from baking on, so you just toss the liner after one use. They fit round and oval cookers that are 3- to 6.5-quarts. A box of four liners costs about $2.50 and can be found in grocery stores.
A good friend clued me in on the wonderful Mundial knives several years ago when she gave me Le Cordon Bleu’s Mundial bread knife with a bright blue handle. The same friend also gave me a large Mundial chef’s knife with a beautiful red handle. I love how both knives perform. Most recently, I tried Mundial’s smaller (4 inch and 6 inch) chef’s knives with the Granton edge. The edge, which looks like grooves (the company describes it as pockets), helps the knife glide through whatever food you’re cutting. I liked how these knives, part of the Future line with stainless handles, felt in my hand. They’re priced from $34 for individual pieces; the knives are also available in sets.
Zyliss rolled out a variety of kitchen tools this year, including the smoothglide peeler (about $7) in fall colors including eggplant purple, pumpkin orange, squash yellow and gourd green. Look for spring colors to be introduced next year. The company also has a clever set of four interlocking corn holders, colorful silicone spatulas with long handles and a handy contour grater with handle.
Another new brand of colorful and handy gadgets I love using is Chef’n. Its dual-ended silicone spatulas, Kitchzen silicone whisks in bright colors and its unusual avocado slicer, papaya and melon slicer and the Grapefruiter citrus segmenter are carried by some home accessory stores.
Don’t give away that dust-covered bread machine just yet. I would never give up my trusty Zojirushi bread machine, but when Cuisinart introduced a $99 stainless steel convection bread machine this year, I couldn’t resist buying the new model. It works wonderfully with whole-grain flours.
With hundreds of new cookbooks published this year - covering just about every topic imaginable - it was refreshing to see a different type of food book appear in the fall.
The Kitchen Sisters’ “Hidden Kitchens” (Rodale, $27.50) is a mix of stories and recipes collected by Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, who’ve produced The Kitchen Sisters’ radio stories on National Public Radio for a quarter-century.
They asked listeners to share stories of disappearing food traditions and people who have lives intertwined with food. Among stories they detail in the book is a NASCAR racing pit kitchen, the man behind the phenomenal popularity of the George Foreman grill, and the successes and misfortunes of an Indiana farm family.
These are a few of my favorites as I look back at 2005. You may not agree with every one of my choices and that’s fine, because not all of us have the same tastes. One thing is certain though: We can look forward to many more great - and some not so great - food products, gadgets, appliances and books in the year ahead.
