Drumm and Duck Fat Ciabatta - Bobolink Dairy!

by Melody Kettle in ,

Frolic, Baudolino, Cave Aged Cheddar, Drumm (left to right)During last month's thaw, I took a trip with Chef Michael Carrino out to Milford, New Jersey to visit artesanal cheese mecca - Boblink Dairy. 

I first sampled the unique cheeses, such as Drumm, Jean-Louis, and Baudolino, at the Summit Food and Wine Festival last September, where I also met proprietor, Jonathan White.  

On our visit, Nina, Jonathan's wife, taught me about the lifecycle of Bobolink Cheese. From the grazing fields, to the milking gallery, to the vats, and finally to the tasting in the bakehouse.

Watch the video below for see Bobolink for yourself:

 

If you're not up for taking the trip to Milford, you coould order cheese from Bobolink on-line. 

I left the Bakehouse with a Duck Fat Ciabatta and some phenomenal "crazy" Drumm.  Once we arrived home, it was gone in an hour!  For me it's all about the Drumm and Duck Fat Ciabiatta.

For the entire visit stay tuned to Montclair TV34, HomeTowne TV, and SOMA TV. 

And the Meatball Making Assistant is . . . . Susan Horan!

by Melody Kettle

As promised, Johnny "Meatballs" DeCarlo has choosen a winner to be his Meatball Making Assistant for this Friday's Hot From The Kettle video. 

Here's what Johnny wrote:

There were a lot of great answers to the question: "If you could have a dinner date with any celebrity chef, who would it be? And what would you eat?" My favorite response goes to Susan Horan who wrote in the following answer…

Seeing how i dont know to many of the zillion celebrity chefs that are all over the tv these days, i'd have to say i'd want to have dinner with my mother. she was the single most important inspiration behind melody's "hot from the kettle" endeavor and i dont think any "celebrity" has a dam thing on my mom. Not to mention she cornered the market on that "secret ingredient" in every meal....love. What would be better than that.
Susan Horan

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A Peek Inside the 2011 New Jersey Food and Wine Festival

by Melody Kettle

Inside The Third Annual New Jersey Food and Wine Festival

by Melody Kettle in , , ,

Francesco Palmieri, The Orange Squirrel 

Last night, over 1000 people attended the  Grand Tasting at the New Jersey Food and Wine Festival. 

Some of the finest chefs from New Jersey and New York were in attendance serving up creative fare, while chatting it up with guests, sipping wines and sampling each other's dishes.

The playful, artistic, and extraordinarily talented chef, oh-so-cool, owner of The Orange Squirrel, Francesco Palmieri, riffed on a NJ favorite, creating a shooter of Bufala Mozzarella with Marinara foam. 

James Laird, of Seranade served over 800 plates of supremely executed Veal Carpaccio with Potato Gnocchi. 

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New Jersey Food & Wine Festival 2011

by Melody Kettle

From March 11 – 13, the upscale, four-season property, Crystal Springs Resort, in Hardystown and Vernon, NJ, will host the third annual New Jersey Food & Wine Festival.  The three-day bacchanal will feature lavish dinners and copious elixirs of red, aged, and bubbly persuasions, and even a few cigars.

The weekend’s events will include dinners, tastings, and seminars featuring celebrity chefs and New Jersey natives such as Food Network’s newest Iron Chef Marc Forgione, Top Chef Season 7 Winner Kevin Sbraga, Top Chef All-stars contestant Angelo Sosa, Umberto Campos, Jr, owner of Lorena’s in Maplewood, Thomas Ciszak of Chakra in Paramus, Ariane Duarte of CulinAriane in Montclair, James Laird of Serenade in Chatham, and Franceso Palmieri of The Orange Squirrel. 

Gary's Wine & Marketplace is the only retail sponsor of the event and will be pouring some of Gary's private label GF and Going Forward wines, plus a couple of others

Special guest will be Pino Luongo, signing his new book, “Dirty Dishes: A Restauranteur’s Story of Passion, Pain and Pasta.”

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Share Our Strength’s campaign to end childhood hunger in the United States by 2015. 

Photo from 2010 NJ Food & Wine Festival

Share Our Strength® is the leading national organization working to end childhood hunger in America. We weave together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch every at-risk child and make sure no kid in America grows up hungry. Visit www.strength.org and learn more about our goal of ending childhood hunger in America by 2015.



Top O' The Mornin To Ya!

by Melody Kettle in , , ,

I love a good Irish Pub as much as I love conch shacks and cured pork. St. James Gate Publick House, 167 Maplewood Avenue, is everything an Irish Pub should be and a wee bit more.

St. James exudes the quintessence of an Irish Pub; it s warm, inviting, convivial, comfortable, and just a little bit dark.

The story behind the restaurant is just as authentic as the floor boards, which were sourced from Guinness vats in Dublin, Ireland.

The tale goes something like this: Irishman, John Meade, spent thirty years as a beer salesman. He did well, but yearned to become a Publickan. In 2003, he did just that and transformed the location on Maplewood Avenue from a men s clothing store into St. James Gate Publick House, taking the very name from the bottle of Guinness. To make his pub as authentic as possible, Mr. Meade imported furniture from Ireland, and even integrated wood from the Guinness vats into the wooden bar floor.

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