Gourmet Gift of the Day Blog

Founded in 1968, the Eden Organic Food Company is the oldest organic food company in America.  Based in the heart of the midwest, a majority of Eden’s products are grown within a few hundred miles of their home in Clinton, MI.  Eden believes in supporting local organic farmers as much as possible, and their beliefs have founded a company with worldwide connections.

I decided to try one of their organic pastas – specifically the Kamut Vegetable Spirals.  Most of Eden Farms pasta varieties are made with vegetables and Khorasan wheat, which is a high-protein wheat that many people with wheat intolerances can actually digest with no problems.  All of Eden’s organic pastas are also packaged in 100% recycled cardboard boxes.

I substituted these pasta spirals in a summer pasta salad last week-end, and no one at our family picnic even knew the difference!  What I knew though, was that they received more protein, less carbohydrates, organic food and an overall healthier product than what I would normally use.  I ordered a case of these spirals, so since the picnic we’ve had them a few more times – with alfredo sauce and chicken, hamburger and tomato sauce, and in a tuna salad.  The kids love the fun colors and shape of the pasta, and I love the positive aspects of the product – both nutritionally and organically.  A case of 6 – 12 ounce boxes sells for $18.41 plus shipping.

Some of the world’s most famous and best tasting beef comes from the heartland.  Corn-fed Kansas beef cattle provide moist, juicy and tender steaks filled with flavor!  My favorite cut of beef is a strip steak, the lean cut comes from one of the most tender parts of the animal.

Kansas City Steaks offers their strip steaks in four sizes – 8 oz, 10 oz, 12 oz or 16 oz.  We ordered 6 of the 10 oz cuts, which are currently on sale for $49.95.  When they arrived yesterday we tossed them on the grill and served them with a simple green salad.  Our friends came over for dinner and they commented a number of times on the deliciously tender cuts of beef that they were able to cut with a fork!  It was easy to grill these steaks to the exact temperature our guests requested because our order included a free gourmet guide that provided cooking tips and recipe suggestions.  We are repeat customers to this gourmet website and now our friends will be too!

My cousin Greg is a vegetarian and he loves to tell me about the tasty vegetarian dishes he finds so I can try them myself.  He’s also trying to convert me, but I use the excuse that “I must be able to eat meat for my job!”  It may not be entirely true, but I could never give up a great piece of steak or savory chicken dinner.

I did agree with Greg that the Vegetarian Chili offered by Cafe Iris is a great find!  The chili isn’t super-spicy, but warms you both with the temperature and the flavor!  It is thick and hearty, and is perfect to send with my husband when he heads up north in the fall for his hunting trip.  He loves something that can be cooking in the crock pot all day, and if my cousin joins him for the day then he can also join in on the meal rather than having to prepare a separate meal.  The chili is sold in a 24 oz jar, three jars can be purchased for $12 plus shipping.

High in protein, low in fat and 100% natural, these jumbo sea scallops are some of the best I’ve ever tasted!  Because they are caught fresh, hand-shucked and flash frozen, the U10 graded scallops (the largest size available) have a flaky texture and fresh taste.  We ordered a two pack (each pack is approximately 10 ounces) for $45.50 and received enough for 3 meals.  The website even offers delicious recipes for their items, we tried the Scallop and Tomato Pasta and were rewarded with a great tasting meal that even our kids enjoyed!

The folks at Alaska Harvest offer 10 different types of seafood, all of them freshly caught and quickly frozen for shipping througout the United States.  The company is in control of the product from the time it is caught until the time it is shipped to you, so there is no middle-man markup and they stand behind the quality of their foods 100%.  I highly recommend both the products and the customer service from this company.

This year my sister joined her new in-laws for Easter Dinner.  Rather than our traditional Ham dinner, her mother-in-law served a smoked turkey .  My sister’s in-laws have relatives in Texas, and they happen to live near the New Braunfels Smokehouse so they have been sampled many tasty meats created there.  They sent a Peppered Smoked Turkey up north for Easter dinner and my sister was very happy that they did!  She really enjoyed the spices added to the meat, and the smoked flavor was just enough to compliment the hot cross buns and creamy mashed potatoes that were served with the meal.  The New Braunfels Smokehouse has been in the mail order business since 1945, and currently has their 9-11 pound Peppered Smoked Turkey on sale for $33.95.

Started by Italian-born brothers in 1974, Giordano’s Restaurant in Chicago has gone on to win a number of culinary awards – including being named “Best Pizza in America” by NBC’s Today Show.  The restaurant was named after their mother Giordano, whose food was their inspiration.  After moving to America in 1967, Efren Boglio was unable to find pizza that tasted as good as his mother’s.  He started working in existing pizza restaurants, and when his brother Joseph joined him in America they decided to offer customers the delicious pizza that they were raised on.  Since opening their first restaurant in 1974, Giordano’s has expanded to include 46 locations – mostly in the Chicago area but also some in Florida.

My co-worker’s sister recently visited the original Giordano’s pizza restaurant in Chicago, and was so impressed with the Sausage Stuffed Pizza that she was sad to leave the city.  But she was overjoyed when the waitress told her the pizza is available for delivery nationwide, thanks to their online “Mail Order Pizza” store.  She has since ordered a number of times from their website because nothing near her hometown remotely compares to the cheesy, gooey, melt-in-her-mouth taste of a Giordano’s Pizza!  The 12″ sausage pizza is available for $19.20.  Once you place your order the pizza is made with all fresh ingredients, frozen and shipped via UPS Next Day Air delivery.

Dating back into history, squab wasn’t always considered a delicacy.  The term ’squab’ used to represent the meat of all dove and pigeon species – including those wild birds that were hunted for their meat no matter what the taste.  However, today’s culinary term squab includes only the meat from a young (approximately one month old) domestic pigeon that has not yet flown, making the meat very tender and full of flavor.  The Squab Producers of California have been raising high quality squab for more than 60 years, shipping internationally and earning high acclaim by a number of gourmet chefs around the world.  You can experience this moist and tender poultry for yourself by ordering a “six pack” of air-chilled eviscerated squab for $77.00.  Each bird weighs between 15 and 17 ounces, and are shipped frozen via Fed Ex Priority.  The Squab Producers of California also offer a large number of gourmet recipes on their website, including Maple-Cured Squab Breast with Braised Lentils and Radicchio as pictured here.

When my sister and her husband visited Maine last year they fell in love with the local food – including, of course, lobster!  At the bed and breakfast they stayed in, the owner made a delicious Lobster Pot Pie for dinner one evening.  My sister doesn’t care to cook, but she did try to make the pot pie using a recipe she found online – and she failed miserably.  She then enlisted me to help, and I found Lobster Pot Pies already made, all she has to do is pop them in the oven for 25 minutes!  The pot pies are sold in pairs – each is a generous 7 ounce serving.  My sister and brother-in-law loved the tender, flaky lobster and rich sherry cream sauce.  Although it wasn’t exactly the same as what they experienced in Maine, this was a very close second and was much cheaper than flying back to the east coast!  She purchased the pair of Lobster Pot Pies for $49.95 plus $16.95 shipping.

Dating back to the very first Passover, roast lamb is the most traditional Easter dinner you can find.  One of the most tender and perfectly seasoned lamb roasts I have ever eaten came from Omaha Steaks.  The 2 1/2 lb roast was perfectly seasoned with garlic and butter, and came with simple preparation instructions.  The majority of my family prefers their meat done medium-well, but even cooking the roast longer than recommended didn’t cause it to dry out.  It was also nice to receive a boneless roast because we didn’t feel as if we had to pay shipping costs for something that was thrown away.

Currently on sale for $69.99, not only is this the tastiest lamb roast you can find, it is also one of the most reasonably priced!

If you are searching for a red meat that is low in fat and cholesterol but still has a great flavor, you should try venison.  My husband hunts whitetail deer every fall, so we are able to regularly enjoy this meat that many people consider a delicacy.  We love to put a venison roast in the oven with potatoes, onions and carrots.  We also save some steaks for summertime grilling and process some of the meat into snack sticks and jerky.  Venison is my 6 year old’s favorite meat.

The domestic venison available from Underhill Farms is a high quality protein source, with very little of the gamey flavor you would experience from a wild deer.  Their Fallow Deer are raised hormone-free on a farm in central Kansas, which is one of a select few farms in the United States that raise venison specifically for consumption.  The venison medallions are tender, boneless pieces of tender steak, and are available for $22/lb.