Pintres

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Keg and Case

Y'all wanna hear about my visit to the new Keg and Case in St. Paul?
Well keep reading if you do :)



Last minute decision hubbie and I went to check out Keg and Case in St. Paul on a snowy winter Saturday.
Keg and Case is an indoor market.  I would say it's mostly food.
Start to finish, parking lot pretty small, but lots of parking in the area.
We decided to just to a quick walk through check out everything then go back and make our stops of we wanted to purchase something.
I was thinking it was going to be larger, but not disappointed.
There are many shops on the main level and an upstairs that you can chill out, have a drink or get your grub on.
Most shops are food related, plenty of places to eat.
We picked up a cup of meat (mild) from a German meat shop called K'nack, walked around munching on that.  Lots of people stopped and asked where we got it.



Everyone working there that we spoke to were very friendly & knowledgeable about their products.
If you know me I have a huge love for cheese, so of course we had to stop at a cheese shop.  Gatza, has a great variety of cheeses.



At the time I did not realize that kiddy corner from the cheese shop is a little cheese bistro, owned by the same company, there you can sit down and sample the cheese, with a drink if you'd like.  Then go purchase what you liked.
There is a second level, a brewery and tons of cute seating areas.  You don't have to be drinking beer to sit up there.



Some things that caught my eye was a beautiful restaurant called In Bloom, very stunning.  All foods are cooked over a wood fire. And I believe all wild game don't hold me to that though :)



Also there is a really neat shop where they grow mushrooms on the spot, Forest to Fork.



And of course, the infamous Revival.  I believe they have 3 locations now.
There is a fun little gourmet cotton candy store, the kiddies will love that one!


I think this would be a great place to bring your out of town guests, have a date or just to get out of the house when your feeling the winter blues.
Excited to go back and check out more shops!




Monday, February 4, 2019

Sourdough Crackers

Everyone of my posts should start off with "it's been a long time"!
I have been terrible at keeping up with this blog of mine.
Keynote to anyone who wants to start a successful blog, good content & be CONSISTENT.  That's what I've read, not what I've done :)

Here's what I have attempted to blog but never finished.

Christmas 2018, new appetizer I served at a gettogether.  An amazing salmon ball!
Here is the quick downlow on that.

"Merry post- Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!
Thought I would keep this going and be a terribly slow blogger, yeah doing a great job of that!
Hope you all had a great Christmas, Kwanza whatever you celebrate.
We did, very different then years past, but some joy shared and good food!
I wanted to share with you this appetizer I made (one of several) this past Christmas Eve.

A salmon ball, I found this on Pintrest and sorta made it my own.
So here you go & I hope you enjoy!"

What you need:
4oz smoked salmon
1 Tablespoon dill, fresh
1 Teaspoon garlic, powder
2 green onions, chopped
1 Teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
Dash salt & pepper
1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup chopped walnuts

How to make it:
Mix together all ingredients, excluding walnuts.
On parchment paper roll into a ball, roll ball into walnuts.
Wrap in plastic wrap, place in the fridge at least 30 minutes.
Serve with your favorite crackers.

Hope you like it, we did!

What else you all missed that I wanted to blog about would be a winter trip to Ely my husband and I made this year.
Hubbie found a cute little cabin we rented, his favorite part of the cabin would be the fireplace, he loves to stoke a fire.
We brought some cross country ski's with, did that one day. It was a lot of fun and quite a workout!
We also brought snowshoes, I never got out on them. Just hubbie, I didn't feel like braving the cold again.



Alright let's get to the Sourdough crackers!
Right now I have 2 sourdough starters in my fridge (if your interested in how to do that let me know).
With sourdough you need to feed it once a week, so instead of discarding the dough you need to remove from starters I try to find creative ways to use it.  I came across a recipe on King Arthur's website "Sourdough Crackers".
I have made them twice now, we very much enjoy them, you can change up your seasonings so its fun to play around with!

What you need:
1 cup of King Arthur flour
1 cup sourdough discard/unfed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup butter (4 Tbs) room temp.
2 Tablespoons seasoning of your choice, I have been using Herbs De Provence (a mix of basil, oregano, fennel, lavender, marjoram, tarragon, parsley and rosemary). Seasoning is totally optional.
I want to try adding a bit of cheese to this sometime and maybe just garlic salt.
Oil for brushing and salt for sprinkling

How to make it:
Mix together all ingredients.
Place on a greased baking sheet, after you form into 2 rectangular shapes and cover with plastic wrap
Pop that into the fridge to 30 minutes.
Remove plastic wrap, flour a glass jar or rolling pin, roll out the dough until its about 1/8 inch thick.
Brush with cooking oil and cut into cracker shapes, if you have a pastry cutter that would work, pizza cutter or a butter knife.
Make sure to cut them well so they are not touching, sprinkle with salt.
Using a fork poke a couple times into each cracker.
Pop these into a preheated oven 350 for 20 - 25 minutes.
Let them cool on a baking rack.

Enjoy!

*keep these in an airtight container

Thanks for catching up with me!