Search This Blog

Pages

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Ah Hah Moments


About a month or so ago, Mutual of Omaha had emailed me, they were coming into town to film 'Ah-Ha' moments, a moment which changed your life. Seems that they had heard about us and Decadence Gourmet Cheesecakes and wanted to film our story, along with some others in town.

Just got an email that the video was now on their website, click here to check it out!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Palisade Peach Festival




This past weekend, the 42nd Annual Palisade Peach Festival was held here in Palisade, Colorado. Over 20,000 Peach Fans turned out for what is one of Palisade's finest moments. From a Ice Cream social on Thursday, to the Peach Festival in RiverBend Park, to the Feast in the Fields, Palisade turns into the Peach Capitol of the known universe.

One of the highlights of the Peach Festival is the Peach Cuisine with Colorado Chefs, and an event that I have been proud to be a participant in for the past four years. This year, I demonstrated Chocolate Dipped Dried Peach Bytes, double-dipped in a Peached Cayenne Sugar. In past years, I have done salads and 'Wings over Palisade', which is are BBQ Peached Chipotle Chicken wings. As all the chefs do, we all try to introduce many ways of using Palisade's pride into peoples culinary thoughts. If you would like any of my recipes over the past few years, email me at decadencecheesecakes@mindspring.com.

We also had one of our employees, Katrina, participate for her 3rd year! Talk about going from shy and nervous to a budding Rachael Ray! Congrats to Katrina for demonstrating Easy Peached Pork Tapas!

The Colorado Mountain Winefest is coming up next month, stop on by!

This event is the first event that we ever participated in when I first opened Decadence Gourmet Cheesecakes. I was still in culinary school and when I started working with Wine Cheesecakes, they invited me and for the last five years, we have been a fixture in the VIP Tent, serving slices of our Blackberry/Cabernet, Port/Fig w/ a currant reduction sauce and our Chocolate Decadence. For the past four years, we have also had our own booth, selling our 'Cheesecakes in a Jar'.

Over 50 wineries participate in this great event, which also has food and wine pairings, and this year, a chef demo from Chef Kelly Liken, now on Top Chef!

Come on out to Palisade and enjoy the fruits of our labors!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Return to the Shore Part 3






Every summer when I take Austin out to the Jersey Shore, we make a run down to Wildwood and it's boardwalk and rides! The first few years I took him out, when he was real young, I used to take him to The Ocean City Boardwalk as it has some young-kid friendly rides, but once he turned 10, Wildwood and it's Amusement Piers was the obvious choice! We always start with a go-kart track, right off the boardwalk and he really does seem to enjoy it!

Now right after that, we have been stopping at the same Pizza & Fries place, but saw this season that it was replaced by a fish place and while fish may have it's place, it's not what we consider boardwalk food! So we have always passed Sam's Pizza and this year stopped in there. Good East Coast Pizza, reasonable prices, perfect to load up before the rides!!

Now Wildwood has 'Morey's Piers' three separate piers, two of which include waterparks (Ocean Oasis and Raging Waters) and just a ton of rides, from High Thrill Rides, such as The Great White & Maelstrom to Log Flumes and almost too many to ride in one day! Austin loves these (as his Dad used to when he was younger and pre-abdominal surgery) and we make sure to run him ragged!

After the excursion to Wildwood, we took Austin out for his first time to a Hibatchi Steak House, Ginja on The Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township. They prepare the food right in front of you. The food was ok, maybe a little better than ok, but when the chef started flipping pieces of food right into your mouth, Austin was in heaven, someone else playing with food!

Now I realize that as he gets older, he may not want to leave his friends in the summertime, but until that day comes, we will continue to explore Da Shore and all it's gems with my boy!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Return to the Shore Part 2




As I had mentioned, the last trip to Da Shore was too much for just one blog... so....

There were a few places that I always take Austin to when we are out at Da Shore, Dino's Subs in Margate and, believe it or not, WaWa. For those of you who are not from the east, WaWa is what a 7-11 ir Quick Stop would be on steroids.... open 24/7, you can virtually get anything (legal, that is) anytime of day or night... Got a craving for a Cheesesteak at 3 am.... head to WaWa.... got that salt fetish that only a soft pretzel will quench at 6 am.. head to Wawa!!

We stopped by Dino's again, need that real Cheesesteak fix, and as we were getting ready to pay for our order, i looked down and there was an article from the Grand Junction Free Press that I had written last year when we were out there, all about Dino's! ya gotta love life!

We were headed up to the Boardwalk to check out the Ripley's Believe it or Not (what the hey, he is 12!) and decided to stop by an Atlantic City Tradition... The Irish Pub. No, he is still too young to drink (and has never seen me drink!) but the Irish Pubis also known for it's food too! (Not that I knew that when we used to stop by there in the 70's and 80's when I was out there!).

Me, I had a corned beef special ( I truly love that sandwich!), Mom had the Fish & Chips, Ann had the Pub Salad and Austin had the Mozzarella Sticks and we all had the Lollipop Meatballs as an appetizer. As you can see by the prices on the menu picture, none of these will break your bank and the food was good!

Next.... Japanese Hibachi steakhouse, where, yes, they do toss food in your mouth!