Whether you spend your days working from home or out and about, these long winter months are hard on us all. What could be more comforting than a warm bowl of soup full of fresh and nourishing ingredients after a long day? Soups are generally healthful with benefits including high nutritional value and low fat. They are also easy to prepare, inexpensive, and delicious!

January is National Soup Month, so we encourage you to put together a simple soup by stocking up on vegetables, meats, and herbs at Saturdays’ farmers’ market. You will be all set to enjoy a satisfying meal on Sunday or a busy weeknight when you are low on time.

Soups are easy to customize to your liking; make a simple soup a bit heartier with some noodles, beans, or rice. Or if you’re looking for something light, you can keep it basic with broth and vegetables. Just follow this introductory method and tailor it to your preferences and available ingredients.

Start with stock – preferably homemade, by simmering chicken or beef leftovers in water, or utilize vegetable parts like onion skins, root vegetables, and herbs. A good quality stock can make a good soup great! Then choose your aromatics such as carrots, celery, onion, garlic, leek, etc. For a little smokiness, add an item like a hambone or bacon. Saute your aromatics in a big stockpot with oil or butter until softened, then stir in herbs and spices to enhance the flavor. Bay leaves and thyme rarely goes wrong. Add a carb if desired, like vermicelli or potatoes. And then, lots of vegetables to add nutrition and bulk to your soup. Seasonal vegetables to consider are kale, chard, and mushrooms. Add the stock and let simmer until ingreadients are tender. You can optionally puree your soup after simmering for a silky smooth finish. Finally, add any extra meats, garnishes, and flavorings (like cream, lemon juice, or even hot sauce) for added fullness and flavor. 

We’re sharing a recipe featuring produce from Gomez Veggie Ville’s “soup bags,” which you can pick up every Saturday at the farmers’ market. If you pick up a soup bag from the market, you’ll have several options, including carrots, onions, beets, potatoes, turnips, and cabbage. 

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Find us online at saratogafarmersmarket.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. For online pre-ordering and curbside pickup, visit localline.ca/saratoga-farmers-market.

Hello my Foodie Friends!

What new culinary creations are you craving during these colder months? One approach that many of our foodies are using is to stir-fry. Stir-frying is the quintessential weeknight supper! If you have a fridge full of ingredients, and half an hour to put dinner on the table, cooking with a wok is definitely the go-to method. Vegetables retain their bright color and crunch and you can watch meat and aromatics go from raw to crisp in seconds, making stir-frying in a wok a fun way to cook. 

A wok is a wide bowl shaped cooking vessel with handles used commonly in Chinese and Asian cooking. The types of foods generally cooked in woks are stir frying, stewing, boiling, braising and steaming. Compliments to the Chef carry a large assortment of high quality woks and Stir Fry’s that suit the needs of the Asian cooking enthusiast. Some of the best companies carry this cookware Joyce Chen, Helen Chen (her daughter), and Ken Hom to name a few. Both the carbon steel and non-stick woks spread heat evenly and are easy to clean up. The handles are designed to stay cool on the stovetop, so you can easily remove the pan from the burner without using potholders. The curved sides of a wok diffuse heat and extend the cooking surface, which helps with tossing and stirring. The great depth allows ample room to cook a whole fish, if so desired. Simmering, deep frying, or steaming, are just a few of its multiple uses. Season them with vegetable oil before use and after cleaning.  With the carbon wok, the more you use a wok, the more flavor it will  take on, and the better your food will taste. As you cook with the wok, the metal pores open, and the fat you’re cooking with seeps in. 

There are other ways to use a wok that we may not typically think of. 

With its wide top and plenty of room, a wok is great for tossing a salad. Woks are great for making taco filling or any of the rice-and-pea type of dishes like arroz con pollo or paella. Consider a wok for scrambling eggs especially in large quantities. The eggs cook almost instantaneously, with no sticking, even if you’ve pre-cooked some vegetables before adding the eggs to the wok. When cooking a Mexican-style meal, cook on very low heat and use it to keep tortillas warm. Another use can be as a steamer by placing a steamer rack on the bottom with water. A wok is great for steaming lobster.

Where ever your tastes take you, this pan can deliver while you “wok this way.” 

Stop by Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store for those cool tools to help you with your special dinner. Also knife sharpening is still available! Remember my Foodie Friends; “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”

 Take Care,
John & Paula

Hello my Foodie Friends!

January reminds us that we are in the midst of winter and colder temperatures, we find ourselves reaching for the dinner staples that keep us warm an full. This time of year we love to make the most comforting recipes. After a day filled with snow adventures, my mother would often reach for one of her winter staple items, Stuffed Peppers, to make for a family of seven. I can recall how delicious it would smell in the house when the herd of kids came busting through the door after a day of playing in the snow. When making this dish, my mother would always reach for her favorite saute’ pan. Using the right cookware to help you with your winter recipes is important. A good dish is made up of different ingredients: a good recipe and having good cookware. Owning a few well-chosen pieces will give you the flexibility to cook whatever you want and the performance you need to cook it better. They may look different, but they all share essential qualities you should look for. Good pans are worth their price because they manage heat better.  Terms such as; “Good conductor” and “heavy gauge” are the key features of good cookware. Here’s how these characteristics affect cooking.

You get responsive heat. Good heat conductors, such as copper and aluminum, are responsive to temperature changes. They’ll do what the heat source tells them to do—heat up, cool down—almost instantly. You get fast heat flow. Heat flows more easily through a good heat conductor, assuring a quick equalizing of temperature on the cooking surface. You get even heat diffusion. A thicker pan has more distance between the cooking surface and the heat source. By the time the heat flows to the cooking surface, it will have spread out evenly, because heat diffuses as it flows. Depending on what you’ll be cooking in the pan, you may also need to look for other attributes.

My mother always reached for her sauté pan sautéing and other cooking that called for quick temperature changes. She would use it to sauté garlic just until fragrant and then turn down the flame, so that the pan would cool down quickly so the garlic did not burn. 

Love is all around especially when we make the family tradition recipes that bring back memories of a time past. Stop by Compliments to the Chef, Your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store. We have an assortment of cookware to assist you with your cold weather recipes. Remember my Foodie Friends; “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”

 Take Care,
John & Paula

Many of us start a new year with a fresh set of resolutions, new habits to live by for a healthier, happier self. But a few weeks in, the cold, dark winter can make it hard to keep up our motivation. If you can’t get your healthy food resolutions to stick, change the way you approach them.

Instead of cutting out foods you love and feeling guilty when you inevitably “cheat,” upgrade your favorite comfort meals with real, fresh ingredients to treat both your body and soul. Here are a few tips on what to look for at the farmers’ market.

BACK TO THE ROOTS
In the winter months, farmers bring loads of root vegetables to the market. Himanee Gupta-Carlson from Squashville Farm takes this opportunity to get the comfort of a chicken pot pie in a healthier jacket. Make a roux with a good quality bone broth. Potatoes and turnips help thicken the sauce to reduce additional ingredients needed, and carrots add flavor and color.

SLOW-COOKED FOR THE SOUL
Good quality, fresh meats don’t need many additives to taste great. Lay off on the salt and extra fats and enjoy a cut from the market in its full glory. Longlesson Farm’s Christophe Robert suggests trying beef shanks. It is a leaner (and cheaper) meat, cooked low and slow in a crockpot (bonus: your kitchen will smell amazing!). Simmer with non-starchy vegetables like carrots or turnips. Serve with a quick polenta made from Squashville Farm’s dried heirloom Abenaki corn. Then use the shank’s marrow bone to create a nutrient-filled bone broth and blend it up with the stewed veggies for a hearty soup. Add in a statement ingredient towards the end of cooking, like beet or tomato, to add color.

PLANT-BASED OR GLUTEN-FREE?
If you are trying a no- or low-meat lifestyle, mushrooms can provide a fantastic, bold alternative. Jeff Killenberger from 518 Farms suggests using brain-boosting lions’ mane to make “crab” cakes. Or go for sweet by combining lions’ mane, cinnamon, and sugar for a vegan and gluten-free “apple crisp.”

Butternut squash can also lift a dish by adding nutrients, color, and creaminess. Try a vegan mac & “cheese” by replacing the dairy with butternut squash. Up the health factor by using whole-wheat pasta or go gluten-free by swapping spätzle from The Vermont Spätzle Company.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Find us online at saratogafarmersmarket.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. For online pre-ordering and curbside pickup, visit localline.ca/saratoga-farmers-market.

The winter season of cold weather and lots of snow has come, and the farmers’ market is feeling grateful for our indoor home at the Wilton Mall. Since November, indoor markets have been running safely and smoothly every Saturday. Still, many customers who would like to eat fresh food and support local farms and producers understandably do not feel safe shopping indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While our vendors can’t be outside in the cold anymore (frozen vegetables don’t taste so fresh!), we can bring fresh products to our customers. We have launched a new online ordering platform with contact-free curbside pickup every Saturday morning.

The platform currently offers various products from about 20 winter season vendors, though more products and producers are added weekly based on customer requests and community needs. 

Available products will also change weekly due to local food seasonality, ensuring the freshest products are listed every week.

The online storefront is open weekly from Monday evenings until Thursday nights at 9 p.m. Between these times, customers can navigate to the store using the link below. Products from multiple vendors can be added to a virtual shopping cart, with just one credit or debit card payment required at checkout. SNAP/EBT customers may defer payment until they pick up their order, and deferred credit/debit and cash payments are accepted on-site as well. The minimum order amount is $15, and there is a $3 flat fee per order to cover the time and money spent by the market to run the online system and prepare orders.

On Saturday mornings, customers may park in reserved curbside pickup spots located right outside the Bow Tie Cinemas entrance to the Wilton Mall and receive prompt delivery to their vehicles. This service is also available to pedestrians and those taking public transportation.

The farmers’ market’s mission is to provide access to fresh, healthy, and locally produced food to everyone in our community; thus, the market hopes this contact-free curbside pickup program will provide another way to help meet this goal during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Access SFM2GO at localline.ca/saratoga-farmers-market or navigate there on our website: saratogafarmersmarket.org. Customers can sign up there to receive a weekly email update about new products offered and other curbside pickup news.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Find us online at saratogafarmersmarket.org, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter: www.saratogafarmersmarket.org/weekly-newsletter.

Hello my Foodie Friends!

The hangover of the holidays is over and it’s time to get back to eating right and using great tools to make that happen. It’s a new year and a fresh start so let’s make some delicious food together. My older sister CarolAnn, is a master with mandoline slicers while using them frequently in her food prep.  Since she is eight years older than I am, when I was very young, I thought she was the smartest person in the world. When she taught me something it always stuck with me. I was a terrible listener with everyone except for her. I remember when I was young and allowed to visit her at her new house after she had gotten married. I would sit in her kitchen and watch her make the best salads.  She would include many ingredients in her salads so that you were as full as if you had eaten a plate of Italian food. CarolAnn’s secret weapon in her prep was the mandoline slicer. She would peel and make cuts to cucumbers and many other vegetables, then would run them through the mandoline slicer to make the perfect bite-sized pieces. As she was doing all of this, she would explain every step and how to be safe. She would also add in words of wisdom about life and work. 

As I reminisce on these times, I learned that food creates a home, connections, celebrations, and embraces family and friends. In creating meals, we are creating homes and a nurturing environment. The meals do not have to be fancy or gourmet. It isn’t about how special the recipe is. It is about being conscious of an important part of life and honoring that importance. By elevating the importance of food in our family’s lives, you pass that importance on to them. Families connect around the dinner table, all sharing the meal they know is just for them. Whether I’m making a salad or a meal, CarolAnn’s teachings are always on my mind. As she is now very ill, and she is fighting for her life, I feel and appreciate those learnings even more. 

Do you have a mandoline slicer hiding in the back of your pantry, just begging to be used? Essentially, you can accomplish much of a mandoline’s work with a steady hand and a sharp knife. However, when slicing up zucchini ribbons, slicing eggplant or shredding brussel sprouts, mandolines cut prep time down significantly and promise consistent, even results. And they’re fun to use; especially when you need to create consistently thick or thin slices for your favorite recipe. At Compliments to the Chef we carry several different brands of mandolines. The OXO Good Grips mandoline is a perfect tool for home chefs. It is a trusty tool through thick and thin (produce). Slice or julienne cucumbers, potatoes and more with a turn of the comfortable dial on the Chef’s Mandoline Slicer. Each mandoline includes a food holder that protects hands and the stainless steel blade quickly makes even slices. All blades store safely on board and are removable for easy cleaning. With this easy-to-use mandoline, hands and fingers stay away from sharp blades at all times. Most mandolines come with three or four slicing blades beyond the basic blade. These allow you to slice paper thin, a little thicker (think potato chips), thick julienne (think french fries), and thin julienne. If you’re not sure how your blades will slice, invest in a few potatoes and try each setting out. It’s usually a good idea to have a few extra veggies on hand when you’re learning to use your mandoline slicer as well so you can get the hang of the whole process. 

At Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store, we have items that can assist with making your meals. Show your love through the foods you cook and if you have a big sister give her a hug. Stop by Compliments to the Chef located at 33 Railroad Place and let us know how we can help you with your culinary needs. Remember my Foodie Friends; “Life Happens in the Kitchen.” Happy New Year! May 2021 bring you health, happiness, and hope.

 Take Care,
John & Paula

Hello my Foodie Friends!

Our most relished Christmas treasures come with the decorations, the scents of pine, the sounds of music and jingles, and for many, what happens in the kitchen. Many of our holiday traditions begin in the kitchen. We hold tight to our families’ holiday traditions, especially when it comes to food. There are foods such as; roasted chestnuts, savory smoked ham, fruity cakes, specialty cookies, and eggnog that we hold to as popular holiday traditions. These iconic foods are vital to holiday menus and are fully ingrained in the culture of the holiday, as they tend to be eaten solely during this time of the year. 

Coming together to celebrate the holidays becomes a time of giving.  It is a time to be with your family and show your gratitude and appreciation of what you have. This holiday season, we may be more challenged than others in spending the holidays with those that we love. As we prepare for our smaller gatherings, I reminisce on some of my favorite Christmas Eve’s spent with those that are still with us, and some that I have lost in recent years. 

Through out the decades that have gone by, many of my memories include family and friends who cooked up incredible holiday feasts. I reflect on the Christmas traditions of mine and Paula’s Italian families in which the Christmas Eve Feast cannot be overlooked. In meeting my wife four decades ago, our first Christmas Eve together was spent at her parents’ home celebrating the Feast of Seven Fishes with all of the fish dishes presented that evening. Paula’s family was more traditional than mine, probably because my Dad was Irish so we had a little of each. I watched with a calm expression as my wife ate and relished the marinated fresh anchovies as part of the antipasto.  Jumbo shrimp, baked clams, and fried calamari were also part of the first course, which, I ate too much of. Next an array of dishes began to come out of the kitchen.  These included: the seafood salad, which is a combination of crab, shrimp, calamari, and lobster with celery, olive, and parsley in citronette, the Baccala salad with salted cod tossed with sweet cherry peppers, capers, and olives in a lemon dressing, and then the octopus salad, also known as Inslata di Polipi.  This is where I stopped and stared at the cut up octopus tentacles sitting in front of me and I loudly proclaimed that, well, “I love Fried Baccala” and politely said I must have some. There are many ways to serve fish during the feast. Some people include as many as 12 or 13 dishes, including mussels in spaghetti, fried calamari, anchovies, sardines, whiting with lemon, scungilli, lobster fra diavolo, capellini with tuna sauce, branzino, sole, and shrimp scampi, or linguini with clam sauce. 

Meanwhile back at my house my Mom was cooking an Irish feast for my Dad of Roast turkey and stuffing, clove-studded baked ham, crispy goose fat potatoes, steamed Brussels sprouts, buttery sweet carrots, crispy parsnips, cranberry sauce, bread sauce and gravy. 

The holidays are about getting together and having a good time. It is about enjoying yourself and the people you are with. Cooking for the people you love is a gift in itself. Hold onto the traditions that have been created by generations past; or create your new ones. Enjoy your holiday season. Stop by Compliments to the Chef; your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store located at 33 Railroad Place to help you with your holiday gifts and culinary needs. We hope that 2021 brings many blessings, laughter, health, and happiness to you and your families.  Remember my Foodie Friends; “Life Happens in the Kitchen” –

Happy Holidays to all of our Foodie Friends!

 Take Good Care,
John & Paula

The Fossil Stone Vineyard bottles of wine almost seem to glitter on display tables at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market: The golden hue of La Crescent, the ruby glow of Marquette, the fiery dark pink of their Rose, a blend of the two.

Fossil Stone is among the market’s newest vendors, joining in late August. But for owners Michael and Kelly Spiak making wine is not new. Their journey, like much of farming, is all about having a passion and the patience to transform that passion into products.

For Michael Spiak, passion began while traveling through New Zealand with the military. “New Zealand was blanketed with vineyards, which I had a strange fascination with,” he says. “I loved everything about them … the posts, the vines, the grapes, and of course the wine.”

He and his wife Kelly owned land in Greenfield Center. They decided in 2006 to try growing grapevines. Their first wines came from vines planted in 2009, and they began selling wine in 2014. Today, Fossil Stone consists of more than 3,000 wines and a winery barn. A tasting room is set to open next summer.

The Spiaks grow cold-hardy French hybrid grapes developed by University of Minnesota viticulturist Peter Hamstead to produce LaCrescent – a crisp white with hints of apricot – and Marquette – a smooth medium-bodied red with hints of cherry and plum. They also craft a Rose from a 30-70 blend of Marquette and LaCrescent. 

“It is darker than most Roses,” says Spiak, “but don’t let that fool you. It behaves very much like a Rose.”

At Fossil Stone, winter is a time to craft wines before the growing cycle begins in late February when vines will be pruned prior to bud break in late April/early May. The grapes grow through late summer and are harvested in fall. 

Fossil Stone wines pair well with many winter farmers’ market offerings, such as beef brisket. “I used to work for the Saratoga North Creek Railroad as a locomotive engineer,” Michael Spiak recalls. “The chef on board used our Marquette to make a wine reduction and poured it over a broiled brisket and then paired it with our Marquette.”

“It was delicious.”

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.. Find us online at saratogafarmersmarket.org, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter: www.saratogafarmersmarket.org/weekly-newsletter.

Short days, long nights, and frigid wind chills characterize our winter holidays, even without a pandemic. This kind of weather offers an excuse to forgo extensive meals and focus on what is elegantly simple: dishes that require few ingredients and few steps to prepare. With foods from our local farmers, elegance is easy.

Think roast chicken. Pick up a half or whole chicken at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, fresh or frozen. If frozen, thaw. If fresh, immediately wrap the breast and wing in aluminum foil and roast in an open pot at 450 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Remove the pot from the oven, cool the oven down to 325 degrees, unwrap the foil, put a lid on the pot, and continue cooking for an additional 15-17 minutes a pound, usually about 50 minutes for a three-pound chicken. You can add salt and pepper, lemon, herbs, or any other seasonings to the chicken beforehand. But farm-raised chicken is delicious as is.

While the chicken is cooking, consider adding mashed potatoes. Wash potatoes and scrub skins of debris. Boil until soft or cook in an instant pot. Then, melt butter or heat oil in a stovetop pot. Add potatoes, and mash until they’re of a consistency you like. Salt, pepper, herbs, and milk can enhance the flavor.

Carrots, turnips, and beets tossed in oil and seasoned with salt and pepper can roast nicely as your chicken cooks. Or try boiling these nutritious root vegetables on the stove until fork tender and tossing in a half or quarter head of cabbage toward the end.

Finally, try onion soup. Warm 5-6 cups of chicken stock (or any other meat stock or vegetable broth) in a soup pot. While the stock is simmering, thinly slice about five medium-sized onions. Cook with oil or butter in a skillet at medium-low heat until the onions have caramelized, about 25 minutes. The key is to get the onions soft but to stir often so they do not stick to the pan. Turn the heat down and add a tablespoon of flour. Toss well, then add to simmering stock, stirring gently to dissolve the flour. Serve with toasted bread and sliced cheese.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Find us online at saratogafarmersmarket.org, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter: www.saratogafarmersmarket.org/weekly-newsletter.

Hello my Foodie Friends!

When I was a young boy the holiday season was my family’s favorite time of year. Of course my parents used it to its full potential to keep three boys and two girls in line. Our biggest thrill was the chance to go downtown and peek into the storefront windows seeing the latest toys and letting Santa, Mom, and Dad know what we wanted under the tree. For myself and my brothers, it was especially hard to refrain from becoming the Three Stooges avoiding our usual antics and teasing of each other. If we didn’t get along then we risked getting nothing and my Dad was a man of his word. We also loved this time of year because Mom and Dad became a dynamic team and focused on our happiness instead of the day-to-day problems they faced with finance issues that were typical of the middle class back then. It seemed like Mom and Dad knew every shop owner by their first name and all the shop personnel always fussed over their children. Shopping downtown was a magical event for us. The snow covered trees, merchant’s store fronts decorated with animated figures, holiday lights, decorations, and music. Each of us would run free to pursue the treasures that we wanted from Santa. We loved every store.  For us a clothing store was a place that kept us from the toys. However, the clothing store mom loved was located on the top floor of one of the downtown buildings and you needed an elevator to get to it. An ELEVATOR!!! Do any of you remember what the older style elevators were like?  It was like a carnival ride. It even had an elevator operator (what I wanted to be when I grew up). Several of our downtown buildings in Saratoga Springs still have the old style elevators. At the end of our shopping day, we would have a wonderful meal as a family, sitting exhausted filled with memories that would last a life-time.

We would like to thank all of our Foodies for shopping Local this year!  Shopping locally helps you connect with the people in your community and learn more about what is going on around you. When people come in my store during the holidays they call out to me and exclaim; “Hello John, we are some of your Foodie Friends!”  Economically, spending money locally, gives back to the community.  Shopping should be an enjoyable experience with interactions that leave us feeling good versus feeling like we have to do a chore. I find that’s far more likely to happen when I’m patronizing local independent businesses. Learn and experience product quality and durability, getting expert advice without having to waste time doing your own research. Aside from the experience, physical contact with an item makes people feel more certain about a purchase decision. When you go to a store, you know what you’re getting. The price is there. There’s no shipping fee. You can see the item, hold the item, and get the instant gratification you desire from buying the item. Savor the sights, sounds and smells of the season while shopping. During the holidays the shops are filled with festive decorations, sounds and smells. When you step through the doors and hear “Jingle Bells” or “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” playing throughout the store, you can’t help singing along as you walk around. I think we all need this type of cheer considering the current times we are challenged with. 

This holiday season; visit our beautiful city of Saratoga Springs and all of the unique shops within the city for those special treasures. Make it an event where you actually spend time with people (and not the computer) to select those special gifts to give. 

At Compliments to the Chef, we have really cool tools for your favorite foodie. Having the right tools to prepare your recipe is the key to making a pretty good dinner a great one. It’s much easier to cook when you are equipped with high-quality utensils that make your job as fun and easy as possible. 

Paula and I look forward to the holidays every year with our children. Unfortunately, due to COVID – we will not have our son with us who lives in California. This is a sacrifice many of us are making this holiday season. Cherish your moments together and stop by and fulfill your holiday culinary needs at Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store located at 33 Railroad Place, Saratoga Springs. This holiday season; shop local and nab those ideal gifts for the ones you love. Remember my Foodie Friends, “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”

 Take Care,
John & Paula