All Photos By Gail (Click on Any Image to Enlarge for Detail)
Food, Glorious Food Fête! Our favorite quarterly food trade show and media networking show packed the cozy Helen Mills Event Space in Chelsea on February 24th with booths showcasing sixteen innovative products ranging from Premium Organic Jarred Tomatoes to Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookies, and Vegan Meat Substitutes — all every exciting! Here are a few of our favorite products from the show!
The first booth we came to when we entered the show was Plum Organics — a company focusing on the nutritional needs and often finicky appetites of babies and children. Their huge display extended possibly three booth spaces, and with good reason: these folks had a lot of cool products to present! It was a chilly night and Plum Organics helped warm everyone up with their hearty and delicious Tomato and Turkey Meatball Soup.
You can see that this soup is packed with lots of tiny, ground turkey meatballs for a savory and satisfying meal that kids (and adults) will devour!
Go Bars, in tempting flavors like Chocolate Brownie and Pumpkin Banana, make a healthy after-school snack!
Plum Vida is an organic, squeezable fruit and veggie blend snack created by the women of Plum, and is the company’s first product specifically for adults. At only 70 – 90 calories, with 3 grams of fiber per resealable pouch, Plum Vida is an ideal on-the-go snack. Find out more about the fine products of Plum Organics at This Link!
Imagine how sad it would be if you had to eliminate delicious butter from your diet due to being lactose intolerant. I don’t even want to go there. Thank goodness that Challenge Dairy has actually created “Lactose Free” Spreadable Butter, which tastes just as awesome as the real thing! This new and exciting product is enhanced with fine olive oil to maintain a smooth texture without sacrificing any rich flavor. Amazing! Challenge also debuted two new flavors of their Soft Cream Cheese Spread: Strawberry — flavored and sweetened only with fresh ripe strawberries with no sugar added — and Salsa Flavor, made with an assortment of fresh garden vegetables. Both of these cream cheese spreads were crazy delicious and perfect for snacking or serving at your next party!
Also, they were giving away Free Cows! Fall in love with the wonderful products of Challenge Dairy at This Link!
Muir Glen Organic Jarred Tomatoes make cooking all of your favorite tomato recipes — from soups and stews to sauces and pizza — so easy! Using only California-grown tomatoes, Muir Glen offers four unique varieties of prepared tomatoes including the sweet and smokey Diced Fire Roasted Red Tomatoes, San Marzano Style Plum Tomatoes (perfect for Italian cooking), Arabella Tomatoes, and Crushed Tomatillos (Green Tomatoes), which are so versatile especially in the preparation of Mexican Cuisine!
I brought a jar home so I can make a vat of my famous homemade chili! Get recipes and more information by visiting Muir Glen Dot Com!
Bailys Coffee Creamers bring the beloved, classic flavor of Bailys Irish Cream Liqueur to your morning coffee, but without the alcohol! Who needs Starbucks when you have this product in your pantry? Two new flavors introduced at Food Fete were Macadamia Brittle and Bourbon Vanilla Pound Cake! We also had a chance to sample tasty Macadamia Brittle cupcakes made from a recipe incorporating Bailys Creamers! Get Recipes, download money saving coupons and find out where to buy Bailys Creamers at Baileys Creamers Dot Com!
Master of Mixes Bloody Mary Mix kept the atmosphere festive by offering a custom Bloody Mary Bar featuring the Classic, Loaded, and 5 Pepper varieties of mix, each with varying level of heat to match you taste! Master of Mixes products are based on classic scratch cocktail recipes — with the goal being for their one-step cocktails to be as close as possible to the originals…or maybe even better!
Those who stopped by the booth received a fun gift bag including their preferred Master of Mixes variety, a Bloody Mary Glass, Tomato-shaped stress ball and lots of recipes! Learn more about Master of Mixes impressive line of cocktail mixes at This Link!
It was nice to see a selection fresh fruit and produce sharing the stage with packaged and prepared foods, and the California Giant Berry Farms booth did not disappoint! Their brightly-colored, attention-grabbing display of fresh strawberries and blueberries were showcased as the featured ingredient in two very original recipes. What you see up front is fresh Strawberry Salsa (perfectly accompanied by crisp, salty tortilla strips) which is made using Strawberries, Red Onion, Jalapeno and Cilantro and spices, with no tomatoes at all! This was probably the most delicious fresh salsa I have ever tasted – get the recipe at the link below!
They also offered plates of fresh baked, insanely moist Blueberry Brownies that take this popular dessert to an entirely different level. Find out more about California Giant Berry Farms and get a ton of creative recipes by clicking over to Cal Giant Dot Com.
Unless you live a cave, you have to be familiar with the classic Walkers Shortbread cookies — which are phenomenal. I wouldn’t have thought there was a way to improve on this popular treat, but Walkers has manged to maintain their shortbread’s outrageously buttery taste in a new gluten-free recipe that substitutes wheat flour for a blend of rice flour, maize flour and potato starch! The new, certified gluten-free line includes three new flavors: Shortbread Rounds, Ginger & Lemon Shortbread and Chocolate Chip Shortbread — which I think are the best tasting and highest quality packaged Chocolate Chip cookies you can buy in a store.
Walkers was founded in 1898 and is still a family owned and managed company. Visit them on the web at US Dot Walkers Shortbread Dot Com.
Sunset Produce featured a variety of their fresh packaged tomatoes for sampling and also had one of the most naturally colorful booths at the show!
Founded sixty years ago by a pioneer in the commercial greenhouse industry, Sunset is still family owned, and operated with great passion for growing and selling world-class tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. With over a dozen varieties on offer, you are not going to get bored of tasting and cooking with these fantastic fruits. We came home with some free samples as well! Find out more about Sunset Produce at Sunset Grown Dot Com.
Do you like Olives? I sure do. But just when you think that all Olives are created equal, Lindsay Olives come along and blow your mind with their unequaled deliciousness. Holy cow, they are so excellent! These little bread rounds are topped with an insane Olive Tapanade made with Lemon Zest that was just out of control. Explore the world of Lindsay Olives, and snag that Tapanade recipe, at This Link!
Winning my personal award for possessing the Best Brand Name Ever, Food Should Taste Good brand makes non-GMO, gluten-free snacks and chips that, well, taste terrific! Founder Pete Lescoe created Food Should Taste Good, Inc in 2006 with the goal of making a unique new snack with great taste, real ingredients, and sophisticated flavor – the qualities he is most passionate about in food. FSTG’s MultiGrain Tortilla Chips — which we sampled at Food Fete — are absolutely habit forming and practically guilt-free at zero grams of fat!
They’ve also introduced a brand new product, Pinto Bean and Black Bean MultiGrain Chips! These bean-based chips are also made with Flax, Sesame and Sunflower Seeds plus Quinoa for a true MutiGrain experience in a tasty snack chip. See a full list of FSTG Chips at This Link!
Inspired by an authentic Australian recipe, Yulu Yogurt is double smoothed – and I do not know that means, exactly, but what I can tell you is that it tastes fantastic. Yulu has a texture and consistency that more closely resembles pudding than yogurt, which I think makes for a more highly desirable mouth feel.
At Food Fete, Yulu offered a “Make Your Own” Toppings Bar and I created this delicious little snack for myself with a couple of fresh raspberries and a sprinkle of sweet chocolate shavings on top of their Vanilla flavor yogurt. It was the most delicious thing. Yulu also has 9 grams of protein per serving, so it is a good snack for between meals. Click over to Yulu Yogurt Dot Com to find out more, get coupons and store information, plus be eligible for giveaways! Yay for Yulu!
Horizon Dairy is a company we already love for its family of delicious organic products. Horizon’s new Fruit Crunchers snack is a great on-the-go treat and can even be used to top sundaes or fruit salads.
I threw these Toasted Coconut Crunchers on top of my Yulu Yogurt and they made it taste extra special! Fruit Crunchers also come in Apple and are made with 100% real fruit with no artificial ingredients. Visit Horizon Dairy on the web at This Link!
While we do not at all considered Meat to be a four letter word, we are always open to vegetarian and vegan options when it comes to tasty proteins and meat substitutes. Because good food is good food! Sweet Earth Foods hosted an amazing booth where an abundance of their exciting new products were available to sample, including:
Tuscan Savory Grounds: Italian Spicy Sausage flavor in a meatless, ground meat-emulating product! Savory Grounds also come in Chipotle, and Barbecue flavors, so your meatless recipe options are nearly limitless!
Recipe Ready Seitan: The “Wheat Meat” comes in a variety of tasty, pre-seasoned flavors including Curry, Chipotle and also traditional flavor. Hail Seitan!
Sesame Squares: in Tart Cherry & Hemp Seed, and Chocolate varieties, these energy-packed bars are super high in fiber, rich in taste and natural snacking at its best. Visit Sweet Earth Foods Dot Com to explore a new world of deliciousness.
And now, let us raise a glass to Jeff Davis for bringing the fabulousness of Food Fete to hungry food bloggers four times annually! See you in the Spring!