Grand Opening of Chicago Farmstand

Recently I was invited to participate in the Grand Opening of Chicago DowntownFarm stand, which is a joint entreprise between City of Chicago bureau of Cultural affairs and a group of Chicago foodies who are a passionate supporters of locally grown and produced foods. The result of this collaboration is a cozy and wonderful place in the heart of Chicago (located at 66 East Randolph - Randolph and Michigan Ave) Chicago's Downtown Farmstand offers edible local products, including fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs in season; a full range of condiments, preserves, seasonings and other dry goods items; baked goods and other seasonal items

available — all produced within 250 miles of Chicago.

Grand opening was an excellent occasion to come in and speak about our own efforts to increase visibility for the locally made foods and, of course, sample the caramels.

I was happy to meet again Chicago's own Hungry Hound host Steve Dolinsky and Chicago's distinguished alderwoman who's leadership was instrumental to founding Chicago's Downtown Farmstand.

Harvest time!

After long summer hiatus I am back! Fall is a great time to step back, reflect on summer, get ready for the Holiday season ahead and perhaps even take a few days off here and there to refuel for the craziness of pre-Christmas rush.

A lot of retailers that carry our caramels are organizing harvest events and we're invited to delight customers with our caramels and make taffy apples. On 10/20 Katie and Das Caramelini were invited to the Green Grocer Chicago to make some yummy taffy apples with melted Classic caramels. Green Grocer Chicago is a cozy small grocery boutique that prides on only selling sustainable, green and locally made foods. What a perfect place to showcase our sustainable caramels!

I brought a few pounds of bulk Classic caramel and melted it in a slow cooker with just a splash of organic heavy cream. Then I dipped small Johnagold apples in the resulting goodness and voila- odl fashioned caramel apple taken to the new heights!

Many people asked for the recipe for caramel dipping, so here it is. Enjoy!

Easy Caramel Apples
Serves 4
What you’ll need:
4 medium apples
4 oz Das Caramelini caramels
3 Tbsp Heavy Cream
4 ice cream sticks or cinnamon sticks
Optional toppings: Oreo cookies, walnuts or peanuts, crushed, chocolate morsels.
What you’ll do
:Wash apples and insert cinnamon sticks/ice cream sticks in each apple. Place apples on baking tray or a large plate lined with parchment paper.
Melt caramel and cream in a microwave-safe wide mouth bowl on high for 2-3 min in 30 sec. increments until caramel is melted completely and cream is well mixed in. The mixture should be hot, but not bubbling.
Dip each apple in the bowl with caramel and set on parchment paper to dry
Optional: while caramel is still hot, dip each apple in toppings of your choice

Das Caramelini in New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/dining/23fudge.html?ex=1374552000&en=9dd2726db51c9d19&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Weekend in Minneapolis

We spent 7/18-7/20 in Minneapolis visiting our friends Balint and Daniel. On Saturday Dhruba and Rita had a Das Caramelini demo at Whole Foods Minneapolis and St. Paul. Good folks in Twin Cities love our caramels: Dhruba and Rita had a good time telling everyone about our caramels and sampling our delicious flavors. Also, we visited St. Paul's farmers market: we loved the fact that only the local vendors (i.e. those who grow or produce their products within 150 mi radius of St. Paul) are allowed to sell their produce there. We also enjoyed a free performance of a cajun band and people dancing spontaneously :)

After picking up fresh produce, Balint cooked a perfect summer meal while Katie managed Das Foods emails in the afternoon.

Our menu was as follows:

1. Roasted fingerling potatoes with peppers and young garlic

2..Sandwiches with mustard glazed chicken and swiss cheese

3. Fresh radish and bulb onion salad

4. Baby carrots (the real baby carrots not the ones sold in the store 365 days a year- the fake baby carrots) sauteed in extra virgin olive oil and fresh parsley

5. Moroccan ice mint tea (brewed with mint leaves from the garden)

6. Fresh fruit (inclung my favorite- hard to find red currants!)

7. Reisling-Gewurstaminer blend from Germany- chilled to perfection!

At night we went to see "Dark Knight" -I would say the only emotion I had coming out was the sense that this movie could have been concluded in 1 1/2 hr vs. 2 1/2 hr which was absolutely over the top which was partially compensated by enthusiastic audience was that participating in movie viewing experience.

food411.com - Your Online Food Directory

food411.com - Your Online Food Directory
check our our newest obsession- Food 411, an online directory of all things delicious (and Weight Watchers be darned). Of course, we love the fact that Food 411 also loves us back and even featured our caramels in their recent newsletter AND right on their web page!

Ideal Bite - Today's Chicago Bite

Ideal Bite - Today's Chicago Bite- Ideal Bite Chicago thinks that Das Caramelini Salted Caramels are Super-yummy and super-green!

Das Caramelini's day out!

Das Caramelini caramels also went for a walk recently. It visited many places in NYC (carved stone owl in Central park is our favorite), took a ride on antique carousel, stopped by New York Times HQ, and even sneaked next to the masterpieces of modern art at MOMA. It ended the day across the Brooklyn bridge marveling at gorgeous fireworks over Manhattan.