Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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


Saturday, July 19, 2008

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.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

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.






Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Our Vacation in NYC

While attending Fancy Foods show in NYC a few weeks ago we did A LOT of walking, even though we were completely exhausted sometimes after staffing our trade booth at the show most of the day. This was our very 1st time in NYC and we were determined to see as much as we possibly could. Here are some highlights:



We Rock The Fancy Foods show in NYC!

On 6/29-7/1 we attended our very first Fancy Foods Show in NYC. What an event! We were blown away by the quality and quantity of exhibitors and all of deliciousness around us! Our booth was located between the space for the very excellent Teryaki sauce (Soy Vey- highly recommended!) and O Vinegar and Olive oil products. Evidently our caramels were a crowd favorite. We were happy to see everyone stop at our booth for some Delicious caramels: from good folks at Williams and Sonoma to journalists from NY Times and Martha Stewart Living who were covering the show. The show was great for business and networking- we are already looking forward to the next year's show!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Video Podcast The Hungry Hound June 25, 2008 Video

Steve Dolinsky from Chicago's own Hungry Hound segment on ABC News visited our caramel factory and sent this report. Enjoy!
Video Podcast The Hungry Hound June 25, 2008 Video

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Das Caramelini is now on Facebook

Become a fan of Das Caramelini on Facebook- check out our new Facebook page and join our growing army of fans here

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Three days in Minneapolis

Last week I went to the Twin Cities to spread the word about delicous Das Caramelini and work on new products.
Day One: I visited and worked at Minneapolis Specialty Confections company: great folks there are helping me with new product manufacturing. We made over 6,000 lollipops in 4 flavors. See pictures below:

Day 1 (cont): after visiting MN Whole Foods Market near Lake Calhoun I had a chance to relax in the sun and walk by the gorgeous lake (below)
In the next installment of my adventures from Twin Cities- luxurious Japanese inspired dinner (with pictures!)





Monday, June 2, 2008

Katie speaks at Net Impact event in Chicago

On 5/21 Iwas invited to speak at the Net Impact event in Chicago on secrets of successfull social entrepreneurship. The event took place in Chicago's IIT campus and the attendance was great! it was an honor to be included in the panel along with other companies that are well known for their green and sustainable effort, like Distant Village Packaging, Return on inspiration and Heartland Health alliance
After the event attendees enjoyed our green and yummy Das Caramelini-everyone loved them!
Enjoy these pictures!






Saturday, May 24, 2008

Youtube video with Katie making the caramel

"Green" Lawn mower

Couple of weeks ago we found an old manual lawn mover sitting in the back of the shed. Our "old school" non PC gasoline powered mower hasn't been working well for quite a while and we decided to give the manual mower we found a try. We're officially in love with it now: it is absolutely green, requires no additional energy, cuts grass cleanly and hardly takes up any space. Check out Dhruba's effortless mowing below. If you are interested in getting one for yourself, see National Geographic's Green guide

Chicago 1930's

Our dear friends Balint and Daniel visited Das Foods headquarters last weekend. Left to their own devices because we were attending GreenFest Chicago they stumbled across this fabulous photo op in Chicago- apparently there was a period movie being shot near Chicago Board of Trade. Enjoy these pictures of 1930's Chicago- this is how it must have looked like!







Das Caramelini in Green Fest Chicago

Our friends from Sustain.org and Familyfarmed.org invited us to share a booth with them and a few other sustainable Midwestern producers at Green Fest Chicago this past weekend (5/16 and 5/16). Over 30,000 people attended the festival and enjoyed our delicious Das Caramelini. Some satisfied customers even texted their relatives about Das Caramelini- how great is that?
See many satisfied customers as well as Katie showcasing her caramel here

Make a Statement-Design for the Cure

Das Caramelini is on the move! On 5/8 Katie, Rita and Dhruba fed Das Caramelini to fab and glam attendees of Make a Statement- Design for the Cure, a super-fabulous runway show in Chicago benefitting AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Steven Rosengard from Bravo's Project Runway hosted the show and loved our caramels! We saw our very 1st runway show: apparently this season empire waist dresses are still in! See our photo collage below or click here to see all pictures in Google Picasa. Read about our committment to AIDS Foundation here