What a find

Ok, so I was working the other day and I had to receive a truck of new products. We had never carried most of the products before. So as I was checking in the products I ran across this box.

Needless to say I felt that I had to share it with everyone that day. It is a new cheese that we are going to start carrying. It’s a Dutch Edam Cheese that has red chili in it and is portioned into ball form. Thus the brand “Red Hot Dutch”, but I think they should have though the box label out a bit better. Don’t you?

48 for Larry

Larry Hamm over at Chelsea Lynn Designs on Artfire is a friend of many in the world of handmade, he is also the voice of The Crazy Train on Blockhead Radio. Larry has a fantastic wife Janet, and an 8 year old son Jacob who live with him in Lansing, NC deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Larry is a friend to everyone and just an all around swell guy. He is most definitely the “shirt off your back” kind of friend. Right now, all of Larry’s friends and Blockhead radio are teaming up to help him out in a tough time.

Larry is a disabled diabetic who currently has lost his health insurance. His medication alone monthly is over $2,000. Larry is not receiving disability, he has not been approved yet. His wife is the only source of income and she doesn’t make enough to cover his medications. Larry’s doctors have given him an outlook of only 18 months to live if he doesn’t receive a $17,000 gastric bypass surgery as soon as possible. Larry and his family need all the help from their family and friends they can get! Jacob and Janet need Larry to hang around here with them as long as he possibly can! All of his friends surely want Larry to stick around too!

All of us at Blockhead Radio are gearing up for the biggest Radiothon you’ll ever be a part of! July 24th at 6pm until July 26th at 6pm, Blockhead Rod will be live on the radio for 48 hours straight raising money for our friend Larry. A silent auction of donated handmade goods will also be going up on the home page of Blockhead Radio with 100% of the proceeds going to Larry.

If you would like to be a part of this wonderful event, please email DeDe Sorensen at: 48forlarry@blockheadradio.com Please donate any handmade items you can for the silent auction have your emails in with your donations by July 22nd. If you would like to donate cash for Larry’s prescriptions and surgery please visit Blockhead Radio July 24th through July 26th. There will be plenty of ways to get your donations in.

Keep listening to Blockhead Radio for fantastic indie music, and how you can help Larry Hamm of Chelsea Lynn Designs.

Help spread the work.....link this post or feel free to copy and paste it on your blog...thanks.

Originally Posted by Rockerchic at 8:45 PM on blockheadradio.blogspot.com

Borrowed with permission, please do the same!

Chocolate Popcorn Anyone?

Looking for a great snack to enjoy with the summer movie? Well we have some great new popcorn flavors for you to enjoy! Join us this Thursday at 6 PM EST on Chocolate Covered Bacon-The Best in Independent Food Finds, for our guest this week! Doc Popcorn is an independent popcorn company that we found with some great flavors that will get your taste buds a jumping.

Don’t forget to join us each week by going to Blockhead Radio, and popping a player. Once you do, join us in chat to talk to us about all that you find on the guests site. We would love to hear from you! If you have a favorite foodie that you would like us to interview, please email us at ccb@fromagier.com See you this week on the radio and in chat!

Who Loves Cake?

Who loves cake? Well I can tell you She Loves Cake! Cheri from Glutenada and She Loves Cake joined us on the show this past week to talk about some amazing items, and what makes them so special! Imagine if you will, waking up one day and discovering that you could no longer eat any items with gluten in them. That means no wheat in their food at all. Leaving you stranded with out your favorite foods. No bread, no cookies and no cake! Well there’s a new superhero in town, Glutenada is here to the rescue!

Glutenada specializes in gluten free mixes for all your favorite baked goods. When Cheri discovered that she suffered from Celiac Disease she also discovered how difficult it is to cut gluten out of your diet. With so many of her favorite foods now off limits, she was trying to enjoy a new diet. As Cheri attempted to enjoy some of the gluten free alternatives that were out there, she discovered that the flavors left much to be desired. So off to the kitchen for Cheri!

After testing many different mixes, Cheri discovered some great blends of gluten free flours that allowed her to make up some of her favorite items. With slight alterations to the recipe to go after the texture that she missed, instead of the hard cardboard that she had been picking finding, allowing her to not only enjoy the flavor but the texture too: Glutenada was born!

Wanting to name the company in a manner that allowed people to know what she sold, she brainstormed for a name. Originally she thought about calling is Cheri’s Baked Goods, but she thought that the name of that company needed to speak to the fact that there was no gluten in the items that she sold. So after some brainstorming sessions Glutenada was the name. Including gluten in the name and nada meaning none, allowing anyone to recognize what her products are all about!

Not wanting to just sell mixes and wanting to share the love of baked goods, Cheri started She Loves Cake, her gluten free bakeshop, allowing those who do not bake access to her wonderful baked goods. Yummy cookies, cupcakes, and soon to come other baked goods, you will never be disappointed in the taste, texture and quality of Cheri’s items. In fact most people who are not gluten free would have no idea that these items were made any differently. Place them on a platter and serve alongside any of your other foods, and you would be hard pressed to find someone that could tell the difference.

Cheri was also great enough to talk about what Celiac Disease is, and how it affects the body. Celiac is a disease that affects the digestive tract, ingesting gluten for a Celiac causes the little hairs in the intestines to lay flat. This causes a mal-absorption of nutrition in the small intestine which is the primary location that nutrients are taken into the body. This causes what is in effect a slow starvation of the body; not allowing the body to get the nutrition it needs out of any of the food ingested. This can cause two distinct reactions in the body. The first is the appearance of starvation of anorexia even though they are eating a normal diet. The second is uncontrollable weight increase, as the gluten reacts almost like an allergic reaction in the body, causing the body to plump up. The second is the most amazing, because even though someone appears to be eating too much and putting on weight uncontrollably, they are in essence starving themselves. They do not gain any of the nutrients that are needed out of their food.

We are so thankful that Amy from Louisiana Celica brought Cheri and her companies to our attention. With so many great items for anyone living the gluten free life or who just want a great treat, Glutenada and She Loves Cake are great to fulfill that need in their lives. If you want to keep up with Cheri you can follow her on Twitter, or check out what’s new in the kitchen on her blogs Glutenada and Beyond the Wheat. Don’t forget to tune in next week for Chocolate Covered Bacon-The Best in Independent Food Finds, Thursday’s at 6 PM EST on Blockhead Radio. Next week we will have some great popcorn to enjoy that summer movie with.

--James~The ClosetCreature, your host

Looking for independence? Start with your food!

Looking for independent food? Well look no further than the selling venue dedicated to connecting you to what ever can satisfy your cravings. Emily from Foodzie.com joined us on the show this past week, and talked to us about what the company is and what makes it unique.

Foodzie.com is a great site that brings together independent food producers from all over, into one location. This unique site allows you to shop several boutique shops all at once with one checkout process. That’s right, one checkout, one payment, one receipt! Even though you are buying direct from each shop, Foodzie’s streamlined check out process allows you to complete all your purchases at once.

Each shop carries its own varieties of products, allowing you to see just how special and focused they are. We have been blessed to have several sellers from Foodzie on the show already, with more coming up! The sellers each have their own niche, giving you products that only they create with such style. Some producers are small, and will only sell online or through their local farmers market. Yet others are looking to get into your local grocer. This is a big reason that Emily and the Foodzie Team created their company.

Foodzie was originally contemplated while she was working at a small grocer. Many great companies would bring in their products to sell to the grocer, but for one reason or another would not get to the shelves. Emily saw a market for their products but had no way to get them in front of consumers. So she and the other founders of Foodzie decided to create a venue just for these producers. Let them showcase their items, and help them get to possibly get a leg in the door of grocers.

Foodzie is unique in that it focuses solely on small food producers and that the main proprietors of the company must be an intergral part of producing the products. They also go out of their way to get to know their producers and have met many of them. Foodzie also goes on trips searching and researching farmers markets through out the country, trying to find the next companies to join the Foodzie craze.

So if you’re looking for a little something special to satisfy your cravings. Be sure to stop by Foodzie and check out what they have to offer. You’re sure to find something that will peak your interest. You can also follow them on twitter to keep up with what they are doing or on their blog.

Be sure to Join us each week for Chocolate Covered Bacon-The Best in independent Food Finds, Thursdays at 6PM EST on Blockhead Radio. Be sure to tune in each week to hear about what we’ve found to satisfy your cravings. It could be another great company from Foodzie!

--James~The ClosetCreature, your host

Who Loves Cake?

The founder and owner of She Loves Cake and Glutenada is on Chocolate Covered Bacon-The Best in Independent Food Finds, this Thursday at 6 PM EST on Blockhead Radio.  Cherie has been in business for several years now catering to the needs of those with a Gluten Free diet.  Cherie may take the gluten out, but she never sacrifices on the flavor. So whether you want to bake your own baked goods with Glutenada's mixes, or get some already baked for you, you will love what she has to offer.

Chocolate Covered Bacon-The Best independent Food Finds comes on Thursdays at 6 PM EST on Blockhead Radio.  We focus on a new independent food producer each week.  So be sure to stop in and see what we have to satisfy your cravings.  Go to Blockhead Radio, pop a player, and join us in chat for a load of fun each week.

James~The ClosetCreature -- your host

Success!

So you know that pizza we were making? Well it was pretty darn good! Especially for a first try. We took the dough and made it into two pizzas as a thin crust. I believe I over worked the dough some, so the edges were a bit hard, but most of us don't eat the pizza bones, right?

Well I found a fix for the pizza bones being a bit tough, I just melted some butter and added some garlic and used the pizza bones to sop up the delicious mixture. Though I still did not eat all the bones, it was still great. Sorry I don't have pictures, I will have to think about that next time!

Don't forget we have a show tonight! Thursday we have Emily from Foodzie on the show! She will be telling us about the site, the company and what they can offer you. Don't miss it 6PM EST, on Blockhead Radio. Pop a player (see sidebar) and join us in chat.

--James~The ClosetCreature

Chocolate Covered Bacon in the News!

One of our recent guests, Aimee from Shake Your Bon Bons, is also a writter for the Cincinnati Examiner. Aimee was kind enough to write a great article on the show. Letting all her readers know about our great show. Please head on over to the Examiner and let her know how much we appreciate it.

While your there check out some of her other articles. She shares with us some great recipes. They will make your mouth water just looking at them. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading each of her articles.

Thank you Aimee, we enjoyed having you on the show!

--James~The Closet Creature

Home Experiment!

That's right I'm trying something new at home! Not to sound conceded or anything, but I am a great cook/chef. I may not be great enough to win Top Chef or another competition, but I can sure cook. Baking on the other hand, that's not one of my strong points.

Tonight we are making homemade pizza. We bought all the ingredients to make the dough from scratch and everything. So here we go! Let's try this puppy out! I will be sure to let you all know how it turns out! The recipe is from the site below. Check them out for you foodie needs!

--James~The Closet Creature

This Week's Guest: Foodzie.com

Looking for great independent food finds? Well we aim to bring them to you each week and the site that helps us more than any is Foodzie.com. They have been the venue for many of our past guest and many of our future guests. So we decided, why not bring them on the show and tell our listeners about what they do? Coming up this Thursday, June 11th, we will have Emily from Foodzie. She will share with you what Foodzie is about and why it's unique.

Don't forget to tune in each and every Thursday on Blockhead Radio at 6 PM EST, to find what our latest independent food find will be! If you have a company or producer you want to know more about, just let us know! You can email us at ccb@fromagier.com and let us know who you want to hear from!

--James~The ClosetCreature, your Host

Don't You Feel Like Shakin Your Bon Bons

Almost everyone loves chocolate right? Well I have gone out of my way to find a great new sweet place for you to discover with me today! Shake Your Bon Bons has some of the most amazing bon bons you have ever seen. Aimee from Shake Your Bon Bons was kind enough to join us on the show, where we were able to discuss what inspired her to start creating these wonderful delights.

Aimee was raised in a family that enjoyed baking together. For each holiday they would bake and distribute their great foods, and she discovered her true joy in baking. Once she had kids, she really wanted to find away to stay at home with them, but still generate an income. Shake Your Bon Bons was thus created, bringing together her need to stay home and her love of making wonderful treats.

Starting from a simple recipe that Aimee had found calling for bon bons made from little cake balls coated in frosting and then dipped in chocolate, she found she was able to craft new and unique flavors to satisfy a variety of taste buds. Aimee spread from just the plain chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and dipped in plain chocolate, to making red velvet and carrot cake flavors. Then with inspiration from her first job, she expanded into new flavors that mocked ice cream flavors. This line of unique flavors she calls SnowBall Bon Bons uses great and unique old time ice cream flavors. The Black Raspberry Chip was the first one that started it all, inspired from a local ice cream shop near where she lives. These lighter and more intricate flavors remind most of the ice cream they got as a kid from the local homemade ice cream shop down the street, bringing back fond memories of their childhood.

Among her favorites to make are her Dark Mocha Bon Bons, which combines two of her favorite flavors, dark chocolate and coffee. Aimee selects the best coffee that is hand roasted by a local roaster, who makes each batch in small quantities, to ensure the best quality. Aimee describes the scent of these as “rich and decadent”. Her current favorite treat to snack on is her Cookies And Cream Fudge, which is available in very limited supplies and will be back up on her site soon. This is a white chocolate fudge with cookie pieces blended into it. I myself am more fond of white chocolate and the really dark chocolates, more so than the milk chocolate. It has only been recently that I my tastes have changed to this, so I find the idea of the cookies and cream fudge absolutely divine.

Shake Your Bon Bons is not just about the bon bons though, Aimee has some wonderful glass candies, and even some great chocolate boxes. She describes these as a take on traditional gift boxes, but with a twist. They are solid chocolate and can be filled with either more of her sweet treats, or with what ever you may want to give. There are several styles to choose from, but my favorite is the blooming rose, how wonderful would it be to give someone a gift surrounded by that wonderful treat!


Aimee also helps organize a local bake sale each year as a part of the Great American Bake Sale. It is organized nationally by a group called Share Our Strength’s. Aimee told us about how the increase in attendance and participation each year has really made her feel proud of all the work that has gone in. She also described to us how the first year was not as she had planned. As we all know heat, sun, and chocolate are not good friends. Aimee got involved in this event in part due to her own misfortunes growing up. When her father lost her job when she was young there was a time that she and her family had to rely on the food bank to get by. When the opportunity came up for her to be able to return the aid, she jumped on it. If you would like more information on the Great American Bake sale you can visit Aimee’s page about it on her website. What a great way to give back to the community that has helped to support you.

It was such great fun talking to Aimee, and I continue to look at all her items on an almost daily basis. Please stop by and check her out on her website, her Artfire Shop and her blog. You can also keep up with her on several other sites such as Myspace, Plurk and twitter. She also contributes to the Belly Garnish Blog and she is the Cincinnati Baking Examiner. Be sure to tell her how much you enjoyed the show!

Chocolate Covered Bacon-The best in independent food finds, airs Thursday’s at 6 PM EST on Blockhead Radio. If you missed one of our past shows you can listen to them in the Podcast On Demand section of the website. Tune in each week as we bring you the best that we can find in independent food.

--James~The Closet Creature, your Host

Do You Feel Like Shakin' Your Bon Bon?

We have a great guest on today that I'm sure you will love. Aimee from Shake Your Bon Bon's is on with us to talk all about her wonderful bites. Please tune into Blockhead Radio at 6PM EST to listen in with our newest guest! You'll get a great look at some wonderful delights. You can also sign up and join us in chat, where we discuss the items we find that will make you want to Shake Your Bon Bon's!

--James, ClosetCreature, your host

Urban Cheese Craft on Chocolate Covered Bacon

Do you love cheese? Have you ever thought of making your own mozzarella or how about Paneer, or Cheve? You probably though it would be too difficult to do, and too expensive, right? Well no, not really, we found a great small company that makes DIY cheese kits. That’s right you can make some of your favorite cheese in less than and hour! Claudia from Urban Cheese Craft is the brains behind the operation and she joined us today on Chocolate Covered Bacon-The best in independent food finds.

Claudia was kind enough to share her inspiration behind creating these wonderful kits. While attending meetings and get togethers, she would bring some of her homemade cheese. She told us, “I kept getting the questions of how I made cheese, where I got the ingredients etc. I was literally being asked for entire processes at parties!!” With most cheese making ingredients only being sold in amounts large enough to make incredibly large batches, Claudia set out to break them down and make them into smaller kits. Each kit includes all the items you need to make cheese with 2 exceptions, the milk and the pot. You get the instructions that describe how to make the cheese that you have purchased the kit for, cheese cloth, rennet (vegetable based), citric acid, cheese salt and a cheese thermometer. There is enough in each kit to make 10 batches of cheese. She recommends that you find a great milk vendor that does not ultra-pasteurize the milk. Most commercial milk companies use this process, because it is faster. The difficulty comes with the high heat that they use to pasteurize the milk. When milk gets to hot it kills off some of the good things in the milk that makes it possible to make good cheese. So you want milk that has been slow pasteurized if possible, also known as batch pasteurized. You can go to MilkFacts.info for more information on the pasteurization of milk, if you would like to learn more.

Once you have created your first cheese, and tried it out, you can check out her blog and get some great recipes for some different takes on the cheese. There is nothing like fresh mozzarella in a caprese salad or on top of some chicken parmesan, but if you want to try some great snacking recipes she has some great ideas for you to try out. Claudia likes to update her blog with new ideas that she or her customers have come up with, which helps all of us enjoy the fruits of each others labor.

There are so many kinds of cheese that you can make from home, but Claudia has decided to start you off with just the basic cheese, the ones that you can complete in just a few hours. However she has begun to experiment with making Feta and some other aged cheese which you can also learn about on her blog. So be sure to check up on her often, as you never know what she may be coming up with next.

Please take some time and stop by Urban Cheese Craft to discover what you can make in your own home. If you’re running short on supplies, but want to make more cheese, you can always order extra supplies from Urban Cheese Craft too. This makes it a convenient stop for both the new and slightly more experience cheese crafter. Be sure to tune in again next week when we have some wonderful sweets to curb your cravings from Shake Your Bon Bon’s.

--James, ClosetCreature, your host

Amaretti Cookies

For those that have not had the chance to get to know me too well yet, I was raised in a military family. As such we moved around a lot. I remember when I was very young moving every year and a half or so. As I got older it slowed to moving every three years, but once I got to high school, and until 2 years after I moved every year. Many times this was just moving houses or across town, but the summer before my senior year we had the chance to finally go over seas! We were so excited, because we had not had this chance in the past. Where to you may ask? Well EGYPT! Can you imagine your senior year going to Egypt to go to school! We were just over joyed with this opportunity. It was by far one of my best years in my life.

This trip to Egypt really helped me get to know food better. There are many of my favorite restaurants in the world, still there. I cannot afford to visit them, but they were amazing. We were able to try real food from around the world, the way it is intended to be made. The down fall is that now I have been spoiled and there are so many foods that I cannot get here that I would love to have again.

Enter these cookies. One of my favorite treats while I was there were Amaretti Cookies. Wonderful little drops of almond heaven, that just seem to make you want to savor every little bite. I have found some in places around the US, but they are not as easy to find as they were there, at least not the ones I love. So while on this great food site I stumbled across a recipe that i just might have to give a try one day. I love to cook, but I love to eat WAY more!

Emmy's Organics on Chocolate Covered Bacon

Wow another great interview! We had Samantha and Ian from Emmy’s Organics on Chocolate Covered Bacon-The best in independent food finds, and what a great informative interview it was. Ian has been on a raw foods diet for quite some time now and Samantha has been migrating over to the same. In doing so they both became a little bored with the normal foods available to them. They wanted something a little more exciting. So why not make it, right! Well they did not only was it fun for them to make, it tasted great too. When Ian lost his regular 9-5, they decided to make it their full time obsession! Boy, are we glad they did. Sitting down to talk with them was a joy, and if you missed it, well I hope I’m able to recapture everything for you.

Emmy’s Organics specializes in raw, organic, gluten free foods. These help fill a need in many people’s lives for differing dietary needs and lifestyle choices. With amazing products available online through their Etsy and Foodzie shops, like Raw Dark Cocoa Macaroons and Raw Granola you’re sure to find something you like. They have a great variety of macaroons available. They seem to flavor them almost as if they are ice cream, taking unique macaroon flavors to a whole new level. All of their items are made in small batches with 100% raw ingredients and are low on the glycemic index, allowing you to indulge your sweet tooth with out feeling too guilty. As for what they make their items with well let’s hear it from them, “We use the highest quality of ingredients, unprocessed, organic and fair trade when possible.” So they are not only looking out for you health wise but they are looking out for the health for the earth as well.

When I asked them why they got started and what inspired them to start making these amazing items here is what they told me. “We wanted to offer healthy food (especially sweets) that didn’t compromise on flavor, texture or consistency. Ian has been gluten-free & vegan for 8 years & Samantha eats a 90% raw food diet. We wanted to offer food from the source, of the ones who eat what they make.” Ian has a health condition similar to Celiac disease that requires him to be on a gluten free diet, which was a big factor in his focus.

Ian and Samantha also enlightened us as to what a raw foods diet is. Discussing how the items are still cooked, but at a very low temperature for a much longer time. Dehydration is a great example of this. They dehydrate and smoke many of their foods, which provides a safe way to ensure your foods are free of possible pathogens but at the same time retaining most of the nutritive value. Nutrition, after all, is why we need to eat, but why not indulge in some great tasting food.

The limited items that you see in their shops are just the beginning of their arsenal of foods to satisfy your cravings. They sell locally at a farmers market, where they serve up fresh almond milk, made the day before. One of the byproducts of this process is almond meal, which many producers just toss out. They have taken to using even this byproduct to make wonderful food, they usually reserve these items just for themselves and close friends. You can visit their blog where they talk about making hummus from the left over almond meal once they are done straining it. I can imagine how delicious this must be. Available at the farmer’s market they also have Dairy Free ice cream, great for children that are lactose intolerant.

Could you imagine what it would be like to miss out on ice cream growing up? Well this is one of the things that make Emmy’s Organics so great, they work to provide to everyone the very things they miss when they have to go onto a special diet. They even serve their almond milk over some of their raw granola for breakfast at the farmers market! So if you in the area, stop by, say hi and pickup a bowl of granola to enjoy! Don’t forget to wash it down with some ice cream or some of those great macaroons!

Thank you once again Ian and Samantha your story and shop are amazing. Coming up this week on Chocolate Covered Bacon-The best in independent food finds, we have Urban Cheese Craft! Don’t forget to go to Blockhead Radio, pop a player and listen in! We’ll help satisfy your cravings.

James ~ The ClosetCreature

LiberTEAS on Chocolate Covered Bacon LIVE!

What another great show! We had Anne from LiberTEAS with us tonight. She hand blends teas to meet the highest quality and taste standards. I must say they are a piece of art in and of themselves. I hope that you didn’t miss our show, but if you did, I will give you some insight as to what you missed. I will also give you a little extra peak to let you know a little more about the artist behind LiberTEAS. So sit back and relax as I take you though the tour.

Anne was gracious enough to join us live on Chocolate Covered Bacon, which airs live Thursdays at 6PM EST on Blockhead Radio. She started by describing how she blends each new batch of tea, to meet the highest of standards. Anne test brews each batch to ensure that it will come out just right and will not disappoint. Her teas are unique blends using herbal, black, green and white teas; she comes up with some amazing flavors.

Anne got her start in hand blending tea when a local shop stopped making her favorite chocolate tea blend. She had switched from coffee to tea, due to the spike in caffeine from the coffee, unlike the gradual release from the tea. So she searched and searched for a replacement she was never happy. Anne made her first attempts back in 1999, though she was never was happy with those attempts. After taking several years off, in 2002 she decided to give it another try. This time she used all the resources she could, to get as much knowledge as she could. After a couple years of blending and producing teas that she was “quite pleased with” she decided to take her business to the Internet. When asked what her favorite blend is she responds, “The product that started it all for me is my Chocolate Rose Romance, so it will always have a special place in my heart, however, I’m quite fond of all my teas!” With such an amazing assortment, anyone would be fond of her teas!

Some very unique teas that, available in the Artfire shop, are called the Allergi-Teas. They are specially blended with the help of a herb specialist friend. Anne decided to blend these while dealing with her own allergies and not willing to take it anymore. While searching for a tea to help, but that would also taste great, she was disappointed time and time again. So Anne teamed up with a friend and came up with not only a functional herbal tea, but also one that made a great tea. Anne drinks daily in the morning to help combat her Allergy symptoms. Anne and her herb specialist also team up to make her Meadow Nocturne teas, which are also functional herbal teas for relaxation.

One of the most difficult things in dealing with any food products is finding the right balance in ingredients. Things are no different for Anne, “There are so many different teas out there that it can be a bit overwhelming. Determining which would be the best tea to use for a new tea blend becomes a taste testing frenzy in itself. After that, it’s finding the right balance of ingredients to capture the best flavor.”

As with most hand crafted businesses marketing is also difficult in the Foodie world too, “I really need to work on enhancing my marketing and advertising approach. I’m creative when it comes to tea… but not so much when it comes to advertising my product.” I personally think she did a great job talking about her product live on the air. So we may have found her a way around that! Anne is very passionate about tea, and you can tell in everything that she says, and how she describes her teas. Off the air we compared tea tasting to cheese tasting. If you get a national brand commercial tea, and brew that, it’s the same as going and getting some Kraft cheese off the shelf. You might like it, heck you might love it, but it’s not the same as going a cheese shop and getting a great block of imported Gruyere. Drinking hand blended tea is far superior to getting a boxed tea. With the added preservation power of the tin, or the specially designed bags that she sells for the refill, you are getting top notch tea with every purchase.



If you interested in finding out more about Anne or LiberTeas you can follow her on Plurk or Twitter as LiberTEAS. You can visit her shops on Artfire, 1000Markets, MadeItMyself or her Tea blog. Interested in seeing Anne’s other art? Stop by her Etsy shop and her Art Blog. If you visit The Tea Review Blog, you can occasionally find one of her reviews as she is one of the contributing reviewers there.

Thank you for joining us for Chocolate Covered Bacon-The best in independent food finds! You can catch us live Thursdays at 6PM EST on Blockhead Radio. Listen live and join us in chat, where you can ask questions of the Foodies we have on for each show. Next week we have Emmy’s Organics joining us, with some great organic and gluten free sweets to satisfy your cravings!

--James ~ ClosetCreature, you host for Chocolate Covered Bacon

This Week's Guest: LiberTeas

I just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow May 7th at 6PM EST with Anne from LiberTeas. If you are looking for something to quench your thirst you should come pop a player and listen in! Her special blends are sure to peak your interest.

Luca Chocolate on Chocolate Covered Bacon

On April 30th we were fortunate to have Leslie from Luca Chocolate grace us with our first live interview on Chocolate Covered Bacon-The best in independent food finds. The show airs live on Blockhead Radio, on Thursdays at 6PM EST, 5PM Central. Just in case you missed it, even for those who didn’t, I would like to recap the interview for you. Also if you listened in I may have some more insights to Luca Chocolate, as I have some questions that I asked that never made it on air!

First, we would like to thank Leslie for taking the time to come on air with us. It was loads of fun to chat with her and to learn more about her wonderful products. I had never thought about how much went into making chocolate before. Leslie talked about how long it takes her to develop new flavors and she worked for nearly a year on the concept before Luca Chocolate even sold a piece of chocolate. It takes Leslie about 8 weeks to take a new flavor from concept to a completed product ready to sell. Leslie sure does put a lot into each product that is created! One question that I really wanted to know is where she got the name. Leslie told us that the name actually came from her horse, which I must say is a beautiful name, not just for the horse but for the chocolate too!

We discovered Luca Chocolate by doing a search for, you guessed it, “Chocolate Covered Bacon” on Foodzie. It is a great site filled with independent food producers from throughout the country. I discovered her Bacon Box and thought that I just had to have her on. The picture made me just want to nibble at the screen. What a great variety of chocolates in the box, including not only Chocolate Covered Crispy Bacon pieces dusted with Sea Salt, but also some Chocolate Covered Bacon topped Caramels. These just sound wonderful: the sugary sweetness of the caramel almost imitates the delectable flavor of fresh maple syrup that accidentally poured onto your bacon with breakfast. Top that with some milk or dark chocolate and you have a dessert made in heaven.

In talking with Leslie prior to the live interview I asked her two questions that she had no idea were actually intertwined. I asked what her favorite product that she made is and what her favorite scent is. Leslie’s favorite product to eat was the Vanilla Butter Cream Truffles, which not only look amazing, but sound divine! Her response to one of her favorite scents was vanilla, not the extract that you get from the grocery store, but the fresh bean pods that she has brought in just for her chocolates. I have to agree with her; if you have never smelled fresh vanilla you don’t know what you’re missing. Much like chocolate, there are many kinds of the vanilla out there with each one there tiny nuances that change the flavor ever so slightly.

It is amazing how much your sense of smell influences your sense of taste. For food artists their sense of smell is much like painters’ eyes. A painter finds it difficult to paint with out the use of their eyes much as a food artist finds it difficult to create without their sense of smell. As you create with your sense of smell you begin to learn just what to add to make your taste buds light up! Leslie mentioned when creating new chocolates your taste buds start to acclimate to the new flavors, and that the sense of smell helps to continue the creative process when this occurs.

Much of the inspiration for Leslie’s chocolate is from the fruits, nuts, and flowers of the season. She has a great limited supply of floral inspired chocolates just for Mothers day! Which is much like a bouquet of flowers for Mom, but mom can eat them! Her aim is to provide “classic flavor combination's with a twist”. She uses the knowledge of food science and the cooking techniques she learned by attending French cooking school. After many years in a traditional kitchen, she felt like being a pastry chef was more to her liking, and returned to school to get her education. From there she went on to create Luca Chocolate, and well that is definitely a good thing, otherwise how would we have found such great items.

In the next several years Leslie would like to get more involved with the wedding market allowing for a more steady flow of business through out the year. As a Chocolatier much of her business is during the major candy holidays. She also offers a chocolate of the month club that you can join, and she would like to see that grow as well. In the next year or so one of her close friends and her chocolate supplier is moving to making more of their own handmade chocolate, so she plans to switch more of her supply to his great blends of milk and dark chocolate.

Luca Chocolate is also available at several places outside of just being online. You can find a list of locations on her website. Want a sample? Keep up with her on her blog, she will tell you where she’s doing her live demos, possibly in your area. You can find Luca Chocolate online on Foodzie, Etsy and her own site Luca Chocolate. She will be looking into opening a twitter account as well, keep checking in on her to find out what she’s up to.

I hope you enjoyed the show and if you missed it: I hope you have enjoyed catching up on what you missed. Don’t forget to join us live on Thursday May 7th for our feature on LiberTeas of artfire and many other places too. Now head on over to one of Luca Chocolate’s sites and satisfy your cravings, and don’t forget to tune into Blockhead Radio to stir your own creativity!

--James – The ClosetCreature – Your Host

Welcome to Chocolate Covered Bacon The Radio Show!

Hello everyone and welcome to Chocolate Covered Bacon-The Best in Independent Food Finds! I am James, your host, you can find me in the Blockhead Radio Chat as ClosetCreature. My goal is to bring the best independent food producers that I can find each week live on Blockhead Radio. You can listen in free at anytime by going to the Blockhead Radio site and popping a player! While your there why not join us in chat, you can ask us questions live in chat, and we will ask the guest live on air! Come by and see if we can satisfy your cravings, with another episode of Chocolate Coverd Bacon, live Thursdays at 6PM EST, 5PM Central!

--James, your host (ClosetCreature in BHR Chat)