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

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

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

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

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