Coming Soon... Sat. December 5, 2009

Our seasonings will soon be available at an RFT winning Grocery Market, Local Harvest. We're so excited! We will be demo-ing our seasonings with some tasty recipes Saturday, December 5 from 11am - 2pm. We will have free gift wrap, in recycled fiber tissue, kraft box and raffia. Hope to see you there!

http://www.localharvestgrocery.com/

Tomato Soup with Homemade Italian Croutons

Easy, warm, yummy fall dinner: Campbell's Tomato Soup (with 1/2 can water, 1/2 can milk), topped with homemade Italian croutons.

Yes, in a perfect world I'd like to be able to come home on a weekday night, whip up some homemade tomato soup (I have an awesome recipe for that from my Mom), make some homemade bread (did a lot of this BEFORE having my child!), and turn that homemade bread into croutons (did a lot of this too, sans child). However, in the meantime, here's a quick, inexpensive meal that's pretty wholesome:

Serves 3 - 4

2 cans soup (we love tomato in our house)

If making tomato soup from concentrate, use 1/2 can water and 1/2 can milk or plain soy milk; cook soup according to instructions -- I find it best to have a little whisk handy to keep soup from clumping or sticking to the pan (I think my little stainless steel whisk is from Pampered Chef -- one of my favorite tools)

1 can of breadsticks (like Pillsbury) OR a few slices of bread (sourdough is the best for this); spread either one on cookie sheet and preheat oven 375 degrees

Melt a couple tablespoons butter in a pan or in a small dish in the microwave, add 1 teaspoon Garlic Earth Italian Garlic Seasoning to the melted butter, stir, then brush butter mixture onto the breadsticks or bread slices. Top bread with some Parmesan cheese, if you'd like, and then bake until toasted (follow label instructions for breadsticks)

When bread is done, cut into crouton size pieces, top the soup when ready to serve.

Photo from www.peppercornpress.com/blog

Beautful Day for FALL FEST AT THE BARN

Today's weather for Sunday, October 18th:

Mostly sunny and warmer. Highs near 60. Winds: S 5-10

It's going to be a beautiful day (finally!) for a visit out to the Barn at Lucerne in Ballwin, MO for the Fall Fest at the Barn. We will be one of 34 outdoor vendors and 13 indoor artists booths. There will also be seven antique tractor collectors, three great bands, fantastic food and drink, and rides and games for kids. All to raise funds for Operation Food Search! A canned food item can be exchanged for a game/ride.

Not only will Garlic Earth share free food samples of Italian Artichoke Dip (only 5 ingredients -- so easy!) and their Southwest and Asian Chicken, but we are also introducing handmade photo cards made from recycled paper, and we are now a retailer for the very cool-I-can't-live-without-mine ChicoBag, made from 100% recycled fabric.

The Barn at Lucerne is located at 930 Kehrs Mill Road in Ballwin, MO. The hours for the festival are NOON - 7 PM.

Hope to see you there!

Oktoberfest Meal -- Pork Chops with Apples, Raisins & Cinnamon

First of all, a huge thank you to those of you who made it out to the Best of Missouri Market at the Botanical Garden last weekend. I woke up this morning around 7:30 and thought "at this point last week, I was already awake for 3 hours and had been serving food for 30 minutes -- whew!" It was quite a task, but Mindy and I had a BLAST meeting and serving you all. We had to have met and served over 3,000 people... I did the math and we went through that many toothpicks! Fun, fun, fun.

Another HUGE thanks to the Girlies who helped us prepare for this event. This certainly includes Tracy and Kathy for helping out at the booth so that we could take breaks. Thank you SO MUCH!

So, what is on the menu at the Schantz household this week? For one, I bought pork chops, organic Granny Smith apples, organic raisins, organic cinnamon, organic raw sugar and organic sesame seeds. These ingredients, along with a one of the Garlic Earth seasonings (Asian Garlic Seasoning is my favorite with this one -- strange, but the sweetness goes well with this) creates a hearty, healthy dish. Here's the recipe:

Pork Chops with Apples
Serves 4-6
4 - 6 Pork Chops
Garlic Earth Seasoning (Asian or Italian -- 1 tsp./pound of pork)
a few tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
2 Granny Smith apples, sliced
1/2 cup (or a few handfuls) of raisins
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sugar
sesame seeds (optional, but nice touch plus adds calcium!)

Shake seasoning onto pork chops, top and bottom, and let marinate at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the pork, let brown for about 5 minutes on each side -- it's good to get those "bits" on the pan. Remove pork, place onto plate and keep warm in microwave or under foil. With those bits in the skillet, add the apples, raisins, cinnamon, sugar and sesame seeds. Saute well, but gently, for about 5 minutes. Move mixture to side of skillet, add the pork back to the pan, cover with the apple mixture, cover skillet with lid or foil. Let simmer on low until pork is done (about 10-15 minutes over medium low heat). Serve.

Picture from dinkswithkids blog

Mark Your Calendars for the Best of Missouri Market!

Garlic Earth will have a booth at the Best Of Missouri Market at the Botanical Garden next weekend, Saturday and Sunday 10/3 - 10/4/09. We will be sharing free samples of the following recipes made with our seasonings:

Southwest Fajita Chicken with organic onions and locally-grown bell peppers

Asian Garlic Chicken (always a huge hit)

And for Vegetarians and non-vegetarians...

Organic Portabella Mushrooms and Eggplant in our sweet Italian Balsamic Marinade

Baked Wonton Chips made with our seasonings

Corn Cob Coins, marinated in organic olive oil and the Southwest Garlic Seasoning, then grilled 'til toasted and caramelized

We are about to introduce our new very low sodium Asian Garlic Seasoning. It'll actually contain omega 3, more vitamins and minerals and much less salt. We will sample some of that preliminary batch that I've been sharing at home -- the family loves it!

We sure hope to see you at the market next weekend. We will be one of nearly 150 vendors -- you can get a lot of holiday and birthday shopping done in one day! Please look for us -- follow the scent of the seasonings. We'll be cooking all day, both days and will have plenty of recipe ideas to share, as well. Any questions, just let us know at GarlicEarth@yahoo.com.

New Testimonial re: Baked Asian Chicken with Panko Crust

"I would love to know how you made the chicken...it was the bomb!!! - Cynthia, St. Charles"

Here's an easy recipe with the Asian Garlic Seasoning... Marinate cut up chicken with the "Secret" Asian Marinade (see below) in a ziplock bag for a few hours. Reserve the marinade for baking. Gently roll each piece of chicken in breading. Here's the breading:

For 2 1/2 - 3 lb chicken, combine:
* about 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
* 1 tsp. Garlic Earth Asian Garlic Seasoning
* optional: a couple tablespoons each of flaxmeal and almond meal (the almond meal is really expensive, but the flaxmeal isn't so much and it's SO HEALTHY!)

Carefully place the chicken in a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish, pour the marinade AROUND the chicken (NOT ON TOP of chicken so that the top gets crisp), spray each piece of chicken with olive oil spray (helps to make it crispy) and bake at 375 degrees for about 45 min, until done.

My son loves it when I do the same thing with chicken tenders or catfish nuggets.

Asian Marinade (for 3 lb meat)
3 tsp. Garlic Earth Asian Garlic Seasoning
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup reduced-sodium teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce

Kindergartener Ate Seaweed for Breakfast -- SCORE!

That's right. I'm experimenting with a lower sodium and much healthier Asian seasoning blend. One of the new ingredients is seaweed. My son loves fried or microwaved-in-a-ramekin eggs with a little Asian Garlic Seasoning. I did an experiment and it worked! He didn't eat most of it since I didn't cook it long enough -- he doesn't like soft eggs. I thought it was delicious. We're onto something here.

By the way, the benefits of the seaweed we're considering (which is used in place of salt in some Asian countries) include:

"It has the highest protein and is usually the most palatable compared to the rest of the seaweeds. It is rich in calcium, iodine, iron, phosphorous, potassium, manganese, porphyran, copper, zinc and Vitamins A, B, C, E and K."

Also:

"One teaspoon of table salt contains 2,360 milligrams of sodium, 1 teaspoon of sea salt has 2,280 milligrams, whereas about one teaspoon of seaweed contains 10 mg sodium."

And on top of all this, it is a great source for Omega-3s. We're still doing more research, but we will hopefully have this new Asian blend out soon!