Greetings!   

This week we are embracing the cold!  So is Cleveland.  If you aren't already considering it, think about visiting the Brite Winter Festival this Saturday in Ohio City.   It is an art and culture festival featuring live music...and it is 90% outside on the streets of Ohio City.  

We are embracing our frozen inventory this week.  This December as we harvested our last turkeys to make our nitrate free, smoked turkey lunchmeat (available via pre-order at http://csalogin.freshforkmarket.com), we had to find a use for the drumsticks, wings, and backbones.  When we try to debone that meat, there is a significant amount of waste.  So Chef Parker had another idea.  Let's teach everyone how to make stock, soup, and pot/pie. 

Right now we are trying to get these recipes listed online, so we'll send links to these recipes later today:

Turkey Pot Pie

Turkey and Dumplings 

Turkey Noodle Soup

Turkey Stock  

Oh, and be sure to scroll all the way down for an important announcement about fish.

Valentine's Sales:  Steaks and Cakes

This week we are offering a few items on sale for those who may wish to celebrate Valentine's Day at home with a tasty home-cooked, locally produced meal.  

T-Bone and Porterhouse Steaks - $10 per lb

For those who don't cut beef all the time, let me explain the importance of the T-Bone and Porterhouse.  On a cow, the front part near the neck is called the chuck.  Behind that is the rib or ribroll.  That's where ribeye steaks come from.  Behind that is the short loin, sirloin, and round/rump.  The short loin is the most tender part of the beef.  The tenderloin comes in right under the short loin and is separated by the bone that joins the ribs, called a chime or T-bone.  

The T-Bone and Porterhouse steak are the same cut.  They both have part of the short loin (strip steak) and tenderloin (filet mignon) on them.  The difference it that the porterhouse has at least 1.5" of the tenderloin and the T-bone has less tenderloin.  Both are outstanding cuts.  

These are available for preorder online at http://csalogin.freshforkmarket.com or at the back of the truck via the inventory we will take with us this week.  

Sugarplum Baking Company Cake Mixes:  Jewels, the lady behind Sugarplum, got her start competing for the Food Network Cake Wars show.  She now bakes beautiful wedding cakes and cakes for special occasions. For us, she made a line of dessert mixes that feature local flour and less sugar. 

Be sure to try the Hello Yellow yellow cake mix, the Super Fudge Brownie Mix, and the Honey Muffin Mix.  These can be preordered online or available at the back of the truck, weather permitting this week.  

Grape Cider

The grape cider was extremely popular last week.  We do still have a limited supply left.  You can preorder it online at http://csalogin.freshforkmarket.com.     The cider is hot-canned and is shelf stable in your pantry for a year.  We'll try to have some at the back of the trucks as well. 

Chocolate Class Last Call - Tonight, 6 PM at Tri-C Hospitality Management Center on Euclid

Last month Tri-C cancelled our Chocolate's for Dinner class because of a storm coming through.  We had to reschedule and the class is on schedule for tonight.  We do have about 12 seats still available due to this shift in date. 

Full details can be found at the link below. The class includes instruction and tasting.  The menu includes a pumpkin ravioli with a savory chocolate sauce, cocoa dusted meatballs, and many more.  

http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=6bx9cgdab&oeidk=a07e8s536y1ef31c5ba 

Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon

Ok, now I got your attention. Clearly not local, right?  Well there are some things that we will never source local here, and some fellow Fresh Fork subscribers have turned me on to a truly fantastic product.  

Jill S and her friend Freddy organize a "buying club" in Cleveland for the Wild Salmon Company out of Asheville, NC.  Heidi, who lives 9 months of the year in Asheville, grew up in Seattle and her family has always fished salmon in Alaska.  At age 15, her dad bought her a commercial fishing permit for one of the fisheries in Alaska. Today, she has fished every summer for 20 years in Alaska.

Heidi and her boyfriend catch the fish and even sort them for quality and package them for sale. The product is sushi grade, IQF frozen.  It is fantastic and very reasonably priced (since she is selling direct).

Last month Allyson and I traveled down to Asheville to help Jill and Freddy out and pick-up their salmon.  We were very excited to meet Heidi and learn about her operation.  It was fascinating.  And because I have no control, I decided to bring back 200# for you guys to try. 

We do have center-cut salmon filet portions available by the piece and by the 10# box.  The pieces range in size but average about 6 oz each.  They are $16 per lb.  You can purchase this preorder via http://csalogin.freshforkmarket.com.  Please try Heidi's fish!  You will be sure to join her buying club next year.  Our goal is to get enough people interested in it that next year Heidi can ship a pallet of fish directly from Alaska to Cleveland.  

When shopping, we didn't want to create a special category just for fish.  Look under Meat.   

So here is this week's entire list: 

Winter Week 9 Share: 

1 Size Package, No Vegetarian or Vegan Options

1 turkey pack - drumstick, wing, and backbones

1 quart frozen snow peas

1 pint frozen sweet corn

3# turnips

1 quart canned peaches (in light, honey syrup)*

1 pint frozen blueberries

1 pint frozen blackberries

2 ct acorn squash

1 candy onion

1 head napa cabbage

1 8 oz piece smoked gouda cheese

* Some of the peaches we canned were white peaches, so if your jar has a few discolored peaches in it, that's what you are noticing. We didn't think about it until after we canned about 300 quarts that it didn't look the best so we won't do that next year.