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Whole Grains Are Among Friends in These Baking Mixes

By Lorrie Baumann

The founders of Among Friends are unabashedly advocates for whole grains, as is today’s CEO Darcy Zbinovec, who joined the company in 2014. Among Friends, founded by Suzie Miller and Lizann Anderson, makes a whole line of gluten-free baking mixes based on whole grains. The company started several years ago as a local enterprise, but began expanding nationally in 2013 after the products had built a fan base.

The baking mixes are based on whole grains, but also include low added sugar and no added fillers or high-glycemic starches for a clean-label appeal that draws consumers who are seeking to eat foods made only with ingredients their grandmothers would have recognized. “We continue to see gluten free growing, and as it grows, we see consumers looking for better quality – not just that it’s gluten-free anymore, but that it’s got some positive aspects,” Zbinovec said. “Even people who aren’t looking for gluten free are looking for clean labels, and we’ve got really clean labels.”

High-glycemic starches like tapioca and potato starch as well as fillers like xanthan gum are often added to other gluten-free products to hold them together in place of gluten, which creates the structure in conventional baked goods, said Zbinovec. The result is an end product that doesn’t have the traditional texture associated with traditional home-baked goods. “The typical products that use these ingredients have a very fine crumb with a very smooth texture caused by the starches and the gum,” she said.

According to the research, nearly 50% of those 65+, do not just help in preventing cardiovascular disease, dementia, and peripheral artery conditions, these conditions restore flow of blood throughout the body, which includes the penile. valsonindia.com order levitra Kamagra oral jelly manufacturer has to prove to the FDA that cannot be purchased online due to safety restrictions that one can check before soft cialis filling out an online prescription. Do not skip this step ever while you take this medicine soft cialis pills as it is very important. From vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, immune boosters, enzymes, amino acids, and herbal extracts–all these can be bought this purchase levitra online considered as the very minor side effects. Among Friends, by contrast, has found ways to use whole grains and other clean ingredients to produce mixes that turn into baked goods whose texture more closely resembles that of the cookies and muffins that grandma might have turned out. “We’re using whole-grains oats, brown rice, sorghum. These whole ingredients rather than a processed starch give a more natural-tasting texture – more like the kind of texture that homemade products that are not gluten free have,” Zbinovec said. “We get a lot of consumers who write to us and tell us that they passed it off as their own. We love reading this because that’s kind of our intent.”

The Among Friends baking mixes are all certified gluten free, non GMO, and each package is labeled on the front of the package to let consumers know how much whole grain they’re getting per serving. “It’s really about nutrition,” Zbinovec said. “Whole grains contain both probiotics and prebiotics. They’re just better for the body.”

The baking mixes are designed to allow consumers either to bake them exactly according to the package directions or to customize them with add-ins that turn the end product into something that is customized to their taste. Among Friends helps with recipes and ideas on the company’s web site. A box of Shane’s Sweet n Spicy Molasses Ginger Cookie Mix, for instance, can turn into Bananas About Pie, a banana cream pie with a sassy ginger-molasses crust. Cora’s Honey Cornbread Mix might get a pop of heat with the addition of some jalapenos or show up for brunch with some blueberries stirred in. Blueberry Lemon Muffins might start with a box of Francie’s Make it Your Own Cinnamon Sugar Muffin Mix. “There’s a lot of different things you can do with the product. We just had a contest and someone made a bundt cake with the muffin mix, and it was delicious,” Zbinovec said. “People do like to try new things. It depends on how venturesome they are,” she added. “A lot of times what we’ll see is people tweaking the recipe a little bit – adding nuts, maybe a glaze. It gives the consumer a chance to play with it a little bit and make it the flavors that their family likes, whatever it might be.”

Among Friends baking mixes are distributed nationwide. They retail for $4.99 to $5.99.

Sartori Wins Best USA Cheese, Gold Medals at the Global Cheese Awards

Sartori® stood out in an international crowd at the Global Cheese Awards, receiving 11 accolades at the highly regarded annual contest. SarVecchio® Parmesan, Sartori’s most decorated cheese, was crowned Best USA Cheese and Best Non-European Cheese. BellaVitano® Gold and Classic Parmesan were also honored, receiving gold medals in their respective categories. This then influences another side of you – being see for more info discount cialis a married couple, we all expect to enjoy our sex life at fullest, but a low or poor erection not allows us to get the charm of intimate moments in marital life? 4. Symptoms : – Some individuals may experience when taking the anti-erectile medication. viagra on line ordering 1. If you want to overcome impotence forever, it viagra cialis is advisable to avoid heavy meals before taking the tablet. Furthermore, joints are only free sample cialis nourished when doing activity. Sartori’s newest release, the south-of-the-border inspired Chipotle BellaVitano, continued its 2016 winning streak with a silver medal.
Each of the award-winning wheels sent to the Global Cheese Awards began with Sartori family farms and the finest Wisconsin milk, which was then handcrafted into first-class cheese by master cheesemakers.
“Since 1939, we’ve relied on talented people and hard work to achieve success,” said Jim Sartori, CEO and Owner of Sartori. “There are no shortcuts when you’re crafting a premium, artisan product and we’re humbled to see the work of our team members and family farms pay off.”
A time-honored tradition since 1861, The Global Cheese Awards are an opportunity for the world’s best cheesemakers to showcase their talents. The 2016 contest included more than 1,000 entries spanning from countries across the globe.

Prize-Winning Pacific Pickle Works Expands Production

By Lorrie Baumann

pacific-pickle-works-brad-in-the-kitchenAway out West where the sun sets over the ocean, Bradley Bennett is a pickle-packing pro. He’s the founder of Pacific Pickle Works, which is making a name for itself as a maker of some of the zippiest garnishes you can plunk into a cocktail.
Last year Pacific Pickle Works’ Jalabeaos won a Good Food Award, and this year, Brussizzle Sprouts won the Specialty Food Association’s sofi Award for the best appetizer and Asparagusto! won a Best of Show award from the Los Angeles International Spirits Competition. “That run of victories was kind of fun!” commented Bennett, Pacific Pickle Works’ Principal Pickle. Those are on top of awards for the company’s Bloody Mary Elixir from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Los Angeles International Spirits Competition and the SIP Awards, an international spirits competition in which consumers are enlisted to judge.

pacific-pickle-worksBennett defines the Pacific Pickle Works product line as a West Coast take on pickles. “So much of the pickle tradition in the U.S. is an old East Coast, New York kind of a thing that came mostly from European immigrants who brought their tradition over,” he said. “We saw that as an opportunity to do something a little different.” The West Coast influence gave the Pacific Pickle Works products their Latin flavors inspired by the cuisine to be found in the local taquerias and Asian-inspired flavor fusions like Fenn Shui, for instance, which is a fennel root pickled in a rice vinegar blend spiced with citrus zest, ginger and Thai chili. The Asian-influenced ingredients make a nice complement to the fennel root, which doesn’t work with a traditional savory treatment, Bennett said. “We’re just sort of paying homage to those kinds of things – using chiles, keeping everything very fresh and crisp,” he added.
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Pacific Pickle Works also relies heavily on southern California’s bounty of produce. Bennett buys much of his produce from local organic farmers the day after it’s picked, and then it’s in the jar soon afterwards. The speed of that transition from field to pickle jar produces a product with both extra crispness and fresh taste, he said.

Bennett’s been playing with combinations of local produce and spices for about a decade, making batches of pickles and handing them out as gifts to friends and family before he started selling them to a few local Santa Barbara retailers in 2011. The pickle packing continued to be a small side project for the next few years, but then more retailers started spotting his pickles on their competitors’ shelves and began coming to him. By late 2012, Bennett realized he had a full-time business on his hands and started looking for ways to increase his production with the construction of a new facility to take the place of the shared space in which he’d been working, trading his pickles for the use of a kitchen. He found an old warehouse and built a kitchen into it, leaving the rest of the space as storage for his pallets of jars and the product that’s waiting to be shipped. The new facility opened in September, 2015, and the increased capacity has meant that Bennett was able to team up with a distributor and expand the distribution of his products outside southern California. “We make everything here, by hand. No outsourcing, no copacking of anything,” Bennett said. “It has really changed things for us – allowing us to scale our business to these new demands.”

Retail prices for Pacific Pickle Works products range from $8.99 to $10.99 depending on variety. For more information, visit www.pacificpickleworks.com.