. . Slow Food for your fast life

As Barbara says (and apparently a whole slew of her Southern female ancestors), “Honey, (if) you don’t make your own mayonnaise…you don’t SERVE mayonnaise”.

I will vouch there is nothing like homemade mayonnaise and especially in the hot summer months when there is so much flavorful food to put it on! Slathered on thick warm slices of tomato and good bread, or used for dunking sauce for your hot crispy french fries (trust me…).

I am a girl of Miracle Whip heritage and when I did taste mayo as a child, I thought it was awful and bland.

And then I went to France.

And I TASTED real mayonnaise, and aioli (garlic mayonnaise).

Mayonnaise is such a simple recipe with few ingredients, however the key is that those few ingredients be pristine and of the highest quality, and the process to combine them must be correct.

Aioli is considered the “butter” of Provence, they put it on EVERYTHING: on raw vegetables, on grilled fish, on crabcakes, on BLT’s (okay, that’s me, not the French.), on steamed potatoes, as a sidekick to ALL fried foods, on burgers.

Aioli is not just garlic flavored mayonnaise, rather, garlic is the physical foundation of aioli. Aioli is a rich sauce of crushed garlic, egg yolks, lemon juice and great olive oil. Some eat pudding, I eat Aioli.

Saturday at the Tasting Room - at 11:00 am and again at 1:00 pm, Chef Stacey Moore will show you how to make your own mayonnaise and Aioli as well as let you taste them. I guarantee it will be hard for you to go back to the jar with the H on the front. While you have Chef front and center, it’s also a good time to ask her any other cooking questions, she knows the answers to them all.

LEMON PESTO!

Our seasonal lemon pesto is now available at the shop this week and at the farmers market on Saturday. We take a basic pesto recipe and give it our own fresh twist: beautiful, fragrant basil, whole lemons so yellow they “put your eyes out”, our pungent, rich olive oil. Each delicious ingredient is amazing on its own, combine them and you taste Summer in Italy in every spoonful.

It’s best served at room temperature (like most food). Fold a few spoonfuls into a pot of pasta, serve alongside grilled shrimp and grilled steak and grilled chicken. Toast some slices of ciabatta, add thick slices of Kentucky tomato, and pile on our lemon pesto (drizzle a bit more oil over the top and be sure to sniff this masterpiece before your first bite.).

Fold a teaspoon or two of the pesto into a cup of mayo and spread this on untoasted ciabatta with thin slices of grilled steak.

Corn on the cob! It’s the time of year to boil 8 ears and stand over the sink chomping down like a typewriter! Spread a bit of lemon pesto over each bite, or, roll in olive oil, sprinkle with good salt and squeeze lime. It’s going to run down your arm while you eat but, who cares? It’s summer man!

Cut the corn off the cob once you boil it, add the olive oil, lime juice and salt and a bit of minced sweet onion, serve as a great salsa or corn salad. Add cilantro and you can call it ensalada de maiz! Add steamed shrimp to that salad, roll it up in soft tortillas and you can call it taco con maiz y camorone! A Spanish lesson in every blog!

Come down to the market this Saturday and welcome our leetle Andrew back from Italy where he just spent the last week in Venice. While you’re there have a shot of cold Cuban coffee and tell us what you’re cooking this summer.

Thank you for your business and your friendship.

CHOW!

…you think I’m talking about Marta, don’t you?

Nope.

We have so many customers who want the Cuban Coffee to go, we typically package it up in a quart deli container for them to take home. Stir it up, heat it up, or pour it over ice. We’ve learned the packaging doesn’t matter when someone is “jonesing” for the Cuban.

So…in anticipation of the long holiday weekend, we are making quarts in advance for you to come through and pick up. And as always, making a phone call for us to hold one for you is not a bad idea.

While you are in grabbing the java you may as well stock up for the weekend on olive oil and balsamic, wheatberry salad, breads and sauces because….WE ARE CLOSED SATURDAY, JULY 3 AT BOTH THE SHOP AND FARMERS MARKET.

So here’s the scenario for the weekend:

Saturday, you drag yourself out of bed, get ready for the big Bluegrass 10,000 race (ha!…just a joke to see if you’re paying attention.). But, you’re cranky, whiny, and need a bigger reason to get up than pulling on your running shorts and crawling UNDER the bed to find that other sneaker that’s been there for a month.

THEN you remember, “I’ve got a big Cuban in the fridge”!

Oh Happy Day.

A cup or two of the Cuban coffee and you ARE happy (…and okay, maybe a bit high.).
Heck, you’ve heard of the ‘The Big Gulp’… poke a hole in the lid of the container for a straw and head downtown sipping on the Big Cuban!

Our hours this week are 10am to 6 pm Thursday and Friday.

Happy Fourth Folks!

…Let US do it for you!

Cool and quick and easy ideas for our new Golden Garlic Honey Dressing:

- halve a ripe avocado, fill each half with our dressing and top with cracked fresh pepper (a pinch of minced sweet onion would seal the deal, fresh lump crab meat would take it to nirvana), scoop out with a spoon

- toss with lefover rice (or boil a bag in the microwave…Uncle Ben’s now makes Minute Brown Rice) and frozen green peas for a quick and delicious cold salad. Add salted cashews and or steamed shrimp and it’s a summer dinner.

- Grill chicken and pull the pieces apart into large chunks, toss with our garlicy croutons, canned mandarin orange slices, raw red pepper strips, pile into iceberg lettuce cups and drizzle with our Golden Garlic dressing. TRUST ME…and Cat-scan Kim who gave me this idea! She and I had a “I got a better recipe” Throwdown in the Tasting Room today.

- MARINATE the same chicken or shrimp in the dressing beFORE you grill it

- I’ve poured the dressing into a coffee mug and pullled off a hunk of sourdough bread (our Pane di Altimura) and called it dinner

At the Farmers Market Saturday and at the Shop we are featuring our Robusto Sauce. Made with chunks of fresh Roma tomatoes, tons and tons of fresh basil, it’s such a bright and clean, yet savory tomato sauce.

Stacey and her kitchen crew have made tons this week.

- Heat it in the microwave, then add fresh shrimp, cover and let the shrimp “cook” in the hot sauce

- Add a tablespoon or two of low fat cream cheese to turn it into a pink, rosy, richer textured sauce. Pour a half cup over grilled salmon.

_Especially in hot summer months (like the August days we are having NOW), it’s absolutely delicious served room temperature over room temperature pasta, it is Italy on your plate!

Pick up a couple of extra wheatberry salads, for lunches and for picnic sides, and because so many of our customers open theirs in the shop and start eating it with their tasting spoons (and I bet some of those do not make it to the house!).

We have you covered for healthy, delicious summer meals. Join us at the shop or at the market and ask for more recipes and ideas.

CHOW!

And I’m not talking about Uncle Bill and Mr. French!

First, a Happy Birthday “shout out” to my Dad, Bernard Vessels who turned 83 years young yesterday. Pops is one of my best girlfriends. Thanks for all your love and guidance and for telling me “you missed a spot” every week when I mowed the lawn. (and thank YOU Judith my fine therapist!)

Continuing the family theme, Chef Stacey has her son Taylor down here in the kitchen chopping and cooking and I’m afraid to ask what else! He has graciously agreed to help us set up at the market on Saturdays.

And of course Marta’s mother Nilda and all of her Cubaness is in from Miami and will be here today (Friday) with Marta working the sales floor (Nilda considers herself management material so of course she’ll be supervising.), come in and practice your Spanglish with them!

If you miss them Friday, the “show” starts again on Saturday at the Lexington Farmers Market at 10! Believe me, it’s a PARTY you won’t want to miss! Back by VERY popular demand, Chef Stacey will be serving up Cassoulet (it’s amazing to me as hot as it is outside that we canNOT keep this in stock; it’s selling quickly) at the market from 10 to 12 along with cooking tips, stories about why she wants to buy rubber machetes to throw at me in HER kitchen, etc…

And then of course there is OUR OWN FAMILY at Oliva Bella who is the foundation of our business. Without all these hard working people who love to serve (you our customers), there would be no party. I am grateful for, and love them all.

We SOLD OUT of ALL of our prepared foods last week at the market (including the Wheatberry Salad, the Golden Garlic Honey Dressing) but Chef has doubled production this week. Still, you may want to call ahead and reserve just in case.

The Tasting Room at Oliva Bella will also be going strong on Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm, if you don’t want to fight the heat and humidity, come enjoy a culinary tour of Italy with PLENTY of AC and good food.

As always we will have our flagship products at both locations, the EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OILS FROM ITALY and 8 YEAR AGED BALSAMICO, for tasting and for oooohing and aaaahing over.

Stay cool, Be good to your belly, and come visit!

I first discovered this salad while eating in Perugia, Italy. They used farro (which I think is spelt) but it was the same concept: chewy and satisfying grains that had been either cooked or soaked, combined with nuts, dried fruits, raw vegetables, olive oil and vinegar. And I believe there was a citrus element such as orange juice.

It was one of the most simple and delicious salads (it’s Italy, no?!) I’d tasted and I brought back the idea in my head and have plagerized and bastardized it at home ever since.

OUR Wheatberry Salad is chock full of almonds, chewy wheatberries, dried cranberries, sweet onion, and our signature Golden Garlic Honey dressing…wet, juicy, crunchy, sweet satisfying, and healthy.

You could change it up and add (one or all of the following) steamed asparagus, shrimp, roasted peppers, black olives, crumble feta or blue cheese into it, serve it under grilled steak, or heat it up if the weather turns rainy again. I personally think it’s best at room temperature.

I’ve kept a bowl of this in the fridge and just added to it all week depending upon my mood and what’s on hand.

Come by and even pick up a pint for lunch. It’s perfect picnic fare.

With this wet and cold weather we have HAD (and may again on the weekend) we’re still cranking out and selling our cassoulet.
We thought this would only be a cold weather item but not according to the customers who keep requesting it.

This month’s issue of Saveur magazine (mac and cheese on the cover) has the MOST comprehensive article on olive oil I’ve yet to read PLUS great stories and GREAT recipes. I strongly recommend you buy this. Once I figure out how, we will link this article to our website or newsletter. In the meantime come in, have a Cuban coffee and read one of our copies.

Summer is about to kick off (in my mind its official start date is Memorial Day Weekend), come visit the shop or find us at the market on Saturday. Either way, we can’t wait to see you!

Corn tortillas still hot from the griddle (made just two hours earlier) piled high with roasted pig (that he was still roasting inside the casa!), paper thin slices of raw sweet onion, rich guacamole so green it doesn’t look real, dollops of bright orange chile sauce so thick the spoon stands straight up! And the whole mess dribbled with bright lime juice! They wrap these in two tortillas in order to use one as a napkin and one to catch everything you drop from the first! There were 6 seats in this “restaurant” and the room was maybe 8 feet square.

Deep fried thick tortilla chips covered in emerald green tomatilla sauce, grilled chicken, a hefty layer of arugula, chunks of radishes and sweet onion, covered with cheese and put back on the fire to melt the cheese. (ps…This is Mexico’s favorite breakfast!)

Followed by a thin flank steak, rich from the garlic and chile marinade, rice with lime juice and jicama, and papaya so red-orange ripe and so iridescent you want to wear it! And this (including the chilaquiles above) is a typical lunch in the plant cafeteria!

My hosts at the plant invited me Friday to join them for their weekly Posole. We walked down the street from the plant and into what looked like someone’s house (no sign) and into their living room. A woman in her kitchen with 30 or 40 dishes and pots and pans sitting on top of each other, the smells of EACH have already reached your nose way before you have reached her home! You tell her what you want to eat and she dishes it out. We sat at her formica table and were served bowls (the size that Jethro Bodine used for cereal on the Beverly hill billies!) of Posole topped with chopped lettuce, onion, crema (the crema in Mexico has the texture of Greek yogurt but without the tang) and she made a special hot sauce just for me: pureed red jalapenos with crema and lime juice. Posole is hominy corn soaked in lime until it swells and is chewy. You cook the heck of it along with meats and seasonings but, the corn flavor is always prominent…and delicious.

Mammacita chastised me for not finishing my bowl…JETHRO could have not finished the bowl.

I’ve also eaten so much ceviche (raw marinated seafood “cooked” in lime juice and chile) in the last 10 days but it’s absolutely addictive: shrimp, octopus, sea bass, oysters, crab all so sweet and fresh and glistening from the sea, soaked in lime or orange juice and Serrano chiles, with raw onion, more Serrano chiles, sometimes cubes of ripe avocado. Every ceviche – and there have been many – has been over the top delicious. (P.S. and a shout out to my guys at Clamatos, the Mexican restaurant on Versailles road, they have the best ceviche in town, try the tostados mixtas with ceviche).

The open air markets in Mexico are so alive and so loud and so happy (actually, most of Mexico is like this.), and the smells alone are enough to visit! There were no less than 20 taco and tostado trucks lining the streets of the market Saturday morning, each with grills or open fires. The aroma of roasted meat ( pork , steak and chicken, seafood) mixed with poblano chiles, onions and cilantro is nearly overwhelming…in a good way!

Although thousands of miles away from Lexington, this Mercado is very similar to Lexington’s Farmers Market in that it not only is a place to buy great local products, it’s also the social village on Saturday where stories are shared, people meet for coffee, kids are running and laughing, folks have their dogs, and there are more besitos (kisses) and hugs than you can count. (My driver, Jesus, hugged me every night he dropped me off!)

My point to all of this? First, it’s all about the people in your life. Whether it’s your family or friends or someone else’s family and friends, or the people you meet in the street and connect with…this is ALL that matters.

Next? It’s also all about the food, about sharing it with those same people, about being adventuresome in trying new tastes and then being absolutely delighted by the fact that you did. Food brings such pleasure when you are able to make the time to experience it and to share it.

Of course now I have to “bring it home” and back to Oliva Bella. It’s exactly a parallel path to what we strive so hard to do. Bring in new flavors, new sauces for you to try, share other cultures’ ways and recipes or introduce our own take on those. All the while inviting you into our own “casa” to share them with you.

Join us this week at the market or swing through the shop for your own culinary nurturing. I promise, we’ll take good care of you and your belly.

There is something about a big monster sandwich that has always appealed to me.
I have always loved making them and I have always loved eating them.
(I am also highly suggestive…I literally stopped in the middle of writing and drove to Subway to buy a footlong. it’s those photos!).

What’s not to love? You get tons of vegetables, protein of your choice, sauces…all tucked together in a handy carrying case: the bread! Mine are almost always HEFTY and runny, but healthy. And mine almost always contain jalapenos AND tobasco…if they are too spicy, I don’t have to share!

Why are you reading my love letter to sandwiches? Check out the photos. In one of our next pick up and go dinners we are going to feature a picnic complete with monster sandwich, a juicy wet wheatberry salad, and biscotti dipped in chocolate. Come by this week and try the wheatberry salad. We’ll give you plenty of advance notice as to when you can place your order for the picnic.

Ask Andrew how HE feels about the sandwich!

Other tastings going on at the shop: due to popular demand, the Cassoulet and Golden Garlic Dressing have both become standards meaning you can pick them up anytime. We’ll be sampling the Cassoulet this week with the garlic croutons, I can eat these (croutons) like popcorn!

Community and our friend Lorraine.

One of the things I love about Lexington is that it feels like a community to me. It’s meaningful to run into friends and customers all over town, at restaurants, at the Dr’s office, at the grocery. I love the sense of family that it feels. It’s also what we try each day to share down at our shop, with each of our folks that work there and with our customers who grace our door.

Lorraine Davis is one of those people that I run into around town. I don’t know if it is her glowing complexion AND radiant aura, or how her eyes close when she laughs because her cheeks smile so high (there isn’t room on her face for both!), but I always feel better AFTER I visit with her. I also want to be more like her, it seems she enjoys her life thoroughly and I am envious. Lorraine is a friend of ours as well as one of our community partners. Lorraine works by night as an MRI specialist but her true love and passion is gardening. Lorraine collects our vegetable scraps at the shop for her compost pile and she is always bringing by a jar of bay leaves from her tree, a new herb to show us, and ALWAYS has a new story for us. She is either filling in her pool (meaning HER doing the work) to build more garden, or building a greenhouse (again…HER buidling it), or retiling her kitchen. Lorraine deserves a “shout out” and we’re lucky she is in our lives.

A last note:

Farmers Market Update - it’s supposed to be dry and sunny this weekend, look for us at the market under the Italian flag!p>

The tasting room is full, come down and see us.
And ALWAYS be good to your belly!

The response to last week’s “here’s what you’re eating on the weekend” prompted us to actually PROVIDE it! We had a number of folks ask us why they couldn’t just buy it from us…already made.

Okay…NOW you can!

Starting this week, we’ll put out the menu in the newsletter, you can call us, reserve dinner and swing by and grab it. Thirty minutes later you can be sitting down to a hot, hearty meal with a loved one. What’s for dinner this week? CAS-SOU-LET! A luscious dish of Italian beans simmered down with chunks of Italian sausage, a ton of garlic, and a touch of our tomatoey Pomodori. Serve this hot over a thick slice of toasted Pane di Altimura (Italian sourdough bread). Include a side of fresh salad greens drizzled with our new Golden Garlic dressing (an absolutely delectable combination of slowly poached garlic in Umbro oil, honey and white wine vinegar). You’ll want to dribble this dressing over everything: salads, vegetables (raw or cooked), sandwiches, rice! We throw in a package of house made garlicky croutons to toss on the salad or nibble on the way home from the shop!

To recap, you’ll receive a quart of our Cassoulet, a loaf of Pane di Altimura bread, a half pint of our new Golden Garlic Honey Dressing, and a package of house made croutons. When the farmers market gets rolling, we may decide to include the salad greens and vegetables for you as well.

Thursday you can pick our Cassoulet dinner up after 3 pm, Friday and Saturday after 12 noon. Call us in advance (859 983 3567)and plan early because we are only making a limited amount of dinner packages. You can also come in and sample the Cassoulet and dressing all week (but remember to plan ahead, this will fly!).

I personally have learned all over again there is something to actually sitting down to a meal, having a conversation, sitting at a table with napkins and silverware. It’s almost a re grounding for me….I’m not typically so traditional but this is what Betty (…Mom) did every single night of my life when I was growing up. How I took that for granted, and How it has formed me. I don’t realize how much I miss it until I have the good sense to do it. And let me tell you even more how square I am….I want entree, vegetables, bread, starch. So, having shared that, it is our honor and privilege to offer this to you and yours, and to genuinely try to make it easy for you. We know you can’t and probably don’t want to do it nightly, but to make it a ritual and do it weekly when you have time is life reviving.

FARMERS MARKET THIS SATURDAY

The new pavillion opens on Friday, WE will be there beginning this Saturday (weather permitting…remember how I am about my HAIR!) from 7:30m am to 1 pm or sell out. We were there last week and it’s glorious! So we are very excited to get the market season rolling. We will be at the front of the pavillion on the Main Street side, look for our Italian flag flying proudly above the tent! Look for ME sitting inside Dudley’s having a bloody Mary!

Finally…a photo of Amy, Amy’s one of our new hosts (as of end last year) but it feels like she’s been with us forever. I finally snagged a photo. Come in and ask her to do a “jig”for you…unfortunately she WILL!

I will leave you with yet another one of Barbara’s fine photography moments…Bella goes to the Races! Yes, that IS cleavage on Bella’s fine form and YES, Barbara needs something to do on Mondays!!!

(remember to click on the photos to enlarge!)

Be good to your belly’s, order up some Cassoulet!