Tag Archives: grilling

One of the great things about good food is that it can bring the whole family together not only eating it, but also making it! There is a great deal of discussion about childhood obesity associated with soft drinks and snacking at home yet over 32 percent of American’ Caloric intake is food prepared away from home and accounting for 41 percent of their food budget. Until we get back in the kitchen and begin preparing meals and snacks with fresh ingredients we will not solve the problem of childhood obesity. Cooking together will teach our children essential skills for life and it’s a terrific way to spend some quality time together as a family and is far easier on the budget than eating out. What better meal to celebrate the beginning of warm weather than grilling kabobs with everyone participating in preparation, assembly and cooking. The meat used in … Continue reading

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Is there anyone who isn’t suffering from Cabin Fever after these long months of snow & cold? Hopefully the weather forecast is correct for the weekend – 70+ degrees by Sunday! The arrival of spring calls for a celebration with some great food and beverage, perhaps even a bonfire with s’mores! If your schedule is packed, perhaps you should have your groceries delivered! One thing for certain is that the grill is coming out this weekend. A Rib Eye Steak Topped with Blue Cheese Butter seems like a perfect way to kick off the grilling season.   No gathering should ever be without Guacamole (at least in our opinion) and we prefer the chunky kind. You can toss together at the last minute before your guests arrive and it won’t be long before the bowl is empty – always a hit!   A Caprese salad with vine-on tomatoes and fresh basil will … Continue reading

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The fresh Halibut season has begun in the US and the fillets have been awesome! One of our favorite recipes for Hallibut is Fish Tacos with Chunky Guacamole. This recipe also works well for Shrimp Tacos, use some shredded Spanish Manchego Cheese for a lovely combination with the shrimp. Guacamole is also a healthy snack that takes very little time to prepare, we have Guacamole at our house at least once per week. Guacamole is a lovely side to so many dishes. Another fabulous recipe for Halibut is Roasted Halibut with Red Bell Peppers, ask our butchers to remove the skin on the Halibut for you to save time. Click on the photo below for the recipe.   Source: eatingwell.com via Festival on Pinterest   Nothing says spring like a delicious dish made with Asparagus! We found this recipe for Absurdly Addictive Asparagus on Food52.com and fell in love, let … Continue reading

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  I’m always looking for simple ideas for entertaining and it seems that I often come back to serving cheese and wine with crusty baguettes. Some of my favorite cheeses of late come from Sartori in Wisconsin. Their Bellavitano Reserve Cheeses are heavenly.  Here are some descriptions of the line that we carry at Festival Foods, my personal favorite is the Balsamic: BellaVitano Gold begins in the mouth like a premium Parmesan and finishes in award-winning style with hints of melted butter. Balsamic BellaVitano, the sweet, nutty, fruity flavors of our most-sought-after BellaVitano become even more desirable when blessed with a few prized drops of Modena balsamic vinegar. Merlot BellaVitano weds this rich, creamy cheese to the berry and plum notes of Merlot, creating a marriage of flavors destined to make your taste buds say, “I do.” Raspberry BellaVitano is soaked with handcrafted Raspberry Tart ale. The bright notes of … Continue reading

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Nothing gets our team energized more than holidays! Since we are all passionate about food, food is always a focal point of how we celebrate with our family and friends. Our associates bring that passion and joy of food to our stores, presenting you with ideas and solutions to make celebrations specials and everyday life a little easier. This week the Deli offers a fabulous value with our 8-piece bucket of chicken either seasoned grilled or fried for only $6.99! Combine the chicken with our special Homestyle Potato Salad and you have a delicious, easy meal without turning on the oven! If you have a large crowd we have our 50-piece chicken available as well as many family style salads that you may order on line at this link. We have a Family Style Catering brochure to help you with your planning and if you prefer phoning your order call … Continue reading

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With our pork Baby Back Ribs on the ad this week it wasn’t too difficult to figure out an easy meal idea! All of our fresh pork is ALL Natural, that’s all we sell. U.S.  source verified no added hormones no antibiotic growth promotants, no artificial ingredients! Several years ago we spotted these fabulous smoker bags at a food show and we have been selling lots of them ever since. I love them for either fish or ribs and make for a quick and easy clean-up. We carry these by our chef/fish counter for your convenience. Our Store Director, Rick Ubel prepared these ribs this week so we asked him for his technique using the smoker bag with the Baby Back Ribs: Put your favorite rib rub on both sides of ribs (we use either McCormick’s Pork Rub  or Tom Douglas Pork Rub) Put ribs in either Alder smoker bag (a … Continue reading

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On April 19 Festival Foods was honored to receive the “Minnesota Grown Retailer of the Year” award! Pictured is Minnesota Grown spokesperson Carrie Tollefson, Rod Borden Director of Produce and Jason Herfel Vice President of Fresh Foods at Festival Foods. As a small local business we understand perhaps better than the chain stores that our local farmers are an important part of their communities just as our stores and associates play an important role each community they are located.     While Whole Foods & other chains define local as “only products that have traveled less than a day (7 or fewer hours by car or truck)” our definition at Festival Foods is a lot closer to home. Here are some of the wonderful families and farms  that have provided our local produce for many years. Axdahl’s Garden Farm-Brian and Leslie, Stillwater MN Pahl Farm- Gary and Brian Pahl, Apple Valley MN … Continue reading

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  One item always on our shopping list at this time of year is Asparagus, we had it for dinner three times last week! Steaming and roasting the asparagus are my favorite methods to cook the Asparagus. Roasting is so simple just wash and trim the Asparagus toss to coat with olive oil and a tiny squeeze of lemon and sprinkle of kosher salt. Lay flat on a baking sheet and bake in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. Another simply delicious recipe is Grilled Asparagus Salad with Fried Eggs. Asparagus would be a wonderful side dish to many of our recipes included in our menu for the week. We thought we should highlight some foods around the store that you may not have tried yet: Piacci Fior‑di‑Latte, or “flower of milk,” offers delicate flavor, reminiscent of handmade fresh Italian Mozzarella. Perfect to toss with tomatoes and fresh basil for … Continue reading

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Our Minnesota weather is at least living up to it’s name as we complete this week’s menu!  We often times comment about how the weather can change so quickly and how it affects how we move about or what sounds good for dinner. With our warm streak, a cool dip and now a return to warm weather soon(tomorrow!) our menu for this week has many options, check out the menu here. We start off with some news this week that is worthy of reviewing and sharing. Recently in the media, there have been some reports on ground beef that have raised some questions with our customers. We appreciate all of your questions and know if we have heard from some of you, there may be others that want to know about our ground beef. We want you to know and be confident when purchasing our ground beef, it is 100% … Continue reading

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This week’s menu includes a slow cooker recipe and we will do our best to bring you more of these one pot meals in the future, perfect for busy households. To bring a wider variety to our menu plan we are including links and recipes to other recipe sites as well as our own recipe pages. We will try whenever possible to offer some prepared sauces and components to make the recipe preparation even faster. The recipe for Nacho Burgers by Bobby Flay suggests you grill the burgers.A time-saver and warmer option in these cold months at our house is a grill pan for the stove top, most of our grilling is done on a grill pan. Always remember to cook ground beef to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, never assume that if a ground beef is brown in the middle, it is done, the only safe way to know … Continue reading

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