Tag Archives: Festival Express

Time to break out our favorite summer recipes and begin shopping for Memorial Day weekend groceries for the unofficial beginning of summer. Most likely the weather won’t feel like summer but we won’t care because we will have some great food to enjoy. And there must be guacamole, right? One meal of the weekend will be a slow roasted beef brisket, simple to prepare and provides a great atmosphere to relax with some beer and wine while it’s roasting. To roast it slow and low heat you want to order an untrimmed whole beef brisket from our meat counter, trimming the fat would cause you to lose the moist and tender texture of the beef. A simple dry rub of equal portions of Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper and a small amount of paprika over the entire brisket. We’re going to roast in a roasting box but the … Continue reading

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Our Premium Quality Double Smoked Bone-In Ham has been a holiday tradition for many families. Our ham is twice-smoked over hard wood, it is fully cooked so you may simply bake covered with foil or lid at 325 degrees for approximately 15 minutes per pound to an internal temperature of 140 degrees. This video featuring Festival team members Ray and Jason explains the advantages of purchasing and serving a premium quality ham. If you prefer a glaze on your holiday ham this is a fabulous recipe for Cranberry Maple Glazed Ham.  Whether or not you choose to glaze your ham, the perfect accompaniment for this incredible ham is our very own Cheesy Potatoes, sold in a 5 lb pan, all you need to do is pop them in the oven! These Smashed Potatoes are another wonderful option. The pepper-jack cheese in the recipe gives them a nice little kick. Another elegant and easy meal … Continue reading

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Our Premium Quality Double Smoked Bone-In Ham has been a holiday tradition for many families. Our ham is twice smoked over hard wood, it is fully cooked so you may simply bake covered with foil or lid at 325 degrees for approximately 15 minutes per pound to an internal temperature of 140 degrees. This video featuring Festival team members Ray and Jason explains the advantages of purchasing and serving a premium quality ham. If you prefer a glaze on your holiday ham this is a fabulous recipe for Cranberry Maple Glazed Ham. I recently saw this recipe in Bon Appétit magazine for Easter Ham with Golden Breadcrumbs and Madeira Sauce and it sounds delicious so I plan to prepare this for our holiday dinner. Regardless of the recipe you choose for your ham, the perfect accompaniment is our Cheesy Potatoes, all you need to do is pop them in the oven! Leftover ham from your dinner … Continue reading

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Food is an important part of celebrations throughout the world, regardless of culture. The next several days have many celebrations so we’ve been sorting through recipes to share with you that you and your family might prepare together to recognize these traditional festivities. The Chinese New Year begins on February 10 – The Year of the Snake. Kung Pao Chicken with Noodles is one of our favorite chicken recipes and seems perfect for a Sunday meal with your family. The peppers create some lovely heat and the crunch of the peanuts really makes the dish. Another recipe with some heat from crushed red pepper is Chicken with Cashews, my favorite ingredient in this recipe is the fragrant fresh Ginger! Just because we’re not in New Orleans doesn’t mean we don’t love the food and festivities of Mardi Gras! Our favorite restaurant is Commander’s Palace and the House Salad with Creole … Continue reading

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A sure sign of the holiday season – our Seafood Sale is off and running and there is an abundance of items that will find their way into my shopping cart over the course of the sale. An absolute favorite are the Lobster Claws from Maine, they are pre-scored making them very easy to crack open. They’re frozen and we prefer to thaw them out and serve them cold with this delicious seafood sauce, an elegant yet easy appetizer or an exquisite main course. Another family favorite are the Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes sold individually ready to cook, we prefer to serve these with a Spicy Honey Mustard Sauce. Surf and Turf is a favorite special meal during the holidays whether we use Lobster Tail or Alaskan Red Jumbo King Crab Legs with Beef Tenderloin. The Alaskan Red are the sweetest of all of the King Crab Legs and a very … Continue reading

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Scare up some Halloween fun food and get your BOOFFET put together with some of our delicious prepared foods and recipes! We like to include Mini Ham Sandwiches on our menu because you can make them a day ahead and just pop them in the oven before your guests arrive. If you’re a little more adventurous how about making Boofalo Chicken Sliders using our Buffalo Burger recipe, a tasty slider with a little kick. Our Killer Artichoke Bread is to die for! A really easy recipe with excellent flavor your guest will love. Our Queso recipe is another item that can be made ahead and re-heated before serving with your choice of tortilla chips. If you don’t want to do any cooking we have a fa (boo)lous selection of prepared items in our Deli: Fiesta Taco Dip Boofalo Chicken Dip Bacon Chive Dip Texas Caviar Fresh Pizza including our special … Continue reading

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Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer and many of us celebrate with picnics, parties, weekend getaways and other popular summer activities over the holiday weekend. Food is what ties most of these events together so lets get busy and figure out what to serve! If you have weekend guests you don’t want to fuss with a complicated breakfast, best solution an oven breakfast that some of the work can be done the night before serving. This recipe for Bacon, Tomato and Cheddar Breakfast Bake with Eggs is perfect for beginning the day whether breakfast or brunch. Leave lunch up to our Deli team and pick up a couple of The Grillers for lunch, throw them on the grill for a short time and you have an awesome sandwich that you can enjoy between activities. After activity filled days you should plan on some appetizers. A staple for any … 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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What says summer more than a fresh cooked bratwurst on the grill?  Well, we think we have an answer – a really great fresh prepared bratwurst!  Our butchers have been making the Famous Festival Fresh Bratwurst for many years right in the store. Great sausage making is really a lost art and fresh sausage right in the store is almost unheard of.  We are keeping the tradition alive and our fresh butchers continue to deliver tasty links for the grill.  Stop in today, pick up some fresh brat buns from the bakery and your favorite toppings from kraut to onions and more!  Enjoy a traditional treat on the grill with your family and friends. If you have family members who prefer chicken  pick up some of the new Chicken Bratwurst from Gold N Plump! Busy weekend with opening fishing AND Mother’s Day.  Don’t fret you can get everything you need … 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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