Tag Archives: time-starved

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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  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 of our favorite dinners growing up was “Dad’s Pancakes” made from scratch and unbelievably fluffy. The pancakes were always served with what is now referred to as simple syrup, we referred to it all those years ago as sugar syrup. While I would like to tell you that I continue to make Dad’s recipe, my time does not allow that to be the case, but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying pancakes for dinner! There are many good pancake mixes, I like a complete mix where all you have to do is add water, a quick and easy way to feed the family for dinner, add some “little sizzlers” or bacon with a giant glass of milk and your family will be very happy. That glass of milk can also help save BIG money at the gas pump as well. Save 10 cents per gallon of gas for EACH … 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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Perhaps you were out walking through the neighborhood during the recent beautiful weather, the neighborhood kids outside en masse, the smell of barbecue wafting through the air. As the weather winter turns to spring lighter meals are on the menu, and Festival Foods has everything you need to make this week’s dinner plan tasty, healthy, and easy! Check out this week’s suggest menu here. Nothing says spring on the table quite like fresh asparagus, and Festival Foods has wonderful fresh asparagus available right now in our produce departments! Speaking of barbecue, Festival Foods has what is likely the best barbecue sauce you will ever taste: Big Rick’s! This is the real deal, direct from Kansas City, and once you’ve tried it you’ll be hooked. It’s perfect on the grill with your favorite meats! And like their amazing barbecue sauce, Big Rick’s now has an equally amazing salsa. Beware! It’s not … Continue reading

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We hope you enjoy our suggested menu this week, the menu includes several of our favorite comfort foods. If you are looking for a recipe for chuck roast we have the perfect solution Southwestern Pot Roast another slow-cooker recipe. Chef Ryan has a new video on Youtube to show you how easy this recipe is to make. If you are in the mood for chicken and looking for a side dish to accompany the chicken, what could be more Minnesota than Wild Rice? We thought it was time to share a recipe highlighting Minnesota’s official state grain. This is a delicious Wild Rice Casserole recipe that we wanted to share with you. Another reason beside this delicious recipe is the nutritional information below from mnwildrice.org that shows why Wild Rice might be a better nutritional option than rice.   One of favorite products at Festival is Lefas brand Extra Virgin … Continue reading

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We have some beautiful salmon filets in our store this week and a recipe that is sure to please is Bacon Wrapped Salmon. This recipe uses Tom Douglas Rub with Love – Salmon rub as well as a Savu smoker bag. The salmon rub is brown sugar based  and this rub flavors “the best salmon in Seattle” at Etta’s restaurant, according to Northwest Palate Magazine. If you love easy clean up with the bonus of great taste you will love the Savu smoker bag.   Our weekly menu also has another salmon recipe for Maple Glazed Salmon, another delicious option! As if we needed an excuse to eat salmon, here is an interesting article A Diet Rich in Fish May Help the Brain. The new Tide “pods” have just arrived in our stores, great pre-measured detergent so no messy cups to measure and spill. Another new item in our innovative bakery … Continue reading

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