I stopped in at the Market yesterday for the first time in a while.  Much to my surprise, I found this...

What’s going on??

Luckily, Debbie was there to explain that our Pocket Stop and Market will soon morph into a combination Pocket Stop, Cookie Stop and Coffee Stop!

You’ll be able to stop in and drink a Chick’s Espresso coffee, get a breakfast or lunch Pocket sandwich and finish off with a Cookie Stop cookie.  And don’t forget the bubble tea!  

You may have driven through Chick’s Espresso in Security.  They offer coffee drinks, but also 11 flavors of bubble tea, fruit smoothies and Italian sodas.  Personally, I’m looking forward to trying their Mexican hot chocolate and Ancho Chili Mocha!

Watch this space for information on when the first coffees will be served!
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In other news, two new businesses have joined the Kitchen.  Look for baked goods from the Lavender Mountain Bakery.  Laura, the owner, makes muffins, scones, cookies and breads.  

A second bakery will also offer gluten-free/allergy-free baked goods in the near future.

Written by Bonnie Simon of Community Writing Services, LLC

Tinta De Toro kicked off a schedule of classes at the Kitchen last Saturday with the “Winter Stews” class.  “We ate well for sure.”, said Angela when I asked her how it went.

The classes are leading up to Tinta De Toro’s first anniversary.  Angela has been a chef for many years and decided last year to offer her expertise directly to the public.  Drawing on her Spanish heritage and culinary experiences in Europe, she offers tapas, small plates of beautifully prepared food, for events.

“Everything in moderation is what I learned from there.”, Angela says of her trip and tapas definitely fits into this model.  You can try everything on the table and go home just comfortably full.

Since she is trained as a pastry chef, she also offers pastries and cakes.  You can see some of her creations on her website.

If you sign up for Angela’s mailing list, you’ll receive recipes now and then.  Here is one I plan to try as soon as the rhubarb harvest begins.  Be sure to check out the class schedule too!  An Italian Desserts class will be held this Saturday.  Yum!

Rhubarb Cake

1/3  cup  butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2  eggs
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
 Pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
2  cups AP flour
1 cup sour milk or buttermilk
3 cups  fresh rhubarb, diced

Topping
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
 Pinch nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.

In a small bowl, combine cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking soda and flour.  Set aside.   Cream butter and sugar together with mixer until light and fluffy.  Add in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla.  Stop mixer and scrape down sides of bowl.   With mixer on low, add half of the flour to mixture, then add half the sour milk.  Repeat, finishing with milk.  Stop mixer, scrape sides and fold in rhubarb.  Spread into prepared pan, sprinkle evenly with topping.

Bake for 40 minutes or until pick comes out clean.  Let cool and serve. 

Refrigerate leftovers.


Written by Bonnie Simon of Community Writing Services, LLC

Angela Valencia, of Tinta De Toro, told me a hilarious story during our interview.  Fresh from a tour of Spain and France, she sat down to dinner with her mother and stepfather.  Casually, she mentioned she would like to open a tapas bar.  Conversation stopped in its tracks.

“You want to open a topless bar??”, someone asked.

Tapas, or small plates of food originally designed to slow the absorption of cocktails, are relatively new in the USA and Angela notes that she has similar conversations fairly often.  She says she doesn’t mind.  It catches the attention.

“I love to travel and I love to eat,” she says of her international culinary experiences.  “I bring it back to you.”

Angela grew up on what she describes as her mother’s “mini-farm”.  They grew some food and raised some animals, even branding their own cattle at times.  She learned to cook and can from the women in her family.  She remembers being interested in baking as far back as age five, when her aunt made a Barbie cake for her birthday.  

She taught herself to decorate cakes at age 13 and graduated from culinary school as an adult because she wanted to do for a living what she does best.  She has held chef positions in places as diverse as schools, the Ranch Steak House and the Garden of the Gods club.  Her most interesting position, in my humble opinion, was in a butcher shop.

“So you know the difference between all those mysterious cuts of beef?”, I asked, incredulous that I had finally found someone who could help me sort out my recently purchased beef quarter.

She does know and she can tell you about pork and lamb cuts too.  She even offers a class, which I will most certainly be attending!

Her business, Tinta De Toro, offers cooking classes and catering.  The cooking classes are held at the Kitchen and Angela notes that they are the only classes in town consistently held on weekends.  She offers some series and some stand-alone classes.  Trained as a pastry chef, she offers series in baking and cooking.  Watch her website to learn when they are scheduled.  

A timely “Winter Stews” class will be held this Saturday.  Call 719-429-2302 to reserve a space and you might want to hurry since it’s offered at a $20 discount to celebrate the move to the Kitchen.  Classes are held every Saturday evening, including my favorite, a “Party Planning” class on February 18.

Tinta De Toro is offering a discount on the next four classes, including the party planning class.  Check out her website for details.  And be sure to ask Angela about the topless bar.

Written by Bonnie Simon of Community Writing Services, LLC

We all eat.  It’s something we have in common and everyone understands the basics.  We select and prepare food, and then we consume it.

It seems so simple and yet every person looks at it differently.  Some see food merely as nutritional sustenance.  Some see it as comfort.  Others see it as a manifestation of culture.
 
And some, like Amy Thomas of Front Range Granola, see it as art; as a means of expressing a unique experience of being human.

Amy, a trained chef, wasn’t in cooking school when she developed her signature granola recipes.  She was studying for her master’s in counseling, a pursuit in which she would have the privilege of helping people blossom and of going along on their journeys.  She describes Front Range Granola as part of her own journey and an expression of personal creativity she wants to share with those who like it.
 
Granola can be bought in any grocery and Amy notes that her creative products may not be for everyone, but many people love them.  Big companies use focus groups to test their products and carefully formulate them to appeal to the widest possible audience, resulting in studiously mediocre flavors.  I asked Amy how she tested her flavors and she said, “I tasted them and if I didn’t like them, I tried something else.”  The results of her experiments are four distinct and delicious flavors.

Cranberry Orange: traditional flavors with pumpkin seeds
Coconut Almond: a hint of cardamon and ginger, contains no dried fruit
Dark Chocolate Cherry: a deep and rich concoction
Fig and Walnut: a hint of balsamic vinegar draws out the cinnamon and nutmeg

Do they seem a little exotic?  Amy mentioned, in the most offhand way, that she had worked as the chef for several camps, including one in France!  Her experience with their daily farmers’ markets taught her to value fresh ingredients and she had to learn to work with foods that were foreign to her.  She also studied ancient nutritional health traditions as part of her culinary education.  Her granola brings us a taste of her experiences and as she evolves, so does Front Range Granola.

She couldn’t tell me what would evolve next.  You may be able to catch her at the CFAM markets next year, or maybe not.  Like her recipes, a small business reflects the personality of the owner and Amy prefers to see where life takes her.  

Stop into the Market, take home some of her vibrant granola and think about where your food comes from and what it means to you.  Is it just sustenance?  Or is it a link in the chain of community?

Written by Bonnie Simon, Community Writing Services LLC