Go get your dog.  He’ll be interested in this story.

I’ve mentioned Roxie of Bone of Contentment before.  She bakes dog biscuits at the Kitchen and even though I am not a dog, the smell of the baking biscuits tempted me more than I expected!

In fact, I thought of this again one day when I tried making dog biscuits at home.  That time, I did eat one and it actually tasted pretty good!  I’m not sure what that says about me, but I blame Roxie.

No doubt, after hearing that story, your dog is asking you for some of these delectable biscuits and you’re wondering where you can get them.  Roxie is building the foundation of her business deliberately, “setting down cobblestones”, she says.  Currently, the best place to get her products is at the Old Colorado City farmers’ market in the summer.  But keep an eye out for a planned website at www.BoneOfContentment.com and a Facebook page where she will announce new ways to delight your canine friends.

Those canines are waiting on the edge of their seats.  Sometimes, Roxie even has to make emergency deliveries to a family with a noisy and impatient Lhasa Apso.

I know your dog has not expressed any concerns about his health or the quality of Roxie’s products, but you may find some peace of mind in knowing her biscuits are gluten free and made with organic ingredients.  She uses organic brown rice flour and oat flour, organic peanut butter, honey from the local Schmidt Apiary and locally produced eggs.  She uses recyclable packaging as well.

Roxie loves animals and got into this business because her own dog has allergies and can’t tolerate gluten.  She made treats for him and after leaving a bank job, decided to make the treats available for others.  “That’s truly what my passion is,” she says.  And it’s paid off for pets.  She tells the story of a client who bought a package of her biscuits and a package from another vendor and set them down for his dog to choose.

The dog chose Roxie’s.  And I bet yours will too.

Written by Bonnie Simon of Community Writing Services, LLC

I had to take pictures of it first.  After waiting 45 minutes for the tamal to steam, it wasn’t easy to put it off any longer.

I took a bite and closed my eyes with surprise.  Like all wrapped foods, my first taste was of the wrapper of this El Salvadoran tamal, made with masa and chicken broth instead of masa and fat.  The combination had a savory and substantial taste.  Another bite.  I had followed Monse & Karen’s instructions to top it with their curtido and now I understand why.  The vinegar of the curtido brings out the savory chicken flavor and adds some crunch, a contrast to the softness of the masa.  A few more bites.  The pork at the center chimed in, adding its meaty texture and rounding out the symphony of balanced flavors.
 
In other words, it was delicious.  Delicious enough that I wished I had another one.

Monse and Karen, sisters and business partners, of Monse’s Tastes of El Salvador had given me the tamal (what we think of as a tamale) when I’d visited Monse’s home to interview them.  It’s a product still in development.  I’m sorry to say you can’t get one yet, unless you know the right people.  You’ll have to settle for someone else’s tamales or get some pupusas from Whole Foods.

What you can buy and enjoy is curtido, a pickled salad made from cabbage and jalapeno.  Whole Foods was so excited about the curtido that they offered Monse and Karen a contract 45 minutes after they dropped of a sample, cutting short a process that normally can take weeks.

Selling curtido was Monse’s idea.  She noted that Whole Foods sells pupusas, an El Salvadoran stuffed flatbread, which are traditionally served with curtido.  The packaging even suggested getting some curtido to eat with it.  She looked around town and found no one sold it!  A business idea was born!

Their small business gives these military wives the flexible schedule needed to raise the three children they have between them while their husbands are away.  Both Monse and Karen married American military men.  Monse’s husband is deployed and the military is educating Karen’s husband in another state.  The sisters are grateful to live so close to each other.

They have always been close, wherever their travels took them.  Monse left her home in El Salvador to study in Germany in 2004, where she met her husband, and Karen visited, leading to a story worthy of Valentine’s day.  During one four-week visit, they threw a birthday party where Karen met another American military man.  A week or two later, he asked her to marry him!  They tried to wait long enough that he could travel to El Salvador to meet her parents, but romance beckoned and on her next trip they went to Denmark to marry.

Stop by the Market to pick up some of their healthy, delicious curtido with the Colorado Proud certification!  You can buy 13 oz for $3.50.

Written by Bonnie Simon of Community Writing Services, LLC

Have you ever eaten a lavender cookie?  Laura Kindseth, the owner of Lavender Mountain Bakery, a new business working out of the kitchen, makes them. The flavor of her lavender shortbread blooms into a savory perfume from the buttery shortbread when you take a bite.  She also offers a lavender scone and has a lavender mocha muffin in development.  

She generously brought me a whole bag of scones to try at our interview!  The scones had a lot of flavor, thanks to her restraint with the sugar.  I could taste little bursts of sweetness from the sugar topping and the bold fillings clearly came through the delicate dough.  I tried the chocolate, blueberry, cinnamon and cranberry scones.  Yum!

Lavender Mountain Bakery isn’t the first bakery Laura has owned.  She ran Gourmet Granny Bakery in Mineral Point, WI, the oldest town in Wisconsin, some years ago.  After working for an architecture nonprofit in Baltimore and Las Cruces in the past few years, she had planned to move to the Springs and retire.  I asked her why she had decided to start another bakery.

She told me it was because the Gotta Love It! kitchen made it easy.  Rather than having to find a commercial kitchen she could use full time, Gotta Love It! made it possible to start a part time bakery.

Besides, the whole family loves to cook and experiment with food.  Recently, her young granddaughter, Hannah, declared that Laura and the child’s mother, Elizabeth, would have a contest.  The girl would pick out two secret ingredients and the women would prepare an appetizer, main course and dessert using those ingredients.  After dinner, the young judge would declare a winner.

What were the ingredients?  Carrots and gouda cheese.

Elizabeth won the appetizer competition with a ginger carrot soup, but Laura was disqualified because she used scallops, which Hannah doesn’t like.  Laura won the main course competition with a salad with fried cheese balls.  Dessert ended up in the refrigerator because they were all so full after two appetizers and two main courses!

Lavender Mountain Bakery products are available at the Market and at Jives Coffee Lounge.  Stop in for a bag of two small scones (one for you and one to give to a friend) for $2.50 or for a muffin.  She also makes focaccia breads with a variety of toppings.

Who knows?  You may even be able to get one with carrots and gouda cheese.


Written by Bonnie Simon of Community Writing Services, LLC