Posts categorized 'CM News'

Angelcots: A Taste of Heaven

Have you ever really tasted a perfect apricot? Oftentimes, the flavor might be good, but the texture might be dry and mealy. Sometimes, the fruit is juicy, but the flavor is weak. However, the perfect apricot does exist, and it’s called an Angelcot.

Angelcots are a specialty hybrid of Moroccan and Iranian apricot varieties. There are only a few acres of this special fruit in the world. They have a very pale yellow skin color with a pale peach blush and a very fine velvety fuzz. The inside flesh is extremely juicy with the texture of a perfectly ripe nectarine with the delicate yet intense sweet flavor of an apricot.
 
These tree-ripened, hand-packed fruits are as close to divine as a fruit can be. Angelcots are much juicier than a typical apricot and possess a beautiful balance of acid and sugar with a buttery, tropical, perfume-like sweetness.
 
You haven’t tasted an apricot until you sink your teeth into a heavenly Angelcot!
 
 
Fresh Angelcot Tart
This simple no-bake tart is a great way to showcase the natural sweetness and juicy texture of white-fleshed apricots.
 
6 to 8 Angelcots (peeled if desired), pitted and sliced (3 cups)
1 block (8 oz) nonfat cream cheese, sliced
½ cup raspberries
¼ cup sugar
1 pre-made graham cracker pie crust (or pre-baked tart shell of your choice)
½ cup seedless raspberry jam
 
Mix the cream cheese, raspberries and sugar in a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until smooth. Spread over the pie crust and arrange the Angelcot slices decoratively over the top.
 
Melt the raspberry jam in a small saucepan over low heat. Spoon over the angelcots and fruit. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
 

Richter Berries Now Available EXCLUSIVELY at CM!!

Richter Farms, a long time exclusive grower for Central Market is now available at CM stores! One of the last Washington State growers of berries, the Richters grow absolutely delicious berries hand-selected when they are perfectly ripe. And the next day, they are flown straight to Central Market!

Located in the Puyallup Valley, one of the best places in the world to grow raspberries, Richter Farms has just the right climate and soil for raspberries, which prefer a slightly acidic soil. California growers, by comparison, have alkaline soil, which requires treatment before raspberries can grow.
 
On top of gold and red raspberries, the Richters also grow beautiful currents, gooseberries, tayberries (a raspberry/blackberry cross,) and nectarberries (which is basically a boysenberry designed for fresh eating.)
 
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once had a flat of Richter's raspberries accompany her home after eating them during an international summit in Houston, and with with good reason, this fruit is world-class!
 
 

Welcoming back an old friend

We have a new Chef at Central Market Fort Worth, but this Chef isn't new to Central Market!  We'd like to introduce you to Denise Paul Shavandy, our new Executive Chef.  Denise has been with Central Market for over 3 years, so she's a familiar face around these parts.  Her first year with the company was spent as manager of our Cooking School here in Fort Worth, before then transferring to our Southlake location to spend two years as Executive Chef; we're really happy to have her back here at the Fort!

Denise's professional resume includes 7 years spent as co-owner (with her husband Majid) and Executive Chef of The Pegasus, an award-winning Mediterranean restaurant on Forest Park Boulevard in Fort Worth, and 2 years as co-owner (yep, Majid again!) and Executive Chef of SPICE International Cafe on Hulen Street in Fort Worth.

In her time off, Denise enjoys practicing Tae Kwon Do, cooking with fire (you can't keep a good chef out of the kitchen), and hypnotizing lobsters.  She and her husband, who also works for Central Market, have 7 year-old twin daughters.

We're really happy to have Denise back at Central Market Fort Worth, and we know you'll enjoy her contributions to our Cafe and Chef Prepared foods department and Cafe.

 

Life Seasons - a new line of Supplements - made in Texas

 

A brand new line of supplement is now on Central Market Healthy Living Department shelves!

The brain child of North Texan Darrin Peterson, Life Seasons supplements are formulated to function. They combine the latest knowledge of effective ingredients, at the doseages which have been clinically proven to be most effective. Hold on to your hat! These formulas use the best of American and European Herbology, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and Western Science.

Hyper-T Blood Pressure Support is shown below. Read on for the why, what, and how, of a formula that uses some of the best science available for a natural product.

Hyper-T

Healthy Blood Pressure

The enemies of a healthy heart work silently over time, so you may not even be aware of a heart-health issue until you discover out-of-range blood pressure levels. Elevated blood pressure lets you know that your body’s ability to deal with accumulated stressors (lack of sleep, environmental toxins, poor diet) is in decline. LifeSeasons™ Hyper-T helps you get the nutritional support you need to manage signs of increased blood pressure.


Key ingredients

Arjuna

Known as a cardio-tonic, this herb has been widely used to soothe cardiac stressors, as well as facilitate a healthy balance between HDL and LDL cholesterol.*

Ashwagandha

Best known for its rejuvenating and restorative abilities, this ayurvedic Indian herb is often used to help alleviate the effects of stress-induced fatigue, exhaustion, and insomnia.

Hawthorn

Used since the 1800s for its medicinal properties, hawthorn is commonly used to regulate blood pressure and strengthen the heart by protecting arterial walls from the damage caused by plaque build-up.*

Stress management

Unhealthy stress levels occur when the stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline, remain at high levels for sustained periods. LifeSeasons™ Hyper-T contains a medley of traditional ayurvedic herbs, including arjuna and ashwagandha, that helps slow the circulation of stress hormones and promote a relaxing sleep.* Arjuna has also been shown to have a positive effect of the overall ratio of good to bad cholesterol.*

Plaque build-up

The plaque build-up caused by high cholesterol also has an adverse effect on blood pressure. Plaque can cause the blood flow to become limited, which increases pressure on the rest of the system, causing the heart to work harder to deliver blood to the body. Hyper-T contains hawthorn, a potent antioxidant with plaque-fighting properties.

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Our Central Market Healthy Living staff has been trained, there have been and will be demos at each CM store, during the Big State Big Taste Event - happening now.

Enjoy!

 

Gaia Farm Tour & Ginkgo

June 22 - Brevard NC - Gaia Farm Tour Day 1

The first day of the Gaia Farm Tour, a group of us, 16 supplement retailers from across the country, trooped after Ric Scalzo (CEO/President/Founder of Gaia Herbs), as he walked us down to the our first subject - rows of Ginkgo trees, on a south facing hillside. A little note - Ric Scalzo is a wealth of knowledge and passion about all things herbal. He expresses his love and respect for all that medicinal plants contain, in a way that makes you want to understand and appreciate. And - he was our constant guide and teacher for a day and a half, at his farm and plant in North Carolina. Talk about an opportunity! We spent half an hour smelling and touching the Ginkgo leaves, learning about the active compounds, harvest times, harvest methods, how it is extracted, what it is paired with in formulas, and what the medicine affects and heals. Folk medicine practiticioners, herbalists, and scientists all have seen how Ginkgo leaf extract will help heal the nervous system, and now it is being used for Alzheimers, memory retention and improving brain function.

Old folk knowledge and modern science are both apparent at Gaia. Ginko trees, producing medicines for the mind are planted in proximity to Hawthorne trees, medicine for the heart – a simple acknowledgement of the heart /mind connection. You will find that most herbalists take the old wisdom and use it very seriously, and can just as easily speak to high pressure liquid chromatography evidence of chemical signatures for validation of potency!

Chemical identification of the active ingredients helps Gaia select the plants that grow best in the semi-tropical clime of North Carolina, know when to harvest for the highest potency, and to determine the process that will retain the highest content of the medicinal ingredients. Everything is tested in their own production facility at the Farm, in their onsite, state of the art, scientific laboratory. Amazing!

Central Market visits the Gaia Herb Farm in North Carolina

Once every five years or so, the Gaia Herb Farm is open to tours by invitation only. Ric Scalzo, a world renowned herbalist and founder of Gaia, will be leading the Farm Tour, and Central Market will be there!

Our Fort Worth store's Healthy Living Manager, Ann Rimbey, and I will be touring the farm this week, and we will keep you posted on all that we learn. We are packed and ready, with rain gear, water shoes, mosquito repellant, hats, hot weather clothing and good walking shoes. Ann and I will get to see what is currently in bloom, and witness on site harvest and production of their great herbal formulas. The folks at Gaia have told us that ginko, hawthorne, echinacea, valerian, ashwaganda, holy basil, marshmallow, and six others are now blooming, and one is being harvested. If you don't know what these herbs are for you can go to your favorite Central Market Healthy Living Department and ask a partner (!) or learn from us as we keep you posted this week.

At Central Market, we love and respect the quality and knowledge that goes into the production and formulation of the Gaia Herb line. To give you an idea of how serious Gaia is about quality, they have just rolled out a traceability code on every single box of herbs that they produce. You can go online and find out when it was harvested and details about that production lot and all the quality tests that were done. They have taken 'transparency' to another level. 

Stay tuned for more news from the Farm!

Anne Evanoff, Healthy Living Business Development Manager

Nature's Perfect Food

Honey is nature's perfect food. While honey is primarily composed of fructose, glucose and water, it also contains other sugars as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins and amino acids. Honey begins as nectar collected by bees as they forage from flower to flower. The nectar is stored in the bees "honey sac". When the bee returns to the hive a "receiving bee" helps to unload the nectar from its honey sac. Through a lengthy process (all performed by the ever busy and clever bee), moisture is removed from each drop of nectar. When the moisture content is just right, the nectar is sealed in the honeycomb to continue ripening into honey. To produce a single pound of honey, the honeybee must bring in approximately 75,000 loads of nectar. The color and flavor of honeys differ depending on the nectar source (the blossoms) visited by the honey bees. In fact, there are more than 300 unique types of honey available in the United States, each originating from a different floral source.

Many other benefits of honey are; Allergies, Skin Cleansing, Healing Wounds, Stomach Ache, Colds & Coughs, High Blood Pressure, Digestion, Headaches & Migraine and so much more.
Visit your closest Central Market to see the wide variety of honey. Some of my favorite Texas Labels are: Round Rock Honey, Stroope Honey, North Dallas Honey & Good Flow.

Mango Wango Weekend this Week!

It’s Mango Wango this weekend and into next week!!! Fresh mangos from Mexico (and India!) will be at their absolute best!

We’ll have five varieties available all week:
Tommy Adkins – The king of mangoes, apparently named after Britain’s “GI Joe," Tommys are one of the largest, and sweetest varieties of mangoes. Currently around the size of a softball, these are a great fruit to feed the whole family.
Ataulfo – This smaller, crescent-shaped variety has a velvety-soft texture, and just enough acid to balance its overwhelming sweetness. Popular across the world, this mango is just now catching on in the US.
Kent – Perhaps the most fiberless commercial variety, Kents are one of our favorites. Generally, if you have eaten dried mango, this is the stuff. Kents do not change color when they ripen, just choose one that yields to gentle pressure.
Haden – The first big mango to take off in Florida, Hadens were brought over by Captain Haden from Bombay, India. Mild in flavor, and only slightly fibrous, Hadens are one of the sweetest mangoes available.
Indian – India has has been touted as having the sweetest mangos in the world, and we certainly agree! Harvested halfway across the world, and flown to CM, this is the real treat of the mango season. Indian mangos are certainly sweet, but their undertones of almond, coconut, cayenne, and vanilla give them a flavor unlike anything else in this world.
When selecting mangos, don’t bother looking at color (only a couple of varieties will change, and very minimally.) Firmness is the key; similar to avocados or peaches. Gently press on the stem end of the fruit, and a little give means that it’s almost ready. When you get them home, be sure not to refrigerate them! Like bananas, mangos will never ripen in the fridge!
 
Also like bananas, mangos are great substitute for bananas foster! Try this at home:
Mangos Foster
Ingredients
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 6 large slightly under-ripe mangoes, halved and pitted
  • 1/3 cup bourbon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
  • 1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream, optional
Directions
Heat your stove to high.
In a medium saucepan, add the butter, and brown sugar, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has melted and the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.
While the sauce is cooking, remove the mangoes from the peel and cut into diamond shapes. Place the diamonds onto serving plates.
Remove the pan with the sauce from the heat and add the bourbon. Using a long lit match, ignite the bourbon and allow the flames to subside. Stir in the cinnamon, salt and pecans. Top mangoes with the sauce and with a large dollop of creme fraiche, if using.

CONCERT UNDER THE STARS

CONCERT UNDER THE STARS

Combining an evening of beauty in the Garden with the excitement of live music.

The San Antonio Botanical Garden continues it's popular summer series CONCERTS UNDER THE STARS, beginning Thursday, June 10. Guests can dine in the Garden's evening atmosphere. Gourmet box dinners may be pre-ordered from Central Market 210 368-8686 and then picked up at the concert. Beverages-including wine, beer, water and soft drinks wil be available for purchase at the Garden.

Concert-goers may bring lawn chairs and blankets, but NO OUTSIDE FOOD OR DRINK. Gates open at 6PM with musical performances beginning at 7PM and ending about 9PM

Admission is $5. Tickets sold at the event. Botanical Society members enjoy free admission. The Botanical Garden is located at 555 Funston at North New Braunfels Avenue and is operated under the auspices of the City of San Antonio Department of Parks & Recreation. For more information, the public can call 210 829-5100 or visit www.sabot.org.

Ken Slavin-June 10

Sisters Morales- June 24

Colao- July 8

Terri Hendrix-July 22

 

Central Market Catering Presents

Turkey & Harvarti Box Lunch with Fruit Salad, Pasta Salad & a Cookie-$10.75

Ham & Swiss Box Lunch with Fruit Salad, Pasta Salad, and a Cookie-$10.75

Fresh Tomato & Mozzarella Sandwich with Fruit Salad, Pasta Salad and a Cookie $10.75

Italian Hero Sandwich with Fruit Salad, Pasta Salad and a Cookie $10.75

Caesar Salad Box Lunch with Fruit Salad, Roll and a Cookie $10.75

Kid's Ham & Cheese Box Lunch with Chips and a Cookie $5.00

Reserve One Today! 210 368-8686

 

Monica Pope, Contestant, Top Chef Masters

Tuesday, June 29, 6:30-9PM CENTRAL MARKET COOKING SCHOOL IN SAN ANTONIO PRESENTS

Monica Pope
Named 2009's Best Chef at the Houston Culinary Awards, Monica Pope is a 2007 James Beard Award Nominee for Best Chef: Southwest and the owner of t'afia and Beaver's in Houston. The only Texas woman to ever be named a Top 10 Best New Chef by Food & Wine magazine, Pope first learned to cook from her Czech grandmother and went on to earn her Chef's title from Prue Leith's School of Food and Wine in London. After working in Europe and San Francisco, Pope returned home to Houston to oopen her first restaurant, the critically acclaimed The Quiled Toque. Soon after opening her second Houston restaurant, Boulevard Bistro, she garnered national praise from top critical publications including Travel & Leisure, which hailed her "one of the most ingenious restauranteurs around." Her latest venture, t'afia, has been featured in Gourmet, O: The Oprah Magazine, Bon Appitit, and Fortune. She recently published a digital cookbook, Eat Where Your Food Lives and is currently working on a cooking memoir entitled Eating Hope (and Other Things I've Had to Stomach).

Tuesday, June 29, 6:30-9PM

Menu includes:
Endive & Cremini Mushroom, Bleu Cheese & Spicy Pecans with White Balsamic-White Truffle Vinaigrette
Three-Cheese Ravioli with Blossom Butter & Pine Nuts
Balsamic Caramel Beef Cubes, Peppers & Onions with Sticky Rice & Shaved Coconut
Warm Date Butter Tart
$65.00

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