Brooklyn Treat Shoppe presents....

If you’ve been a reader of my blog, you may have read my entry titled, “Why a Mason Jar?”.  If so, you're ahead of the game.  If not, check it out.  It gives you an explination of why our cookies are packaged in mason jars and what’s to come.

It’s hard for me to believe that the entry noted above was made almost a year ago to date.

So much has happened with Brooklyn Treat Shoppe since then but, it feels like it was just yesterday!

Since that entry, we made a major decision to slightly separate Brooklyn Treat Shoppe from it’s jamming sister, Brooklyn’s Preserved.  We’ve been buzzing about it for a while now and would like to officially introduce you to our sister brand….

We tested products for Brooklyn’s Preserved last summer.  It was such a hit, we felt we needed to separate it from Brooklyn Treat Shoppe since it’s completely different from our sculpted cakes and dessert delivery service.  

However, the premise is still the same, if you want it, call us and we will bring it to you!

Brooklyn’s Preserved started when my family learned just how interested I was in the art of preserving fresh produce.   

This past February, I went with my Mom and Grandfather to Canada to visit my Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle Patsy.  They both settled in Canada in the 1950’s after taking a boat across the Atlantic from Italy.  

Uncle Patsy & Aunt Mary (Grandpa's sister) - Not too long after their ship left them in Halifax.

While we were there, my Great Uncle Felice and Great Aunt Adeli also visited.  

Grandpa's brother Felice and his wife Adeli.

I was the youngest person in the house and was able to pick the brains of generations of immigrants from my family history.

We talked about family traits, their boat ride from Italy but, more importantly, we talked about food.

At the very mention of marinated mushrooms, my Great Uncle Felice sprang from his chair - a spry 77 years young, put on his coat and said, “Come’on, lessago….we gonna get somma mushrooms anda showa you ‘ow to makeit.”  And, he wasn't kidding.

We went straight to the market, picked up some mushrooms, worked together as a family and just a short amount of time later, we had these beautiful pickled mushrooms floating in oil...

Aunt Mary, showing me how it's done.

Aunt Adeli sorting out the mushrooms.

Grandpa (caught in a rare moment) helping in  the kitchen?!?!

Aunt Mary refused to let anyone do this part. 

They all laughed at me as I sneaked into the basement to take photos of their Cantina (or canning cellar) but, how could I pass up on something so beautiful!

You see, they never wrote any of this stuff down.  

All of the recipes were in their heads but, now that they are all getting older, I felt it was important to document these things before they were lost for good.

For the last year of so I've been collecting family recipes in a hand written cook book.  That trip in February filled my family cook book up to the brim.

The main premise of Brooklyn’s Preserved is that we’re preserving these family secrets and decades of a great love for food.

In the end, I see Brooklyn Treat Shoppe and Brooklyn’s Preserved living happily ever after in one place but, for right now; we’ll work together as a family - co-marketing and co-branding wherever possible.

As with anything else that comes out of our kitchen, we take our time so we can get it just right.

All of our produce is carefully sourced while we create partnerships to help support America's Family Owned Farms – more on this in another entry.

Each product is slow cooked with hand-picked, farm fresh fruits.  They are always free of additional pectin and low in additional sugars.

We want you to taste the beauty of the fruit in each and every jar.

We recognize that we're preserving the beauty of nature so; you can appreciate locally grown produce throughout the year.

Share with us these family secrets….enjoy Brooklyn’s Preserved!

We just finished making this year’s jars of Strawberry Jam and Strawberry Mint Lemonade.  They will be ready for sale as soon as we get the labels on them…We’ll definitely keep you posted!

Stay in touch:
www.brooklynspreserved.com (still under construction)
www.twitter.com/bklynspreserved
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brooklyns-Preserved/151935648196951

Recipe Block??

Sometimes, I find myself in a bit of a freeze. I wonder if I've exhausted my imagination and am no longer able to create new and exciting flavors.
This is part of the challenge of running a kitchen alone. I rarely have someone to bounce ideas off of and so I begin to feel that I've hit a block...a recipe block.

This week was one of those times. I have been trying to dream up new flavors for the menu and add some more spunk to what Brooklyn Treat Shoppe already offers. But, I kept tripping over the same cliché "classic" flavors. Nothing new was coming to mind and I was starting to get really frustrated.

I had a meeting scheduled with the players of Theatre Askew's Youth Performance Experience (TAYPE). While I was excited about the meeting, I was (honestly) a little apprehensive about what I could offer them since I was smack in the middle of this "recipe block".

The production they're currently working on is titled "Home/Away". Where they explore the question - "When you think of home, what feelings, associations, and memories arise for you?" 
When I saw the video trailer and read more about the play, I decided, Brooklyn Treat Shoppe HAS to be involved.

I work so closely with the concept of home in my day to day. The concept of “home” is important to me – personally and to my business. In dreaming up the flavor concepts for our menu, I always have to realize that “home” is different for everyone. So, naturally, not only am I a fan of this production’s message, I wanted to give to their community and help them spread their message.

With the support of the directors and playwright, Brooklyn Treat Shoppe will be selling at the concession during their performance dates (May 26th through the 30th)**.
I wanted to make this a sensory interactive experience for their audience.  The flavors for sale on our table to be a nod to their characters lifestyle and/or culture.

When I explained my idea to them their eyes lit up as they imagined what flavors bring them back to what they considered home.  These kids blew me away!

Since I come from an Italian/American household, it's tough for me to think outside of that cultural box when it comes to flavors of home. These young people brought me into their homes and into their lives for just a short period of time and allowed me to see what flavors make them the happiest.

Some of them responded with an over the top and highly intense memory of flavors their mom's used to put together and others really had to dig hard to find the food that brings them back to a special place. This was just a small glimpse into how very different home is for each of us.  I walked out of my meeting with them totally inspired. They completely changed my outlook on flavors in a matter of moments.

I'm absolutely looking forward to working with everyone who is involved with TAYPE! I look forward to seeing the production and getting a complete look into these character’s homes.

A special thanks goes out to Lambie, Eleet, Luis, Andrea, MariaIsabel and Titi for getting me out of the block and allowing me to face full frontal flavors! You are all really amazing people.  Thank you.

Keep your eyes peeled for our newest flavors inspired by what each of them feels is a taste of home.
Tickets for these performances are FREE.  So, get on it!
See you at the theater!

**Brooklyn Treat Shoppe will be donating a portion of our profits from these events to the future of TAYPE.