TEAM PROJECT FOODIE
What's Cooking November 2009? This month's "What's Cooking" is special - November marks the beginning of the holiday cooking frenzy. Sadly, this month is also special because it brings the last issue of... |
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PEGGY FALLON
Gather Entertaining cookbooks abound, but this one by veteran food pro Georgeanne Brennan stands out from the rest-a refreshing blend of practicality and style. The chapters are first divided into seasons-which... |
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SOPHIA MARKOULAKIS
In Season: Heirloom Apples variety choices and recipes to try Apples are some of the most adaptable fruits in nature and in the kitchen. Throughout their lengthy history, the apple has reinvented itself several times over, often overcoming... |
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HEATHER JONES
I have always loved Bread; I was one of those kids who would happily walk around the house eating it by the slice, but it would be many years... |
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HEATHER JONES
Frugal Foodie - A Very Frugal Thanksgiving For some, the idea of entertaining is positively frightening, especially during the Holiday season. Once you have the guest list put together, you develop your menu, write up that... |
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VIRGINIA WILLIS 
Thanksgiving Favorites: Don't Mess with the Mess Written by Virginia Willis Turkey is a given. Some families may experiment with some other form of roast beast for Christmas, but in our family,... |
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TEAM PROJECT FOODIEThanksgiving Baking: The Next Generation Written by Cindy Mushet  For a food lover, there's no better holiday than Thanksgiving. An entire day devoted to the preparation and enjoyment of a bountiful meal with family and friends - now there's something to be thankful for!
Between a tumbling economy and a bumpy recovery, we're all counting our blessings extra carefully this year. And our pennies. In my home, the over-the-top Thanksgiving extravaganza will be a little less, well, extravagant. That doesn't mean there won't be an abundance of good food, just a re-focus on the number of dishes and who prepares them. This year I'm relaxing a bit, and inviting family to share in the preparation. Best of all, the kids are helping, too. My 11-year old daughter Bella and her cousins...
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TEAM PROJECT FOODIETalking Turkey: Why Breeding Matters? Written by Joy Manning  Every year, the Thanksgiving Day table is set hours ahead, bowls and platters at the ready, marked with notes so nothing is forgotten. Scraps of papers bearing lists, recipes, ingredients, timelines, flutter around the kitchen like so many fall leaves. It's the feast of the year and in most homes a dozen or more dishes are served. But in the mad dash to cook an unforgettable holiday meal, the star of the meal, the turkey, is often an afterthought. Sometimes it's even a freebie. Many grocery chains give away turkeys to customers who have accrued sufficient points by shopping there all year. One nibble of these birds make it clear why it's so easy for the stuffing, dressing, roasted vegetables, cheese plate, canapés, spinach dip,...
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MARIE SIMMONSA New Thanksgiving Favorite: Quince and Butternut Squash Written by Marie Simmons  Walking through the neat rows of vegetables at La Cocina Que Canta (the culinary school at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico, where I teach cooking classes) Salvador, the head gardener, regales me with his enthusiastic review of what's at its peak in the 7 acre organic garden adjacent to the school.
"Look at the quince," he exclaims with his unbridled enthusiasm. "Look how many are on the tree." His hands move fast through the heavily laden branches as he fills his arms and mine with as many as we can juggle. Immediately, my mind is racing to the kitchen as I try to imagine how I can cook the quince for the mystery recipe I need to pull together for...
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Mountain Top Estate: Australian Bundja Peaberry |
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 Extraordinary coffees are always rare and only available in small amounts. Australian Bundja is one such coffee. Bundja is sourced from several small boutique Estates in the New South Wales, Northern Rivers Region of Australia. A single origin Arabica coffee, Bundja is processed with the double pass method. This method of using late ripened coffee was pioneered at Kauai Coffee Company in Hawaii and is being further refined at Mountain Top Estate. Late ripened coffee cherry is less dense and therefore floats in water, allowing for complete separation in the pulping process. Late cherry or floaters are slightly overripe giving the coffee a more distinct note. Handled properly this type of coffee will have fuller body and higher fruity characteristics. Bundja is available in flat bean and Peaberry. Peaberry coffees are also rare in the industry because many mills do not take the extra effort to separate this single bean. Peaberry is produced by virtually all coffee trees. Healthy trees will produce 2% to 3% of their crop as Peaberry. Peaberries result when the coffee cherry only produces one seed. Coffee flowers are “perfect” or self pollinating with (normally) two ovaries that produce two side-by-side seeds (what we know as coffee beans are not beans at all, but seeds). When one of the ovaries is not pollinated or does not form a seed, the one seed rounds itself off and forms an oval or pea shape. The peaberry can then be separated by means of a slotted screen. The more familiar flat beans are also separated through 64ths of an inch round screens from size 12 up to 20 screen. The larger and denser bean will usually produce the best quality cup. Screen size also creates a consistentency of size allowing for balanced development of the coffee during the roasting process. I will share more details of the intense grading that is necessary for a great cup of coffee in future articles. After cupping the 2005 crop, I chose the peaberry over the flat bean as my favorite for this year. In my experience, peaberry tends to be more intense in the cup. Depending on the origin, there is heightened body (mouth feel) or acidity (brightness). Bundja Peaberry is exceptional in that both of these characteristics are up front and present in the cup. The body is full with a creamy, buttery feel. This coffee is clean, well balanced, sweet and mellow with faint orange and lime like acidity. Although still a young farm in the industry, Mountain Top Coffee has made great strides in production and quality, creating an incredible coffee that is a joy to roast and privilege to sip. This coffee works well as a filter coffee but really shines when brewed in a press pot. An extremely rare treat from “Down Under”, if you have a chance to enjoy this coffee be sure it is with a special dinner and a rich chocolate dessert. About the Roaster
 Morning Glory Coffee & Tea Inc. is a roaster of specialty coffees in West Yellowstone Montana. At Morning Glory Coffee & Tea Inc., we are passionate about the close knit coffee community, from "seed to cup" and are proud to roast and provide some of the best coffees in the world on our website catalog and at our West Yellowstone, MT Coffee House. At Morning Glory Coffee & Tea Inc. we feel it is important to roast our coffees appropriate to the origin characteristics rather than to a particular roast color.
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