The Nut Factory

The other day I mentioned that we had gone to the nut factory, Westcott Nuts and Dried Fruit, near Dinnersmith in Irvington. Take Springfield Ave towards Newark making a right on Lyons Ave, then a left on Coit Street. The factory is located at 93 Coit on the right in a non descript building across from the mattress factory(I have heard good things about them too). The mattress factory has a much bigger sign than Wescott. The owner, Jacob, buys raw nuts and roasts them there in the factory. His prices are great and he will create nut mix on request. He also has dried fruit, apricots, cherries, mango. He welcomes retail; it is possible to walk in and get any quantity. He owns the place and takes pride in what he does. There is not much to see. There is no retail space. Retail and wholesale customers stand in the middle of the factory floor. I love this place. Thanks to my friend Kathy telling me abut this place years ago.

Sloppy Joe's

Yesterday I spent some time with the owner of Town Hall Deli, Tony Wonski, visiting the nut factory in Irvington where all our nuts are fresh roasted. (That is another story for another day).Tony has been a good friend to DinnerSmith as his buildout and ours took place at the same time. Tony and I have something in common and not in common,we sell Sloppy Joe's. I did not grow up in Jersey but in various large cities. Mom made red sauce Sloppy Joe's and we had them at school. Here at DinnerSmith we have a great red sauce Sloppy Joes dinner. Fran found it and tweaked it. It is a grown up version with great spices and really good ground beef served on a soft roll.

When I first came to Jersey, I joined a church which had a women book club. What a great seven years it has been! One of the very first meetings was held at the South Orange home of my friend Kathy. On the day of the meeting, she gave me this look and smile and told me 'I am going to Town Hall Deli and we are going to have Sloppy Joe's." She was so happy. I could not imagine that you would buy Sloppy Joes from a deli but I played along. That night I got to the book club and saw the table piled high with large sandwiches, no red sauce and ground beef. I thought I won't say anything, the deli must have run out of Sloppy Joes and so she bought sandwiches which were delicious. It was weeks later that I read an article in the WSJ about regional foods in New Jersey. In central Jersey, there is a legendary large sandwich made in triple decker with firm bread and fresh meat and cheese coleslaw and Russian dressing. They weight a ton and feed a group. I sat on the train and laughed out loud. You can travel around the world but Jersey will surprise you! I have since indulged in many Joes and shared them with countless visitors to the Garden State.

Tomorrow is my turn to cook for the book club. As a tribute to my new home state, I am going to serve both kinds of Sloppy Joe. I will let you know how it turns out.

Tomorrow the nut factory and a bakery!

Making life easier in the New Year

Last night I had a great conversation about dinner and feeding a family quickly with my dear friend, Faith, who is a foodie from way back. She does just have dinner, she will have a little pan seared shrimp in a little butter and olive oil finished with some capers and fresh lemon juice. On the side she might have some lightly sauteed broccoli rabe. She is a single person and does not eat leftovers so we were talking about cooking fresh every day, a topic we have been talking about for four or five years. Her father is now living alone and has come up against the same thing so many of our customers have dealt with....sometimes we don't want to make dinner. DinnerSmith will be in her fathers future, even though at 90, he does have time to make dinner, just not always the inclination.

We also talked about shrimp and we agree. Everyone should have a good sized bag of shrimp in their freezer. There are tons of ways to make a fast pasta and shrimp dish. Most people love shrimp and it does not take a lot of them into make a good meal. Earlier I mentioned Faith's preference for lemon and capers with shrimp. I am partial to a little sauteed garlic and onion with butter and olive oil tossed with linguine. My dad makes a Scampi which includes what I did and then he adds a little tomato sauce.

So my recommendation for the New Year is buy a bag of frozen shrimp. When you run out of DinnerSmith meals, you won't go hungry.

Mary

Oh, yeah, you can still get a bag of shrimp from us...

New Year 2008

Happy New Year.

I hope all of our customers had a great New Year. Here at Dinnersmith we had a great time deciding what would be on the menu in January. One customer's husband wanted to see Hungarian Goulash, so we tested until we found the right one. The testing was very delicious.
The Pork Roast that we loved was the one made with Pomegranate juice, which is very "in" right now. Try this roast..it is amazing.
Mary came in one day with her Mother's best recipe for Chicken and Dumplings and we just knew that deep in the winter, everyone would want this one.We made it today as a taste for our customers and they could not stop eating it.
If you have any favorite winter recipes that you would lke to see at Dinnersmith, feel free to call and we will talk to you about getting it on our menu. The summertime here is great for all the great vegetables that are available, but the winter brings the oh so nice comfort foods. No wonder we put on weight. BBQ Pork and Spaghetti and Meatballs never get old around our house. These are the days that we find the kids home for dinner more often and the family meals are terrific. Lots of laughing together and family bonding. There is nothing like having everyone share a hot meal.