Sing to the tune of Yo Gabba Gabba. (And yes, I do watch Yo Gabba Gabba with my friends’ kids.)
Well, it wasn’t OUR actual kitchen, but the experience can definitely be duplicated easily with the recipes and ingredients from Fresh & Easy.
Annette and I were once again invited to a F&E cooking demonstration and party at Epicurean in Anaheim. We were greeted by these blushing beauties:
…and F&E staffers Stephanie and Allison too. ;-D
Oh, this Cava has a very special place in our hearts ever since the first Twitter Tasting. We love seeing it at F&E event!
This party was to celebrate the launch of two new stores in Laguna Hills and Lake Forest. Joining us was a full house of folks. Us bloggers were surprised to meet many non-bloggers there like our new friend Chantal who was a good sport when Annette and I, joined a little later by Catalina, ran around taking pictures and tweeting.
(Sorry for blocking your face, Chef Cyndi!)
I decided to be the photographer for the day. So it was agreed that everyone would partake in the making of the shrimp ceviche, the apricot chicken tenders, and the make-your-own pizza—all with ingredients from Fresh & Easy, of course—while I take photos that I would gladly share and that I would serve the dishes up to them.
Chef Cyndi’s recipe for the shrimp ceviche is totally money. Combine F&E cooked shrimps, F&E sun dried tomatoes, fresh lime and orange juices, red onion, jalapeno, avocado, cucumber, cilantro, and extra virgin olive oil and a little salt and pepper, then chill. Serve with chips. Done!
However, Team Awesome might have been a bit overzealous in our mixing as our avocado was quite mashed. We unexpectedly create a delicious creamy effect and surprised everyone, even the chef herself.
Pizza was what slowed down Team Awesome. We were ahead of everyone. Not sure what went wrong there but ours came out of the oven later than everyone else’s and therefore our apricot chicken were also late coming out. Whoops.
The pizza came out great—that sauce was absolutely delicious. We were a little sad about the chicken we put so much work into making. First you make the sauce with F&E Apricot Preserves, F&E Sweet Hot Mustard and F&E Whole Grain Dijon. Save a bit of that for dipping sauce. Now you dunk F&E chicken tenders into the sauce, then roll those in bread crumbs.
One thing we didn't think to do was to season the tenders and a little bit in the bread crumbs too before we started dunking. While the chicken was moist and has some good flavors going for them, they were bland. So much work, Chantal didn't even wait to wash her hands before celebrating.
All of this was paired with either a Chardonnay (I don't remember what was served now) or the Napa Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. I gotta say the Cab’s chugability is totally drinkable and paired well with the ceviche.
Richard the Wine Expert was on hand for us to ask questions and harass about putting on a wine maker type dinner event. (ETA: We are going to a wine event tomorrow, after all!)
Oh and there were desserts too. Glorious Banana Cream Pie! Delicious tiramisu! And the new dark chocolate raspberry sorbet bonbons!
/squees. /dies.
And of course, the gregarious, vivacious, beauty-licious staff handed us each a goody bag we can talk about. Being prolific, our little table went through the bags and did some swapping of stuff so no one went home with stuff they didn’t want. LOL
There’s a lot to be reviewed here, y’all. These bad boys were filled to the brim!
Thanks again for a good time and for introducing us to your new products like the Gourmet line of grab-and-go—you can’t beat fancy eats in 3 minutes, I tell ya—and simmer sauces. I’m already impressed by the Burgundy Simmer Sauce, I can hardly wait to try the Tikka Masala when my clear braces come off in 2 weeks!
Here's the entire album. Enjoy!
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