Newsletter
March 2008
March -ing forward
Greetings everyone!! I know, I know, I've been kind of falling down on my job keeping the updates coming, but look out, here are a bunch!:
Perhaps our biggest March news is that you can now find a number of our products at Lakewinds Natural Foods, in Chanhassen and Minnetonka! We participated in the "gluten-free roundup" at the Chanhassen store on Saturday, March 1, and we will be at the Minnetonka store on Saturday, March 15, offering samples and informational chitchat. If you live (or happen to be) in the western suburbs, come on by and say hi! And save yourself the gas and hassle driving into St. Paul-pick up your Cooqi bread, pizza crust, or muffins at Lakewinds. http://www.lakewinds.com/store/. Thanks so much to Lakewinds for their support and vision.
Our first-ever gluten-free baking class , held on Feb. 23 at Mothersauces Cooking School , was really fun! I want to thank the 16 intrepid souls who offered themselves as eager guinea pigs for this ongoing (if a little disorganized) experiment in serving our GF community. We made some yummy things to eat, ate them, and had lively discussion about the challenges and great potential of baking gluten-free. It is part of my mission to help people overcome their intimidation (whenever something I make doesn't turn out-and trust me, it happens!-I always learn something new that I can apply the next time around) and feel enthusiastic about baking without gluten, if that's what you want to do. (And of course, if you don't want to, or only want to make one thing, well, that's what the bakery is for!) Baking like we do is a relatively new practice, and we are still learning and discovering as we go, which can really be a fun adventure. I strongly recommend for any baking you do, that you use the highest quality and freshest ingredients possible. We can help you with this, by offering our very fresh Cooqi GF Baking Mix. It is mixed onsite with local, freshly milled, organic whole-grain flours, and gives your recipes a leg up over grocery store baking mixes (which are mostly lacking in both freshness and whole grain goodness, and certainly aren't local).
To those of you who expressed interest in the baking class but were unable to get in, or couldn't make the date, we will be offering other opportunities, I promise. I will keep you posted as we get something on the calendar. In the meantime, feel free to email me your baking questions if you have any, or share your discoveries.
Looking at the calendar, I want to remind you that Easter and Passover are both early this year . I'm so sorry to say that my aspirations to make GF matzo have not come to pass, and so we will be of little help in that department. As to our Easter-celebrating friends, last year, cake was a popular item for this holiday. I would recommend that if a cake is in your plans, it's a good idea to call ahead with your order (as well as for other things you may want for your holiday), sooner rather than later. We are doing a great job of keeping up with the cake requests as a general rule, but our tiny kitchen staff does have limits. Save yourself the heartache of uncertainty, call (or email!) in your order.
Also, this time of year (otherwise known as "spring" -remember? When it gets warmer, and the snow goes away?) heralds the return of lemon bars, and soon, soon, delicious strawberries and rhubarb will be available to fill our scrumptious streusel bars! Just around the corner, as Frog and Toad would say.
And finally, our biggest news of all: Cooqi is growing! OK, that's not really news, but I mean we are really growing-we are responding to all the countless requests for more widespread availability (which is frankly beyond the reach of our little retail bakery kitchen), and we are exploring developing a wholesale production facility. What this will (hopefully) eventually mean for you, wonderful Cooqi devotees, is greater availability, widespread access, no more long schleps into St. Paul, and not having to remember not to come by on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. It won't happen tomorrow, but my gosh, it's happening, so much sooner than I had ever dreamed! So hold on, hold on, just a little longer, and we will be coming to a store near you with our delicious whole-grain, fresh-baked, good-for-you gluten-free things you want!
As usual, it's all good!
Love and Peace,
Judy
Other Newsletters:
June 2008 Newsletter
May 2008 Newsletter
March 2008 Newsletter
February 2008 Newsletter
July 2007 Newsletter
August 2007 Newsletter
October 2007 Newsletter
November 2007 Newsletter
December 2007 Newsletter
