Prounounced “shahr-kyut-uh-ree,” the French word charcuterie describes cooked, cured and smoked meats such as bacon, ham, sausage, pâté and dry-cured meats. With so many delectable types to choose from, it’s easy to put together a showstopping charcuterie plate as the centerpiece for home entertaining. The key to a “perfect” charcuterie plate is simply variety and balance. Use this as your guide to building a charcuterie plate, and be creative!
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Fabrique Délices Pâté is an Authentic Taste of France, Made Locally
Fabrique Délices is a traditional French charcuterie company that has been preparing time-honored classics alongside innovative new products for over 25 years in the Bay Area. As a fantastic centerpiece for charcuterie plates, Fabrique Délices artisanal pâtés and mousses are a perfect way to “Indulge Local” with family and friends over a glass of wine.
How To Build A Perfect Cheese Plate
There is something special about sitting around the table with family and friends, conversing over fine wine (or delicious beer) and savoring a fantastic cheese plate. Here are some tips that will help you put together a memorable spread for any occasion, customized to your personal taste.
Firestone Walker Brewing Company Introduces Their Firestone Anniversary Brew XVII
We went down to Paso Robles to see what was happening at the Firestone Walker Brewing Company since we’re about to stock their Anniversary Blend XVII. Many times I’ve passed the brewery and there are so many vehicles filling the parking lots that some are forced to line the frontage road along Highway 101.
Introducing Llano Seco Heirloom Beans at Mollie Stone’s
We are excited to launch Llano Seco Heirloom Beans, locally grown in Chico, California. Heirloom beans have a rich flavor and rich history. Although they require some advance preparation (as any dried beans do), you will taste the difference.
BABY LIMA Llano Seco’s Baby Limas are slightly sweeter than the larger Fordhook varietal of Limas and high in trace minerals, fiber and protein. They are flat, kidney-shaped beans that are green or white in color. With a grainy yet buttery texture, they ..read more
Recipe: Llano Seco BBQ Beans
Many heirloom bean varieties, such as those grown on the Llano Seco Rancho in Chico, CA, were brought to the Santa Maria region of the Central Coast by either missionaries or citrus grove workers. To this day, they have remained connected to the famous Santa Maria BBQ culture.
Try this hearty recipe for BBQ Beans with Llano Seco Pinquito beans (which have a super sweet, creamy interior yet hold up to their dense pot liquor) or Canario beans (which have a ..read more
Recipe: Berta’s Cuban Black Beans
This recipe is from Llano Seco‘s dear friend and culinary mentor Niloufer Ichaporia King, a specialist in tropical cuisines and author of My Bombay Kitchen: traditional and modern Parsi home cooking (University of California Press, 2007).
Folklorist Berta Montero Bascom of Havana used to bring a vast vat of these beans, expected and appreciated, to any occasion where food was shared. Below is Berta’s family recipe recounted as we cooked them together in her Berkeley kitchen. This is a dish you ..read more
Recipe: New Year Black-Eyed Peas and Greens
This recipe is from Llano Seco’s dear friend and culinary mentor Niloufer Ichaporia King, a specialist in tropical cuisines and author of My Bombay Kitchen: traditional and modern Parsi home cooking (University of California Press, 2007).
This improvisation on a lazy rainy afternoon has become our favorite way of eating the ritual good-luck black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. Like many recipes for legumes, you should see this one as a signpost not a blue print, and add your own touches. ..read more
Mollie Stone’s Exclusive Hostage DIPA From Palo Alto Brewing Company Offers Variety And Freshness
Palo Alto Brewing Company brewer Kasim Syed teamed up with our Craft Beer Expert, Kiley, to collaborate on a special bottled brew produced exclusively for Mollie Stone’s: Hostage DIPA, a double IPA with 8% ABV. Because of this special relationship between PABC and Mollie Stone’s, you can expect unsurpassed freshness since the bottles reach our stores immediately after bottling. An added adventure for the craft beer drinker is that the beer will change in flavor and aroma hops periodically, taking ..read more
Does Alcohol Content In Wine Make A Difference?
As a writer for Mollie Stone’s wine pages and a lover of wine, I tend to drink and taste a lot of wine. Although I do a great deal of tasting, I’m a lightweight when it comes to drinking more than one and a half glasses. On a recent trip to Italy, we drank more wine than usual – sometimes tasting more than four different bottles per day – yet I noticed a remarkable reduction in the effect the alcohol ..read more
