Salty Caramel

Meatopia: An Eater's Eden in New York

 

In addition to Farm Aid next month in Hershey, Penn., we have some delicious travel plans on the horizon.

Dead ahead: a full slate of scooping events in New York, beginning with Meatopia on Saturday.

Founded by omnivore extraordinaire Josh Ozerksy, the festival of meats prepared by chefs from around the world will take place on Randall's Island. "Meat*Drink*Fire*Music" is the motto and we can't wait to be a part of something The New Yorker called "a carnivorous bacchanal." 

We're expecting to face a crowd of more than 3,500 hungry people, and our Mobile Dipping Division will be ready to scoop and serve all comers.

On our menu: Yazoo Sue with Rosemary Bar Nuts ice cream (pic below) and Rainbow Frozen Yogurt.

The former—a limited-edition, nut-jammed number available soon in our scoop shops and jenis.com—is a collaboration with the great Yazoo Brewing Company, which is near our East Nashville shop. The latter, an eye-popping, super-creamy, and tangy Meatopia exclusive, features Raspberry, Lemon, and Passion Fruit frozen yogurts.

Meatopia, an eater's eden in N.Y.C.—sounds like the only place to be on a Saturday in September.

Above: Yazoo Sue with Rosemary Bar Nuts ice cream—where Yazoo Brewing Company's smoked porter beer, Snowville Creamery's grass-grazed cream, and fistfulls of mixed nuts (roasted with rosemary, brown sugar, salt, and cayenne in our kitchen) become one. Going to be at Meatopia? Be sure to step up and get a scoop.

 

Greetings From Bristol Farms, Gelson's, & Los Angeles

Above: Jeni during a samples-and-signing session in Bristol Farms/Pasadena, part of a recent tour of Bristol Farms and Gelson's shops in L.A. See more photos in and around L.A. here and read about the photographer who made them here.

She Went Back to Ohio — With a James Beard Award in Hand

 Above: Jeni with her first-ever James Beard Foundation Media Award in hand, May 4, 2012 at Gotham Hall in N.Y.C.

As Jeni makes her way back to Columbus this afternoon, everyone here at headquarters remains sky high about what happened this past Friday evening in New York City. That's when the James Beard Foundation honored Jeni's debut, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, top prize in the Cookbooks: Baking and Desserts category.

Since 1990, winning a James Beard Foundation Media Award has been America's most coveted honor for journalists, broadcast media, and authors writing about food and the culinary arts. The awards indeed are the Oscars of the food world, as Ladies' Home Journal put it.

"I like to say we make slow ice cream, and we wrote this book slowly, too,” said Britton Bauer during her acceptance speech. “It takes time to source the best ingredients and develop new flavors, so we wanted to take it slow and make sure this book featured only the best techniques and recipes we could create.”

With Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home (in its 6th printing since its June 2011 debut), Jeni sought to redefine the process of at-home ice cream making. As many of you already know, the user-friendly book instructs home cooks to produce creamy, scoop-shop quality ice cream.

Perhaps when Jeni returns she'll begin working on a follow-up? We'll all have to wait and see (and keep our fingers crossed).

Jeni's Big Morning Buzz

Carrie Keagan and Jason Dundas, the lively hosts of VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live, will welcome back Jeni at 10 a.m. Monday May 7.

Last time around, Jeni talked about how music inspires her flavors — a topic, by the way, touched on in a recent New York Times article.

Be sure to tune in or, catch it online!

James Beard Awards & Jeni in Manhattan & Brooklyn

As we've reported this spring, the James Beard Foundation has nominated Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home as one of 2011's three best cookbooks (baking and desserts category).

The prestigious James Beard Awards will be announced Friday May 4 in New York. Jeni will be at the ceremonies, and all fingers will be crossed here at Jeni's HQ that she'll walk away with her first-ever J.B.A. trophy.

Following the awards, Jeni will stay on in NYC to sign copies of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home at some of our stellar retail partners' shops — and share free samples of Salty Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Brown Butter Almond Brittle, The Milkiest Chocolate in the World, and Lemon (Frozen) Yogurt.

Here's the full slate of events:

Saturday, May 5th

• 1-2 p.m. at Foragers City Grocer, 56 Adams St. Brooklyn, 11201 (DUMBO)
• 3-4 p.m. at Stinky Bklyn, 215 Smith St., Brooklyn, 112017

Sunday, May 6th

• 1-2 p.m. at Foragers City Grocer, 300 W. 22nd St., 10011 (Chelsea)
• 3-4 p.m. at Dean & Deluca, 560 Broadway Ave., 10012 (SoHo)
• 5-6 p.m. at Eli Zabar's Manhattan, 1411 3rd Ave., 10028 

See you there!

Try Jeni's Splendid Samples Dec. 16-18 in Chicago

Windy City friends,

Several of our retail partners will offer free samples this weekend in Chicago, and a few of those locations will host a visit by Jeni herself (details below).  Admission to every event is free.

So, while you're out on the town doing your holiday shopping, stop by, say hello, and taste the ice cream Time called "America's best"!

FRIDAY DEC. 16:

• South Loop Whole Foods Market (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) ***MEET JENI BRITTON BAUER***

• Foodlife (4 p.m. to 6 p.m.) ***MEET JENI BRITTON BAUER***

SATURDAY DEC. 17: 

• Standard Market (noon to 3 p.m.) ***MEET JENI BRITTON BAUER***

• Lemon Tree Grocer (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.)

 SUNDAY DEC. 18: 

• Provenance Food & Wine Logan Square (11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.)
• Provenance Food & Wine Lincoln Square (3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.)

  Catch Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home author and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams founder Jeni Britton Bauer (above) Dec. 16 and 17 in Chicago.

FYI: JBB/VH1/NYC!

FYI, friends, catch JBB (Jeni Britton Bauer) three times next week in NYC.

We'll begin with the Big Apple banner news:

• Wed. Nov. 30 (9 a.m.): Jeni will share the new holiday flavors on VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live with hosts Carrie Keagan and Jason Dundas.  Yes, that VH1—the one that gave the world Flavor of Love, Strange Love, and Rock of Love!

After she breaks a leg on Big Morning Buzz Live, Jeni, we hope, will sign contracts for her own new reality show, Salty Caramel of Love.  Really, VH1, would it kill ya to greenlight such a project?  C'mon!  Let's do this!

No?  All right.

In other exciting New York news, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home-related events include these two Brooklyn stops:

• Tuesday Nov 29 (5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.) at Brooklyn Fare.  As you enjoy ice cream samples, Jeni will share stories and recipe tips from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home.  Be sure to bring your own copy of the book for Jeni to sign at the great Brooklyn Fare; no books will be for sale at this event.

• Wednesday Nov. 30 (2 p.m. to 5 p.m.) at Greene Grape Provisions.  Jeni will sign books (for sale that day at Greene Grape) and share samples.  Come to the wonderful spot in Fort Greene, say hello, and get a taste of the good stuff.  Jeni would love to meet you.

See you there, everyone, and if you have questions, as always, fire away.

Alison Thompson: October's Laudatory Lady

If Mother Teresa and Laura Croft had a baby it would be Alison Thompson, our Laudatory Lady for the month of October.

I had the honor of speaking on stage with The Third Wave author during a recent lecture series/fundraiser at Our Lady of the Elms in Akron, Ohio.

Alison, who in The Third Wave writes about her Third World disaster relief efforts, looks like the sun is shining on her all the time.  She glows.

Her thick blonde hair and the way she scrunches her nose and concentrates her gaze on you when she talks makes her appear to sparkle, to pop off the landscape in front of you.  Strangers, in her presence, feel they know her, and even more, somehow they have earned her love.  It it feels magical.

And yet, the native Australian is utterly approachable.

Road Trip: Chicago Ice Cream and Gelato Festival & Much More

Come to the Chicago Ice Cream and Gelato Festival and sample this: Jeni's splendid Dark Chocolate ice cream.

The Windy City.  The City of Big Shoulders.  The Second City.  To the list of Chicago nicknames add the City of Tasty Ice Cream.

Thursday 18 and Friday Aug. 19 marks the return of the Chicago Ice Cream and Gelato Festival, and Jeni and the The Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home book tour will be part of the extravaganza.

From 6 to 9 Thursday and Friday at the festival, Jeni will demonstrate how to make her signature Salty Caramel ice cream.  She'll also be sharing samples of her Brown Butter Almond Brittle, Dark Chocolate (pictured above), and Goat Cheese with Red Cherries ice creams.

All information can be found here: http://chicagobrainfreeze.com/.

Following the festival, Jeni will scoot over to the Goddess and Grocer in Bucktown, which was the first shop in Chicago to stock Jeni's pints. Jeni will be there from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday for a casual meet-and-greet that will include samples of several flavors and a book signing.

Admission to the Goddess and Grocer event is free.  For information, go here: http://www.goddessandgrocer.com/.

And what's a trip to Chicago without a stop at Provenance Food & Wine at Lincoln Square?  Jeni will round out her Saturday afternoon from 3 to 5 at the great specialty shop.  On the docket: a meet-and-greet, book signing, and tasting.  Admission is free; more info here: http://www.provenancefoodandwine.com/.

See you in Chicago, everyone.

 

Jeni's Splendid Nationwide Weekend: Texas, Tennessee, Kansas, & Some Fella Named Dave Matthews

We ship to homes in all 50 states (and Puerto Rico), but sometimes we like to fan out across the country and deliver the goods up close and personal.

Sometimes the people who receive the goods are attached to famous names.

Exhibit A: Dave Matthews, who along with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young, brought their annual Farm Aid benefit concert to Kansas City, Kansas, this past weekend.

More on Matthews and Jeni's in a moment.

First, a recap of Jeni's Mobile Dipping Division's past-weekend activities :

• In Texas, Jeni wrapped up a string of sold-out Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home tour dates in the Lone Star State's Central Market Cooking Schools.  Up next on Jeni's itinerary: the Chicago Ice Cream and Gelato Festival Thursday Aug. 18 and Friday Aug. 19 in the Windy City.

• In Tennessee, one arm of the Mobile Dipping Division served up Cherokee Purple Tomato Sorbet to many of the 20,000 or so Tomato Art Fest-goers near Jeni's shop in East Nashville.  If you're near our shop in Music City, try the limited-edition Cherokee Purple Tomato Sorbet.  When it's gone, it's gone!

Now back to Kansas, where another arm of the Mobile Dipping Division shared the special Sweet Corn Shortbread Sundae with a few hundred Farm Aid party guests and stocked Farm Aid musicians' dressing rooms with mini pints (a.k.a. "splits").

Last Thursday, Brittany Sue Hall, assistant baker in Jeni's kitchen, and ace shipping team member Scott Spice drove B-Sue's Prius 690 miles west to Kansas City to provide a little hospitality before and during Farm Aid, the annual fundraising concert.

Following a long Friday of prep, execution, and sundae service at the V.I.P. gala, B-Sue filed this late-night report:

"What. A. Day.  What a tremendous experience!  Scott Spice and I are exhauuuusted.  But ridiculously happy!  I can't even remember how many times we had people come back up to the dessert table to tell us that, "This is the best dessert I have ever had. Ever."  All as serious as you could possibly be.  Sweet Corn blew them away!

"There were quite a few hesitant tasters though.  As soon as the phrase, "Sweet Corn ice cream," comes out of your mouth, you can get some odd looks.  But once we convinced them to try just a spoonful, just a little taste, they were sold.

"It's an incredible thing to watch someones face light up, and that smile spread across their face.  And you would not believe the amount of simply mind-blowing people we've met!"

One of those "mind-blowing" people, yes, was Dave Matthews.

B-Sue, who snapped the photo of Matthews above, dubbed the man who gave the world What Would You Say? and Crash Into Me "the nicest guy I've ever met" and said, "Everywhere he went he said hello to each person and introduced himself."

Armed with all-access passes, B-Sue and Spice roamed the grounds of K.C.'s Livestrong Sporting Park, snapping photos, making friends, and loading up tour buses with Jeni's ice creams, including Matthews' and Farm Aid co-founder Willie Nelson's.

It was all sort of surreal, B-Sue said, especially when "Dave Matthews introduced me to Neil Young!  He said, 'Neil have you ever had Jeni's?'  And Neil said, 'No, but I've been hearing a lot about it.'  That was just awesome."

Bravo, B-Sue and Spice.  In the meantime, you can check out B-Sue's off-the-clock work here.