Of Projects and Passions

Gosh, I have been so busy lately! I have been involved with a couple of painting projects for friends. One project is complete, the other one, almost. It happens to be a mural on the outside wall of a garage and I am racing to stay ahead of the cold weather.

I did take a day off Friday from painting and went to "Christmas Made in the South" in  Augusta, GA with Marie. This is a large craft, gift, Christmas-themed type festival. We had a good time looking around and purchased a few Christmas gifts. But can you guess what we were always immediately drawn to? That's right...the food items! All of them had samples, of course, which we partaked of. One of the best things we tasted was Red Velvet fudge. The gentleman in the booth said it was his own creation and it tasted just like Red Velvet cake! Marie could not pass that up. I purchased hot drink mixes and pie and dip mixes from a huge variety of flavors and choices. After test tasting, we were almost too full to eat lunch. But we did anyway!

After lunch, we shopped a little before meeting John and Pat Curry for a tour of their business, Buona Caffe. Marie had purchased the tour on livingsocial and neither one of us had any idea what it would be about but it sounded like fun.

Buona Caffe is a husband and wife team who are artisan coffee roasters. Their operation is small by most standards but has seen considerable growth since they started in 2009. John showed us huge bags of coffee beans he had purchased from around the world...Sumatra, Brazil, Haiti, and Indonesia. He turned on the commercial roaster to heat to 400F then poured in about 8 lbs of beans. It takes 11 to 14 minutes to roast them. Then, they are misted with water and allowed to cool before they are ground. John showed us a couple of different ways to brew the coffee, one of which used a french press. (I told Marie to get one for me for Christmas!)
John says that your coffee will only be as good as the water you use to make it so always use filtered water. He and Pat are so passionate about it they donate 50 cents from every 12oz bag of coffee they sell to a program that helps provide safe drinking water to children around the world. Indeed, we enjoyed a couple of truly delicious cups of coffee with two very interesting people.
Marie and I came away a greater appreciation for the process of roasting coffee and bags of Buona Caffe's own unique blend.

You can find out more about Buona Caffe at www.buonacaffe.com. You can purchase coffee from their website and they do gift baskets. Also, check out the restaurants that serve their coffees. Some of them have their own special blend meaning it will be unique to their establishment. Oh, and they do blends for fund raisers. The Augusta Symphony sells a blend done especially for them to raise money.
I think I have caught you up so time to get down to business with the recipe I have today. One is from a cook book done by Wadley Baptist Church which has some fine cooks among its membership. The recipe for Ranch Pasta and Potato Salad was submitted by Willoise Brett, a great cook and a dear friend. Love you, "Miss Willi!"

Ranch Pasta and Potato Salad
  From "Taste and See that the Lord Is Good" Wadley Baptist Church.....Willoise Brett

6 small new red potatoes
6 oz rainbow spiral rotini pasta
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup sliced green onion
8 slices bacon
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Ranch salad dressing
 Cut unpeeled potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. In 4-qt saucepan bring 10 cups water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high. Add potatoes and cook 3 minutes. Add rotini pasta and return to a boil. Cook potatoes and pasta an additional 10-12 minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool. Drain well. In large bowl combine cooked potatoes, pasta, bell pepper, and onions. Fry bacon until crisp and drain on paper towels. Break into 1/2 inch pieces. Sprinkle over salad when ready to serve. In a small bowl combine mayonnaise and Ranch dressing, blending well.  Add to salad, tossing to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour or until serving time.

*Nan's notes...I really like to make up the packaged dry Ranch dressing and use it in this recipe. It seems to have less of a preservative taste than the bottled dressing.

Happy cooking!
 
Nan