Editor’s Choice: Pasta Mama’s

I could eat pasta any day of the week, and I actually come pretty close. The only time I have gourmet pasta, though, is when my husband and I go to a local Italian restaurant. That’s why I was delighted to try a sample of Pasta Mama’s line of dry pastas and sauce mixes: Delicious, restaurant-quality pasta at home and without the fancy-restaurant price tag.

I chose the tomato basil linguine and creamy garlic sauce. The pasta, stored prettily in a clear, plastic bag with a gold-foil tie, is simple to cook: Boil water, throw in the pasta and cook until it’s al dente. The sauce is just as easy: Mix water and milk (or just milk) with the dry mix, and simmer in a saucepan until it thickens to your liking. The pasta was packed with a sweet tomato flavor, and I loved its thick texture. The sauce had just the right amount of garlic to be strong but not overpowering. And, both flavors went wonderfully with my simple, pan-fried and lightly seasoned pork chops.

Pasta Mama’s offers a variety of mix-and-match pastas and sauces for anyone to have an Italian adventure in the kitchen. The company’s website offers combination suggestions — such as pairing the apple spice fettuccine with the apple spice sauce — but to truly have fun, Pasta Mama’s recommends experimentation. Actually, I think the chocolate fettuccine embodies this philosophy. You can create dessert by serving this cocoa-infused pasta with Pasta Mama's chocolate sweet topping or cocoa mocha sweet topping.

Pasta Mama’s can throw a delightful wrench into any meal that needs new life breathed into it.

-Tara

Editor's Choice: Pamela's Products

I’ll be perfectly honest: I was not expecting to like Pamela’s Products’ Whenever Bars. But one bite was all it took to prove myself wrong.

These things taste so good! I was expecting a hard-as-rock granola bar. Instead, the bars are chewy, like a freshly baked oatmeal cookie. The Oat Chocolate Chip Coconut bars are simply addicting with creamy chocolate and sweet coconut flavors; they make great afternoon snacks. The Oat Cranberry Almond bars are fantastic for breakfast with a tangy, fruity taste.

Besides the two flavors that I tried, the Whenever Bars are also available in Oat Blueberry Lemon and Oat Raisin Walnut Spice. And Pamela’s gluten-free and wheat-free products include biscotti, cake mixes, cheesecake and more.

Don’t think that healthy foods taste like cardboard. Pamela’s Products definitively put that myth to rest.

-Tara

Editor's Choice: Cypress Grove Chevre

Just from browsing the Cypress Grove Chevre website, you can tell that this California-based company is run by people who are deeply devoted to goat cheese. Not only do they make excellent fare, but their website is teeming with cheese facts. For example, did you know that France has a different cheese for each day of the year? Or that the love of cheese is called “turophilia”?

I might become a turophiliac myself if I keep eating Cypress Grove’s cheese. I sampled the PsycheDillic and Purple Haze fresh cheeses, which are both part of Cypress Grove Chevre’s Flashback Family Gift Pack.

Both cheeses were wonderfully creamy and smooth. I found that eating them at room temperature (which Cypress Grove recommends) brought out each flavor to its fullest. The Purple Haze, meshing lavender and wild fennel pollen, was light and tasted fragrant. The PsycheDillic was made with dill pollen, and it tasted herbal and earthy.

The Flashback Family Gift Pack has a groovy hippie theme and even comes with blue John Lennon-styled glasses. In addition to Purple Haze and Psychedillic, the pack includes:

-Sgt. Pepper

-Ms. Natural

-Herbs de Humboldt

Each flavor is sealed into 4 ounce packages. The family pack should not be restricted to just families, though. It would make a great gift for any wine or cheese lover, as well as any foodie.

-Tara

Editor's Choice: Curt's BBQ Sauce

Besides ice cream, barbecue sauce is my husband’s favorite thing to eat. We often joke that we should cut out the middleman and not bother with cooking meat: just pour some sauce on a plate and lick it up; better yet, drench a few pages of newspaper in it for a heartier meal.

Needless to say, I was excited when Curt’s BBQ Sauce (218/731-2432 or curtsbbqsauce.com) arrived in our office. I brought home a bottle of the Mild flavor and asked my husband to slather it on the pork chops that he grilled that night.

Both of us gave the sauce two thumbs up. The sweet, tangy flavor went well with the pork, but I can imagine it also being tasty with steaks, chicken, ribs or onion rings and French fries when used for dipping. The sauce is thin, so it means you can spread it out to go a long way, or use half a bottle between two people (like we did) to get as much sauce onto each bite as possible.

Curt’s offers its tantalizing sauce in Mild, Medium and Hot flavors. It also comes in sizes ranging from 4 pints to 1 gallon and ranges in price from $16—$52, not including shipping.

I had wanted to bring home the Medium flavor to satisfy my husband’s taste for hotter barbecue. But I didn’t move quickly enough—another staffer whisked away this flavorful sauce.

—Tara