Category Archives: Holidays

Fun and festive ideas for your very own Mardi Gras Party!  We’re a little North of the big festivities in New Orleans, but we can still have our own fun too!  First we’re kicking off with our new Kickin’ Cajun Dirty Rice recipe from Chef Melanie! Next up we have our Jell-O Shots complete with Mardi Gras themed colors! Our next dish is Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya, another classic Southern dish, perfect for any Mardi Gras themed party! Now we can’t forget about our desserts!  First up we have our traditional Paczki Donuts (Poonch Key)! These delicious treats are available at Festival Foods every year on the Monday and Tuesday of Mardi Gras only!  This year they are available Monday February 27th and Tuesday February 28th ONLY! Place your orders now! http://bit.ly/PaczkiDonutLimited Of course, it wouldn’t be Mardi Gras without King Cake, which is also available at Festival Foods on Monday February 27th and Tuesday February … Continue reading

Posted in Holidays, Party, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Bourbon Street Bonanza

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and it will nearly be here before you can say, “pass the stuffing!” Life is busy, schedules are full and holiday entertaining can easily turn into last minute lists, shopping and meal prep. Thanksgiving dinner is known for the abundant variety of delicious side dishes just as much as it is the juicy turkey. To relieve a little stress and take a load off, we choose to let Festival’s deli team do the work to prepare our favorite side dishes so we can focus on getting the house cleaned and dressed up for the holiday! Let’s talk turkey – fresh turkeys are so convenient, no extra days of thawing required. The fresh turkeys at Festival are all natural with no added solutions and are non-basted and gluten free. You may reserve your fresh turkey online! Cooking a Turkey is the easy part and your … Continue reading

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  We wanted a simple meal for our Friday night dinner that we knew would run late with everyone traveling to the cabin after work and decided that we would do a grilled cheese sandwich celebrating the flavors of summer. The luscious Minnesota grown tomatoes caught our eye and we settled on Caprese Grilled Cheese Sandwiches on sourdough bread. Rather than toasting the bread slices we buttered the outside of the sandwich and placed on a griddle to make them golden brown and layered sliced fresh tomatoes, fresh basil leaves and thick slices of a Mozzarella ball sprinkled with some Kosher salt. We were feeding a crowd so to speed things up we placed the assemble sandwiches on a baking sheet and covered with heavy foil and placed in the oven at 350 degrees to melt the cheese. We sliced avocados to have them available for those that chose to … Continue reading

Posted in Holidays, Labor Day Weekend | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Weekend Nosh and Feasts

Our rule of thumb for feeding a crowd is to keep it simple and ask for help (and provide refreshments)! Whether holidays or just a weekend at the lake with friends and family, food is at the center of all of the festivities, cooking and preparing the meals together makes it all more special. Our welcome for guests is a hot pot of coffee,  fresh fruit, sweet rolls, muffins, or donuts, perfect grab and go food so everyone can enjoy the outdoors with no fuss. During the summer watermelon and blueberries are our favorite fruits to serve. Our fourth of July weekend celebrations also included a gotcha party for grand puppy Bear, so we used some new colorful kibble bowls as some of our serving dishes. Lunch was a fun smorgasbord with pulled chicken sliders using Festival’s Shredded Chicken sold in party pails and Beer Cheese Sauce (recipe) or Honey Mustard … Continue reading

Posted in 4th of July, Holidays, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Crowd Feeding

Memorial Day weekend with friends or family at the cabin means it’s time to break out the recipes and get a menu together. We believe that for the hosts to enjoy the weekend as much as their guests you must keep it casual with everyone pitching in to prepare meals and cook together. We always plan for extra food because face it, if the weather is beautiful more company than planned are likely to show up and there’s never anything wrong with delicious leftovers. Just make sure you have plenty of refreshments to go around.   Stay hydrated, people! First up we have Fish Tacos with guacamole and Grilled Mexican Sweet Corn!  We used halibut for our recipe, as well as sour cream (Top the Tater Fiesta is a personal favorite), salsa, Big Rick’s Chipotle BBQ Sauce, and shredded cheese (obviously). We like to keep breakfast on the simple side by picking … Continue reading

Posted in Holidays, Memorial Day Weekend, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Memorial Day!

This is a crazy busy time of year with cookie exchanges, parties, potlucks, holiday celebrations and family gatherings and food is at the center of it all. There is no need to panic but planning is essential to keep stress to a dull roar so you can enjoy the festivities. A Christmas cookie exchange party is a great way to spend time with friends and family and the bonus is leaving the party with a wonderful selection of cookies! If you’re hosting you need some easy appetizer recipes or to make it super easy, serve a cheese board. We pinned some beautiful cheese boards to inspire you, even more inspiring is that our The Big Cheese event has begun with a perfect selection of products and cheeses to have available in the frig and pantry for cheese boards or easy last minute entertaining. A fabulous finger food appetizer is our Blue … Continue reading

Posted in Holidays, Party, Seafood, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Easy to Serve Great Food

It’s time to begin planning your menu for Halloween festivities!  If you and the kids are heading out to trick or treat, start them off right with an nice, hot meal appropriate to the holiday – we’re talking Mummy Meatloaf. Easy to prepare, just slice our meatloaf and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven until an internal temperature of 160 degrees. While the meatloaf is cooking in the oven slice strips of your favorite white cheese that will melt easily. When your meatloaf is fully cooked wrap the white cheese and sliced black olives for eyes on the meatloaf slices and place on a clean sheet of parchment paper in a warm oven to melt the cheese slightly.  If doing anything but heat and serve before you go out trick or treating then perhaps our Ghoulash prepared and sold in our Deli may be … Continue reading

Posted in Halloween, Holidays, Menu, Party, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Frightfully Fun Food for Halloween

The cool and crisp fall weather has arrived much too soon but it’s perfect weather to begin cooking hearty soups and stews with fragrant herbs for your family meals or prepping some chili for a crowd to watch football. This is a classic Minnesota soup made with wild rice made especially easy if you use Rotisserie chicken from our deli, moist and full of flavor our Rotisserie chickens are useful as an ingredient in many recipes (think chicken quesadillas) as well as a main course. We call our recipe Minnesota Wild Rice Soup it has lovely rich flavor and one of my favorite fall recipes. Another of our favorite soups is Hearty Italian Soup made with our very own fresh Italian Sausage – available either Hot or Mild, easy to make for a quick meal during the week, we like to serve with a fresh baked baguette. Taco Soup is all the … Continue reading

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It’s hard to believe that summer is already coming to an end and it’s time to begin planning the Labor Day menu for the last hurrah of summer. Small bites to share are a great option to bring for potluck gatherings on the holiday weekend or to serve for a family buffet dinner. One of the most tasty bites we can think of are Mini Ham Sandwiches, a sweet and savory mix of flavors and…you can prepare them the night before. If you’re in the mood to do some frying and serve some hot bites, Beer Battered Cheese Curds or Fried Cream Cheese Wontons are very easy to prepare and always a favorite with family and friends. The cream cheese wontons are simple to assemble with wonton wrappers, a small dollop of cream cheese and a little water to moisten the edges of the wrappers when you fold them up. … Continue reading

Posted in Holidays, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Small Bites

Grab those groceries and sparklers and get ready to celebrate this holiday weekend! Fire up that grill and give our new Honey Lime Chipotle Chicken Sandwich a try, this chicken would be spectacular on a salad as well. It has a lovely smoky flavor with a kick from the chipotle. If its Red, White, and Burgers for you then we’ve got some delicious recipes.   Mouth-watering, big flavor is how we describe our Black Angus Premium Choice ground beef, Tickler Cheddar cheese and our own Festival Foods smokehouse bacon. We call it the Tickler Bacon Burger. The Cheese Sauce can be made the day before, chilled and then reheated and served, making this entertaining-friendly. For those looking for some options other than beef burgers we have a few ground chicken burger recipes that are very tasty, our latest ground chicken recipe is a Mexican Chicken Burger. A colorful chopped salad recipe … Continue reading

Posted in Holidays, Menu, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Feasts for the 4th!