Menu 9/10-9/14

Hey Folks!

Here's the link to our menu for the week of 9/10-9/14. This menu is changing daily so make sure you call us if you have any questions and get in early so you can make sure you have your pick of the entrees!:) And as always, if you don't see something on here you'd like to special order you can feel free to give us a call and we can whip up almost anything in 48 hours. Looking forward to seeing ya'll Thursday and Friday.

Hearts-Karyn

Hello Again...Hello...

As Tracy was leaving to go to the store today she said "Hey! We haven't blogged in awhile..." I said "yeah, i know...someone should probably do that huh??" Tracy then gave me a look that chilled me to my very core...no seriously. My soul feels like it's on Hoth and I need to find a Tauntaun to crawl inside. While she's at the store I've decided to get my blog on so i don't get any more of those looks!

We have been SO busy. That may be an understatement. We've had SO much fun meeting all the new people swinging by the store just to check us out and seeing all the old familiar faces. (sigh...) it's been awesome. We had to take a quick break from our regular store hours due to the wholesale and catering demands...which was SUPER awesome but also sad because we missed those "regulars" and all the brand new people stopping in to say "hey!".

While we were out making delicious food all over Indiana we got to make some EXCITING new changes at the store that we think are going to be really really great. Here they are summed up in a very concise manner which is NOT my strong point... shocking.

1. We will be open Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 3-6pm for dinner pick ups, bakery pick ups, and for your mid-afternoon coffee/chai/tea pick me ups:). You can also "special order" anything (like usual) and you can get a meal HOT any day of the week *usually* The rest will be our famous freezer meals. This way we can offer you a much wider selection AND even offer amazing AMAZING meals done by special guest chefs (i won't say who... but he's REALLY handsome and my favorite chef EVER!:)

2. We will be carrying a brand new chai tea line! In June we attended CoffeeFest in Chicago and were looking for something new we could bring YOU, our most favorite people. We found it in the David Rio chai. We've always prided ourselves on having products that are not only excellent quality but are also unique to our area. We were able to accomplish just that in the David Rio chai. I'll go into more detail later (because I seriously love this chai so much i want to marry it) but I'm SUPER psyched and let's be honest... I've never steered you wrong before when it comes to tea, chai, or coffee.

3. We will still be offering DELICIOUS desserts. I mean... that's not a change at all. I just really enjoy dessert. If you haven't heard yet we have LOADS of gluten free treats here... and they're magical. Sometimes eating gluten free desserts/foods are like eating rabbit food... I want my food to look and taste AMAZING and Steph does just that... (and I don't even need to eat gluten free). We also have gluten free meals as well! And they are just as delicious as the aforementioned desserts and super hearty! I know LOTS of gluten free people out there... and if I haven't seen you in here yet... you are definitely missing out! Here's a little gluten free goodness...seriously...magic...

4. We are doing a TON of catering and wholesale business. If you need something catered... PLEASE stop in to see us and the many options that we offer OR give us a call:). We'd be happy to work something up for you!

5. Lastly, for those of you who LOVE pinterest (and are secretly or not so secretly addicted to it) we have a Pinterest! I'll be tying that into the blog later (maybe next week??) so you'll definitely want to stay tuned for that!

Alright friends... I think that's all for us here at CDG. I'm working hard to get all of this new stuff around for you so now I'm off to work on the menu!:)

SEE YOU THURSDAY!!!:)

When the Crazy Day Gourmet Inspires...

Truly one of the great things about working with the public is that you get to meet all kinds of people. At Crazy Day Gourmet I get to see my family, friends, friends who've become like family, and I feel like on a daily basis fascinating people walk through our doors. Our guest blogger today is no exception... and she is definitely a gift to us at crazy day!:) Enjoy her post-k

When The-Crazy Day Gourmet Inspires...

I'm not sure if it is the pink and green decor or the ruffly apron that greets me at the door. Maybe it's the comfy vintage chair and fluffy pillows or the sign in the restroom that reminds me of Audrey Hepburn's words, "happy girls are the prettiest." I'd like to think that it is a tall glass of Iron Goddess of Mercy iced tea with a snickerdoodle cupcake that give me inspiration. In reality, though, it's all of this and more.

Simply stated, The Crazy-Day Gourmet inspires me... to write. This is where I come to find a few minutes of quiet, to share a word with Tracy, and to clear my mind to find the words I need. I come with friends and I come alone. The Crazy-Day Gourmet's main goal is to provide meals for those

who face days that are crazy and don't have time to make a nutritious meal for their family. However,

Tracy has also created a relaxing oasis for those who want a few minutes to escape the crazy with a

sweet treat. This is where I come to be inspired, and, when the stuff of life takes my time and energy

and I don't come... I find myself going crazy, indeed.

After spending many afternoons inspired within these walls, I'm thrilled to be able to say that

my first novel, The Secret of Counting Gifts and the accompanying The Secret of Counting Gifts

Gratitude Journal are now available in paperback through amazon.com. While The Secret of Counting Gifts is a novel, I wrote it from my life experiences. I am a wife of 18 years and a mom of 3. I've spent the past fifteen years at home washing dishes, folding clean laundry, blogging, and teaching my children. My days are full of counting grace gifts with gratitude and asking for grace and forgiveness. I am blessed with rich friendships and have prayed more friends than I care to count through the battle of breast cancer.

The Secret of Counting Gifts is a story about life, friendship, hardship, and gratitude. It is the story of Kris McClintock and Liz Bower and their friendship that spans twenty-eight years. Through marriage, babies, and infidelity they stand by each other and hold one another up... until breast cancer delivers the final blow. As she sits by Liz, Kris recounts the trials and blessings that made them who they are. She tells their story and recalls the many "gifts" they have been blessed with throughout the years. She shares of how Liz taught her to notice the gifts in each day and to live with a grateful heart. It is through the telling of their story that the secret of counting gifts is discovered....

I'm excited for the release of The Secret of Counting Gifts and The Secret of Counting Gifts Gratitude Journal. These books are a direct answer to prayer. I look forward to seeing how God will use them! Thorought this month, I am on a virtual book tour. You can see the stops along the way on my website www.heidikreider.com. While you are there, stop in and say "Hey!" and register for my giveaway... autographed copies of The Secret of Counting Gifts and The Secret of Counting Gifts Gratitude Journal in a hand-made basket.

I'd love to hear your story. Have you been to The Crazy-Day Gourmet? How has it inspired you?

** Heidi Kreider is a wife, mother, author and friend. She blogs about life, grace, and gratitude

at www.heidikreider.com.

1 million degrees...and how you can fight it.

It's 1 MILLION degrees.

Usually heat is fine with me. I don't love the heat but I will tolerate it. Like one tolerates a car alarm that won't stop. Usually that means I'm tolerating it by yelling loudly and waiting for the person to come outside and shut it off so I can express to them my extreme displeasure.

But when it's hot my tolerance looks a bit different. I can't go outside and yell and shake my fist at the sky (well, I could but i do understand how silly that would actually look). I just pout and write about it and every half hour or so I will burst out into rants about how it's so hot that my neck is sweating. Neck sweat is a problem plaguing america just fyi. So what do I do to combat that...especially at work. I mean, keep in mind that I work in a place where ovens and stoves are ALWAYS on. What do you do when you're suffering from neck sweat?

I have a few suggestions for you that have been working for me.

-Iced Coffee... we can make our classic coffee flavors iced OR we also can make a mocha blended or iced.

-Southern Velvet... THIS has been described as a frozen cupcake in a cup. There are a few people who have tried these and come in now almost every day for this frozen treat. Come and grab one at the drive thru so you won't even need to get out of your air conditioned car!

-Iced Chai... love your vanilla or spiced chai? Come and try it frozen it's REALLY delicious and I promise you won't be disappointed. The great thing about Crazy Day is that we use an amazing blender un-like any other in our town. It will leave these drinks creamy and smooth.

-20 below hot chocolate... This is meant to be made cold. It's frozen hot chocolate but i LOVE to make this hot. I know this isn't about hot drinks. But someday when it's REALLY cold and you're thinking about what you want to drink THAT'S why I'm telling you this. If you're in the mood for chocolate (can we be honest?? when am i not in the mood??) this is the drink for you. Just like the southern velvet it's smooth and dreamy. Can i say dream about a beverage?

-Iced Tea... On a hot summer's day nothing says relax to me like an awesome iced tea. Every day we have ginger plum oolong tea (if you haven't tried this tea yet you NEED to get in here. I'll even give you a free sample.) We also have a sweet southern tea that changes flavors daily. Today our sweet southern tea is an Organic White Peony. Again, if you come and see me... I'll give you a free sample of that as well.

Are you thinking cool and relaxing thoughts?? I know I am:). If you swing by for a drink consider grabbing something for dinner as well. We have some AMAZING dinner options but they're going to go QUICK. We also have some speciality cupcakes that were JUST finished but there are not many of those either.

That's all for me now:) I'm off to stand in front of the fan while sipping iced-tea.

Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things. -Chaim Potok

How to make delicious soup

So i promised you another recipe blog and I'm about to deliver. It's Friday which means that for most of you your weekend will be here in less than 1 hour. Here in Indiana it's going to be pretty blustery this weekend. I'm not gonna lie. I'm totally one of those people who always gets frustrated about the weather in Indiana. I mean... how can you not?? When it's hitting 60+ in January and then it's 45 at the end of April?? COME ON! I'm fine if it's just normal wintery coldness and mild spring temps but this is outrageous. But I'm well aware that if I don't like it I can move or just stop complaining. Since I just scored an awesome apartment I guess moving's out of the option so I better just shut my mouth and get on with the recipes.

So as I said earlier... it's cold this weekend here in the War-City. The PERFECT weather to put on your hoodies and your big fluffy socks and throw all this into a crockpot and leave it for 8 hours until dinner. Oh. Yum. This is one of my favorite soup recipes as well as one of my favorite crock pot meals! It's like comfort meets ease and delciousness. Hope you try this one out and as always if you do try it let me know what you think!

***Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
½ cup chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 can (15 ounce) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 ounce) Rotel diced tomatoes and jalapenos
1 package (10 ounce) frozen corn
½ cup onion, chopped
½ cup bell pepper, diced
1 can (10 ounce) Enchilada sauce
2 whole chicken breasts
1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

What you'll do:
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in flour; keep stirring until smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat and add the chicken broth and ½ cup milk, a little at a time, stirring to keep smooth. Return to heat. Bring sauce to a gentle boil; cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens. In a large bowl, whisk together the enchilada sauce and chicken broth mixture . Gradually whisk in remaining milk until smooth. Set aside.

In a crockpot, combine drained beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, and bell pepper. Place the chicken breasts on top of the mixture. Pour sauce mixture over ingredients in cooker. Cover; cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours. When you are ready to serve, remove chicken and cut or shred into bite-sized pieces. Add chicken back into the soup, mix together. Top with cheese and serve. I topped ours with slices of avocado, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips***

We have some great entrees this coming week here at Crazy Day. Even I get to be in on the action this week (my famous manicotti:). Keep checking the facebook for updates and we look forward to seeing you all next week!

“Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.”-Samuel Pepys

Stephanie on being gluten free, tuna casserole, and calling Paula Deen out...

Bonjour Readers!

I was just talking to Tracy about all my shennanigans in my high school french class (like the time I did an avant garde piece complete with drums and scarf dancing??)and so the french greeting felt appropriate. Today is a special one for the blog because it's another staff interview! (i actually started to write intervention...whoops). Today we'll be profiling Stephanie Hapner an award winning and critically acclaimed chef and foodie. One of my favorite things about Stephanie is that she's pocket sized. She will probably punch me for saying that. While she may be pocket sized her food and her attitude are larger than life. Her zest for life and cooking always amazes me and I'm sure I'm not the only one:).

To set the stage I had to do this interview on a stool in the kitchen while Steph buzzed between the sink washing dishes and the stove where she was cooking and baking. You really can't get her to sit for a second to do anything... unless it's to brainstorm and drink some tea. But that's about it.

So Stephanie, you're our resident "free" specialist. You can do anything for special dietary restrictions... what made you start cooking like that?

I have my own dietary restrictions but the reason I started cooking things the way I do now was because of my son.

What's your favorite gluten free goodie that you make?

I like to bake and I like to do things that are uncommon. I like to do filled cupcakes and tarts stuff that's different and not like everyone else's. When it comes down to it I'm a recipe developer.

Ok, so if you have no dietary limitations what's your favorite thing to make?

My mom's lasagna or homemade mac and cheese. But I don't want to make it...I want her to make it.

What's the first thing you ever made in the kitchen?

Tuna Casserole.

How do you feel about Tuna Casserole now?

I never make it. Never... If I were to make it ever again it would be with grilled tuna planks. It would be all gourmet...which is not what you think of when you think of tuna casserole.

What's the cooking utensil you can't live without?

That's hard when you're gluten free! I couldn't live without my kitchenade 6qt stand mixer, my food processor, and my flour sifter.

Umm... you know that's more than one thing right??

I KNOW!! I said it's hard when your gluten free! See... I'm a complicated sort.

Your kitchen's on fire you save??

wait, my house or just my kitchen?? cause if my kitchen's on fire my whole house is on fire...

Let's say in this scenario that it's just your kitchen

I would grab my kitchenade mixer... helllooooo! My photo albums!! so yeah, our kitchen's REALLY small. We're modest people;)

Who was influential in your cooking development?

My dad showed me how to bake my frist cake and bread. My mom showed me everything else and PIES! Even canned minced meat pies. When I was growing up we had a huge garden. We had red currant berries and gooseberries any fruit you name it. We even had green gauge plums.

What are green gauge plums??

They're really sweet plums.

If anyone could eat your food who would you want it to be??

OH! There's more than one...

Of course there is...

It would be Sarah Maltan, Nigella Lawson because I think she has overcome a lot of things and she could appreciate not only WHAT i do but why I do it. Donatella Arpiah too! Also, I'd like to do a Paula Deen throwdown and make one of her recipes gluten free. Your move Paula...

Finally what's the best piece of cooking advice you can give to someone?

Never ever ever apologize for your food. Tell your story.

hope you enjoyed getting to know us just a little better. i just made a batch of sweet tea and there are hot from the oven chocolate chip cookies. get over here because stuff is FLYING out the door! See you back here tomorrow with a recipe blog.

Love, K;)

heroes...and how you can be one...

Happy Monday! It truly is. After all my travels I'm back at home base. (sigh) it feels REALLY good. This past week I got to go to an AWESOME trade show in Indy. I was definitely out of my element. It was for firefighters and there's pretty much no convincing anyone that I'm a firefighter especially after I ask questions like "so how do you take the one sprayer thing and hook it up to that one hooky thing? where do you keep that giant trampoline thingy? do you know those one people from Jersey Shore?!" So as I was standing in line for an hour and a half to meet Troy and Jake from Swamp People (who are SO amazing) I found myself surrounded by legit firemen. I asked them loads of questions about where they were from and how many years they had been firefighters. I'm sure they felt like they were standing in line with the riddler but it was my only defense mechanism not to sound like a complete idiot. Finally they asked me what I did for a living. After hearing all their stories of heroism and bravery there was a split second when I thought... "ok, what tops their stories?" and since my only answer to that was "astronaut" I told them what I did. That I worked at Crazy Day Gourmet. I was no firefighter, I was no hero...but these big burly guys' eyes lit up and they asked me all kinds of cooking and baking questions. It was SO much fun. I even got to give them a recipe (did i mention we were in line for-ev-er??). And that’s when I realized that food really IS the great common denominator. Everyone must eat to survive and when you can eat really DELICIOUS food it’s even better. From then on when they passed me during the conference or stopped by my booth they said “hey it’s the cupcake girl!!”… a nickname that I’m totally cool with☺. I'm not sure I ever understood until just at that moment how much food brings us together. I never thought I'd have ANYTHING to talk to those guys about. I never thought they'd want to talk to me about food. Everyone has to eat. The process of doing that not only gives us energy and fuel for our lives but also fuel for our souls. I think back to the most special times with my family and it includes us eating around the dinner table. Or having long talks long after the plates have been cleared. Food can bring us together. But what if someone doesn't have that opportunity? Here at Crazy Day Gourmet we've started a project called "Care Like Crazy" and there are 2 different things we do in our Care like Crazy campaign. The first is that for every 10 dinner entrees we sell we are partnering with Fellowship Missions to give a gift certificate to a family in need who may not be able to have a healthy hot dinner together. The 2nd is that for every 10 dozen baked goods we sell we'll donate baked treats to a local school for a child's birthday who would not be able to celebrate otherwise. Here in our school districts children can no longer bring treats from home making it difficult for some people to afford those special school treats. There is nothing you have to do except order your food and baked goods from us! We'll do the rest and keep you posted about how many people YOU are reaching just by getting your food from Crazy Day Gourmet!:) Also, if you have someone in mind that you'd like to nominate for the birthday treats or the meal let us know by sending us a Facebook message! Speaking of facebook... Have you checked out all the updates about our food this week?? I have to tell you... I ordered some cupcakes for my sister-in-law's birthday and they were SO yummy. I also should tell you... my new favorite thing at the store is Tracy's salsa. Holy. Business. I'm not just saying this because Tracy's my dear friend, or my boss, or my homeslice, but because it's literally the best salsa I've ever had. I almost exclusively eat pico de gallo because of the chunky quality so when I saw that it was less chunky than I was used to I was skeptical. But no joke... it's my favorite salsa:). Get yourself into the store to get some of your own. I'd suggest getting the bigger size because it's one of those things that you'll open a bag of tortilla chips and this salsa and you'll realize you've even the entire thing and feel slightly ashamed but oddly proud of yourself. I hope to see all of your faces the rest of this week! much love-k:) It's difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn't available. -Ronald Reagan