"Signature Brand" Recipes

Bold as Brassicas went very well, and you can read a transcript of the talk here. The cabbage recipes used in the session are also available free in the shop at Cooks' Mill. Just look for the crate of cabbages.

Also new this month is a recipe for Thai Green Curry with Chicken. Althought this recipe seems to have a daunting list of ingredients, it really is easy to prepare and great with plain boiled rice.

A little more normality this month with just two new recipes, both with an Italian pedigree.

Chicken Cacciatore is a really simple dish of chicken and herbs in a tomato sauce.

Spaghetti Bolognese nneds no introduction form me. This easily prepared version of this Italian classsic is quick and tasty.

Later in the month, I will be giving a talk at Cooks' Mill. This will be part of the SkyBeam Cooks programme.It will be called "Bold as Brassicas" and will focus on new ways of preparing green vegetables.

Some of you may know that RL got into something of a flat spin in late January, so I'm afrid there are no new products for February. However, we did open a new shop, on the Showcase featured sim at Visiwa.

The shop is only small, but it stocks some of our more popular lines, and has details and landmarks for Cooks' Mill and GlenGildie Distillery.

Visiwa itself is worth a visit. Clever use of sculpted prims has created a Mediterranean atmosphere, and the many walkways, alleys and bridges make an attractive setting for a range of high quality shops.

Interior of the new shop at Visiwa

Back to normal again for the New Year, and three new recipes to add to our Side Dishes range of cans. One is our Mash Medley, a variety of ideas for adding interest to your mashed potato and other vegetables. Inspired by Christmas eating, but usefull all the year round are:

Fruity Coucous, which can be prepared as a stuffing (dressing if you live in America!!), or served as an accompaniment to any meal.

Classic Bread Sauce, excellent with poultry, but equally good wih gammon or boiled ham, -it's even nice with just carrots, and a very easy dish to prepare.

Recipe of the Month - Cranachan, traditional dessert for your Burn's Night dinner on the 25th.

No new recipes this month, but something much, much better for Christmas - The Cooks' Mill Recipe Book!

Lavishly illustrated with pictures of the mill and some of the dishes you can cook and featuring forty Signature Brand Recipes the book is available at all of our retail shops for just L$300.

Lots of news for this month, not least of which is our move to a new location at Cooks' Mill. This is a working nineteenth century watermill with our Signature Brand Recipe Shop located on the ground floor. The rest of the mill is laid out as a working flour milll. You can read more about the milling process, see how the waterwheel is used to power the whole mill and watch the millstones grinding grain into meal and flour.

Also new this month, having graduated from being our Hallowe'en Freebies, are Sage and Squash Frittata and Spicy Roasted Pepper and Sausage Soup which you can find among the Main course cans range.

Of course we also have new recipes to announce.

This month we are introducing Pork Vindaloo, from the Indian region of Goa, heavily influenced by Portugese cookery. Alongside this we have a third dessert recipe - Summer Peaches which I hope you will like, - we certainly do!

What a month this has been, with so much to record. First of all, some changes to our shops.

The Sailor's Cove shop has closed as parts of the sim are being re-developed. Alfred Island is also undergoing some development, so we have taken advanatge of this to give the shop a refit in order to display our extensive range of new items.

We have also opened three entirely new shops on the island of Alanya. One of these is a recipe shop, replacing the facility at Sailor's Cove. The second is a gallery showing Signature Fine Art and Books. The Third shop is an entirely new venture, Signature Singularities.

I have been busy making a number of objects for various projects and felt they were good enough to sell, se we are now offering a range of Internet Radio equipped replica record palyers. The shop also allows us to display some of our other large items.

New shops at Alanya

New range of Internet Radio Gramophones

The new recipes are all versions of classic dishes from two very different parts of the world. A spicy prawn Jambalaya and a sausage and chicken Gumbo from the Southern United States, and Cranachan, - an ancient Scottish dessert made with soft fruit, toasted oats and cream. We have brought it up to date by substituting natural yoghurt - try it- one of my personal favourites.

WE have also added some nre kitchen accesories in the form off replica "Cornishware" storage jars and rolling pin.

This popular range of wares was made by T G Green of Church Gresley in Derbyshire since the 1930's.

Andy's Gumbo - a Creole-inspired sausage and chicken Gumbo

New Cornishware replica storage jars and rolling pin

It occurs to me that it's about time we had another Cooking Tip/Kitchen Trivia thingy, so here goes.

For various reasons that will become clear next month, I have been cooking with a lot of Celery recently. Now Celery can be annoyingly "stringy", but if you run a potato peeler down the back of each stalk a few times, you can easily remove this stringy element.

The same method can be used for "String" Beans - simply run the potato peeler along the top and bottom of the bean pod before you cut it up. You only need to remove a little of the pod, just the stringy part.

Where did June go?!

It;s the start of a new month - again - and time for this month's New Products.

On the recipe side, I am pleased to announce our first pudding (ok, dessert to some of you) recipe - Frangipanes, - an ideal dish, with so much soft fruit in the shops at present. To accompany this, I have added a main course can- my "Oh my!" Omelette ( at least that's what Azure usually says when I serve it!).

Also new this month is a small range of ceramic wares. We can only sell these at Signature House at present, so please look for them on the ground floor.

Frangipanes - soft fruit filling with flufft almond sponge topping

New ceramics range at Signature House

In our Group Charter, I promised "Cooking Tips and Kitchen Trivia", so here's something that might count as both.

Grissini - Breadsticks. I love breadsticks, but what do you do with all the broken ones?

Well, I keep them in an airtight jar and use them as an alternative to crackers or croutons in soup and salads. Ground up in a food processor or mortar and pestle they make excellent dry breadcrumbs for coating fish or chicken. Of course you can eat them, I like to munch the odd one when cooking, but be careful not to spoil your appetite!

This week "Signature Brand" Recipes entered into a new and exciting sponsorship deal with Charlene Trudeau of SkyBeam Estates.

The agreement provides a permanent home for Charlene's new "SkyBeam Cooks" community interest group, and allows for "Signature Brand" Recipes to have a new flagship store on SkyBeam Estates Tradewater campus. The location has a 1920's - 30's style covenant, and soon a new Art Deco building, with auditorium, demo kitchen and shop, with gallery and workshop facilities above was taking shape.

New Art Deco flagship store

It's the end of the month again, so time for new recipes and new items in the shops.

New this month, Blackadder Burgers, in time for the BBQ season, beef patties with a little added "Zing!".

A surprisaingly Scottish classic, Macaroni Cheese. Pasta has been made in Scotland since the 1880's and this tasty dish is almost as old! Serve with vegetables as a Main Course, or enjoy a smaller portion as a snack. Both items are included in our Canned Main Course range.

I finally sorted the Blue Cheese Dressing recipe, and along with Better Cheese on Toast and Quick Cheese sauce, it can be found as a free recipe in the chiller cabinets, look for the Big Cheeses.

Also for the BBQ , Coleslaw, easy to make, harder to make well...try the "Signature Brand" recipe.

Our new Outdoor Crab Steamer inspired by tales of New England picnics from friends. Break the mould and have one of these instead of a barbecue. Complete with stove, gas bottle.and separately poseable lid.

As of tonight a selected number of "Signature Brand " items will be available on Second Life Exchange
I am really excited by this opportunity and am looking forwarsd to adding new items to the SLX listing throughout the month. The aim is to have all current "Signature Brand" products available through SLX by the end of June.

Well I promised to announce new recipes and products both here and in-world, so here goes.

New recipes for this month are the exciting Kefta Tagine - a traditional north African dish of spicy meatballs in a tomato sauce with the attractive addition of fresh eggs which are poached in the sauce . A Tagine is a traditional terra-cotta cooking vessel with a cone shaped lid. Normally used over charcoal, it is necessary for us to use a diffuser if we are going to cook with one of these in a modern kitchen, but you can use an ordinary thick frying pan or skillet. Kefta Tagine is available in our "Ready-Meal" range with in-world rezzable serving.

New Kefta Tagine recipe

Also new this month, Leek, Cheese and Bacon Paupers' Pie. The filling is conventional enough, leeks and bacon in a cheese sauce, but the crust is an innovation brought on by necessity. I had to come up with an instant alternative to pastry one day, and had the idea of using slices of bread. The result is a light and healthy alternative to normal pastry. Leek, Cheese and Bacon Paupers' Pie is in our Main Course range, in the Burgundy cans.

New chiller unit at Sailor's Cove, ready for cheese recipes later this month (as soon as I am happy with the Blue Cheese Dressing.......)

Welcome to the "Signature Brand" Recipes website. As well as news of the two shops we have "in world" , I will also be echoing any Group messages ("Signature Brand" Recipes in the Group search) and cooking tips on the website, as a sort of running archive..

Our first shop at Sailor's Cove

...and our second shop at Alfred Island