Tuesday, November 25, 2014

#futurechefs Twitter party TONIGHT at 8 p.m.



Tonight we are participating in a Twitter party at 8 p.m for the newly released book FutureChefs by author Ramin Ganeshram and would like to invite you to join us.

Why? A few months ago, veteran journalist and trained chef Ramin contacted us about this amazing book she was writing about young foodies and chefs and wanted to know if we'd like to be included in the book.

We were truly honored to be asked and humbled to be included among so many illustrious future chefs.









Printed by Rodale Inc., publisher of the "Eat This Not That" book series, "Mens Fitness", and "Runner's" magazines,  the FutureChefs book highlights 150 recipes from the kitchens of young cooks all over the world.





Our story appears on page 126 and our recipe on page 127. The recipe, Vegetable-Parmesan Crusted Flounder was inspired by a dish our Grandma Alberta makes. She got the idea for it on a trip to Sicily, Italy many years ago.

Not only does the book have awesome recipes but it features the stories of students from around the world who are making a name for themselves in the food business.



13-year old Mia Alessi of Parkton, Maryland developed her own line of cake mixes under the name "Bratty Crocker".

Haile Thomas of Tuscon Arizona who at 13 years old has been the guest of the First Lady at the State of the Union, a guest on the Food Network, and created a charity that helps kids be healthier through cooking classes.





Alessandra Peters from the United Kingdom is a 15 year old known as the Food Intolerant Teen for her Foodie Teen website that chronicles her vegan adventures.

And there's so many more FutureChef stories and recipes to talk about. The book is available at Amazon.com and Whole Foods stores.

So join us tonight for our FutureChef Twitter party using the hashtag #futurechefs.

Charles and I hope to see you at the #futurechefs Twitter party!

-Thomas







































2014 MOBBIES results


The Baltimore Sun's 2014 MOBBIES (Maryland's Best Blog awards) results are in!

2 Dudes Who Loves Food was awarded:

Best Suburban Blog - 3rd place
Best Food Blog - 4rd place 
 Best Facebook Page - 4th place

We REALLY appreciate all the people who voted for us.  It's still pretty neat that people actually read our blog posts. It means the world to us.

A special shout out to our HoCo blogging community and teachers Mrs. Bagley, Madame Doff, Mr. Barrett, Mr Pauller, Ms. McDonough  principal Haffets, for always encouraging and supporting our food adventures.

Also, a big thank you to our friends and family who often come along for the ride with our crazy food shenanigans.

Last but not least, congratulations to fellow bloggers  and MOBBIES winners HowChow, Village Green/Town Squared, HoCo Connect, The 53, HoCo Maryland, Lisbeth Eats, AnnieRie Unplugged, Three Beans on a String and The Unmanly Chef  (who took home the big kahuna - 1st place Best Food Blog).

With much appreciation,
Thomas and Charles 

Sunday, November 9, 2014

It's MOBBIES time again....

The Baltimore Sun's annual MOBBIES (Maryland's Outstanding Blogs) 
award competition has announced its 2014 nominees. 

Here's the exciting news, we've been nominated in three categories:

Best Food Blog
Best Facebook Page
Best Suburban Blog
vote for my blog in the mobbies early and often
We're VERY honored to be nominated - especially among such
awesome nominees as

 HowChow and HoCoBlogs in the Community

Village Green/Town Squared

HoCo Connect, The 53,

HoCo Maryland, Lisbeth Eats,

AnnieRie Unplugged, Three Beans on a String and The Unmanly Chef

You can vote once a day through Nov. 13 (only 5 days left).
Click on the MOBBIES logo above to vote.

Best of luck to all the nominees!!!
- Charles and Thomas





Friday, November 7, 2014

Whole Foods Thanksgiving Meals, Nationwide

The Whole Foods Columbia, Maryland store invited local food bloggers to a taste testing party to sample their Thanksgiving meals. 

Our invitation included one guest each, so we asked our Grandma Alberta and Grandpa Charles to join us. 
Upon arrival, we were greeted with a warm welcome by Whole Foods Chef Patrick, Katie Malloy and Mia Hinckle. The cafe was transformed into a private dining area for us with a gigantic table with printed name plates, menus and Fall decorations.

(left to right) Charles, Chef Patrick and Thomas 
Tasting menu  
The Holiday Taste tasting took place in the cafe area overlooking the lake
Before the event started, it was exciting to hang out with some very cool food bloggers including @theunmanlychef, @3beansonastring, @HoCoBlogs co-founder Jesse Newburg and @thebaremidriff and @hudsonandemily.

Then, Chef Patrick introduced the appetizers and the parade of holiday food began.....
Chef Patrick introducing the appetizers 


Coconut shrimp (left) and shrimp dumplings with dipping sauce  

We started with appetizers - a coconut shrimp and a shrimp dumpling with sweet and sour sauce. While the dumpling's thin skin was fork tender filled with a tasty, well seasoned mixture of shrimp filing, the star, for all of us, was the coconut shrimp,  It was a huge, pump shrimp lavishly covered in sweet, coconut flaked coating. The right amount of sweet and salty. We washed down the shrimp appetizers with a sweet apple cider that was another stand out. 

For the first course,  the Organic Triple Squash Soup was "smooth and tasty" with "a very faint hint of cinnamon", the "perfect Fall soup"  The  Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup  had a "strong earthly mushroom flavor." We spilt on which one we liked best - Grandpa and I  liked the Squash Soup and Grandma and Thomas the Mushroom Soup. 
Roasted Free Range Turkey with Gravy, Organic Biscuit & Mushroom Stuffing,
Butternut Sweet Potato Casserole,  Mashed Potatoes,
Cranberry Orange Relish, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, and
Glazed Carrots with Pecans

Then the second course came out - a gigantic plate of mouth-watering Thanksgiving classics.  We all agreed the Organic Biscuit & Mushroom Stuffing was star of the plate. "Much better than regular stuffing"(Grandma) and "biscuit added a depth of flavor and texture" (Grandpa). Both potatoes -  Butternut Sweet Potato Casserole and Mashed Potatoes, were well seasoned with a smooth and silky texture but "had a thinner consistency than we make at home"(Grandpa).

Cranberry Orange Relish was "very good and sweet" (Charles), "not a jelly more of a jam (Grandpa) and "very flavorful with a hint of orange" (Grandma). 
Roasted Brussel Sprouts - "tender, easy to cut" (Thomas), but "needed a bit more seasoning or salt" (Grandpa). 

Roasted Free Range Turkey with Gravy was sliced thicker than we are accustomed to at home but the turkey was "very flavorful" (all of us) and with it lathered in the chunky mushroom gravy it was a real hit. 

Glazed Carrots with Pecans -  although "tasty" (Grandma) and "tender" (Thomas) we would prefer the carrots be a bit more sweet.
Pumpkin Pumpkin Pie 










Grandpa and I are not pumpkin fans, so only we let Thomas and Grandma give the 411 on this Pumpkin Pumpkin Pie - "clever play on the classic pie with the two different layers of pumpkin pie (the top layer a mouse and bottom layer was the classic pumpkin pie custard)" (Thomas) but "the crust was thicker than we preferred" (Grandma).



As the dinner ended, we were stuffed. It felt like Thanksgiving. You know that feeling when, even though you want to eat more because it tastes so good, but you just can't eat another bite. That was us.

When we left we were given "Yum" goodie bags stuffed with 365 (Whole Foods house brand) Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake cookies, daelias Biscuits for Cheese (almond with raisin flavor) and Hammond's Mitchell Sweets (vanilla caramel & marshmallow).

In summary, this was a VERY cool event. It's our first taste testing and hope its not our last.

We decided to incorporate some of the items we tasted into our Thanksgiving meal. We're definitely ordering the coconut shrimp appetizer, organic biscuit and mushroom stuffing, mushroom gravy and pumpkin pie cheesecake cookies.

Check out all of WF Thanksgiving meals here (Columbia store here). There are so many items to choose from including kosher, organic, vegan, gluten-free and vegetarian. WF offers its Thanksgiving items as package dinners (serves 2 people or up to 16 ) or as single servings. From sides, breads, game birds, soups, gravy, relish, cheese platters, pie crusts and even holiday flower arrangements, there is a big selection to choose from.

Thank you Whole Foods. We had a great time.

- Charles


Monday, November 3, 2014

Celebrating National Sandwich Day and NEW David's Natural Market

To celebrate National Sandwich Day, 

we are featuring one of our favorite sandwiches - 

The Powerhouse at David's Natural Market 

We eat a David's Natural Market Powerhouse sandwich - Monetrey Jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, Vegenaise mayo, Italian seasoning, garlic powder on Shiloh Farms organic seven grain bread - at least once a week. It's great for a snack or meal. 

Try the sandwich in David's grab-n-go refrigerator, cafe or buy the ingredients and make a bunch of sandwiches yourself. 


Speaking of David's Natural Market, here's a peak at the brand new building that DNM moved into last week. They opened for business on Thursday, Oct. 30. 
Don't let this sign scare you. There's lots of construction going
on in the Wilde Lake Village Center but David's is open. 

Legendary and long time DNM Cafe Chef Barbara in the new kitchen 
Huge refrigerated aisles stocked with lots of organic and natural products
Look who I ran into?  THE David of David's Natural Market.
David (left), me, and store General Manager Greg Resch (right) in front of the new produce section 

The meat department features local products like Wagon Wheel Ranch in Mt. Airy, MD 






The new Cafe is triple the size of the old one. And that's true for the cafe seating area too that is situated in the front of the store overlooking floor to ceiling windows. 




More check out lines have been added 





























Congratulations DNM!  The new store is awesome.

- Thomas

Sunday, November 2, 2014

St. Leo's Ravioli - Spaghetti Dinner, Baltimore's Little Italy


TODAY

Head down to Baltimore's Little Italy for St. Leo's Church ravioli - spaghetti dinner. Every year, St. Leo's hosts an annual pasta dinner in the Fall and Spring.

Considering St. Leo's Church usually serves about 2,000 people, it's a big deal - a decades long tradition.

Prior to the dinner, volunteers helped make the homemade ravioli.  Recently, my brother Charles and I, along with members our school's Italian Club, volunteered to make homemade ravioli for today's dinner.
Me and Charles making ravioli
This was our second time making ravioli, check out our post about the pasta dinner here.
Just like last year, we had such a nice time helping the members of St. Leo's ravioli dinner committee. They were very gracious and patient teaching us how to make ravioli. I guess they liked us too because they wrote about us on "Neighborhood News from Little Italy" (click here to view) and St. Leo's Church featured us on their Facebook page here.

By the end of the day, we made a total of 7,080 raviolis and rewarded with a ravioli lunch.

Today's the day, enjoy homemade ravioli or spaghetti, meatballs, an Italian salad, bread, and coffee for just $12 adults and $6 children.

Cash bar, soda, dessert available for sale. Tickets can be purchased at the door (St. Leo's School Hall) or carryout is available for $12.50.

Italian Club members making ravioli

 -Thomas