This Good Day

I've been inspired to cook again! Over the last several months, my passion for cooking cooled to a barely lukewarm ember. Lots of life situations all mixed together to dampen that love, but I feel like I'm on the upswing now.

The promise of a gourmet store opening just blocks from my house began to fan that little ember...so I began stalking the storefront, waiting for the "opening soon" sign to become the long-awaited "open now" sign, crossing my fingers that it would live up to it's promises. Well, it is here! And it was worth waiting for.

Walking in, I wasn't sure what would greet me. Several stores have opened in our area in the last year, all with the claims of being "gourmet" or "European bakery" or "high end." I would excitedly run to each one, only to be disappointed with their barely-more-than-the-corner-bakery offerings. But my new-found love was not any of that! It was all I had hoped for and more.

Beautiful lighting contributes to its decadent atmosphere. I found bins containing all manner of sea salt; beautiful, large chunks of Pink Himalayan sea salt glistened like rose quartz, black lava salt, salt from France, salt from New Zealand, Celtic sea salt...and several bins of lovely, delicious-smelling smoked salt. I grabbed some applewood smoked sea salt...it adds a really yummy depth to all the foods I've used it in. I thought it would be too smoky, but it is just right!

There are bins filled with at least 10 different kinds of orzo, hand-crafted artisan pasta, exotic (for the Midwest, anyway) grains like Bamboo rice - basmati rice soaked in bamboo juice - red/black quinoa, french green lentils...organic herbs, olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and the cheese...oh, I'm in heaven!

And to make the experience even more surprising, Savore has a beautiful kitchen with an eat-on bar/countertop where they will be conducting cooking classes. And...they serve food, dreamed up and cooked by actual "chefs!" with a menu that changes weekly. LOVE!

I went home with some amazing finds: burrata, a fresh mozzarella cheese with a cream center; truffle butter (cuz I'll have to make a lot more tips at the coffeeshop to get the real truffle oil at $42/bottle); bamboo rice, black and red quinoa mixture; tuscan herb blend; a really nice culinary rasp (since my son used mine for a tool and snapped it in half); and finally, a jar of beautiful clotted cream, the first time I've found it here, which will force me to make these cream scones just to have something to spread it on.

Now I'm really hungry! I hope cooking is like riding a bicycle...cuz I don't have all day to relearn how to cook! :) I'm off...