ZINGERMAN'S!!!

Firstly, if you do not know about Zingerman's, you are truly missing out on something wonderful. Imagine J. Peterman for foodies. A wonderfully illustrated catalog with a quirky sense of humor through which you can order a variety of intensely interesting foodstuffs.

thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon
raw milk stilton cheese
chocolate chunk sourdough bread
a ruben sandwich kit
sardine-stuffed cherry peppers
olive oils from Italy, Spain, and France

They even have a Culinary Adventure Society you can "join" to have the opportunity to taste things you might not otherwise get to sample unless you were to wind up in the small village in Europe where the stuff is produced.

Anyway - It turns out that this mythical perveyor of all things yummy actually exists in the real world! Specifically, in Ann Arbor, Michigan! And they have events and stuff!

While perusing the latest edition of their newsletter, I noticed that there is a Tomato & Mozzarella Party scheduled for the weekend of August 27th.

Also, there is something called the "Tour de Bacon."

Who wouldn't be excited by the sound of that?

The Tour is a special "contest" held this July and August, wherein if you visit all five of their retail locations within twenty-four hours (Deli, Dairy, Coffee Roastery, Roadhouse restaurant, and Bakery), you get a free t-shirt.

Reservations for the party have been made.
It's on a Saturday, so we should have ample time to complete the tour.

Photo below is my latest order. It arrived quite recently, so I'm still riding on a wave of euphoria. Included are an olive oil coffee cake (moms who've tried the lime coconut and/or almond ones, this is our favorite so far), all natural non-sweetened peanut butter made from jumbo Virginia peanuts, semi-dried Italian cherry tomatoes in olive oil seasoned with basil and garlic, and wild artichokes in olive oil, also from Italy.

Those artichokes are tiny.
Smaller-than-a-nickel tiny.

www.zingermans.com