Happy New Year!

Looking forward to another great year serving the community with all their shopping needs!  Thanks for shopping in the store in 2013 and thanks for stopping by to say "Hi" when you are in the vicinity.  Sometimes it gets lonely here in the little store, especially today!   New Year's Day.....not a lot of shoppers out and about today, but I was here for a few neighbors who needed things and didn't have to go very far to find them.

I enjoyed taking a few days off at the end of December to visit with family and friends for the holidays.  I hope you did the same!

Lots of changes in the works for the store this year!  Plans are taking shape for getting beer and wine displayed so that sales can begin sometime during the Spring of 2014.  We will keep you updated as progress is made.

See you soon!

Holiday Meals

The Christmas and New Year's holidays are a good time to gather around the table with family and friends for a special meal.  Grass-fed lamb from our farm has been a popular choice for the holidays this season.  We still have available two whole, boneless legs of lamb for roasting, plenty of lamb chops, a little bit of lamb stew meat, a couple of small boneless shoulder roasts, and plenty of lamb chops.  We also have plenty of lean, ground lamb which can be used in a variety of recipes such as casseroles, pot-pies, soups, curries, and stews.  (More lamb roasts will be available later in January 2014.)

Looking for something elegant but not quite so hearty?  Split Cornish hens are easy to prepare and bake and can make quite a festive presentation with simply vegetables.  It is delicious served with a baked sweet potato (or roasted carrots), steamed broccoli (or peas), and wild rice mixed with some orzo and sautéed mushrooms (or bread stuffing is nice).  If you prefer one large roast bird, how about a locally raised, plump chicken for slow-roasting or braising in the oven?  Don't forget the cranberry relish!

For seafood lovers, we have wild-caught yellow-fin tuna filets, wild-caught salmon filets, and also salmon burgers.  All of these can be prepared in less than 15 minutes!  These are delicious with steamed vegetables, pasta, or on top of a big salad.  You can even make your own smoked-salmon spread for appetizers.

Planning to go all-out Cajun for New Year's Day?  Please remember we have wild-caught alligator, Andouille sausage, farm-raised frogs legs, and chicken that combine to make a great Cajun meal with creole seasoning.  Also on hand are prepared beef broth, chicken broth, vegetable broth, and bouillon. Don't forget the cornbread!

Lasagna is another traditional choice around the holidays.  You can find all the ingredients here in the store!  This makes a great buffet item.

Finally, remember to double-check your pantry before you start baking up a storm and realize you are missing a key ingredient!  We are well-stocked with essential baking supplies and toppings.

Please check our Facebook page for updates on hours of operation during the holidays as well as in-store specials.  (Current plans are to be closing a little early on Christmas Eve, closed on Christmas Day, and open most of New Year's Day. Also we will be closed from Friday 12/27 through Monday 12/30/2013.)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Shopping for Gifts?

December already!  The Thanksgiving leftovers are gone.  The media buzz continues to get louder and louder about holiday shopping bonanzas.  Anxiety and weariness are beginning to overtake many people's holiday spirit as end-of-month, end-of-quarter, and end-of-year deadlines loom at work.

Please remember that you can find last-minute gifts at Homer Village Market.  And you don't have to wait until the last minute.  Stop by and have a look around.  You will not find a crowd, and you will not hear a lot of clanging carts.  You will not even hear Christmas music.  If you can tolerate the buzzing of the coolers and the confines of this small store, the rest of your shopping trip will be a breeze.

Here are some ideas for small gifts and stocking stuffers:

• Beef Jerky
• Local Maple Syrup
• Dark Chocolate Covered Raisins
• Premium 72% Dark Chocolate Bars
• Anthony Thomas Candy:  Chocolate-covered Pretzel Roads, Pecan Dainties, Buckeyes
• Hand-Made Crocheted Dish Rags
• Hand-Made Crocheted Baby Shawls
• Hot Wheels Cars
• Small Stuffed Animals
• Fragrant and Colorful Candles in Jar - 28 oz. burns 120-140 hours - 2 wicks - made in Ohio
• Locally made Pickles and Mustards and Jams
• Ohio gourmet pasta (including no-boil lasagna)
• Wisconsin and Ohio Cheeses and Gourmet Crackers
• Summer Sausage
• Smoke Alarm
• Burt's Bees Lip Balm
• Board Games and Puzzles
• Incense
• Knit Caps
• Hand Tools
• Gift Certificates

As I was growing up, one of the strangest gifts I can remember that my Dad would get each year from his mother-in-law (my grandma) was a frozen rabbit ready to cook.  Maybe around this part of Ohio that would not be considered such a strange gift, but this was in a suburb of Cleveland!  We didn't know anyone who hunted, but apparently my grandma did.  She lived further from the city.

We don't have anything like rabbit in our freezer here at Homer Village Market, but if you are looking for local lamb, wild-caught Louisiana alligator white meat, yellow-fin tuna, salmon filets, or frogs legs, we can hook you up!

Enjoy the holiday season, and I hope to see you here at the store shopping for some specialty foods for entertaining or for gifts!

More Quick Meal Ideas

Fast Pizza.....preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place a couple of individual-size, Kontos-brand, hand-stretched pizza crusts on a cookie sheet.  Spread a few spoonfuls of pizza sauce on top of each crust and then top with your favorites including some sliced, shredded or grated Italian-style cheeses. Bake for 5 minutes. One of our pizza sauces on hand at the store contains ground pepperoni, so you really do not even need to add meat.  (If you prefer a crisper crust, slide the pizzas right onto the oven rack instead of placing the cookie sheet in the oven.)

Salad - while the pizza is baking, toss some pre-washed 80-20 blend of romaine and spring-mix salad greens in a bowl with some chopped tomatoes and other veggies of your choice.  I like a handful of sliced onion and some black olives.  Dress with your favorite dressing or vinegar and oil.  I like Garlic Expressions salad dressing.

Have a little more time and feeling adventurous?  How about stuffing some poblano peppers and baking those?  I like to blanch the peppers in boiling water for a couple of minutes to soften them so they do not need to bake so long to become tender.  You can make a stuffing out of finely-ground beef mixed with finely chopped veggies such as onions, garlic, and celery, and some bread crumbs or cooked rice to help hold it all together.  Adding a beaten egg to the mixture also helps the stuffing combine like a meatball inside the pepper.  Prepare a  light tomato sauce and spoon it over the tops of the peppers in a casserole dish.  You could add about a half cup of water to the casserole before placing it in a 350 degree oven uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how cold your ingredients were and how large the stuffed peppers are.  For safety, test with a cooking thermometer for beef doneness (recommended 160 degrees for ground beef).  These are good with any style potatoes--mashed, baked, fried, or hash browns.



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Beer

I still remember hearing "COLD BEER HERE....GET YOUR COLD BEER HERE!" as the red-aproned, beer-concession vendor walked up and down the big cement stairs at the baseball and football stadiums in Cincinnati where I went to school.    I also recall how good a cold beer tasted when consumed on a hot day at the zoo.  Another place where a cold beer seemed to make a lot of sense was at Chuck-E-Cheese's with pizza while the kids worked up a frenzy playing all those noisy and colorful games.  Watching the passersby on busy Division Street in Chicago from a window seat at a tavern, and sipping an ice-cold microbrewery beer, really can't be beat.   Well maybe it can.....drinking an ice cold Tsingtao beer in a frosty glass to wash down a spicy meal of dry-braised jumbo shrimp stir fried with green onions, hot peppers, garlic, and ginger over steamed rice.....or enjoying an ice-cold Guinness Stout while waiting for the waiter to bring out my sampler plate of lamb curry, tandoori chicken, and spicy samosas.  A hot summer day, sitting around the pool and grilling bratwurst.....and having some cold brews with friends....that is a lot of fun too!

Did you know that America's beer distributors directly employ more than 130,000 people in the United States and add 54 billion dollars to America's gross domestic product annually? Beer distributor activities contribute more than 10.3 billion dollars to federal, state, and local tax bases. Yes, it is true, according to a study just published by the Center for Applied Business and Economic Research at the University of Delaware.

According to the federal government's Alcohol, Tax, and Trade Bureau (TTB), there were over 2,031 breweries in the United States in 2012. Of those breweries, 66% produce only between 1 and 1000 barrels of beer (31 gallons in a barrel) per year and only 16 breweries (less than 1%) produce over 6 million barrels a year.    According to the National Beer Wholesalers Association's beer factsheet citing the Brewer's Almanac, this 2,031 number of breweries in 2012 compares to only 48 breweries in 1961, 350 breweries in 1971, and in 1981 there were 1,499 breweries.

 In 2010, Anheuser-Busch had the largest market share at 49.3% followed by Miller-Coors with 30.2%.The next largest market share is Crown Imports (e.g. Corona) at 5.3%.    In 1971, Anheuser-Busch had 29% market share followed by Schlitz at 19% and Fallstaff at 13% market share.

There are over 13,000 different beer labels available to American consumers in a highly regulated distribution system.  This system includes:

• over 2,000 U.S. breweries (with operations in every state), 
• about 3,300 licensed, independent beer distributors in the U.S.,
• and over 548,000 licensed alcohol retailers.

This system ensures the integrity of the product as well as the responsible sale of the product and, of course, the collection of taxes.

According to a Gallop Poll in July 2010, the U.S. drinking rate hit a 25-year high with over 67% of U.S. adults drinking alcohol.  Over the past ten years, the "beverage of choice" among U.S. adults consuming alcohol has remained relatively steady with

•  over 40% preferring beer,
•  about 33% preferring wine,
•  and about 25% preferring distilled spirits. 

Over the past 30 years, the percentage of U.S. adults who do not consume alcoholic beverages has remained rather steady at about 33%.

So what is your beverage of choice?  I prefer wine.  More about that later....

Historic Moment in Burlington Township November 5, 2013

On Election Day this year, Burlington Township voters passed local liquor options to allow Homer Village Market to sell beer and wine for carryout in an otherwise "dry" township.  As the owner of Homer Village Market, I am grateful to the community for giving me this privilege.  

Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the voters in Burlington Township (and many other localities throughout the United States) elected to continue the prohibition of the manufacture, distribution, or sale of beer, wine, mixed beverages, and spirituous liquor.  In the 1980's the requisite number of voters successfully petitioned to put the issue of beer and wine sales on the ballot for a convenience store in Burlington Township, but the issue did not obtain a majority "YES" vote at the election.

In 2006, Homer Village Market became a qualified applicant for C-1 and C-2 liquor permits at the Ohio Board of Liquor Control.  The application for these permits has been pending since that time because of the "dry" status of the township.  It was necessary to obtain the majority "Yes" vote by the voters in Burlington Township before the permits could be issued to Homer Village Market. 

The 2013 election was the first attempt by Homer Village Market to obtain the voter's consent for the issuance of these permits.  Two local options were presented for voter approval and both passed with a majority "Yes" vote. 

• The retail sale of beer, wine, and mixed beverages, Monday through Saturday (in original, sealed containers) for off-premises consumption
• The retail sale of beer only on Sundays between the hours of 11 a.m. and midnight (in original, sealed containers) for off-premises consumption

Because it was not known how the election would turn out, Homer Village Market did not make any plans for implementing the beer and wine sales in 2013.  Now that the voters have approved these local options, Homer Village Market will begin making preparations in accordance with the Ohio Liquor Laws, to be stocked, licensed, and ready to retail beer and wine by early February 2014.

We have waited 93 years for these sales to be allowed, so I hope customers will not mind waiting a few months for Homer Village Market to get our shelving rearranged, inventory stocked, and premises inspected for licensing to begin retail sales of beer and wine in early 2014.   Meanwhile, please let us know your brand preferences so we can have your favorite beer and wine in stock when retail sales begin.  You can visit the store's website for contact information or stop by the store.

Soup Weather

When the weather turns chilly and windy, warm soup really hits the spot!  This morning before I headed to work at the store, I gathered a handful of jumbo carrots and some peppers from the fridge.  At the store I gathered some potatoes, garlic, and a big, white onion.  In less than 10 minutes, I had everything prepped, seasoned, and layered in the pot set to simmer.  I added more water and some soy sauce to the broth about 30 minutes later. Vegetable soup was ready in time for my lunch.

For dinner, I plan to sauté some beef tips or chicken--depending on what sounds good later--and add that to my soup bowl with some peas.  For leftovers tomorrow, I might try a bowl of soup (in half of a baked acorn squash) with sliced sausage added.  This process of adding ingredients to create a new meal out of the one just prepared is known as "morphing" (as in metamorphosis)!

This week, customers shopped for ingredients for potato soup with ham and also for making chili. What kind of soup do you and your family like to make?