He loves me… He loves me lots…?

Need to get the message across and worried that roses just aren’t going to cut it this year? Well, fear not! Olives Et Al are here to save the day with a veritable feast of gifts and goodies that will delight even the most demanding valentine.

Here’s what to do (in easy steps):

1. Pop into an Olives Et Al Deli – either Olives Et Al @HQ in Sturminster, or Olives Et Al @The Potting Shed in Poundbury, say hi to all the happy Oliveers and grab a stonking fresh Union coffee and a wadge of homemade cake (nothing to do with Valentine’s Day, but always a good start whatever you’re planning!)
2. Right, now have a gander in at the cheese counter.  In amongst the vast array of magnificent cheeses, you’ll find Godminster Cheddar Organic Hearts. (Award winning cheese specially presented in a heart shape and covered in red wax - very pretty and incredibly tasty). Buy one.
3. Next, find The Just Slate Company heart shaped slate cheese boards (to put your cheese on).  The quality of the gift boxes alone will impress. Grab one of those too.
4. On to the main event… Simon, our chef and deli manager, is a bit of a whizz at making lots of things, but his fresh pasta with 6 hour cooked tomato sauce is knock out.  Trust me. He’ll even do you a great meal deal for two and you could pretend that you’d be slaving away for hours… Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.
5. From the Deli Counter, select an assortment of nibbles.  How about Pepperabica Peppers, Tomorosso Tomatoes and delicious Dolmades, personally, I’d always add Balsamic Onions and Herby Garlic Cloves (sooo good), but that one’s up to you.  Just make sure you do all the hand-feeding business – very romantic
6. Now grab a jar of our award winning nuts and olives (try Moorish with red wine and Pistou or Sunshine with white wine – fab combos)
7. Next, take a wander over to the brand new Choc-On-Choc display.  Beautifully hand crafted Belgian chocolates and gorgeous packaging from a father and daughter run business in Bath – perfect for all sorts of prezzies.
8. Finally, to make extra sure that you get your Valentine’s message across perfectly, just choose one of our totally fab and brand new OEA Aprons; ‘Let’s Get Oily’, ‘Fancy A Nibble’ or ‘Olive You’ .

Mission: Accomplished.

Don’t worry if you can’t get to one of our delis – just pop on to www.olivesetal.co.uk and shop from there. Whilst you’re online, come and say hello on Twitter and Facebook – we’re always there, with the latest olivey goings on, recipes and competitions and we’d love to know how you get on and what you think of our ultimate Valentine’s Day plan!

In the Deli this week:

Brand New chocolate supplier – Choc On Choc:  Jane’s just put together a fabulous display of our brand new chocolate supplier from Bath, Choc On Choc.  Using Belgian chocolate and unique processes, the father and daughter team hand-make an exceptional range which includes gifts for every occasion.  Happy Birthday, Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, Get Well Soon (Chocolate plasters and blister pill packs – inspired)… Not only do they look and taste incredible, they’re also great value for money.

Deli Lunchtime Menu: Simon’s been his usual brilliant self and has concocted some incredibly tasty and healthy winter salads that are perfect to take away for lunch or dinner.  Butter Nut Squash and Pearl Barley Salad, for example, is a very satisfying mix of flavours including; red onion, Tomorosso, honey, mustard and balsamic vinegar and goes down particularly well with the Olives Et Al staff who are trying to be ‘good’ but can’t be doing without all the taste!  Our deli counters are also crammed with all the deli lunch essentials, like Fritatta, fresh homemade pasta and 6 Hour Cooked Tomato Sauce (available in a meal deal for two), paninis, wraps, soup, pies, Sticky Onion Marmalade Ham and Capreolus Smoked Meats.

The Potting Shed 3rd Birthday Re-fit: Olives Et Al @ The Potting Shed in Poundbury will be closed from the 6th to the 8th of February for a 3th birthday celebratory spruce up!  We’re adding another deli counter and making lots of other changes to brighten the place up and make more room for a fantastic deli shopping and eating experience.  We’ll look forward to seeing you again on the 9th!

Come and visit us Olives Et Al @ HQ in Sturminster Newton or @ The Potting Shed in Poundbury soon.  If you can’t make it, you can still join in with all the latest olivey goings on on Twitter or Facebook, we’re always there and love to hear from you.  Let us know what you think of our goodies, what you’d like to have added to the range, send us photos of you enjoying OEA and just generally let us know who you are and say hi – we’d love to hear from you.

Sometimes though the oldies are the best and recently we’ve had a lot of requests for things to do with good ol’ Putney.  Putney, made with sundried tomatoes, wine vinegar, red peppers, onions, extra virgin olive oil, chilli, lemon juice and pepper is, to all intents and purposes, a tomato sauce or relish but, it’s a tomato sauce with a difference.  Firstly, and most importantly, there’s nothing artificial in Putney, or any of our sauces, (we think that’s really important because Olives Et Al is all about happy, digging in at the table together, family-time food and we don’t want to feed our family any nasties), so you can feed your brood in confidence. Secondly, it just tastes incredible and bursts with flavour and thirdly, it’s an absolute staple in the kitchen (and essential in our house) because it’s so quick and easy to use and, let’s face it, quick suppers are much appreciated!

So, this is what we do with Putney:

• A base for pizzas and tartlets – chuck some on and smooth it over
• As a pasta sauce (just cook the pasta and stir in the Putney)
• Stuffed into chicken (then wrap the chicken with bacon and roast for a bit)
• Stirred into rice with cooked chunks of chicken
• The perfect base for Spaghetti Bolognaise
• Gorgeous dolloped onto fish and then baked (you can also throw a few oats and possibly cheese on top too if you fancy it)
• The best burger relish
• Sarni filler (most excellent with cheese - in the OEA delis, we have ‘goats cheese and Putney paninis’ and ‘Putney, choritzo and Cheddar paninis’)
• Quiches – Line a big dish with shortcrust pastry, bake blind for a bit and then layer up slices of cooked sausage, new potato, peppers, mushrooms and Putney (as many layers as you can fit in).  Whisk up 5-6 eggs with milk, salt and pepper and pour over the whole thing, throw grated Cheddar over the top and then bake in a medium oven for an hour or so. Eat warm or cold (preferably on a picnic).
• Great with sausages and pork chops (try adding to chopped veg to make a sausage casserole)
• As a base for Chilli Con Carne (try OEA ‘Hot Putney’ too)
• Hearty Mixed Bean Stew – Throw a can each of Kidney, Borlotti, Cannalini beans, Chick Peas and chopped tomatoes into a big pan.  Add a jar of Putney and some seasoning and warm through.  Stir in a large bunch of fresh Spinach, stir until wilted and then serve with fresh crusty bread or over a nice jacket spud.
• KETCHUP – Putney goes with anything the red stuff goes with. e.g. It’s amazing in Bacon sarnies!

So there you have our list of Putney recipes and ideas, but I’m sure you’ve got great ideas too and we’d love to hear them! So much so, that if you email your recipe to hello@olivesetal.co.uk, along with a picture of your Putney creation being enjoyed and we’ll send you a jar of Putney to say thank you! Please remember to include your address (so we can send you your Putney) and let us know if your not happy for us to put your recipe and photo up online.

If you’d like more recipe ideas or if you’d like to find out more about any of the Olives Et Al products or your nearest stockists, please email us, hop onto Facebook or Twitter or give one of the lovely Oliveers a buzz at Olives Et Al HQ in Dorset.  All of our contact details are available here.

Have a very happy weekend!

Being seasoned snack muncherers, us lot here at Olives Et Al are very adept at packing away the odd bar of this or bag of that, especially over Christmas when hardly a day went past, for a few weeks, when there wasn’t a mince pie or other festive offering adorning the table in the kitchen (happy days…). But here we are in cold ol’ Jan and whilst snuggling up on the sofa with something (and someone) yummy might seem like the preferable occupation, every other ad on the box is a reminder that in only a few weeks, the weather will get warmer and it will be time, once again, to take off that mercifully baggy woollie and expose what’s underneath…

We know, we know, but don’t panic as Olives Et Al are here to help! Did you know that on average, there are only about 6 little calories in an olive and even when it’s covered in gorgeous Extra Virgin Olive Oil, that only goes up to around 10. By comparison, a digestive biscuit has a button bursting 70 calories. Not only that, olives are incredibly good for you too – think fruit and really good vitamins and things (pop onto The Olive Expert to find out all about it).  See? You can snack and feel smug – you just have to choose the right ones! 

Olives Et Al have a marvellous range of marinated and stuffed olives for every muchy moment and they’re all available from great delis and farm shops all over the place, or from our website. So bring back the sofa and the snuggle buddy and munch on olive lovers, munch on…

Thanks very much to everyone who entered and don’t be too sad if you didn’t win – there are plenty more competitions to come very soon, so keep your eyes glued to the ‘Competitions’ page, Facebook and Twitter!

We’ve had a cracking week at Olives Et Al this week – SO many exciting things afoot for Christmas and 2012!  How about our What are you up to next year?   Big plans for 2012?  Hop onto Twitter and Facebook and tell us all about it – we’re on there loads and try really hard to respond as much as possible – it’s always great to hear from delis, farm shops and general olive lovers!

If you’ve still got Christmas shopping to do, fear not, we’ve got loads of perfect gifts for everybody – from hampers to gift boxes, there really is something to suit all.  Take a peek at our ‘Everything But The Bird’ Hat Box, which cunningly holds everything you’ll need to create a feast of salads and things on Boxing Day (everything apart from the cold bird, that is!) or how about our Spotty Gift Packs which have been featured in the press and blogs all over the place!!  Have a read of this great review to find out more about them: http://www.london-unattached.com/2011/12/chistmas-shopping-guide/

In the Olives Et Al Delis this week, Simon and Hanni have stuffed every shelf and every fridge FULL of incredible food!  We’ve got cheeses upon cheeses - only the very best quality and from the best suppliers and all in date for Christmas so you can choose with confidence!  We’ve also got chocs to crackers, heart shaped slate cheese boards to Quails eggs, Anchovy fillets to Smoked Duck and venison, freezers stocked with the poshest puds, ready to bake croissants and pain au chocolate, not forgetting award winning dressings, olives, nuts , snacks and sauces and LOADS more - all perfect for Christmas Days, Boxing Days, party days, lazy days… you get the picture, so come and see us if you’re in the area and get all stocked up for Christmas and the Festive Season!

We’re also throwing open the doors for special Christmas shopping events at Olives Et Al in Sturminster!

Come and join us for loads of extra tasters and wonderful Christmas deli shopping on:
Thursday 22nd December 9-7pm
Friday 23rd December 9-7pm
Christmas Eve 9-3pm 

We’ll then be closed over Christmas, but open again on January 3rd as usual.

Happy festivities everybody! Eat More and Live Very Happily

Love them or loathe them, the olive has been a hugely important part of civilisation for thousands of years and there’s something very special about being in the grove, amongst the trees and a part of the annual olive oil harvest. Giles took David and Debbie, from Arch House Deli in Bristol, Deli Of The Year 2011 winners, (and some other olive loving guests) on an incredible trip to Extremadura in western Spain to visit Olives Et Al’s premier olive oil supplier’s Naturvie.

The trip was to pick olives in Spain and to experience the food culture of the area as Giles explains; “For several years we’ve organised a trip to pick olives and to learn more about the link between the landscape and the food culture of this particular area of Spain. It was incredible to walk amongst the ancient olive trees in a farm which has been in the same family for generations. We had amazing weather; the sun shone as we picked olives and within an hour we tasted the bright green Extra Virgin Olive Oil which was the very first oil of this harvest. After 18 years of working with olives and olive oil, it still gives me an enormous thrill to see the pure olive oil pouring out of the fruit as it is pressed.”

Brett Sutton, head chef at The Eastbury Hotel found the tapas of the area very much to his palate; “Being asked on this trip was like a dream come true for me as it gave me an opportunity to visit an area which has amazing ham, cheese and of course olive oil. We ate with the family at El Hoyo, which was a beautiful farm surrounded by hills, and their hospitality was some of the most generous I have ever experienced. The area is famous for Pata Negra which is a specific kind of Spanish ham made from pigs that eat acorns, and we ate some of the finest examples of this I have every tried. We also ate Migas, which is basically a peasant food of crumbs fried in olive oil from the farm and it was wonderful to sit amongst the groves, eating the produce of those very trees. The experience will stay with me and influence my food for a very long time.”

Sound like something you’d like to be a part of? Sandy and Sean voted for their favourite deli (The Old Forge Deli in West Sussex) in Deli Of The Year 2011 and won two places on the trip too! Keep you eye’s peeled in the Spring for news on Deli Of The Year 2012 and you could be picking and pressing your own olives next year!

Incredibly though, this body boosting wonder juice accounts for only 3% of the worlds fat consumption – probably because it’s benefits are just not understood and, without being told how to, it’s tricky to know how to tell the great and good stuff from the not-so-great or good stuff.  Olives Et Al have now had 18 years in the world of olivey goodness and, through the patience and generosity of people just like Fernando and Alfonso from Olives Et Al Extra Virgin olive oil producers Naturvie in Extremadura, we’re learned an awful lot about it all which we passionately like to share.  Wherever you are, if you’d like to have an Extra Virgin oil tasting and tutorial in your deli, so you can boost understanding and sales of this wonder product, just give us a buzz – we’d be delighted to hear from you.

At Olives Et Al, there’s much more of a point to Autumn than just filling in the gap between Summer and Christmas and one of the best bits about this time of year is that we can all happily relax our stomach muscles for a while, safe in the knowledge that ‘bikini squeezing into season’ has passed and ‘got to fit into that little black number’ season isn’t upon us yet!

So, how are we going to fill these wonderful few weeks? Well to start off, this weekend, Olives Et Al is journeying out to the fabulous Eat Dorset Food Fair at Beaminster.  (We figured that Eating Dorset was a pretty good start!).  So if you’re tired of sweeping the leaves or, like us, feel like making the most of this marvellous time of year, come down and see us.  We’re taking loads of olives and goodies, old and spanking new, (like our uber seasonal dressings Garden and Hedgerow) with plenty of tasters and very smiley faces and what’s more, Eat Dorset has a fantastic line up of great celebrity chefy demonstrations, such as the wonderful Lesley Walters who’ll be there cooking up another masterpiece using Olives Et Al’s Tomorosso no less!

If you’re seeking another marvellous munch fest, then pop onto the competitions page and put your name in the draw to win an Olives Et Al Everything But The Movie Box. It’s a beast of a box stuffed with serious snackage that’s just waiting for a film, a colder evening and a snuggle buddy. We’re proudly sponsoring the Screen Bites Food Film Festival, on until the 5th November.  Imagine the greatest foodies films with the greatest foodie film munchies and food producers from all over Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire… Whoever said that darker evenings had to be dull?

And for daytime snack attacks? Well it’s all go in the Olives Et Al Delis! We’ve just introduced ‘Cake Fridays’ in the Olives Et Al Deli in Sturminster whereby every Friday we have a dose load of fresh, homemade cakes adorning the deli and special cake and coffee offers. Cake AND Friday, happy days! The Olives Et Al deli in Poundbury, The Potting Shed, has a whole amazing Autumnal Menu, full of those types of meals that make you feel warm and happy just by thinking about them…

But we’d like to know what you like to nosh when there’s a nip in the air? Pop onto Facebook and let us know what’s going on in your local deli this season, what’s a cookin’ in your kitchen and how you’re going to celebrate packing away the Speedos for another year?

Happy munching!

There are lots of fantastic films showing including; Like Water for Chocolate, It’s Complicated, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Toast. The evenings begin with a mini farmers’ market and tastings by local farm shops and food producers like us showing their stuff before each event, which means you get to choose the very best movie munchie material AND shop for Christmas prezzies!

As well as fine food and films there are also talks from foodie experts, for example, The Secret Life of Bees at Mere Lecture Hall, starts with a talk from bee-keeper, Bisis Adekunle – there’s a real buzz about that film… 

So, to find out what to do next and to pick your film and location, click on the ‘Events Calender’ tab at the top of the page and then pop into your nearest OEA Deli to pick up a program/menu of events and producers.

Now we know that lots of you won’t be able to make your way down to our neck of the woods, but don’t worry, we thought we’d bring some of the fun to you! Fancy winning a pile of perfectly sharable OEA munchies? All you need to do is Tell us which movie and snuggling up partner you’d add to our ’Everything But The Movie Box’ to make the perfect movie moment?  and we’ll send one lucky person an Olives Et Al – Screen Bites inspired ‘OEA everything but the movie box’!

Good luck and happy munching,

Midge.

Yes, we know that we’re still mourning the end of ‘Summer 2011’ but it really won’t be long until Santa gets his reindeer out and the jingle bells start jangling again… So, in an attempt to come up with ways to make Christmas gift buying a bit easier this year, we’ve put together a rather impressively seasonal selection of our most popular goodies in some rather dashing boxes. From small ones to very big ones, they’ll make perfect gifts for friends, family, teachers, staff, colleagues, the milkman… and they’re even nice and easy to wrap.  All you need to do is choose who’d like what and click on a few buttons and before you know it, you’ll be all sorted for the big day (and feeling rightfully smug).

For example, for nut nibblers, there’s Bayou Nuts and Sienna Nuts & Seeds – a very nice couple of nuts to invite round for drinks. And for those who like to dress for the occasion, there’s a trio pack of dressings and marinades including Shallot & Orange, Pink Mojo and Chilli & Ginger all lined up and ready for pouring, drizzling, marinating and dipping – enough to bring any cold sausages and drumsticks to life on Boxing Day! Link?

As well as preparing our pukka Christmas gift packs we’ve also been hard at work creating our brand NEW range of Olives Et Al dressings and, we have to say, we’re rather chuffed with the results. Full of fresh, Autumnally flavours, based on English recipes and with rather lovely labels to boot; Hedgerow Dressing is made with Blackberry puree, Raspberry vinegar, honey and cold pressed rapeseed oil and is delicious served with soft cheeses, smoked meats and as a marinade for venison or duck. Garden Dressing is made with Quince puree, white wine vinegar, lemon zest, Dijon mustard and honey, making this a match for all leafy salads, cheese, charcuterie and rice, pasta and grain-based salads. For pics of the new dressings – go to our facebook page here – and tell us what you think!

Speaking of the garden, next week from  19^th – 21^st September we’ll be at GLEE (not the hit American show about teens singing pop songs in an overly happy tone!) – the no 1 trade show for the garden and leisure industry at the NEC. If you’re coming along make sure to come and see us in Hall 5 Stand H38B.  We’ll be there, in amongst the mowers, with most of our range plus all of the new goodies and 2011 award winners for you to taste.

Midge