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Cooking with Fasta

Pairings and recipes to make dinner fast and fresh!

Lemon Pepper Pasta w/ cayenne compound butter & scallops

8/31/2018

1 Comment

 
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ingredients

  • 1 lbs. Lemon Pepper Pasta - Cook according to instructions
  • 1 lbs scallops - Strapped
  • ½ butter or 2 sticks - at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ teaspoon parsley (dried)
  • Garnish: Parsley & lemon zest or gremolata  ​
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equipment

  • Saute pan, knife, strainer, cutting board, mixer, zester
  • Wine/beer pairing:
  • IPA or Pale Ale
  • Savon Blanc wine​

WATCH OUR HOW-TO VIDEO!

Difficulty Level: 3 trumpets

1 Comment

Soft Shell Crab w/ Squid Ink Pasta & Cream Sauce

8/17/2018

1 Comment

 
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ingredients

  • 2 soft shell crabs - Available at Maine Bay & Berry Co.         
  • 1 Ibs Squid Ink Pasta
  • ​2 cups of cream
  • ¾ cup white wine
  • 2 Tbsp old bay
  • 2 Cloves garlic- minced
  • 1 shallot
  • EVOO
  • 1 cup corn meal
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 3 eggs beaten

equipment

  • Pasta Pot
  • Tongs
  • Pan
  • A pot for frying
  • Knife

directions

  1. Bread the soft shell crab
  2. Sauté shallots & garlic, dilute with white wine
  3. Add cream reduce, the add salt & pepper
  4. Deep fry crab at 350 degrees for 4 to 5 minutes
  5. Cook fresh pasta by directions & add cream sauce
  6. Plate pasta & crab, Enjoy!
1 Comment

Pasta Carbonara

5/31/2018

2 Comments

 
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 INGREDIENTS 

SERVES 4 PEOPLE​
  • 4 eggs (yolks only)
  • 2 slices lean bacon - diced
  • 1 cup graded Parmesan cheese
  • 1 large shallot - fine diced
  • 2 garlic cloves - fine diced
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • Garnish Chopped chives or parsley 

Directions

  1. Slice & dice your bacon, shallots and garlic.
    1. Saute you bacon garlic and shallots on medium heat. Till bacon is nice and crispy, Strain and set aside.
  2. Separated egg yolks place in mixing bowl & whip lightly.
  3. Cook pasta according to directions Fasta's fresh angel hair is 60 seconds in boiling water. Drain and save 1/4 cup pasta water.
  4. Add drained pasta, bacon lardons with whipped egg yolks. Toss coating pasta with egg yolks add pasta water and Parmesan cheese salt & pepper to taste.
  5. Garnish with fine diced chives or parsley & more Parmesan cheese.

Equipment 

  • Large pot - to boil angle hair
  • Strainer - for pasta & bacon
  • Large bow - to toss pasta and egg yolks in
  • Large skillet - saute shallots, bacon and garlic
  • Knife - chop, chop
  • Cutting board

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Three TRUMPETS

2 Comments

Lemon Pepper Pasta w/ cayenne compound butter & scallops

4/4/2018

2 Comments

 
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​WHAT'S COOKIN W/ JEREMIAH!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 lbs. Lemon Pepper Pasta - Cook according to instructions
  • 1 lbs scallops - Strapped
  • ½ butter or 2 sticks - at room temperature
    • 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • ½ teaspoon pepper
    • ½ teaspoon parsley (dried)
Garnish: Parsley & lemon zest or gremolata
CAYENNE BUTTER
1) Soften butter by leaving it at room temperature over night or for a few hours
2) In kitchen aid mixer or medium bowel with hand mixer add all ingredient mix 2 to 3 minutes on low speed:

½ butter or 2 sticks - at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ teaspoon parsley (dried) 
3) Store in airtight container. 
MAKE THE DISH

1) Preheat pan on medium heat and start pot of boiling water.
2) Fine dice garlic and 4 tablespoons butter.
3) Cook pasta according to directions four to 3 minutes boiling water.  
4) Saute scallops in browned butter for till firm time will vary depending on type of scallops.
5) Add add pasta and toss togther.
6) Plate and garnish with lemon zest and parsley!
7) ENJOY # us at #fastafix #lemon #pasta #cayenne #scallops #butter

​
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Equipment.

  • Large pot - to boil pasta..
  • Large skillet - saute it babe!
  • Knife - chop, chop..

​DIFFICULTY LEVEL: THREE TRUMPETS

2 Comments

Pasta W/ Spring Vegetables

3/30/2018

2 Comments

 
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Ingredents

1 lbs fresh pasta : Angel hair - boiled
2 tables EVOO
1 unit Fennel - julienned
2 cloves garlic - fine diced
½ lbs. Asparagus - chopped 1’’ pieces
2 cups spinach fresh
1 small Valadia Onion - julienned
GARNISH: FRESH BASIL & PARMESAN CHEESE
Directions:

1) Cut all veggies
2) Saute all vegetables for 2 to 4 minutes on medium heat
3) Cook pasta according to directions
4) Plate & garish
5) # us at #fastafix
​
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​WHAT'S COOKIN W/ JEREMIAH!

​EQUIPMENT..

  • Large pot - to boil pasta..
  • Large skillet - saute it babe!
  • Knife - chop, chop..

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: three TRUMPETS

2 Comments

shrimp fra diavolo...

3/20/2018

2 Comments

 
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INGREDIENTS.

1 lbs ricotta cheese ravioli
1 lbs shrimp - shelled & deveined
16 oz red sauce
1 lg shallot - fine diced
⅓ c white wine
2 cloves garlic/minced
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 dash cayenne

Garnish: fresh parsley & shaved parmesan cheese
1) Preheat pan on medium heat and start pot of boiling water.
2) Fine dice shallot, garlic and device shrimp (if necessary).
3) Cook ravioli according to directions four to five mines.  
4) Saute shallot, spices and garlic for two to 3 mins, add shrimp.
5) Add white wine  reduce for 1 minute add red sauce salt and pepper to taste.
6) Plate and garnish with Parmesan cheese and parsley!
7) ENJOY # us at #fastafix
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 What's cookin w/ JEREMIAH!

Equipment..

  • Large pot - to boil ravioli
  • Large skillet - saute shallots, shrimp, spices and garlic
  • Knife - chop, chop

DIFFICULTY level: two trumpets

2 Comments

Truffle mac & cheese #trufflebutter

3/15/2018

1 Comment

 

INGREDIENTS.

  • ¾ cup heavy cream (We like Meyers Dairy in State College, PA)
  • 3 tablespoons #trufflebutter or 3 tablespoons truffle oil
  • 1 lbs fresh Fasta & Ravioli Co. short pasta
  • 4 oz mix mushroom - julienned
  • ½ lbs white cheddar cheese - shredded & melted
  • ½ lbs monterey jack cheese - shredded & melted
  • ½ panko bread crumbs - melted in butter till toasted
    • 2 tablespoons butter
  • Salt & pepper - to taste
  • Garnish w/ fresh chive​

Pro tip.

Shred you own block cheese it saves money and block cheese will last longer.
Add grilled chicken or steak.
1 Comment

#dillydilly Dill Cream Sauce

3/6/2018

2 Comments

 
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Smoked Salmon Ravioli W/ a dill cream sauce & Spinach

​1 large Shallot - small dice
2 tablespoons Butter
4 oz. White wine
1 tablespoon Dry dill
16 oz Cream - reduced
2 cups fresh spinach
Salt & Pepper
1 lbs smoked salmon ravioli or 1 lbs egg fettuccine
Garnish with: lemons slices & shaved parmesan cheese

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2 Comments

Local Foods Shifting Paradigm

12/10/2017

4 Comments

 
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Local Foods Shifting Paradigm
As Fasta unleases Fasta Boxed, it is recognizing and embracing a shifting paradigm in the local foods movement.  It is moving from craft shows, farmers’ markets, co-ops and retail storefronts to a content marketing based sales funnel propped up by a solid group of core products and a cult like customer following.  Did you fill up your frequent purchase card?

Taxes & Inflation

Inflation is a reality of life, the same as death and taxes!!  High gas prices have  had and continue to have an adverse effect on small and large businesses alike.  Large businesses are better positioned to “weather the storm”, passing on the expensive costs of gas to customers.  On the other side, small business owners have to reduce labor and other costs to be more efficient and hope they can weather the never ending storm of uncontrollable costs.  Health insurance, gas, international code standards, ADA, tax code, high rents and a marriott of other uncontrollable issues put small businesses at an extreme disadvantage.

The Hipsters Live And Let Live

The shift starts with the people, the experiences they have and want! The “gig” economy is a reality to embrace, digital nomads in the food area of sorts. The new retail front is that of Amazon Prime, Blue Apron, Etsy, web stores and food trucks! This arena has its benefits, smaller or no storefronts, sales 24 hours, less labor, streamline distribution via Fedex or UPS.  All simply made with a “stack” of a few of these stripe, square, weebly, squarespace, wordpress and or hundreds of other native intuitive apps.  Most of which work together seamlessly, most of the time.  The new paradigm replaces newspapers and magazines with Facebook, Twitter, Google ad words and a content marketing approach encompassing more bells and whistles than a Tesla.  

Farmers’ Markets Are Farmers’ Markets

Farmers’ markets are a great way for food startups and boutique farmers to get started, conduct customer and product development, but alone make for a hard living. Getting started is easy in most states if you have the determination and will power.  You can get a home food license or a small commercial space with a hand sink, prep sink, 3 bin sink and bathroom sink.  Don’t forget to make sure you are ADA compliant.  It’s the opportunity cost of long days spent at farmers’ markets that can be windfalls or busts because of rain, shine, peoples’ vacation schedule, or any other number of uncontrollable factors.  However, they are great for building your brand, gaining wholesale brand awareness and helping you decide if a bigger “leap” is for you.  In the long term, it's a grind working 28 Saturdays a year, rain or shine.  It takes several markets to even cover the most basic costs, no vacations this summer, as your only focus is on the markets.  Hire your first employee if you believe that's the easy solution, then you have payroll taxes, call offs and potential theft.  Ultimately, farmers’ markets are great for getting started and a sustained source of revenue but they are time and labor intensive and unscalable.  The best ones involve cities,  then you have to deal with traffic and a day long commitment.     

Volume Solves Problems

Wholesale is a critical factor for success in any modern food start up.   It can take shape in many forms for us, places like: Way Fruit Farm, The Barn at Lemont: Organic Gardening Center & Natural Market, Burkholder’s Market and dozens of regional restaurants.  While margins are significantly less, the frequency of orders makes up for the difference and contributes to overhead.  However, low inventory turnover, stringent buy back terms, coupled with lack of brand awareness, have sunk many start-ups as they get their movement going. Cold Calls, larger companies like Wegmans, Giant and Walmart are treacherous waters without someone championing your product internally.  It’s a lost cause, local washing is the new green washing.  My thoughts are to let wholesale grow organically like Peruvian lily coming back every year bigger and bigger till you have a patch that will yield flowers you can cut and sell.

The Facebook Effect

Reaching a critical email list mass is essential for success in this new digital arena of bricks and clicks or fail.  A failure to successfully harness the power of lists is a one way trip out of business.  How do you get a list? You have to start somewhere: a website, farmers’ markets or retail shop sign-ups are several places to start.  What you can do with this information is build rapport, inform, sell, inform.  In this new area of clicks, content is kind of a viral picture of a goat or pig doing something funny could be worth more the a billboard in Time Square. The issue at hand is time to consistently generate relevant interesting content, scheduling programs like Hoot Suite can help greatly.  One idea when you decide you want to go into business is to start taking pictures and finding articles so you have a good backlog of content to get you started. My research points towards a critical mass of 30k to 100k followers till you have a critical mass worth its salt, so please sign up for our email list and like us on Facebook.

Leading By Example: Fasta Boxed BOOM, POW, WOW!

Fasta Boxed is our solution to the clicks part of the bricks and clicks. A box shipped to you door with a selection of seasonal ravioli, pasta and sauce with a recipe if you desire that Blue Apron experience.  It’s a perfect gift and easier than driving to bricks (our physical locations).  After attending local economic forums put on by the Centre  county commissioners, it became more evident that the new local has expanded. Seeing companies like Rising Spring Meats and Happy Valley Meats succeeding in delivering eight to twelve cows a week to NYC and other metropolian areas is evidence of this expansion.  We decided to change are our paradigm.  State College and Harrisburg markets 1 to 1.5 million people, a one day fedex shipping radius of approximately 100 million people.  It only took eight years and a box with dry ice to take the leap.  A simple “stack” of weebly, square and shipstation and a great web designer, Juneberry Design, and we are in business.  As for content, this blog is a start...

The Hipsters Live And Let Live

The shift starts with the people, the experiences they have and want! The “gig” economy is a reality to embrace, digital nomads in the food area of sorts. The new retail front is that of Amazon Prime, Blue Apron, Etsy, web stores and food trucks! This arena has its benefits, smaller or no storefronts, sales 24 hours, less labor, streamline distribution via Fedex or UPS.  All simply made with a “stack” of a few of these stripe, square, weebly, squarespace, wordpress and or hundreds of other native intuitive apps.  Most of which work together seamlessly, most of the time.  The new paradigm replaces newspapers and magazines with Facebook, Twitter, Google ad words and a content marketing approach encompassing more bells and whistles than a Tesla.  

Farmers’ Markets Are Farmers’ Markets

Farmers’ markets are a great way for food startups and boutique farmers to get started, conduct customer and product development, but alone make for a hard living. Getting started is easy in most states if you have the determination and will power.  You can get a home food license or a small commercial space with a hand sink, prep sink, 3 bin sink and bathroom sink.  Don’t forget to make sure you are ADA compliant.  It’s the opportunity cost of long days spent at farmers’ markets that can be windfalls or busts because of rain, shine, peoples’ vacation schedule, or any other number of uncontrollable factors.  However, they are great for building your brand, gaining wholesale brand awareness and helping you decide if a bigger “leap” is for you.  In the long term, it's a grind working 28 Saturdays a year, rain or shine.  It takes several markets to even cover the most basic costs, no vacations this summer, as your only focus is on the markets.  Hire your first employee if you believe that's the easy solution, then you have payroll taxes, call offs and potential theft.  Ultimately, farmers’ markets are great for getting started and a sustained source of revenue but they are time and labor intensive and unscalable.  The best ones involve cities,  then you have to deal with traffic and a day long commitment.     

Volume Solves Problems

Wholesale is a critical factor for success in any modern food start up.   It can take shape in many forms for us, places like: Way Fruit Farm, The Barn at Lemont: Organic Gardening Center & Natural Market, Burkholder’s Market and dozens of regional restaurants.  While margins are significantly less, the frequency of orders makes up for the difference and contributes to overhead.  However, low inventory turnover, stringent buy back terms, coupled with lack of brand awareness, have sunk many start-ups as they get their movement going. Cold Calls, larger companies like Wegmans, Giant and Walmart are treacherous waters without someone championing your product internally.  It’s a lost cause, local washing is the new green washing.  My thoughts are to let wholesale grow organically like Peruvian lily coming back every year bigger and bigger till you have a patch that will yield flowers you can cut and sell.

The Facebook Effect

Reaching a critical email list mass is essential for success in this new digital arena of bricks and clicks or fail.  A failure to successfully harness the power of lists is a one way trip out of business.  How do you get a list? You have to start somewhere: a website, farmers’ markets or retail shop sign-ups are several places to start.  What you can do with this information is build rapport, inform, sell, inform.  In this new area of clicks, content is kind of a viral picture of a goat or pig doing something funny could be worth more the a billboard in Time Square. The issue at hand is time to consistently generate relevant interesting content, scheduling programs like Hoot Suite can help greatly.  One idea when you decide you want to go into business is to start taking pictures and finding articles so you have a good backlog of content to get you started. My research points towards a critical mass of 30k to 100k followers till you have a critical mass worth its salt, so please sign up for our email list and like us on Facebook.

Leading By Example: Fasta Boxed BOOM, POW, WOW.
​

Fasta Boxed is our solution to the clicks part of the bricks and clicks. A box shipped to you door with a selection of seasonal ravioli, pasta and sauce with a recipe if you desire that Blue Apron experience.  It’s a perfect gift and easier than driving to bricks (our physical locations).  After attending local economic forums put on by the Centre  county commissioners, it became more evident that the new local has expanded. Seeing companies like Rising Spring Meats and Happy Valley Meats succeeding in delivering eight to twelve cows a week to NYC and other metropolian areas is evidence of this expansion.  We decided to change are our paradigm.  State College and Harrisburg markets 1 to 1.5 million people, a one day fedex shipping radius of approximately 100 million people.  It only took eight years and a box with dry ice to take the leap.  A simple “stack” of weebly, square and shipstation and a great web designer, Juneberry Design, and we are in business.  As for content, this blog is a start...
4 Comments

Fix our farmers markets

11/23/2017

4 Comments

 
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Current pain points
  • There are 7 markets with similar but different vendors and structure causes customer confusion
  • There are redundant efforts at each market - each has BOD, each has rules, each has by-laws, each has manager, each has own website, each has own facebook, etc.
  • There is an issue of vendors meeting requirements but not getting into all markets
  • There are various organizations across county/region trying to do the same thing, duplicating effort:
    • BFBL
    • PASA
    • Centre Markets
    • Friends and Farmers
    • Other organizations are doing work parallel to food systems:
      • Hearts for the Homeless
      • Centre County Food Reclamation Network
      • Out of the Cold
Proposed solutionGoal: Let farmers and small business owners do what they do best - farm and be in business. Let an umbrella organization unite and resource the markets of the Centre Region by working to create a with a uniform governance structure, rules and by-laws to enable collective promotion of local foods and farming and to pool resources.
  • Umbrella organization = a current non-profit (e.g., F&F, BFBL) or a new non-profit
  • Centralize market governance and finances under umbrella organization
    • One BOD
      • Board Member/Market Delegate/Point of Contact from each market
      • Treasurer (allow for stipend for this position)
        • Manage centralized account online
        • Manage funds for centralized marketing and other efforts
        • Work closely with manager on marketing efforts
      • Marketing (allow for stipend for this position)
        • Manage social media and website(s)
        • Manage central marketing efforts and decisions
        • Assist manager with market events
      • Regulatory (allow for stipend for this position)
        • Collect and organize health requirement and insurance information
        • Serve as point of contact for health requirement and insurance education
        • Liaise with Health Department and Insurance company
        • Send reminders for expired insurances and health requirements
    • One set of By-Laws
    • One set of Rules
  • Appoint/hire a non-vendor central market manager - Responsibilities:
    • Manage negotiations and contracts with local authorities and landlords RE: market space
    • Manage regulatory process/person
    • Manage Marketing process/person
    • Assist Treasurer process/person
    • Perform farm inspections
    • Make recommendations to Board RE: vendor applications
    • On-site management of markets
    • Manage market events
    • Report to the board
    • Manage EBT program
Areas for improvement under a centralized structureWhen looking across all markets, there are a number of inconsistencies that must be improved in a centralized market structure. Those improvements include, but are not limited to:
  • Guest policies are not consistent across all markets, but allow for filling in holes when other vendors are not available and provide a way to “try out” new vendors and for vendors to “try out” what it feels like to be at markets
  • Start and end dates are not consistent which creates widespread customer confusion and frustration - dates should be made consistent
  • Some markets have a winter location, some do not - again causing customer confusion - winter space should be secured for all markets
  • Each market has a website - make one central website (already started - centremarkets.com)
  • Some markets have events and some do not (e.g., learning kitchen, festivals, farmers in the classroom, learning gardens at schools, etc.) - spread the events across all markets
  • EBT is at some markets and not others - make this consistent so as to make local food available to all incomes
  • Consider consolidating some markets due to performance and customer confusion:
    • Consolidate Friday and Tuesday downtown markets to occur Friday’s on Allen Street - current Tuesday vendors can either go to Boalsburg or Friday downtown
    • Consider closing Lemont due to performance

Longer term goalsOnce a central market structure is in place, it paves way for longer term, community wide goals, such as:
  • Collect confidential/anonymous financial data from vendors so as to begin to track economic impact of markets so as to work with local authorities on centralized market space
    • Current (extremely rough) estimates based on (extremely) informal data gathering at NAFM estimate that the range of vendor sales is $243,000 - $729,000 for one market season (low end sales reports show $300 per week x 30 vendors x 27 weeks). Imagine if all 7 (or whatever markets) had 30 vendors and performed the same - then multiply that by 7 markets and the range is: $1,701,000 - $5,103,000 - that LOCAL PEOPLE are spending on LOCAL FOOD. Take that to any municipal authority and we believe they would react with support to help with a centralized space.
    • Drive through Maryland - the state has road signs advertising markets - ROAD SIGNS. let’s do this in PA. With data on what support there is for local markets and local food and community - the state will stand behind us.
  • Info outlined in bullet one of longer term goals would/could lead to a centralized market space - one building - one location - every day (or many days) of the week
  • Community engagement is an important piece in our food system - in a centralized market structure, opportunity would exist to engage various groups within the community. For example:
    • Student volunteers for work experience at markets
    • Engage Penn State Researchers to assist with long term research on local food systems
    • Local organizations could contribute and benefit via events, examples:
      • Girls scouts or boy scouts looking for projects
      • Homeless shelters could benefit from gleaned food via work done with food reclamation efforts
      • Small Businesses could be invited to help startup their efforts
Structure among the involved organizations exists now. Efforts are exceptionally redundant across all organizations. Centralization of funds and people resources would enable this community and region to take the markets and local food system to the next level. Examples exist around the country - Green Markets in NYC being the tightest example - to show this is a functional, practical idea.

​Current New Market Structure (Typical)

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Proposed New Market Structure

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4 Comments
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