San Francisco Food Buzz Festival

First time attending the San Francisco Food Buzz Festival this weekend. Loved the whole event, getting to meet fellow food bloggers, vendors with wonderful food and drink, and samples for everything! Who has it better than us?  NO ONE!!

My absolute favorite was the Three Twins Cardamom Ice Cream. I had never thought of that and am so glad that they did.  I am now a very devoted fan! They've been making "inconceivably" delicious ice cream in Northern California since 2005. An environmentally concious company, they source their natural ingredients from strictly local sources. In 2011 they launched a land conservation program called Ice Cream for Acres. I for one would love to have 'acres' of their ice cream available.

There 'dried fruits' and then there was 'dry fruit'. The sun-dried Blenheim Apricots from B & R Farms in Hollister, CA stood stood head and shoulders above the rest. Not only were their offerings awesome, they took it several steps further and offered recipes and samples of those recipes that sparked my imagination. The favorite recipe was for Gary's Apricot Salsa:

3/4 cups dried or fresh crushed cranberries
1 cup B &R Farms diced Dried Apricots
1- 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup sugar (more or less to taste)
1-2 limes (juiced)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 very small bunch of cilantro, finally chopped
Dash or two of your favorite hot pepper sauce
 
Boil cranberries and apricots in saucepan, covered  with 1 1/2 inches of water for 3 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. Drain excess water and cool.

Add jalapenos, onion, garlic, sugar and juice of limes. Add salt, pepper, cilantro & hot pepper sauce. Chill and serve with your favorite tortila chips or add to turkey, chicken or pork sandwiches.

This was divine!

Another treat that really surprised me was the Yellow Watermelon Mint popcicle from LickPops in San Francisco (out of the Ferry Building). You can 'like' them on Facebook to find out more about their offerings. I also tried their Salted Carmel Apple popcicle, but was not as impressed. There was a texture issue that did not quite sit right with me. Great idea though!!

Stay tuned for more reviews from the SF FoodBuzz Festival.  I plan to return to my more healthy offerings.... or not!