Now those that follow me here know my fondness for talking about and cooking with my favorite North Carolina made and produced food and beverage goodies. Today, I offer you a twofer. With my tweaks… Mimi’s ORANGE-Y Everything Old Tavern Beer Bread… dipped in Carolina Gold Sunflower Mediterranean Oil… a perfect pairing for nibbling or adding to a charcuterie tray…
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I met “Mimi” (aka Lin) years ago when she was doing her first #GotToBeNC Festival. We were “neighbors” that weekend, and I knew from tasting her simply made breads and pretzels AND by the crowd lined up to sample she would soon make a name for Mimi’s Mountain Mixes. They had brought a LOT of samples for day one but ran out early in the day (of 3 days!). With the addition of a little oven in their space, they just couldn’t make more fast enough over there!!
Well y’all, she did just that… made a name for herself, and soon I started seeing her boxes of mix here and there. I’m so glad fate put us beside each other that weekend. I use her mixes often as y’all also know here I’m THE non-baker, so when I can have scrumptious bread with just the addition of a beer or club soda, I’m there. You can’t believe how damn good and EASY this stuff is! You’ve GOT to get some if you haven’t yet. I usually pick mine up locally at Lowes Foods on the NC product shelf, but you can take a look at her web page and see where else to find Lin’s mixes. In addition to this Old Tavern Beer Bread Mix, she also has soft pretzel mix, Italian Herb Beer Bread Mix, Cinnamon Spice Beer Coffee Cake Mix, Bodacious Beer Biscuit Mix, Delectable Beer Donut Mix, Red Pepper Chili Beer Bread Mix, Spice Beer Pancake Mix, and Ooey Gooey Beer Fudge Brownie Mix! Some are even gluten free!! (Not all products are available at every location.) I promise you will LOVE this stuff…
NOW… as for the wondermous Carolina Gold Oil…
I’ve been buying this for a while and called eastern North Carolina sunflower farmer Lee Britt a couple of months back to chat and tell him how much I love his oils. I have made a few other things with them I’ll be sharing soon too…
Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting 5th Generation farmer Lee and his daddy of R. Britt Farms at their little processing facility in Harrellsville, NC!
Read more about Lee, his family and Carolina Gold Oils here in NC Farm Bureau’s North Carolina Field & Family Magazine
and Farm Flavor.
Lee grows acres and acres of sunflowers in Hertford County that are cold-pressed into the beautiful gold oil… great for sauteing and cooking.
Read about cooking, health benefits and more with sunflower oil HERE!
Along with the non-GMO gluten free Carolina Gold, he offers 4 Carolina Gold dipping oils… Cajun (I made the BEST fresh corn salad with that one last week), Garlic, Italian, and Mediterranean that I enjoyed with Mimi’s Orange Everything bread. What a perfect match!
So how did I tweak Mimi’s bread mix? I’m not a big beer drinker but recently found an orange infused beer that I love… being the orange-y loving gal that I am. Those that are out and about with me know I want orange in my tea… NOOOO lemon please! The only beer I had on hand the day I took a notion to make this twofer was an orange beer… and I always keep an orange or two on hand, so I added some orange zest, but that’s not necessary… just another little layer of added flavor! I just made according to Mimi’s instructions… and add some of my own Everything Bagel Mix (optional) in bottom of a bundt pan before pouring in the batter. (You would usually use a loaf pan, but I had to do something different!) That’s all.
Y’all! The orange in this was just right! In the bread AND with the herbs and seasonings in the Mediterranean Dipping Oil! For those that don’t have orange beer on hand, just use any beer, regular or orange scented club soda/seltzer. I think you will get the same goodness… although I do think beer gives Lin’s mixes a deeper richer taste. When done, just flip out onto a cooling rack… slice or pinch off pieces and dip into any of Lee’s oils!
Oh.My.GOODness. What a perfect pairing of these two North Carolina goodies!
So look out for both Mimi’s Mountain Mixes and Lee’s Carolina Gold Oil when out and about. If you’d like some but can’t find, check their web pages or drop me a note and I’ll see what I can do to help out. I do hope you will enjoy both… and come back here or to my fun facebook community and tell all about it!
