This would all be delicious with some ribs, of course, so we’ve got Niman Ranch St. Louis-style spare ribs, and we’ll provide a simple recipe for making them in your oven.

We're also making and freezing flaky, buttermilk biscuits. You can serve these with dinner or load them with butter and jam, but we’re also offering Peads and Barnetts’s breakfast sausage in case you’re a person who loves biscuits and gravy. In my house, and the houses my husband was raised in, you have a biscuit with gravy, then a biscuit with butter and jam, and then you start your day. That’s tough for me, but I will be making and posting my husband's family recipe for milk-sausage gravy this week. Undoubtedly, this breakfast sausage is also great straight up in patties. We’re doubling down on breakfast pork and offering Nueske’s bacon as well. This smokiest of bacons comes in a slab, so you can slice it thicker than anything you can find prepackaged at the grocery store. It’s also great cut into lardons and added to a salad with croutons and a soft boiled egg, a vegetable hash, or a pot of beans. Speaking of which, we’ve got glorious, fresh dried butter beans from Two Peas in a Pod this week. 

Keeping it domestic, we got some Hook’s 5 year aged cheddar from Mineral Point, Wisconsin. This is the cheddar that Mel likes to always have on hand. It’s good enough to snack on but can also elevate eggs, mac & cheese, pimento cheese, or grilled cheese. If you haven’t tried the Bubb and Grandma’s spelt polenta pan loaf, this might be your week to make a bacon and grilled cheese. As always, we also have their jumbo baguette. 

For whatever reason, comfort food is easy to eat. It can be nostalgic, or as my husband once admitted out loud, it can hopefully have the texture of something that’s already been chewed for you. I find comfort in food I believe in, which is why I’m especially excited about these two new offerings… We’ve got whole, head-on shrimp from TransparenSea, a sustainable shrimp farm right here in SoCal. Mel recently toured the farm and was blown away. The farm is the brainchild of Steve Sutton, whose goal is to change the way we eat seafood. He already has shrimp that are “as good for you as they are for the environment," and Mel can’t get over how sweet the meat is. 

We are also now carrying an extra virgin olive oil from our friends, fellow farm boxers and favorite tree stewards at Mama Walnut Farm in Ojai. I’ve been waiting for the moment that I get to use and share this oil ever since they took over the farm a few years ago and started using organic and regenerative agriculture practices designed to enrich the soil for generations. Their finishing oil is made from Taggiasca olives, known for their rich flavor, that were harvested on December 18th and pressed the next day! It is grassy, buttery, and round with a peppery finish, and only available directly from the farm.

To wash it all down, we’ve got another sustainably farmed wine from Small Town. Dom de Fontsainte’s Gris de Gris is Sam’s favorite house rose. So easy to drink. So comforting.