Seriously, even Santé's website succumbs to the temptation in a couple of spots but we are going to boldly resist any mention of "showing off our nuts" or talking about a product we're "just nuts about"...... Ooops!

Anyway, the point is that nuts are a delicious and nutritious food that are great for snacking or using as an ingredient. These delights from a family owned and operated business in Santa Clara (they're across the street from the Intel Museum and a short drive Google's HQ... Google it!)  are great for either - from the sweet and spicy pecans to the candied walnuts to the cardamom-flavoured cashews (our particular favourite, in fact). 

They're so delicious you'll be tempted to just snack the whole bag but take a moment to visit the aforementioned website for some really great recipe ideas for how to incorporate these nuts as an accent to a variety of healthy dishes (we made the Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Pecan Crumbles and they were amazing!)

Signing off unpunnily until next week!

Here on the eve of Canada Day, we wanted to remind everyone that, while we're not a store that's exclusively Canadian, we ARE a store that's dedicated to offering the best the world has to offer and that includes some incredible Canadian products. And what better way to talk about them here than with a hockey metaphor!

On the left side of this photo, three offerings from the veteran, Joe Beef - the Montreal institution that includes the Joe Beef and Liverpool House restaurants as well as a variety of take home sauces and rubs. A great example of Canadian pride is watching Joe Beef's founders, David McMillan and Fred Morin, take the late great Anthony Bourdain ice fishing with foie gras and the "finest wines known to man" and on a culinary trip as they ride by train from Montreal to Quebec City. The ketchup, BBQ Sauce and Reserve Jerk Sauce we're offering are great examples of their commitment to foregrounding bold flavours and great ingredients. The ketchup is a mix of tomato and red pepper with less sugar than you typically find in a grocery-store ketchup. The BBQ sauce AND the jerk sauce are both built around a base of Quebec prunes for a heady, jammy note in each.

If Joe Beef is the Mario Lemieux in this hockey metaphor (the once upstarts are now the establishment and they own the team!), Heartbeat Hot Sauces are not even the Sidney Crosby - more like the Connor McDavid! This is a young team from Thunder Bay Ontario with just two sauces in their line up: fresh jalapeño with fermented serrano peppers bring a bright heat to the table while the fermented red habanero is, curiously, both sweeter and hotter with a bit more depth of flavour. But their undeniable talent has already got them playing in the big leagues. They are featured in the number 2 spot in the line up on season six of Hot Ones - the YouTube show where celebrity guests try to keep it together while host Sean Evans interviews them and leads them through a series of hot sauces ending with the Last Dab - a sauce that comes in at around 2.4 million Scoville units!

Not only is it a very big deal to be featured on the show, Heartbeat is also featured at Heatonist, the hot sauce vendor in Chelsea Market NYC that's behind the Hot Ones show and their own line of hot sauces.

This Canada Day, celebrate this tasty Team Canada at YOUR barbeque!