During the 2011 holiday season, Slatherin’ Sauce was featured in the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina.

We thank journalist Andrea Weigel for writing about us and for noting, “We love the Charleston company’s motto: The Cure for Boring Food.” Andrea thanks to you, the folks in the Triangle area of North Carolina are just a little less bored!

We’re lucky to have faithful and super loyal fans! Viesturs Timrots who lives in the greaterWashington,D.C.area has shared his love of Slatherin’ Sauce with us from time to time. We received this e-mailed note from Viesturs the other day and with his permission, we’re sharing it with you all.

“Hello again!

Well, when I ran out of your spicy recipe sauce, I was grudgingly set to drive an hour north of Baltimore to get some more. Then, a miracle happened…I was in a place called Rodman’s in Rockville, MD (they carry millions of different food and drink items from around the world at three locations) wandering the aisles looking for Christmas food gifts from Eastern Europe for my parents (canned fish of various varieties, jams, jellies, crackers and breads) when, while walking through the sauce and spices section, I saw a familiar blue label and a familiar red label! Holy moly…there was your regular sauce and your spicy recipe sauce begging me to buy it. And I did…only 20 minutes from my house. Sweet!”

“At one point in my ravings a while back, I had mentioned a hot dog recipe. I really haven’t been able to improve on it (but the dog I use is pretty much local to the DC / Baltimore area:

Viesturs Timrots’ Slathered Hot Dog

1. Steak roll
2. Spicy half-smoke sausage (also available non-spicy)
3. Gulden’s Spicy Brown mustard
4. Chopped onion
5. Spicy Recipe Slatherin’ Sauce

Place sausage on roll; apply balance of ingredients to taste. (Of course, this combination or milder would work on any type of dog and roll variety, but this is my preference—spicy.)”

“By the way, the sauce is fabulous with my marinated and grilled London broil (and stiff competition to Pickapeppah original flavor sauce.)

Just thought I’d drop you and line and make a nuisance of myself.

Merry Christmas and a truly wonderful New Year to you and yours!”

Viesturs, we wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season as well! Thank you so much for your loyalty!

Thanksgiving is just two days away and as usual I am scrambling to get it all done in time. It has been such a busy year I considered not cooking for my usual number of 20 or so friends and family. However, when I took a deep breath and a minute to remember what Thanksgiving really means to me, there was just no way I was not going to celebrate this holiday in traditional style. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It gives me a chance to express my love and gratitude for those who grace my life and to be thankful for all the blessing that have been granted me.

Thankful in all things

This past May my beautiful granddaughter, Carolyn Grace, was born. She is named after my beloved sister who I lost in December of 2007. Every day that I look at her beautiful smile I am reminded that no matter what challenges I may be facing there is pure joy in my world..and I am grateful. Even though she will be too young to understand the day I will know that I have provided her with a solid family tradition that hopefully one day she will carry on with her family.

This morning as part of my daily ritual I read Mastin Kipp’s Daily Love Blog and I would like to share an excerpt from that with you.

Mastin writes,

“If we look close enough, we can see that we can receive massive benefit from all the circumstances in our lives. We can get extreme value from the tough times, the break downs, break ups and seeming disappointments. When we are grateful, even for the challenges, we make the huge leap from lack and blame based thoughts and take a step into abundance and empowerment. When we are grateful for it all, we have truly become rich. Then, whatever happens, we stay in our power, we stay grateful and miracles begin to be a daily occurrence. They have been there the whole time – they’ve just been waiting to be seen by us.

This is our opportunity – to be grateful for the whole journey. Not just the highs – no, but the lows, too. For each are teachers and come filled with a blessing if we have the miracle mindset to see them.”

This thought really resounded with me. While each day I acknowledge the things I am thankful for, I recognized that I never say I am thankful for the challenges and opportunities for growth. Instead I focus on only the positive things. Today and going forward I am going to embrace all things in life to be grateful for, especially the challenges.

My wish for you

This Thanksgiving and everyday my wish for you is that you have an abundance of things in your life to be grateful for and that you feel blessed for waking up and greeting the day. Finally, I would like to share with you the Cherokee Prayer Blessing, my favorite prayer that I have made a tradition of reciting to my loved ones and now to you my treasured readers and friends.

May the Warm Winds of Heaven
Blow softly upon your house
May the Great Spirit Bless all who enter there
May your Moccasins
Make happy tracks,
in many snows.
and may the Rainbow
Always touch your shoulder.

Happy Thanksgiving

*Photo credit: flickr user Satoru Kikuchi

Helen Legare invited me to participate in Legare Farms Fall Harvest Dinner. I’ll be using Legare Farms beef to create “Slather Burger Sliders.” This great event is one that’s close to my heart. Helen and I both are John’s Island girls who care deeply about teaching children about where their food comes from. Her Foundation will be using the proceeds from this dinner to do just that.

According to Helen’s information, “Legare Farms Education Foundation is celebrating the fall harvest with a “Meet the Farmer” social followed by dinner on November 6, 2011. The social will start at 4:00 pm followed by dinner at 5:00 pm.”

Farmers participating include:

Chef Fred Nueville from The Fat Hen
Chef Micah Garrison from the Middleton Place Restaurant
Chef Craig Deihl from Cypress Restaurant
Chef Jacques Larson from Wild Olive Restaurant
Chef John Ondo from Lana Restaurant
Chef Craig and Stephanie Bente from Main Street Restaurant
Chef Nathan Thurston from The Ocean Room at Kiawah
Sarah O’kelley from the Glass Onion
Chef Nico Romo from Fish Restaurant
Chef Robin Rhea from Slather Brand Foods
Chef Drew Hedlund from Fleet Restaurant
Chef Andy Harris from Funky Little Kitchen Restaurant

“This dinner will consist of dishes prepared from Legare Farms’ beef, pork and fall harvest vegetables. The dishes will be prepared by some of Charleston’s finest chefs. The proceeds from this event will go to Legare Farms Education Foundation. The foundation is a non-profit initiative whose mission is to help raise awareness and educate Lowcountry communities and school children on the agricultural history and heritage of this region and the need to maintain this heritage for future generations.”

“Legare Farms was established in 1725 and has been continuously operated as a working family farm. Linda, Helen, and Thomas Legare are the ninth generation of Legares to farm on Johns Island.”

“The event will be held at Legare Farms picnic area under a large tent. Dress is casual. Local beer and wine will be available, but guests can bring a favorite wine to have with dinner.”

“Tickets for the dinner may be purchased by calling Legare Farms at 843-559-0788. The cost of the event is $60.00 per person. For more information contact Legare Farms at 843-559-0788.”

Map Directions from Google Maps

As an entrepreneur, I’ve found that relationships with my customers and with bloggers have helped us grow our brand’s awareness among those who are gluten-intolerant, or those who watch what they eat. We’ve also learned that many of you avidly follow food bloggers, trying the products that they recommend.

We’re delighted to announce that Slatherin’ Sauce has been reviewed by Goodies for Gifts, a new site run by Lynn, who writes,

“I want to review local businesses with delicious foods that can be ordered online and sent anywhere in the United States. My advice combined with fabulous foods will make you the most popular gift giver around!”

Lynn says about Slatherin’ Sauce:

“I would describe the Spicy Slatherin’ Sauce as sweet and spicy. Our favorite part of the sauce was the texture. It is a unique blend of all natural ketchup, gobs of natural honey, sweet pineapple, crushed red peppers, garlic, and other spices. The ingredients are visible with the naked eye, making this sauce as close to homemade as you can get. It’s important to highlight that all Slatherin’ Sauces are gluten free and contain no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial sweeteners, and no artificial coloring or flavors.”

We appreciate the bloggers of the net who graciously review and share Slatherin’ Sauce with their readers.