Rosemarie Mildengren of Thousand Oaks always wanted to cook and sell her homemade hot sauce as a way to make extra money.
But when she looked into bottling her tasty sauce, which she cooked up in her kitchen, she found that the rules and regulations would make it almost impossible to accomplish her dream.
"Three years ago, my family and friends told me to make the sauce and sell it. I tried to get a permit, but I was told I could not make it in my home," Mildengren said. She looked for someone who could help her bottle her hot sauce, but the minimum orders were for 5,000 cases, which was far too expensive.
Someone told her about Red Hot Foods.
"I was just desperate to make this. The recipe is really good. Then I found out about those people at Red Hot Foods and they made this happen," Mildengren said as she gestured at the bottles she had on display at the Westlake farmers market where she now sells her hot sauce.
A native of Sweden, Mildengren said she had always been fascinated with peppers and the way they made her food taste. She experimented with making salsas.
"After my family and friends commented to me that I had found the right flavor and consistency for my salsa, they encouraged me to create a hot sauce where the flavor would not disappear, but linger from mouthful to mouthful," she wrote in a piece displayed at her booth.
Butch and Burma Baselice of Red Hot Foods said they helped Mildengren understand the bottling process, as well as comply with the regulations governing food manufacturing. They said they enjoyed working with her in developing her product.
Mildengren had one batch made in October, and it has been selling well.
"It's very pure and fresh. I use Fresno and habanero peppers, which are washed and cleaned and put in a mixture with just a few other ingredients," she said.
She said she sold about seven bottles at the Westlake farmers markets on her first outing, and she's been selling them at the family business, Hockey Alley in Newbury Park, where she has sold six boxes.
She said her experience with the Baselices couldn't have been more pleasant.
"I feel like they are my own family," she said.
Rosemarie's Hot Sauce is $9.95 for an 8-ounce bottle. For information, call 796-6092.
My friend, RoseMarie was in the Ventura County Star today, with her new, awesome hot sauce!
So funny, and so true! I'd be much richer if I had a dollar for every time I've been involved in projects like this!
Finally, we can opt out of getting the Yellow Pages (unless, of course, you want to continue to use it as a door jam or something...).
Check out the new tattoo that my fellow awesome Blue Lady Kings teammate, Kristina Morgan, got over the weekend! Now THAT is fan loyalty! Wow....cool tat! I hope she wins the contest! (http://kings.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=66642)
Read the complete article from live.comicbookresources.com.
[update] View pics on Flickr of the tattoo process
Bill Meltzer
December 28, 2010If the Vezina Trophy was awarded for the first half of the season, it would be a two-horse race between a pair of American goaltenders: Boston's Tim Thomas and LA's Jonathan Quick. Thomas' extraordinary comeback this season has been well documented, but there has been much less attention paid on the national level to Quick's play. That is almost always the case for Western Conference players, especially those playing in the Pacific Time Zone.
After last year's playoffs, many critics felt that Quick -- who had a strong regular season, but was previously an unheralded young goaltender -- had his weaknesses exposed in the postseason. If that's the case, the 24-year-old has done a mighty good job at covering them up again this season. Following his 24-save shutout of San Jose on Monday night (his fourth shutout of the season and second in three games), Quick lowered his goals against average to 1.86 (second best in the NHL) and raised his save percentage to .932 (third best in the league). He registered his 18th win of the season (third most in the league) in his 26th game.
Although the 4-0 final score of the Sharks-Kings game makes it seem like Quick had a relatively easy night in goal, the game was scoreless through two periods and Quick had to make several difficult saves to keep the scoreless through 40 minutes. Finally, the Kings exploded in the third period, solving San Jose goaltender Antti Niemi four times.
Perhaps the challenge of having highly regarded young Jonathan Bernier pushing him for the starting job has helped Quick elevate his game or perhaps he has simply continued to mature as a goaltender. He's allowed fewer big rebounds and short-side goals than he did a year ago, and he rarely has let one mistake snowball into a series of miscues. He's shown this season that he's tough to get to commit early in one-on-one showdowns with shooters, and he's always known how to use his big frame to make it tough to score in close.
There's nothing deceptive about the numbers Quick has put up so far this season: He really has been that good.
Go Jonathan Quick! It's been great watching him play this year. Especially the 51-save shutout vs. the Red Wings earlier this season.
Keep it up, Quick!
Gotta love how kids just say it like it is! ;-))
(click the photo to enlarge)
