Happy Friday, everyone! I'm traveling this week in the wonderful MIdwest, but here's a shot of a burger I made recently. The basil really added a lot of flavor, and worked with the cheese and the Survival Spice really well.
Another 'made up' meal, but sometimes those are the best ones...
Sorry for the light posting, but it's been a fun and busy week. Enjoy the weekend, and cook something good, willya?
(Just taking a break after the last package of the year shipped Saturday...)
Whew! Our second holiday season is now behind us, and I'd like to take a minute to thank all of you for the support you've given Desert Island Foods®.com over the last year. I really depend on word of mouth to help us continue to grow, so I appreciate everything you do to help us spread the word! Our shipping dept. is closed until January 5th, but you can still place online orders and call customer support.
Thanks for stopping every day, and I'm looking at ways that we can improve what we're doing, so that we can do an even better job for you in 2007.
Merry Christmas, everyone. I'll be traveling between now and the rest of the year, but I'll be blogging from the road, especially if you email me pictures of what you've been eating!
Thanks again, and whatever you celebrate, I wish you the very best this time of year.
("Photo": Apologies to Mr. and Mrs. Burns, of course...)
Happy Friday, everyone!! Just a reminder that our last orders will ship tomorrow, then we won't ship orders until January 5th.
Here's a classic Friday Funny from Steve. I hope you all remember who Gracie Allen was!
Cook something good for the holidays! I'll be on the road traveling, but I'll be posting via my nifty new MacBook. Please email me pictures of what you make, and I'll post them from the road.
A light soup of savoy and napa cabbages, endive salad was dressed with basil vinaigrette, and braised New Jersey bison in wine and stock flavored with fennel and thickened with olive oil roux. Sounds good, right? And what fine Manhattan bistro served this on their menu lately?
The answer will surprise you.
John in Chicago sent along a link to a NY Times article on an Upper West side soup kitchen, housed in a local Presbyterian church.
Check it out, Michael Ennes sounds like an interesting guy, and a good chef to boot.
Oh, and John was nice enough to nominate this blog in the "best overall food blog category" (see his #62). Thanks, John, I had no idea it existed!
...or just making some?
Paul's been busy in the kitchen lately:
It is a one cooking day. The fruitcakes are out and getting marinated, and so am I!
His looks more authentic that the fruitcake I attempted last year, maybe I just wasn't drinking enough... What's your take on this Christmas "classic"? I have a friend who actually makes a fruit cakey- loafy thing I really like.
I had a hankering for wings over the weekend. Actually, I hanker for wings far more often than that, but I just happened to be at the grocery store when this particular hanker began, so it was an easy hanker to satisfy.
Wow. I just used the word 'hanker' three times in a sentence. Is that a record? Try it sometime, it's not as easy as you think...
I like to grill my wings, rather than deep fry them. Grilling them over wood imparts smoky flavor to chicken, as oppposed to deep frying, where the only flavor to be picked up is the delightful essense of the Mrs. Paul's fish sticks you threw in there the last time you used it. No, thanks.
I grilled these with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub, low and slow, to render out the fat and get them nice and crispy. In a skillet, I whipped up a "kitchen sink" sauce of butter, Frank's Red hot, Tabasco, Sciracha, hot chipotle bbq sauce, and more Survival Spice™.
Quick toss in the sauce after the wings were done, and life was good.
Don't ask me why I cropped the photo so close, there was just something mesmerizing about the glaze on the wings.
Cook anything good this weekend? Give it up!!!
Happy Friday!!! Crazy busy around here, but Janella has once again produced the funny to help you get into the weekend.
BTW, if you received your Novello emails and haven't responded yet, I'm going to make your allocation available to everyone some time next week, so order up!
Have a great weekend. Cook something good for yourself, and share it with us!!!
(Photo: fiery-foods.com)
There's a great article for all you chile-heads over at Dave DeWitt's fiery-foods site that addresses what is really the hottest chile pepper in the world. I thought it was the red savina, myself, but they've stumbled on to a pepper called a Bhut Jolokia that's about 3-4 times as hot as a habenero.
Put your gloves on and check it out! It's a great site, full of lots of good chile and bbq tidbits that I know I've mentioned before, but it's worth making you aware of again.
(Photo: TPC's family meat lasagna, shot with my new Canon Powershot A530
I'm working on a simple, inexpensive, family friendly meat lasagna recipe. The ground rules- no fancy ingredients- sob, no San Marzano tomotoes, parm reggiano, fresh herbs, etc.
I'm using a mixture of ground beef and mild Italian sausage, so it isn't too spicy, and because a lot of people don't care for ricotta I'm mixing it with eggs and parmesan cheese to firm it up and give it more of a parm flavor profile. I also put the ricotta mixture on its own layer, so it stays in pieces that can be picked away by fussy diners.
The first attempt was successful. I think I'm going to up the garlic a bit and use a touch more crushed red pepper next time around. It's tough cooking for all ages, but I'm feeling pretty good about this approach. Next- a 3 or 4 cheese version.
Cook anything good over the weekend? Let's hear about it, and email me a picture to share, if you're so inclined!
Happy Friday, all! Another long, busy week is behind us, I hope you've got something good cooking for the weekend. I've got a pan of lasagna in the oven that I'll get some shots of to share, email me your weekend cooking project!
The latest Desert Island Foods™.com newsletter is up, if you'd like a sneak peek before it goes out.
Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading! I don't know where I got the Friday Funny from this week, so feel free to berate me for not thanking you.
(Photo: Paul "Chile" Brown, of his wood fired pizza)
Paul's been working his new beehive oven (here in the Southwest, we would call it a horno) hard:
Maybe a picture of the pizza cooking in the oven would be cool. I did a beer can chicken rubbed with Survival Spice™. Ms. Goofy said it was some of the best chicken she ever had. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of it. There is a picture of the leg and thigh. It does not do it justice.
That's some fine cooking there, Chile! He's really making me want one of those ovens. Bad.
If you've been cooking and want to share a picture, email me!
(Photo: Paul "Chile" Brown, of his new toy)
It's a beehive oven, and I want one- BAD! It looks pricey, though, maybe there's one out there that's less expensive, and lots of people build their own.
Paul sent some pictures of what he's been cooking that I'll post soon. I'm still too swamped to cook much, though I am working on a new lasagna recipe these days. Anybody else been cooking? Share a picture or two with us, we all love to see them!
Man, a fella could have some serious fun with one of those...
Happy Friday, folks. It's not too early for a "best of" list yet, is it? These made me laugh, thanks to Janella, hope you get a chuckle out of them, too.
Have a great weekend. Cook something good, please, and email me a picture to share, especially as I haven't had time to cook nearly enough lately.
Thanks so much for reading!
