April 2008 Archives

We've had my Mom and stepdad in town for the last few weeks, and as a belated birthday gift I made my Mom some chocolate chip cookies to take back to the Midwest with them.

Didja have to take all of them, Mom?

And yes, they were good, especially right out of the oven with a glass of milk.

UPDATE: Thanks for the link, Gail!

Basically, you can tweak the recipe on a chocolate chip package, and add a little extra baking soda. Take the time to mix these by hand- first cream the butter and sugars together, then add the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the salt and baking soda, then add the rest of the ingredients. Taste the batter before you portion them, there should be just enough salt to increase the succulence of the batter without it actually tasting salty.

Use parchment paper!

A really nice salmon fillet, rubbed with our Survival Spice® barbecue rub and a bit of Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva. Something about this image was just really interesting to me. To you, who knows?

Happy Friday, all!!! Here's a good one sent in by Don, which after April 15th seems unusually appropriate.

Have a great weekend, and please buy some of our great products!!!!!!!!!

Ah, didn't expect a Monday Funny, did you? Thanks to Julie for forwarding this to me- I've seen it before, but I don't think I've ever posted it.

I'm trying to get a newsletter out, but until I have a chance- buy some Desert Island Foods®.com stuff, willya?

'Preciate it.

At least he cooked it, in a really interesting way. Check out his Cedar Planked Roasted Tofu.

And kudos to his BIL John for having the cajones to try the finished dish! You really do want to spend a few days incorporating flavor into tofu, and if you don't have that luxury cubing it into smaller pieces or poking holes into a larger piece helps the marinade or seasoning permeate it more efficiently.

Uh, was that a galvanized nail?...

Apparently it's still too cold in Chicago for John to fire up his grill, but it didn't stop him from coming up with a great rib idea:

Its been a while since I've posted anything so here's 3 slabs I cooked off yesterday. I took the slabs and rubbed then w/ Survival Spice and wrapped them in Film and refriged for 24 hrs. I heated the oven to 280 and then dusted them again covered them with foil and popped them in with a pan of water (seperate of course)in the oven to add moisture. One and half hours covered then uncover , redust and pop back in checking every 20 minutes and marinate w/orange juice , pureed garlic (lots) , honey , and get this ............ a glop of Safeway's mango-curry sauce /// its 2.79 a bottle and really can add accent to a variety of dishes , no shit try it .............................. great w/ home made frittes ................... which I made along with a Thai Jicama salad.

I've been on a diet so this was a
treat , urp.......................I cooked them for 4 hours..... dusting them every hour w/ survival spice so
that it was embedded into the glaze.

Sounds like some serious flavor going down there! I like the idea of layering the Survival Spice®, too.

In an ongoing effort to "take care of ourselves", whatever that means, we've been eating more vegetarian dishes lately. To most people who have tried tofu, most think of it as a large pencil eraser in terms of a flavor profile, but it certainly doesn't have to be that way.

My technique for our weekly tofu night is still evolving, but lately a few days before we're going to eat it I've been slicing a package of extra firm tofu in half, then gently pressing as much moisture as I can. I rub all sides generously with our Survival Spice® barbecue rub, then put it in the fridge for a day or so.

The morning I'm going to grill it I slap together a simple of marinade of soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, which to me gives a more 'meaty' flavor, and Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva; turning the tofu slices a few times to marinate them evenly.

Though it will never top some of the meat dishes I've featured here over the years I have to say, it tastes great!