Recently in Appetizers Category

Here's the guacamole I made for the basa tacos we had recently. I know, everybody's got their own way of making guac, and everybody's technique is the 'traditional' way, but as long as you've got smashed up avocado and anything else, you've got guacamole.

I like a rustic presentation myself- diced in large enough pieces so you can see what you're getting. Avocados, small diced red onion, a concassed (box cut to eliminate the seeds and watery innards) tomato, though I don't bother to peel them; minced jalapeno, and lots of cilantro are my base. For quick flavoring I add some tomatillo salsa, otherwise I frequently reach for the Survival Spice®, which adds a ton of flavor, and is handy when you don't have a jalapeno handy or if you're making it at a friend's house when you don't feel like raiding their pantry. I would hope you would have given them a tin of Survival Spice®! Friends don't let friends eat boring food.

Cook something good over the weekend? Email me a few pictures!

Well, the football season got off to a good start- my Pittsburgh Steelers beat up on the Cleveland Browns until they couldn't take it any more. And no, I'm not a fair weather fan; during the 60s I was a fan when they were far and away the worst team in football.

What's football without hot wings? Nothin'.

I like to grill my wings, but I was getting over some kind of bug, so I had to content myself with seasoning them well with Survival Spice®, then roasting them on a parchment lined sheet pan until they were crispy:

As they were in the oven, I mixed some hot sauce, butter, more Survival Spice®, and a bit of chipotle BBQ sauce in a sauce pan, got it all melted and bubbly, poured the sauce into a work bowl, then tossed the crispy wings with the sauce. Taking a fine suggestion from Julie, I plated them on a Steelers platter.

Mmmmm... spicy, crispy and full of flavor. They tasted great with a few cold beers.

Happy Halloween! I got an email from Denise the other day, mentioning how she incorporated the seasoning idea for Parmesan Survival Corn into a pumpkin seed recipe:

I rinsed the pumpkin seeds, but didn't totally wash off all of the little bits of pumpkin. Then I tossed the seeds in a mixture of parmesan/romano cheese (just from the can), Survival Spice™, and olive oil until coated. I spread them on a cookie sheet and popped them in 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes. Good stuff!

I don't have the camera dock all hooked up and I know I wouldn't get a picture to you in a timely manner....sorry.

But the pumpkin seeds turned out pretty good. The only thing I would probably do differently would be to add some kosher salt, which I don't have on hand.

She didn't send a pic, but this one is from Jim's Halloween Survival Seeds last year, along with his recipe:

Here is a new recipe and some pics:

Contains olive oil, sesame oil, Survival Spice™, and worchester sauce. Wash seeds, add rub, oil, and worchester sauce. Then 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Don't rush this one.

Best, Jim

I had a bunch of cherry tomatoes from a friend's garden, and decided to make some salsa with them. Even though the flavors intensify overnight, a fresh salsa (salsa fresca) is a refreshingly light accompianment to a healthy summer meal, or y'know, bust out the tequila and some chips and go for it!

I just quartered them and salted them, letting them sit while I chopped the rest of the ingredients. Tomatoes tend to release a lot of water, of course, so if you give them some time to mascerate at room temp, you can drain a lot of the water off before you finish the dish. I like to apply a bit of pressure to the tomatoes, giving them a gentle squeeze to help them along.

I added some chopped red onion for some good color, lots of cilantro, a minced jalapeno, though I like to use a few serranos when I have them on hand, a bit of garlic, lots of lime and lemon juice, and salt and pepper. How much of each? Taste as you go, keeping in mind that both the flavor and the heat will intensify over time. Lots of people will add a bit of cumin as well, use it if the mood grabs you, but be subtle.

Give it a good stir, and you're all done!

Wow, I'm totally addicted to these already. Definitely a great snack, and really easy.

I preheated my oven on convection roast at around 250º, while I put some mixed nuts I've been buying at Costco on a sheet pan, and gave them a light spray of some canola oil. I'm not sure this was necessary, because the oils in the nuts are released when they're heated, but for a first effort I wanted to do all I can to make sure the Survival Spice™ adhered to the nuts properly.

Once they were hot, I dumped them into a work bowl, added some Survival Spice™, and tossed. I'll be curious to see if the flavor intensifies over the next few days, if it doesn't I'll add more next time.

Oh, and there will be a next time. Definitely.

Try this! Especially if you're watching carbs.

Busy, busy around here today, but I wanted to share something I made as a side dish yesterday- an modified form of guacamole.

I don't know what made me do this- I was going to make traditional guacamole, but the avocado halves kept their shape and looked so great after I cubed them, I decided to just fill the cavity where the seed was with diced red onion, lemon juice, cilantro and some Survival Spice™. If I had fresh tomatoes, I would have done a concasse, but I didn't. Such is life, I guess.

I was generous with the lemon juice, and to give it another dimension I made some cilantro oil with a bunch of fresh cilantro, some Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, which made it absolutely magical, and a little lemon juice and kosher salt. A quick drizzle of that, and it was good to go.

And it went. Quickly.

I've had a few really good emails this week I thought I'd share. The first one is from Sue, a professional cook in the Los Angeles area who teaches cooking classes all over the country, who uses Survival Spice™ in really creative ways:

Used the SS lightly dusted on small slices of fresh pinepple...

Transformed an old James Beard recipe from late 30's or 40's when he catered. Pierce a tiny tomato with a toothpick, dip in salt (kosher or sea) and then in vodka - my updated version: add a perlini (tiny, tiny mozzarella cheese ball ) to tomato, dip in tequila and then in Survivial Spice! I use antique salt cellars or tiny sake cups.

Yesterday, in a Spring Chicken class - SS in a Fickle Marinade - curry, chile sauce, dijon, soy, and honey....a light dusting of SS.

Good stuff, Sue! Here's a great pork rind idea from Lloyd, who also gave us the idea for Parmesan Survival Corn:

On the subject of spicing up pork rinds; I think I've just about got it. I ordered this mister from Amazon, then I went down and bought a coffee grinder at the general store. So what I did is, put 4 tablespoons of the green parmesan (I tried the really good stuff but it was too wet) and 1 teaspoon of Survival Spice™ in the coffee grinder and turned it into a powder. Then I took a bag of pig skins and dumped them into a big bowl and misted them while flipping them around. I then put them back in the bag and dumped in the powder. I shook the bag up really well and commenced to sample.

It's kind of f@#$ed up though, because I don't think Atkins meant for you to eat a whole bag of pork skins in one setting. Oh well. Next time I'll grab some of the wife's really good parmesan and dry it out in the oven first.

I put up a link to the mister that Lloyd recommended. Disclosure: I would get a small commision if you bought one through the link, but it costs you nothing. Is that so bad? And why not refill it with our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva?

Got an idea for using Survival Spice™? Email me!

(Photo: Parmesan Survival Corn v2)

Here's take two of the Parmesan Survival Corn I made recently. It doesn't look substantially different, but a few changes are notable. I used grated grana padano cheese intead of the green can, which was a great improvement, I used more oil this time so I didn't need to add butter to make it stick, and I added the spices to the popcorn inside the Whirley-Pop™, instead of mixing it in the bowl.

I'm pretty satisfied with the flavor, but I'm still not content with the way the cheese and Survival Spice™ mixture is sticking to the popcorn, so one more version is on the way. At the moment, I'm using 1/2 C of popcorn, 3 T of oil, 3/4 C of parm, and 1/4 C of Survival Spice™. I think I'm going to try using some Fontina cheese too, the flavor is very similar to parm, and it's meltable.

I think it's close. I sent some home with my brother the other day, and his wife emailed me:

What did you put in that popcorn? Crack? Oh my gosh! I couldn't stop eating it!!!!

Think I should add some butter back in?

I can't stop eating this stuff.

A customer in Alaska, Lloyd, emailed to say that he made this recently with popcorn but he's also doing it with pork rinds. I just bought a neat gadget called a Whirley-Pop™ that I'll review Monday, so with this cool popper and a great idea in hand, I had to give it a try.

I really can't stop eating this stuff, I just had to go back into the test kitchen and have some more.

Where was I? Right. I'm going to try different techniques, but for this batch, I used about 3 parts cheese to 2 parts Survival Spice™. I had some parm in a green can that I needed to get rid of, so I used that. It doesn't have enough flavor, though, and because it's so dry it doesn't cling to the popcorn very well, so next time I will definiteIy use freshly grated. I melted some butter, then added the dry mix to that and mixed it up. When the popcorn was done, I tossed it with the mixture, added a bit of kosher salt, and there it was.

Was, being the correct term. It's gone now.

(Photo: TPC's Grilled Jalapeño Poppers with grilled Hot Wings)

Not a Super Bowl goes by in my world without Poppers. I'm not talking about those crappy, breaded things stuffed with cream cheese, I'm talking about a fresh jalapeno filled with jack cheese, shrimp and bacon, then grilled. I learned this version from my buddy Jerry, who somehow wrangled Super Bowl tickets yesterday, but I only hated him until I ate my first Popper! We've tried a million variations, sausage, pepper jack, colby, crab, etc., but we keep coming back to these ingredients.

They're really labor-intensive, but once you've served them to guests, they'll be more than happy to help you prep them next time.