Kristen – Page 14 – Food Follies

Spare Ribs with Country Bob Sauce

We hit a great sale on pork spare ribs the other day and decided to do a little barbeque with Country Bob’s Sauce.

It was a success! We could have actually used MORE of the sauce as it came out a bit more subtle than anticipated, but dipping is good too.

The interesting part of this is that when I was growing up, my mother never used BBQ sauce on her pork roasts or ribs – she only rubbed it with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic powder, which is delicious, but I’ve had to get more accustomed to BBQ sauce over the years. The best thing about using the Country Bobs is that it didn’t overwhelm the flavor of the pork, which is always my biggest complaint about BBQ. It complimented it nicely with a subtle sweet flavor, which always does well on pork.

[Tags: food, pork, bbq, barbeque, cooking]

Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce

When Al Malekovic from Country Bob’s contacted us and offered us a free sample of Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce, I was dubious. I had pretty much given up on commercial barbecue sauces and marinades because they all contain MSG and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup. Al assured me that the sauce had neither of these ingredients, so I agreed to give it a try. I was pleased to see that the ingredients were very basic, Tomato puree, vinegar, molasses etc… there were no ingredients that I couldn’t pronounce.

On first taste, I liked the sauce right away. It’s somewhere between a barbecue sauce and a steak sauce, and as it’s name implies it will work well for both. Of course, we decided to be more creative with our first outing, and used it as a marinade for some boneless pork chops along with a little crushed garlic. We coated the chops in flour, onion powder, salt and pepper, and naturally tossed them into a pan of hot vegetable oil.

The finished chops held the flavor of the sauce nicely. They added a bit of sweetness under the coating which really complimented the flavor of the pork chops nicely.

Not to be outdone though, the following week we were having chicken burritos. The salsa we had bought lacked zing, even though it was a medium. Kristen suggested we put some Country Bob’s on them, which gave them a whole new flavor, more Tex than Mex I guess but they tasted great!

[Tags: food, sauce, pork chops, Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce, cooking]

Hot Weather Pasta Salad

A little while ago the temperature was 110 degrees for many days in a row. When we actually had appetites, we had to come up with something else to eat besides cold sandwiches and fruit, so we put together a cold pasta salad!

We used a lot of stuff we had around the house – rotelli pasta (tri-color would have been nicer, but we only had regular), organic Tuscan Italian dressing, tuna fish, diced tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. And we sprinkled on some sliced, fresh mozzarella just before we ate it.

We have nothing against mayo-based salads, but even that can seem heavy when it’s so hot outside, so the Italian dressing version worked nicely for us.
[Tags: food, pasta salad, recipe, tuna, italian dressing]

John’s New Blackberry!

Everyone’s so busy talking about their new iPhones and all the cool things they can do with them, so I thought I’d post a photo of John’s new Blackberry!

What – you were expecting something with batteries, buttons, and a screen? 😉

[Tags: blackberry, blackberries, joke, funny, food]

Joey & Eddie’s Italian Restaurant in San Francisco

Recently, I was up in San Francisco for a day of meetings with a bunch of compadres and we had the pleasure of being treated to a night out in the private upstairs dining room at a fantastic Italian restaurant called “Joey & Eddie’s”.

(Pardon the photo – I forgot to take a picture until the very end when we were getting back on the bus that was rented for us – but you get the idea.)

It was one of those amazing multi-course, choice of wines type events. We had terrific bread with butter or olive oil, fantastic salad with all kinds of greens, crab bisque (or white bean soup), spaghetti topped with a cherry tomato concoction, white fish, chicken cacciatore, and then a big finish with a fabulous chocolate and hazelnut torte with pannecota served in these fancy dishes that looked like hubcaps – LOL! I wanted to eat so much more of each course, but knew I’d regret it later, so I managed to space out my samplings.

So if you’re ever in San Francisco and have a hankering for some tasty tasty Italian, check out Joey and Eddie’s. And as an additional bonus, on the way out we walked through the front room and saw Sammy Hagar sitting there at the bar enjoying a meal – he seemed to be with a tall blond, so no one bothered him – LOL.
[Tags: food, Italian, California, San Francisco, restaurant]

Just This Once

I just have to share this one from icanhascheezburger – it’s a food joke though, sort of, and in any case it just cracked me up….

[Tags: bread, cat, lolcat, funny, humor]

Food Critics Don’t Need To Be Anonymous

Get the best seats in the house and maybe even a complimentary drink or two when you walk into a restaurant with our “Restaurant Reviewer” or “Food Blogger” t-shirts and sweatshirts! Even if you aren’t an official food critic or have a food blog of your own, most restaurants know the power that word of mouth holds in this business, so give them a chance to show you how good they can be.

Each design is available on many different styles of t-shirts and sweatshirts (and bumper stickers and mugs as well) – just click on the sample t-shirt above to see the entire selection.

[Tags: food, funny, humor, food blog, restaurant]

Snapea Crisps

I was in Trader Joe’s one day (my favorite grocery store) and they had these Snapea Crisps hanging off of one of the shelves. Feeling bold, I bought them secretly dreading that they might end up tasting like freeze dried peas.

When I opened them I was delighted to discover that they were light and tasty (not like peas at all) with a texture that reminded me of Funyons. They have their own flavor which is hard to describe but is well worth the two dollar investment.

They work ok on a salad (as suggested), but actually work really well as a snack food by themselves. They compliment a trail mix nicely, going well with dried fruit or nuts.

[Tags: Snapea Crisps, peas, snacks, food, review]

Spinach & Artichoke Chips

I was in the chip aisle last week searching among the plethora of MSG coated chips looking for something with genuine flavor. There were a few standard entries which I liked but was tired of, but then I noticed this bag of Spinach & Artichoke Chips by Jensen’s Orchard.

Spinach & Artichoke? I wondered, it made me think of some of the weird flavors that Jones Soda tries. I hoped that they wouldn’t end up being fancy dog biscuits and gave them a try.

The spinach flavor is quite pronounced, as pronounced as the green color of the chips themselves. The artichoke however often remains hidden, only peeking out once in a while. I wasn’t sure if I liked them for at least the first ten chips, until my taste buds became accustomed to the flavor. My brain needed to make a new category. This was not in the salty,BBQ, cheesy or spicy category, but a new deeper sort of flavor which I find unique among potato chips.

The ingredients were a refreshing surprise too. Spinach is actually the third ingredient, artichokes were further down, and spices like parsley and turmeric were listed as well.

Overall I would highly recommend them particularly if you are looking for something different or if you’re having company and want to add a new dimension to the same old fare.

[Tags: food, review, potato chips, snack, spinach]

Baconated T-shirts

Attention all bacon lovers! Due to our own recent re-appreciation of bacon (particularly the no-extra nitrites/nitrates added apple smoked bacon we’ve discovered) we’ve created another way to celebrate bacon – our “Powered By Bacon” design on t-shirts and buttons and magnets and bumper stickers and yadda yadda! Here’s one sample product:

Click the tee above to see the whole range of baconated t-shirts and stuff available!
[Tags: food, humor, funny, t-shirt, bacon]