You've Got To Taste This

    If you’re looking to fry a delicious turkey for Thanksgiving without using a lot of messy oil then I have an idea for you. With The Big Easy turkey fryer, which uses infrared heating, it’s possible to get a lighter, fried turkey for your Thanksgiving feast. Although, I don’t think I took the fat free way “per se” in my kitchen. I went a little “Paula Dean” on my bird for a pre-Thanksgiving get together with friends, and it truly wowed a crowd. Two days before our gathering I bought a 19.97 lb turkey before reading the instructions in The Big Easy handbook that stated “will hold up to 16 lbs of turkey.”  Under my stubborn disregard for instructions I proceeded to prep the turkey for excellence. It began with a brine....

Why should you care about the third Thursday in November? It's the day that Beaujolais Nouveau -- a French wine called BN for short -- arrives in stores all over the world.

This is a light-bodied, fruity, fun red, made from the Gamay grape in the region of  Beaujolais. "Regular"

Beaujolais is released the year after the grapes are picked, but BN is released a few weeks after the grapes come in. So the wine you taste was made with grapes picked just a few weeks before. The tradition started when winemakers wanted to use up their Gamay grapes and realized they could make a passable wine quickly with the use of the carbonic maceration method, where the fruity quality is preserved without the bitter tannins of the skins and seeds. What began as a winemaker trick became marketing genius. French law requires that BN be released no earlier than the third Thursday of November - no exceptions.

This is not a serious wine - it's just fun and flirty and can be served chilled or at room temperature, and it pairs with virtually every food on the planet. Just don't keep it too long - it's meant to be drunk within six months of purchase. And in these financially precarious times, you'll be happy to hear that BN is one of the best values out there; most bottles are about $10. A few producers are going green and bottling their BN in plastic bottles rather than glass; it keeps the shipping weight down. 

Most wine stores carry three or four types of Beaujolais Nouveau, and here are some of the better producers to look for: Mommessin, Georges Duboueuf, Joseph Drouhin, J. Arthaud, and Michel Picard.

Cookies, pies, tarts, bars--step aside. The brownie is possibly the best American dessert invention ever. When I lived in New York City I satisfied my craving at Fat Witch Bakery in Chelsea Market, creators of the divinely decadent Fat Witch Brownie. But when I left the city the only option was mail order. Thankfully Fat Witch creator Patricia Helding has taken pity on all of us non-New Yorkers and come up with three brownie mixes to recreate the Fat Witch goodness at home. (Up until now she never parted with her brownie recipes.)

The Fat Witch Original Brownie Mix takes minutes to mix and the result is a pan of intensely chocolatey, dense, not-too-sweet brownies. You can also choose from Snow Witch (white chocolate) or Blonde Witch (a cross between a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie). All you need are eggs, butter, a baking pan, and a mixing spoon. $8.99 per package

Because I am passionate about food, art, and service, when all three of these interests come together it's a beautiful thing.  I was at the Fancy Foods show back in early summer and felt drawn to a particular booth because of the folk art on the "walls" of the booth.  I didn't even know what the product was; I just wanted to look at the art.    

As it turns out, the Immaculate Baking Co. makes cookies and other baked goods, uses  folk art images on their packaging, and supports the Folk Artist's Foundation through donations and community art programs. There are number of renowned folk artists from Alabama, and Immaculate Baking Co. includes the work of two of my favorites, Jimmy Lee Sudduth and Mose Toliver.The goal of the company is to offer great-tasting, all-natural treats and inspire the natural artist in all of us. Their slogan is "Cookies with a Cause".

So what about the cookies?  They have ready-to-bake, all organic cookie dough that you just take out of the bag and bake. Take your pick: chocolate chunk, triple chocolate chunk, vanilla sugar, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin and  cranberry oatmeal white chocolate.   They also have packages of ready-to-eat cookies, brownie dough and  ready-to-bake biscuits and scones.

I made a batch of the chocolate chunk cookies for our tailgating party this past weekend and there wasn't a single one left after the game.  Everyone thought they were homemade. And they were. Sort of.  These cookies were exactly how I like my cookies:  soft and chewy and very chocolatey.  The great thing about the cookie dough is that it's already divided up into portions in the package, so all you have to do is separate the sections, place them on the baking sheet, and bake.  The fact that the company supports folk artists just makes me feel so much better about eating cookies.  Like I need a reason.  You can find Immaculate Baking  Co. products in grocery stores all over the county, or you can order online.   Check them out and let me know how you like them.

While I love a good homemade tomato sauce as much as anybody, the honest truth is that I typically rely on jarred sauces for my weeknight meals. (I feel better now that I have confessed this to you.) When I was at the Fancy Foods Show this past June I discovered a new line of fantastic sauces called Vino de Milo.  The sauces are wine-based sauces made with all natural ingredients and no added sugars.  When I do make a homemade tomato sauce, I usually add a splash of wine, so the flavors in these  sauces were particularly appealing.  There was no acidic "winey" flavor that you get if you add too much wine; it seemed like just the right amount to add richness and balance the other seasonings.

Of course, I tasted all the varieties and liked them all, but I think my favorites were the the Four-Herb Malbec Marinara and the Tuscan Merlot. There's also a Mediterranean Pinot Grigio, Portobello Shiraz, and a Roasted Garlic Chianti. The wine really makes these distinctive sauces stand out from some of the other jarred sauces on the market.  So far I've used them in spaghetti sauce, pizza, and a goat cheese gratin, but there are plenty of other options.    I often advise people to keep some jarred pasta sauce in the pantry because it's a versatile ingredient for quick and easy dinners. Believe me, I'll be stocking up on some Vino de Milo!

The other thing I love about these sauces is the artwork on the label.  It's bright and  colorful and reminds me of Julia Child in the kithchen with wine glass in one hand and a bottle in the other hand that she's pouring into the pan.  Just looking at these jars makes me feel happy and inspired to cook. Check out "7 Ways with Jarred Pasta Sauce" for a little inspiration.  Let me know about some of your favorite "go-to" ingredients for weeknight suppers.

At first glance, you may think I'm referring to my husband, but actually, the Grill Daddy is a cool gadget I recently picked up for him. With all of the grilling he's been doing this summer, the grill was starting to little dingy, and this tool did the trick. No batteries required (I kept looking for somewhere to charge this thing up), you simply fill it with water and scrub away!

Speaking of grilling, with football season here and our baby due next week, we'll be doing plenty of tailgating at home. My favorite party spread? LOTS of appetizers to munch on throughout the day! Check out a some of my favorites, and let us know what you enjoy during tailgating!

 

As the demand for preportioned products continues to rise, Jif has jumped on board with a reduced-fat, on-the-go peanut butter product.  With all of the positive health qualities I adore about peanut butter, Jif To Go is perfect for stashing in my office for a mid-afternoon snack attack. However, each little cup contains 2 servings of peanut butter (4 Tablespoons) which totals around 380 calories--way more than I need for a snack--so I try to stretch it into at least 2, usually 3 servings. Smeared on a slice of high-fiber bread or on an apple, this snack is satisfying and gives me that extra boost of protein to keep me feeling full until dinner.

The peanut butter cups come in a package of six, 2.5-ounce cups that, depending on the retailer, costs between $1.99 and $4.00.

For moms on-the-go, this is an easy, healthy snack to throw into a purse with some celery or apple slices for a family trip to the park or a little league game. For the avid backpacker, hiker, or biker, stash it in a backpack for a protein-rich snack that is lightweight and won't bulk up your pack or weigh you down.

I could probably live off of peanut butter, banana, and soft white bread sandwiches for the rest of my life, but here are a few other favorite recipes that use peanut butter: 

Chocolate and Peanut Butter S'mores

Spicy Soba Noodles with Chicken in Peanut Sauce

Peanut Butter Pie

Shrimp Pad Thai

Asian Peanut Dip

Peanut Butter Candy Bar Brownies

What are some of your favorite uses for peanut butter? Do you prefer the traditional or all-natural?

I have just returned from the Fancy Foods Show in New York City, a huge trade show of specialty and gourmet foods.  After you get over being jealous of my cool job, let me assure you that this show is not for the faint of heart, or the faint of stomach.  After about 100 aisles of gourmet popcorn, organic corn chips, chocolate truffles, jams, jellies, and salsas, olive oils, vinegars, and cheeses,  tastebud fatigue sets in.  And you still have another hundred aisles to go! 

But it is great fun to explore the new flavor trends and see what new products are being introduced in the market place.   One flavor trend I noticed right away was blood orange.  These oranges have a thin orange-red skin and a flesh that's deep crimson. They're available from March through December and tend to be sweeter than other varieties.  We saw blood orange juices, marmalade, balsamic vinegar,  sodas, and even blood orange-flavored olive oil.  This is a beautiful fruit to use around the holidays, especially in salads,  but it may be hard to find them right now, so you'll have to settle for getting it in juice form or a cocktail mixer.

Some of the other trends I noted were green tea in every kind of product, tea in general, dark chocolate, organic products, gluten-free products, speciality cocktail mixes, and healthy chips and snacks.  I did taste a number of things that I fell in love with, and I'll be telling you about those later.  Stay tuned.  In the meantime, have a blood orange cocktail  (pictured) and get your daily dose of vitamin C.

It has long been a pet peeve of mine that bacon does not come in resealable containers.  Unless you are cooking for a relatively large family (at least larger than ours at 2 adults and a mush-and-milk-eating baby), it's pretty likely you're not going to eat the whole pound.  So then you end up either tossing the extra, wrapping it up somehow for later, or in fact actually eating all of it - which isn't good for anyone's arteries.  I have always wondered why, in this day and age, no one could make the leap to sell bacon in a more sensible fashion.

Hello, Oscar Meyer Center Cut Bacon!  For the first time ever, I found resealable bacon at our local Publix!  Even better, it was on sale (center cut bacon is apparently pricier - who knew) and lower in fat than regular bacon (another little known fact - at least to me - about center cut bacon).  Last weekend I fried a few slices in our skillet and returned the unused portion to our fridge, nicely sealed - no plastic wrap, aluminum foil, or tupperware required.  Hallelujah.

If you live in Alabama, you've been denied some of the world's best beers for years. Our state bans all beer with alcohol content above six percent by volume. That means most of the great beers of Belgium, as well as the products of popular microbreweries like Rogue aren't available here.

But all of that may be about to change. An organization called Free the Hops has been lobbying our state legislature to change this law, and they are very close to succeeding. A bill to effectively eliminate the alcohol limits passed the Alabama Senate yesterday, and as soon as our governor signs it, the whole beer world will be open to us.

And that's the purpose of this post. If you live in Alabama and love beer, please call or e-mail Gov. Bob Riley and urge him to sign the Free the Hops bill, HB373. You can find more information here.

And as a high-alcohol-beer newbie, I need your help, blogland. What are some of your favorite Belgian and other brews?