BACON DEODORANT

It was bound to happen. Bacon deodorant is a new item that has a welcome place in my arsenal of personnel hygiene items. Yes, it does smell like bacon. I would like to share what is said about the product with the accompanied literature.

"Using PowerBacon will probably make everyone drawn to you like you were the most powerful magnet on Earth And by everyone, we mean friends, acquaintances, beautiful strangers, dogs, bears, swamp alligators , lions and even pigs. Use your new power wisely because with great bacon power comes great baconsiblility."

TEXAN CHIPOTLE MAPLE BBQ SAUCE

We are having fun trying the products of ‘Culinary Twist’ Today we are sampling a barbeque sauce called; ‘Texan Chipotle Maple BBQ Sauce’. Just reading the colorful label sounds tasty before we have even popped the top. The combination of chipotle peppers and maple syrup is the perfect match of bbq flavors. If our last experience with ‘Baja Sauce’ is any indicator of quality we should have a great meal. This sauce is all natural, fat free and blends honey, maple syrup and chipotle peppers for a robust flavor. Our vehicle to sample this sauce  will be some meaty beef ribs. I love beef ribs and cannot wait till dinner.

Ingredients;

Tomato puree (Tomato paste, water) sugar, water, apple cider vinegar, honey molasses, sea salt, brown sugar, maples syrup, corn starch, dried chipotle peppers, spices hot sauce ( peppers, distilled vinegar, salt xanthan gum) onion powder, natural honey flavor, garlic powder, natural smoke flavor, organic chili powder, caramel color, natural maple flavor, dried orange peel are the listed ingredients.

Aroma & Texture;

The top is opened and a fairly traditional smell greets your sinuses. I smell vinegar, molasses and tomatos. There is also a faint aroma of smoke. This is a thick, dark red puree. No seeds are present.

Taste;

This sauce has a great chipotle flavor. Texan has a smoky jalapeno flavor. This is a mild sauce by all means but has a flavor blast from the peppers. The combination of maple syrup, honey and molasses keep the heat in check with good balance. This has all the components of a traditional smoky bbq sauce. The garlic and onions with the spices are in the background to enhance and compliment. This should be a good sauce for our beef ribs.

Heat;

This is a mild sauce with the heat meter tipping to one star out of five.

Food;

Smoked beef ribs on a covered grill will be our tasting vehicle. Our ribs were smoked for two hours, wrapped in foil and cooked for an additional hour. They were cut and slathered with our sauce. They were returned to the smoker for several minutes to set the sauce.
  I took several bites and started to sing the praises of contentment. My oh My was I in beef rib heaven. Sweet, Sticky, Smoky, Savory, Succulent, Sensational, Sinful, Satisfying, Sexy, are several describing terms. This is a traditional smoky sweet sauce that is the essence of traditional bbq. This flavor is what we all love.

Overall:

‘Texan Chipotle Maple BBQ Sauce from ‘Culinary Twist’ is another fantastic product. Do you want incredible tasting beef ribs? This sauce is a must have component for that traditional sweet, smoky barbeque dinner. We were very pleased with this sauce and highly recommend it to you.

Culinary Twist
http://www.culinarytwist.com/

MEAT COMICS

Chris Cosentino; celebrity chef, salumi producer, hot sauce maker, bicycle racer and now comic book writer. Chris Cosentino has teamed up with Marvel Comics and wrote his first comic book. Yours truly has obtained a first edition autographed copy.
 Our story begins at “The Annual Urban Outlaw Cycle-Cross Cross-Dress Bike Race’. Two dead bodies have been run over by the ‘Cross Dress” racers. These bodies are not only dead but have been butchered literally. The police have no choice but to bring in celebrity chef Chris Cosentino to help identify the butcher/murderer. Chris and ‘Super Hero Wolverine” team up to solve this crime. The story goes on from this morbid but colorful beginning.
  I have not read comics since my ‘R. Crumb’ underground comic days. This was a fun read that was a little dark but humorous. Meat and comics are a great mix. Chris Cosentino you are a ‘Super Hero’ in my book.

POT PIE PARADISE

Quick and easy are frozen pot pies. These are not the pies you may remember from your youth. These frozen pot pies are healthy, all natural and have no preservatives so says the website. We have been on a pot pie roll and wanted to give them a try. We found these pies at the Rockridge Farmers Market. They sure were yummy for being so healthy.

Pot Pie Paradise

COBBLESTONE BAKERY

We at the 'Friday Richmond Farmers Market' are proud to announce the presence of a new vendor; Cobblestone Bakery. Each Friday they will bring freshly baked goods for your pleasure. I can personally vouch for they yummy factor of the cannolis, bear claws and chocolate chip cookies. They sell the most amazing pretzel rolls not to mention a selection of pies. Cobblestone Bakery is a welcome addition to our market.

Friday Richmond Farmers Market
Fridays 8-3
24th & Barrett Ave.
Richmond, Ca.

MOJOBRICKS

Have you ever wished for a product that infuses smoke to your meat with no fuss or muss. Mojobricks is a clean and easy way to impart  beautiful smoke flavor to your bbq cook. A bbq competitor was hawking Mojobricks at a previous event. The price was right and I was curious. These are small cubes of compressed wood that you place over a heat source. They smolder and do their magic. Different flavors are available such as; red oak, cherry, maple and hickory. We purchased the hickory cubes. We will experiment with some beef ribs today.

We are smoking our ribs in a covered Weber kettle. We built a charcoal fire consisting of 30 lit coals. The glowing coals were placed on one side of the grill. We closed the bottom & top vents to a pencil width. The  Mojobrick was placed on top of the lit coals and the grill was positioned. The rack of ribs was placed on the grill away from the coals. The cover was put into place.

   The Mojobrick began to smolder almost immediately. We smelled the beautiful intoxicating perfume of hickory. The Mojobrick lasted for over an hour. The image above is the rack after two hours. You can see all the beautiful smoke color. We wrapped our ribs to finish the cook. These were some delicious smoky ribs. They were not overpowered with smoke but the ribs did have wonderful hickory flavor.
Mojobricks is a clean, easy way to impart smoke flavor to your bbq. What fun we have experimenting

Mojobricks

JALAPENO CHEESE DOGS

Baseball, hot dogs and beer are America's favorite pastimes. The World Series is over and it was a fun ride. Over the years I have consumed many of the later two favorites. As a kid I loved hot dogs. My tastes have evolved and hot dogs have taken a back seat in my passions until now. 'Los Gatos Meats and Smokehouse' makes a 'Jalapeno Cheese Dog'. I was in the neighborhood and the butcher gave his recommendation. I may have been his easiest customer of the day.

These dogs are made with beef and pork. They will be cooked briefly over a hot charcoal fire. You need to be careful to not overcook these frankfurters because if they burst the cheese will melt out into the fire. While they were cooking you could see little pockets of cheese oozing and waiting to erupt. We served these special dogs on a toasted pretzel roll and accompanied it with some zesty mustard.

These dogs had a welcome snap to their bite. There was plenty of cheese in these fancy dogs. In fact you had to be careful biting into the dogs right off the grill because the cheese pockets were molten hot. I loved the slight tang of the jalapenos. It was not hot by any stretch but had great jalapeno flavor. Jalapeno Cheese Dogs, where have you been all my life. Needless to say these were delicous. We will definately return to Los Gatos Meats for more hot dogs.

Los Gatos Meats & Smokehouse
575 University Avenue
Los Gatos, CA 95032
Phone: 408.354.7055