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Nibble Me This...

Friends, Enemies, Wannabeees, lend me your ears!  I want to tell you about my BFF's Giveaway and I want you to enter!  I've told you about Chris at Nibble Me This before - he is the source of anything and everything grilled - his recipes are spot on and they never disappoint!  He is giving away a great grill package and it would tickle me to no end if one of MY readers won!  So scoot on over to Nibble Me This and enter before June 23rd.  And then, check out his new book!!!

I have already pre-ordered my copy with Amazon and you can, too, by clicking here.  When is the last time you bought a cookbook for under $20??  Like NEVER!  Great price for a Great book!

Ya'll know I don't have a Kamado grill...a Big Green Egg...just a propane grill is all we use because the mister is afraid of setting the deck on fire - he said we can't have one because we don't have concrete to sit it on.  When I show him picture after picture of Big Green Eggs on wooden decks, he scoffs...but then he's nuts!  I have begged him for a Big Green Egg, pleaded, made promises that no self-respecting girl would make...but he refuses, so I can only surmise that he has some kind of irrational fear of Kamado's...but once he is institutionalized, you can bet I'll assuage my grief/guilt with a Big Green Egg purchase.  Would that be wrong?!?

Listen up - I ordered this book, even though I don't have a Kamado, because I know all of Chris' recipes will be worth 5 dangs...and you don't need a Big Green Egg to grill up something delish...just expert help from someone who will give you step-by-step-fool-proof-instructions, and that's Chris!

Congrats on the book Chris - can hardly wait to get my hands on my copy!

(Chris didn't ask me to write this, this is totally unsolicited but because I know just how amazing his recipes are, I know this book will be great and I wanted you to know!!)

Bill The Butcher...

For five years I drove by Bill The Butcher in Redmond, telling myself each time I would stop and go in on my next trip.  But I never did...I just kept driving by.  Then a friend invited me to go to a class at Bill The Butcher to learn how to properly cut up a chicken.  I went.  I learned a thing or two and I came home with all kinds of goodies, including a chicken to brine (more about that in another post.)

 

Bill the Butcher has several locations around Seattle, check their website  to see where they are.  I'll bet there is one near you, well, if you live in Seattle that is.  The Redmond shop is rather charming - not only do they sell meat/chicken, but they sell organic milk and cream plus they have a really nice selection of salsa, BBQ Sauce, and pickled things - like Pickled Figs and PIckled Raisins.  I bought a jar of the Pickled Raisins (they are surprisingly delicious!) and plan to use it with a pork tenderloin, sounds yummy, no?  

Meet Bobby the Butcher.  Bobby taught the chicken class, in the back-room of the shop.  It was about an hour long and he was chock full of good info - definitely worth the $50 cost of the class, which included a whole organic chicken ($21.00) and then we were given $25 to use on anything in the store...so basically the class cost us $4.00.  Is that a deal or what?!?  And Bobby the Butcher said he would be willing to teach a class on whatever we wanted to learn - they are open for suggestions and love to teach what they know because they love what they do - super nice people!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chickens at Bill the Butcher come with the neck attached, that was a new one for me - so I learned how to remove it. 

I also learned how to locate and remove the big pieces of fat that are usually attached on whole fryers.  Bobby showed us how to fry those pieces of fat until they are rendered/liquified creating a nice flavor enhancer for sauteing veggies or potatoes or to use with fried rice...anything that could use a boost of chicken flavor. 

  With the $25 from the class I bought some of their cinnamon bacon - it was SOOOO good!  Just the tiniest hint of cinnamon - can't believe what a difference that made!  I also bought some of their sausages - they were outstanding - will be buying more very soon!  And I came home with a couple of steaks - not too thin, not too thick - they were just right for us, because at Bill the Butcher, they'll cut it however you want.

Listen kids, if you haven't been to Bill the Butcher, get yourself on in there - they are friendly, their prices are not out of whack and they are probably on your way to wherever you're going!

(I was not paid to write this post - I just happen to really, really like Bill the Butcher...and I hope you will, too!)

Harvest Song Walnut Preserves...

Before Christmas I visited Timbercreek Lodge on Highway 202 just east of Redmond, WA...it's a tiny little Western-wear shop for most of the year but during the holidays it turns into the cutest little Christmas shop this side of the Mississippi.  Along with all the trimmings, the shop carries a line of preserves, crackers, olives, etc., that just can't be beat.  I wanted to tell you about them today because, well, you need to know these things!  I purchased two items from the shop that changed my life...dramatically.  As in I'll never be able to celebrate anything with Walnuts Preserves again!  Say whaaaaa?

Notice my burn is healing nicely - I now have new skin!  (Picture posted purely for sympathy...send it my way.)  Harvest Song is a new-to-me-brand but I'm quickly becoming their biggest fan.  They produce artisanal preserves that are directly imported from Armenia.  Which reminds me, I probably should make up a batch of my mom's Armenian Meat Pies for our New Year's Day festivities, they will pair nicely with these walnuts...so good.

Green walnuts are carefully picked and then cured - whole - shell and all, in oil.  You read that right, walnuts in the shell are put into oil where they soften and as they do they take on this incredible richness...you would swear there are all kinds of exotic spices in the oil - but there aren't - it's the walnuts themselves!  When they are sliced, you can see the pretty inside - almost star-like - and they are yummy...think allspice/cloves/cinnamon...even though there isn't any of that in there - and then think surprise because these walnuts are nothing if not surprising!  The owner at Timbercreek Lodge told me to serve them with cheese - so I did, in these cute little party cups:

Click here to find the Harvest Song Walnuts and here for the Party Cups - Amazon sells both and their prices on these two items are ridiculously cheap!  I love the party cups because you can fill them with anything - lemon curd for a mini lemon pie, fresh fruit, chocolate ganache, chicken salad...really, they are so good and unlike some other party cups on the market, these have a pastry taste - not a cracker-y taste,that's a word, right?

Put some Gorgonzola crumbles in the party cups, top with a slice of preserved walnut and then drizzle on a half teaspoon or so of the walnut juice...magic!  Your guests will think they're eating an olive, because that's kind of the texture the walnuts have but then their taste will surprise them and you'll be surprised as they move like locusts and devour the entire plate in minutes!

Just so you know, I received nothing for posting about Harvest Song or Party Cups...I just happen to love both of these products and I want you to love them, too!

Travertine Tile...

Well, wouldn't you know it, the minute the Christmas festivities ended, the upstairs bathroom sprang a leak!  It wouldn't be Christmas at the Slaughterhouse unless we had some unexpected expense right after we drained our bank accounts!!  So we've been doing some rushing around looking into flooring for the bathroom...and my newest BFF Mike sent me this and I thought I would share it with you...

The Benefits of Travertine are not lost on me!  You know I'm part Italian...so I love that I can have the same floor in my bath as the Romans have in the Colosseum!  I love that it's not slick or slippery and here's the best part, IF you ever have to spend the night on the tiles, like if you wake up with some sort of gombuu or worse, with vertigo, Travertine will not be terribly cold so you won't freeze to death waiting for someone to come and cover you up with a towel!  At least, that's been my experience! 

Check out Travertine Mart - I was NOT compensated for this post.

Krumpets Oils...

I want to tell you about a great product and a great company behind it.  A few weeks back a friend told me about Krumpets Oils, room freshener sprays that really linger - like for days - and smell of Christmas memories.  No kidding.  Their Clementine Bergamot Oil based room spray is amazing - and it lasts and lasts - my home smells like White Christmas met It's a Wonderful Life met Miracle on 34th Street...like I've been baking sugar cookies with cinnamon and cloves and sipping hot wassail in front of a crackling fire.  It smells that good...you'd never know we had an old dog with a few issues - and I'm not talking about the mister either, but speaking of him, you wouldn't be able to detect his special aroma either!  I'm telling you straight, these room sprays are incredible and I haven't been this excited about something in a long, long time!

 

 I ordered two small bottles (1 oz.) of spray and I didn't really pay attention to the shipping charges until I completed my order and then saw shipping for two small bottles was $9.99!!!  What the heck?!?  Even I know you can ship a small flat-rate box for $6 so I thought their price was reeedickerous...and I told them so.  I fired off a message in their "special instructions" box and told them I thought ten bucks for shipping was a total rip-off and that this would be my first and last order. 

Well guess what?  I got a response - almost immediately - and this is what it said:

"We do agree that $10.00 shipping is a rip off.  I can't go into detail of why we did what we did, but instead I will tell you what we have done because of your feedback: ANY order less than $23.00 (roughly two bottles of spray) ships for the lower cost of $6.19.  Once your order goes above that mark shipping goes back to $10.00."

Plus they gave me a $15 credit.  

I feel like I've just experienced a small Christmas miracle...I, me, a little mountain girl who likes my home to smell good, managed to change a company's shipping policy and get a $15 apology to boot.  (Their little bottles of spray are $10.99 which may seem like a rip-off, too, except that you only need to spray a tiny bit and the scent lasts for days - so one little bottle will last a very long time, unless you spray it on yourself every day for perfume!)

Krumpets sells more than just room spray, go on now, have yourself a look, and take advantage of their new shipping policy!  You can thank me by wishing me a Happy Birthday with a comment below...Yes!  I'm 39 again!!  39 in a great smelling home...life is good!

(I received no compensation for writing this post and did so only because I love their product and was floored that they not only listened to my complaint but did something about it, too!)

Around The House - Picture This...

The mister bought "us" a new picture...from a thrift store.  Now, two things you need to know about the mister, first, he hates shopping and he reeeHeeely hates thrift stores!  He claims thrift store will give him cooties...he's a cootiephobe.  We were in the thrift store with the boy and DIL, who were looking for blankets for their dog to destroy, when the mister called my attention to a picture hanging on the wall.  The picture he was pointing to was directly above a fabulous oil painting...to which I directed his attention.  He was not amused, said if I didn't like the one he liked then, "Fine, we don't need any more pictures."  So we both walked away.  But I turned around, looked at my painting, and decided I couldn't live without it, not for $19.95!  I told the mister I was getting the oil painting and he said, "Fine, buy that piece of crap and Happy Anniversary!"  He's so romantic.  Words just float off his tongue like hot tar dripping on feathers.

Isn't is great?!?!  It's oil on canvas and the frame is genuine wood...and there's not a mark on it!  I was beyond thrilled - I love landscapes and the colors in this are perfect in our family room.  And it was $19.95!!!  

Aaaand the mister decided to buy his picture.  Now, don't get me wrong, I do like this print...it's a scene of Tuscany, one of my favorite places on earth...so what's not to like?  Have you seen the new wire picture hangers that make hanging a picture SO easy?  They are great for hanging multiple pictures and take all of the guess work out of it - and they work well for a large picture, like this one, especially when it's time on "display" will be rather short!  At first we decided to hang this picture in the living room - but it didn't work, so we tried the family room, not happening...then our bedroom, nope!  Finally it landed in the dining room and it's okay there...for now.  (I know, you're thinking my wall paper needs to go...I agree, but unless you're willing to come and help me remove it hold your tongue!)  Here's the thing about this picture...since it's been on the wall, we have been talking about going back to Italy...it's sparked something in the mister - I think it's got some kind of travel-mojo!  (We've also been talking about taking a cruise down the Yangtze in China, a rail trip to Banff and a trip to DC to see the mister's family...yadda-yadda-yadda, I'd like a little less talk and a lot more action!)

So, who's picture/painting do you like better???

Dandy Blend...The NEW Postum!

If you know what Postum is/was, then you're going to LOVE this!!!  I have discovered a NEW Postum!  Better than Pero and Inka, better than anything else out there...in fact, it's better than Postum itself!  Dandy Blend is an instant herbal beverage that tastes like instant coffee.  There's no caffeine, acidity or bitterness...it's gluten free...each cup contains 630 mg of dandelion/chickory extract...if you're not up to speed on dandelion, it's been used for centuries as a healing herb in Asia and Europe and is said to rid the body of toxins.  I'm all about removing toxins - whatever they are! 

IF you want an alternative to coffee, you must try Dandy Blend.  It makes a "darn fine cup of coffee" and iced coffee, too!  I ordered my box of Dandy Blend on-line but I'm told it's sold in some health food stores.  My box of 25 single-servings (it also comes by the pound) was $9.98, plus shipping.  I realize that talking about an alternative to coffee while living in Seattle is border-line blasphemy...but if you don't drink coffee but you like the taste of it, or if you used to drink Postum and are sad that it's gone...then you need to try Dandy Blend!! 

I was not paid to write this, I received nothing from Dandy Blend and had to buy it myself.  On this rainy, cold, gray morning (surprise! surprise!) I'm sipping a nice hot mug of Dandy Blend and feeling right as rain.

Dishwasher Detergent...

Think of this as a Public Service Announcement...or...permission to stop hating your dishwasher.  Because if you're dishwasher is like mine, then you've probably wondered why it wasn't cleaning as well as it should...that maybe it was time for a new dishwasher?  That's what I thought.  But my dishwasher was working just fine...it was the detergent that wasn't.  Last year, 17 states adopted a Phosphate Free policy for dishwasher detergents...because some tree-hugging-spotted-owl-loving-Berkinstock-wearing-chai-soy-latte-sippping environmentalist said phosphates make algae grow in ponds, and apparently that's worse than clean dishes.  You can read more about this, on many sites, like NPR  or Appliance.net  or USA Today

 Phosphates can easily be put back into your dishwasher detergent  - just pick up a box of TSP at Lowe's or Home Depot, it's in the paint department and a 4-lb. box will set you back about $10.00.  I was told the ratio, for powdered detergent, is two parts detergent to one part TSP.  So I mixed my detergent and TSP together in a separate container, now I just scoop out the amount I need for each wash. If you use a liquid detergent or those new little balls, just toss in a teaspoon of TSP when you put in your detergent.

Thanks to the Fashionista and her soil-scientist-father-in-law who told me about this...my dishwasher is no longer the recipient of my wrath.

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Update:  My new BFF Eric left me a comment on this post, he called me "Freaken lazy...narrow minded and short sided..."  I took exception with being called lazy...the other names I'll freely admit to!  He said I wanted to destroy the environment to keep from having a few spots on my glasses...rather extreme I thought! Eric encouraged me to read about phosphates, what they are and what they do...and I am going to do just that.  I will fill my vacuous head, (as Eric said, the ornament on top of my shoulders) with all the information I can find about phosphates and then I will probably continue to use phosphates in my detergent because clean dishes matter to me.  But Eric raised a good point...we should educate ourselves about the chemicals in our lives...and then, with whatever brain power we have, make our OWN decisions.  Thank you Eric, for your comments and for prompting me to "see the bigger picture."  I'll try to do that, but it will be so much easier to see it through clear glass. 

Smokin'...It's A Good Thing...

While visiting the fam I discovered my brother-in-law has a smoker!  Dad bought the biggest pork roast he could find and we took it over to my BIL the night before our feast...and then the BIL announced he had to go to Boise on business!  Plan B.  We borrowed his smoker, took it to dad's house and the next morning at the crack of dawn, we got the thing fired up.

 

 

 

 

Dad lit the charcoal with a chimney/starter...on his gas grill for maximum effect...The smoke was really rolling!  When the coals were nice and hot he poured them into the bottom pan of the smoker...almost setting himself on fire.  Next he set the pan of water in the smoker, and the grill for the roast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's basically all there is to smokin' a naked roast (dad didn't want to use a rub or even salt and pepper...he's a pork purist.)  The last step is to throw a few pieces of wet wood chips onto the coals to create the smoke...in this case we used hickory chips...and just as dad put the lid on top, the neighbor came running around the side of the house - he saw all the smoke and thought the place was on fire!  He rang the front door but since we were outside we didn't hear it (although Sadie, the guard dog, heard it and was barking up a storm - but we thought she was barking at a bad kitty so we ignored her.)  We told the neighbor it was all good - and despite the amount of smoke we were just doing a little BBQ-ing...once he was convinced we were all okay, he left, but he FAILED to tell us he had already called the Fire Department!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know what they say...where's there smoke there's fire...so they came to check it out.  Dad and I thought it was hilarious - and speaking of dad, isn't he just the cutest?  (My mom had been up before dawn, then had gone back to bed for a bit but all the commotion woke her...she came out in her pj's to see what was going on and I told her she had visitors)...the firemen (and firewoman?) were very cute ... they filled out their arson report, checked on the smoker, then left.  We invited them to come back for dinner and they said if there was enough smoke, they'd be there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We put our 7 1/2 lb. boneless pork roast in the smoker at 8:00 and took it off at 5:30 - and just to be sure it was cooked all the way through, we stuck a thermometer in it - it was good to go!  The BIL had told us to throw on a hand-full of chips every couple of hours...but we wanted this roast to be thoroughly smoked...so every time the smoke stopped, we tossed in more chips...which was about every 20 minutes!  It's not like a crock-pot where you put the meat in and walk away...oh no, someone had to be there to make it smoke!  So we took turns all day long...in between chip throwing (and putting on more coals) I spent most of the day on Pinterest, working my way up to becoming a Pinhead!

You could definitely taste the smoke...and even without any seasonings, it was dang good.  The carnivorous nephew thought is was great - as did everyone else...however, my sister, the one who is younger but looks older, said she thought it was a bit dry...whatever...she was just bugged that she missed out on the firemen!  She's a fool for a man in uniform...military, cop, pilot, postal worker, garbage man, UPS driver, plumber with a name tag...you name it...if he's wearing a uniform she's all atwitter!

  We served the pork roast with KC Masterpiece Barbeque Sauce and some of us enjoyed it with home-made applesauce.  It was divine - worth every minute of sitting in the sun tossing chips on the coals!  

The BIL bought this Brinkmann Smoke 'N Grill at Home Depot for $25.00.  It worked great...and really, for $25.00 where could you have as much fun?!? 

New Roll-Out Kitchen Drawer...

Just one, so far, but it's a beauty!  I have my bakeware, some pans, and lids all in the cupboards under my island...it's one giant headache to retrieve anything!  Thanks to The Container Store, I discovered I could install pull-out drawers myself!  They said they were EASY to attach...and anyone could do it...which meant the mister didn't have to get involved...no ranting or raving about all the stuff I didn't need which was making it necessary to install drawers, no trip to the emergency room because he mashed his thumb with something...no drama...I installed this beauty myself...and it works like a charm!!!  Although I did have two screws left over...I'm sure they were extras, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I wasn't entirely sure I had the right size (I forgot to measure ahead of time!) I only purchased one roll-out drawer.  I'll be going back for the other FIVE soon as they are all ON SALE!  It is absolutely amazing - open cupboard, pull out drawer, select lid, continue on....as opposed to - open cupboard, have something fall out and hit me on the toe!  I don't know why I didn't do this before!  Now it's a pleasure to open my cupboards and look for a lid! 

One down, five to go!  This is almost as good as going to Disneyland...that's how much I love it!  And speaking of Disney...while you're reading this I'm walking in the front gate...it's better than I remember...after all, it IS the happiest place on Earth!