i heart french fries.

Ingredients:

• Mix of apples (at least 3-4 pecks for decent yield)
• Cinnamon
• Sweetener (optional)

Instructions:

1. Wash, core, and quarter apples
2. Place apples into large pot with 1/2 cup of water and put over medium heat
3. Boil apples down until soft and falling apart.
4. Remove from heat
5. Run contents of the pot through a food mill
6. Let milled apple sauce cool completely
7. Season with cinnamon and sweeten as necessary
8. Separate into storage containers and freeze until ready to eat.

You will quickly learn that I put some form of spicy heat on just about everything I eat, most of it in the form of hot sauce. Tapatio Hot Sauce is actually one of the more recent additions to my hot sauce rotation. And it has been a great addition.

What do I look for in a hot sauce? I’m not one of those goof balls who picks a hot sauce that only brings pain to the table. Yes, I prefer a significant amount of heat —  I like to at least have a runny nose by the end of my entree — but I have deep bench when it comes to adding additional dry heat if the need arises. More than anything, I look for flavor in my hot sauce, if the flavor gets lost in the heat, the sauce has failed. Also, I look for uniquely flavored hot sauces and not just the me too sauces that don’t stand out, or are just poor Tabasco clones.

Luckily, Tapatio has a great flavor that is both unique and not at all overpowered by the heat level. And you know what makes it even better? It tends to be one of the cheapest hot sauces on the shelf. Here’s the breakdown:

What I like:

• Great taste
• Unique flavor
• Low price

What I don’t:

• It could get away with being a little hotter

Bottom line:

This one has found a permanent place as one of my go-to hot sauces. I’m buying it 32 oz. at a time.

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I hit the bottom of the bottle on this one this evening and decided that this dead soldier definitely need to be eulogized. This was some terrific hot sauce. I managed to use it over everything from scrambled eggs to tuna salad and this goodness handled everything I threw at it.

I’m often a little weary of these “indie” hot sauces; I’m always happy to try them, but they usually all end up tasting the same. And by the same I mean, pretty nasty. Being a boy from the Bluegrass, and actually being on a visit to the Bluegrass, and being in a well reputed product shop, this one seemed like a decent bet. Boy, was that a good decision. Here’s the breakdown

What I liked:

• perfect level of heat
• terrific flavor that wasn’t overpowered by the heat
• wonderful level of smokiness and a hint of bourbon (hey, it’s from KY)
• awesome hot sauce from my favorite state

What I didn’t:

• not available locally in Atlanta
• the bottle wasn’t big enough

Bottom line: I may start by having my mom bring me a few more bottles down on her next visit, but one way or another, I will have a fresh bottle in the house soon.

Anybody wanna order in bulk with me?

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So, I’ll try to make these more formal in the future, but since I cooked this in a serving size that served as an entree for one, and because changing the amounts of the ingredients here  and there don’t matter much, the ingredient amounts will be a little loose.

Ingredients

For the “Rice”:

• head of cauliflower
• salt & pepper to taste

“Dry” side:

• 1/2 turkey polish kielbasa
• 1 jalepeno
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 small onion

“Wet” side:

• 1/2 can of black beans
• 1/2 can of diced tomatoes
• cajun seasoning
• red pepper flakes

Instructions

I split the ingredients up because you actually prepare 3 the set of ingredients separately, and then mix them all at the end.

Cauliflower Rice

Rinse the head of cauliflower, cut off the stem and green bits. Run the entire head of cauliflower through a cheese grater to create  a rice-like consistency. Place grated cauliflower in a microwave safe container. Salt & pepper the grated cauliflower. Cover container so that it can still breath a bit. Start by microwaving 3-4 minutes. If it is at a rice-like texture let it sit, if not, continue cooking 1 minute at a time until it is cooked to your satisfaction.

Dry Side

Take dry side ingredients, chop them all up to bite-size morsel and dump them in a skillet on medium/medium-high heat. Cook until veggies begin to soften and onion start to take on a little color.

Wet Side

Put beans and tomatoes in a small sauce pan on low heat, just enough to heat up ingredients mix in cajun seasoning and red pepper flakes to taste.

Putting it all together

Once all 3 parts are heated/cooked, mix everything in together. Eat and Enjoy.

Clearly I need to work on my food photo skills. In fact, showing you this will probably prevent you from cooking it, but I swear it tastes pretty awesome. Here’s some idea of what mine looked like:

I desperately wanted to like this cereal. I went to the store specifically seeking this cereal. I have been super-excited about the cereal since I first caught wind of its existence. I like Cheerios. I like the flavor of cinnamon, both natural and artificial. I did not like Cinnamon Burst Cheerios.

This concoction looked perfect on paper, and really, there’s only one problem with this cereal — but it ended up being the killer. The folks at Cheerios clearly built this flavor under the assumption that the consumer was going to put milk on it. I don’t. Part of the “sweetness” profile of the cereal consists of a coating over the cereal that presumably would dissipate into the milk, but without milk provides a less than pleasant, chemical-laden flavor. That was enough to ruin it for me. Once you get through that, the cereal is actually quite tasty, but I found my self dreading the initial reaction of every bite I put in my mouth — not the way cereal should be enjoyed.

What I liked:

• the idea of this cereal

What I didn’t:

• the execution of this cereal
• the chemical tasting, super-sweet film over each morsel
• that I dreaded each new bite
• that I didn’t fall head over heals for this cereal

Bottom line: You’ll probably really enjoy this cereal of you eat it with milk. Otherwise, tread carefully.

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I have become a huge fan of this Wellshire products; especially their turkey kielbasa. Up until very recently I was a bit of a purist in regards to things I would allow to be referred to as sausages, burgers, etc. in my presence. Well, I’m a convert. You can put whatever meat in a burger/sausage/etc and call it whatever you want if you’re making stuff that tastes this good.

Plus, they are using quality bird, so if you’re an ethical omnivore like myself, you can’t go wrong with this stuff.

I’ve only been able to find this stuff available at Whole Foods, and even then their stock can be a bit spotty at times. So, when I find it, I buy a lot of it and dump it in the freezer.

What I like:

• tastes delicious
• easy to prep
• very versatile in terms of how to use it in meals

What I don’t:

• a little pricey
• limited availability

Preparation notes:

Although these kielbabsas are already fully cooked, I always do something to provide a little extra “cooking”. Typically I do one of to things with it. The easiest thing I do is  just split it down the middle and drop it in in a hot, dry skillet to heat it up and brown it a bit. Then I may add a little Mrs. Dash, and some hot sauce, then I dig in.

The other way I like it is to slice it into medallions and drop those in the skillet with some sauteed peppers and onions, maybe some dices tomatoes, and a nice mix of creole seasonings. Yum!

I also take those medallions and mix them into scrambled eggs and salsa.

Bottom Line:

If you’re looking for a relatively low-cal, high-quality, ethically raised protein that can be prepare quickly in dozens of different ways, this might this turkey kielbasa might be just what you are looking for.

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In general, I have been a big fan of every flavored variety of Special K that I have tried. I have to say, what we have here is not only the best Special K I’ve ever tasted, but has instantly become one of my favorite varieties, period. 

Many times, I find that many of these flavored variations of basic “health” cereals end up being too a little too busy from a texture/consistency, or they are really good for the first bowl or two, but end up becoming a little tiresome before the I’ve made it through the box.  Special K Oats & Honey didn’t suffer from any or that. This one was a winner from the beginning of the box all the way to the bottom.

What I liked:

• Perfect level of sweetness
• Never got old
• Brings all the Special K nutritional value along for the ride

What I didn’t:

• Isn’t widely available in stores yet (only found it at Walmart so far)
• The box finally came to an end

Consumption notes: 

I eat all my cereal dry, so your mileage may vary a bit by adding milk into the equation. That, of course, is your call.

Bottom line:

If you are a fan of delicious and healthy cereal, give this one a try.

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For whatever reason, this winter has been an absolute disaster on my hands; they have tried to maintain a level of dryness and cracked-ness that has left me in a miserable state. No amount of traditional lotions put a dent in the problem, and I was simply unwilling to put something so heavy on that I felt like my hands had a constant coat of lard on them.

Based on a friends recommendation I decided to give Aquaphor a try. Now this isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to Aquaphor; it has forever been my go-to elixir whenever I nursed a healing a tattoo. Well as great as it has been to help pamper me through my hard-living, ink-getting lifestyle, this stuff has re-proven its value a real life-saver for my hands.

While my hands still quickly take a turn for the worse if I go for much more than a day without a slathering or two, this stuff has now become a staple in this house.

What I like:

• not too greasy
• a little goes a long way
• absorbs quickly

What I don’t:

• I do still have to be careful about what I touch for an hour or so after application, or a I leave some residue behind
• pertaining to the 1.75oz bottle, the product is difficult to get out in a controllable way when the bottle is approaching emptiness

Bottom Line:

My house won’t be without this product from here on out.

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I’ve recently added these back in to my daily regimen as an afternoon snack. Because I buy them in bulk at Costco, I’m really only working with 3 of the 9 available flavors — although I do sneak the others in on occasion. This afternoon I blindly grabbed the Chocolate Peanut Butter variety, so that’s the review you get.

Of the 3 flavors I rotate through, this one is probably my least favorite. I would attribute this to the fact that, early on, this is the flavor I had the most and am most bored with. That said, it’s still a very filling and nutritious afternoon treat. And actually, all things considered, it tastes pretty good too.

What I like:

• nice and filling
• high nutritional value
• calorie/protein ratio is a high point

What I don’t:

• calling that flavor “peanut butter” is a stretch
• whey protein can be a bit disagreeable to my GI tract

Bottom line:

If you’re looking for a high protein, low-cal, “sweet treat” to snack on, this is certainly worth a try.

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