I made this fun graphic from scratch in Canva.
It’s a new year, and I’m starting this year as spicy as ever. Building on this theme, my New Year’s Goal is to always be trying new things. So, let’s turn up the heat! As you may have seen from my last “Best of the Web”, this is where I highlight fun new products and Ideas I’ve found on the web (and some of my own ideas too!). I also give a lot of personal updates in this series. So, without further ado….
A Hot sauce club for people who REALLY enjoy hot sauce. A good hot sauce will compliment, NOT compete with, your food.
The Feugo Box. “Box of the Month” clubs are oh so big right now, but this one is special. This is a Hotsauce club you can subscribe to where you receive monthly or quarterly shipments of hotsauce. However, I don’t think this is your average hotsauce club in that this company takes a LOT of time and energy curating the sauces in this collection. I’ve tried three boxes of the sauces selected and they are all amazing, with a diverse offering and junk free ingredients. If you love Hotsauce and are looking to branch out, Fuego Box is for you. These are small batch hot sauce created with love from hot sauce lovers like you. Each box comes with tasting notes, much like you would find on a fine wine. This came at a perfect time in my life as I’ve always been in love with hot sauce but since I’ve been pregnant I can’t seem to get enough heat! And Chili. And what goes great on chili? Hot Sauce!
Custom Jalapeno cleaning mask made by yours truly.
Building on the heat theme, I want to share with you my jalapeno popper cleaning mask. Many of you know from previous posts that I love embracing my inner Martha Stewart and any chance to use my glue gun! Just ask Scott, before I had this blog I decoupaged EVERYTHING. And then I channeled a lot of that energy into grilling and this blog when I discovered grilling…
-
- My friend Sally, donning her Jalapeno Popper mask.
So, my good friend Sally came to my last Grilling clinic and fell in love with my prsocuitto Havarti jalapeno poppers recipe and started making them every Sunday night. She texted me and asked how I cleaned the jalapenos without crying and having to fumigate the kitchen every time and I half answered – I clean them out under running water of the faucet AND, (half jokingly), I wear Scott’s respirator. That’s when I thought, what the heck, Sally makes these so often I’m going to make her a bedazzled respirator! So, I picked up a respirator at Home Depot and got my glue gun out with some rhinestones and acrylic paint. This is the sassy way to clean out peppers! If you have a pepper fanatic in your life, try making them one of these!! No one will ever forget a unique gift like this.
These came with telicherry peppers and Australian flake sea salt. These have a permanent fixture in my purse because every meal is better finished with high quality ingredients. No more crappy iodized salt at restaurants!
This purchase let’s me know that I am officially a food snob. My biggest pet peeve at restaurants is basic iodized salt and standard pepper. It is not that hard to offer a salt and pepper grinder and it makes such a big difference on even the most simple food. I was actually sitting at the local diner where Scott and I do breakfast quite often (I usually smell bacon wafting from this diner while doing crossfit! Literally I’m running around the box thinking BACON!!), and I said “gosh, this would be so much better with good salt and pepper, not this crappy iodized salt stuff. I wish I had a mini salt and pepper grinder in my purse right now”. So I went home and got on Amazon and these cute mini sea salt and pepper grinders were at my doorstep two days later (I love Amazon Prime 2 day free shipping!). So, I guess you are at official food snob status when you start carrying around salt and pepper shakers in your purse! Because every meal is a little better finished with a high quality sea salt and freshly ground pepper!
Now you can have Sriracha anywhere you go. If you have one of these, it means you really like Sriracha.
That brings me to my other new cool find- Sriracha2go. These went viral on facebook before Christmas and numerous people told me they had found the perfect Christmas present for me except that it was on back order. Well the heck with it, I still ordered them for myself and they just came in. I ordered the 3 pack because I thought these would be cool to gift to really special people (and I mean you have to be REALLY special to get one of these). I was disappointed to find that they arrived empty, but the enjoyment I will get from these will be well worth the cost. And no doubt they will be a conversation starter. Sriracha lovers unite! I’ve bonded with many a stranger over our shared love for hotsauce.
So this product isn’t spice, but it does refer to heat, the kind that fuels your grill! For any of you who have had an opened bag of charcoal spill out in the back of your car or who have lugged a big bag of charcoal a long distance to a tailgate, you will appreciate this product. The Grill-Easy FireQube is the perfect, portable box of charcoal for a single grilling session on a kettle grill. It’s perfectly portable for a tailgate or an event, way easier than lugging the whole bag when you have a lot to carry.
Now it is officially set in stone. Or chalk anyway.
And, building on New Year’s resolutions, I thought I’d share mine!
Every time I’ve ever said I would Never do anything, it has come to bite me in the ass and I’ve turned out to do it. So, I’ve started telling myself #neversaynever.
Here I am making BBQ Brisket Grilled cheeses at the tailgate- baby bump alert! 19 weeks in this pic!
Also, if you want to see a baby bump update, here I am at 19 weeks a few weeks ago.
I want to try new things. it is easy to get stuck in a routine or a rut when you know what you like. I want to always continue growing as a person. So, some of the new things I have tried this year- I always thought it would be fun to join in on the parking lot action at a Phish show and make grilled cheeses along with the rest of the hippies there. So, Scott had tickets to the concert a few weeks ago and I loaded up my new Plancha grill in the back and made gourmet grilled cheeses for Scott and our group and the crowd near us in the parking lot. I just wanted to be part of the experience! So I did! I also made a nutella, cream cheese and cinnamon grilled cheese on cinnamon raisin bread that was out of this world! You must try!! Saldly I don’t have pics of those but try them, they’re crazy good!
I’m calling this look the #miamivice
Even down to the little things, I’m trying to break out of my mold. I usually go super neutral with my nails, and often do the same 3 colors over and over. I’m breaking out with the wild accent nail these days. I’m calling this the #MiamiVice look. (You guys know I LOVE teal!). What should my next accent color be?
And, since the baby is due May 25th, I’ve enrolled myself in a series of cooking classes- I want to learn as much as I can before I am pretty committed for a while when I pop that kiddo out.
Robyn and Carson Daly make calzones on the grill on the Today Show- July, 2014.
Another resolution is to stop comparing myself to others. I have a really, I mean REALLY bad habit of always comparing myself to others. A good example was when I was on the Today Show, what an awesome opportunity! But then the girl who was on the day after me got called back to make a second appearance with Kathie and Hoda, well I couldn’t stop comparing myself. Why didn’t they invite me back? This is destructive behavior and I need to STOP and just be happy with me and my accomplishments and move on. This trait really gets on my husband’s nerves and I am nipping it in the bud! it is a happiness killer and I will stop doing it! It is written down and documented for all of you to see!
AND, finally, something that is something I’ve always been bad about. I have lots of friends but I am bad about investing time in friendships. I have a tendency to be way overbooked and trying to do way too many things at once and I don’t spend enough investing in building and growing my relationships with friends. This is something I want to work on. Especially as I have a kid, it is going to be even harder to do this but it will be even more invaluable to have others who can share parenting and baby advice!
What are your New Year’s resolutions?
