Smoked Baby Back Ribs

I'm going to try something different and show the process I used while making this. Everything was bought at Fresh Market unless stated otherwise.

Here's the plain ribs I bought. Pretty basic three and a half pound rack.

I then coated the underside with Giant brand Dijon mustard. Initially I was following a recipe, but I quickly stopped once I realized it kept telling me to use the chef' s proprietary rubs and sauces. The recipe called for yellow mustard, but I used the Dijon instead because I didn't have any at my Mom's house. The recipe called for the entire thing to be covered in mustard in order to have the rub stick better, but I decided only the bottom needed it because the top was juicy enough.

I then covered the meat with Adams Rib Rubb. It smelled incredible. The temptation to lick my fingers was intense, but I resisted. I may be reckless, but even I know better than to put raw pork juices in my mouth. 

I then put my Royal Oak Hickory Chips in some water to soak.

Then I filled up the wood tray in my preheating smoker.

Once I had it at 225 degrees. I tossed in the meat and then had a martini.

And then another one.

After two hours, I checked on the meat and added more wood chips.

Two and a half more hours and then it was ready.

It broke apart when I tried to move it. The bones kept trying to slide out. Which I'm told is a good thing.

Added some BBQ sauce.

And it was done. Total time five hours, four and a half of them in the smoker and mixing drinks. Absolutely awesome. I'm not a huge fan of ribs, but these blew me away. Definitely need to make them again, and maybe even buy a smoker for myself. And then I had another martini.

Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips

I brought these to a party so I'll let my friends give their description. "Delicious, quite tasty, reminds me of breakfast." They start out sweet, but end on a salty bacon note. The only real complaints my friends had were that the initial taste resembled a sweet BBQ sauce and that it should have a stronger maple flavor. Not that I care about such things, but one friend who has a greater knowledge of the health information on the back said that they aren't even that bad for you. Pfft, as if anyone could care with how good these things taste. I had to fight to get the bag back. I guess I should have brought two bags.

Found at Giant

Pepperidge Farm Nacho Cheese Mac & Cheese

I almost didn't post this one because I messed up the preparation. At the last minute I realized I didn't have milk or butter and had to run to the store to get some, so I had to reheat the "noodles" when I got back. So how did it turn out? Meh, not so good. 

I really can't say too much about the macaroni, the goldfish shapes came across as a bit too chewy, but that is most likely my fault. Far more disappointing is the nacho cheese sauce.   The definition of nacho cheese, is processed cheese mixed with peppers and spices.  While the sauce is distinguishable from the regular cheese, it lacks the tang that could've made this excellent.

Found at Giant

Nabisco Limeade Oreo

This summer's selection of flavored Oreo's has me quite enthusiastic. I have had all manner of things I didn't expect to see between two cookies. The latest thing I've found is these, limeade cookies. I'm quite impressed, it really works! It's the right mixture sweet cookie and tart limeade. They are almost even refreshing. I know most people won't give this a chance, but if you do you'll be quite pleased.

Found at Giant

Grandma Utz's Bacon Horseradish Potato Chips

The siren call of the orange "new item" sticker. However unlike the classical Sirens of lore, I am not dashed upon rocks of disgust, but rather delivered unto a wondrous land of taste. The bacon flavor adds a salty smoky tang while the horseradish gives it a tingly almost spicy zing. Not to mention they hearty and crispy, with an old fashioned fried in lard base.

Found in Giant

Buffalo Bob's Antelope with Beef Stick

Do you know the difference between an antelope and a deer? Well this stick won't help you. Aside from the package I don't think most people would be able to differentiate between this and a Slim Jim. My coworkers claim it faintly reminded them of summer sausage which would make sense because both have citric acid as an ingredient. If you like meat sticks, you'll enjoy this, but really it's greatest selling point is being able to say you've had antelope.

Found at Pepper Palace

Donated by my Mom

Burts British Spicy Chorizo Potato Chips

First of all let me say just how good these were. Bloody brilliant. Now, with that out of the way, I wouldn't really say the flavor was chorizo, and only barely qualified as spicy. They have a sweet smoky taste that brings to mind Route 11's Mama Zuma's Revenge chips, but nowhere near as hot, maybe because they are British. I do like how since they are hand cooked they have a little label saying just whose hands were used.

Like I said earlier, these were really good and promptly got devoured by my office when I brought them in. I would certainly buy them again if I ever found them somewhere more convenient to buy them than World Market.

Found at World Market

Tramier Basil Olives

French olives from Spain and sold in the United States. Well that's certainly international. Somebody certainly went through the effort to get them all the way here, so there must be something to them. Normally I would try to recreate the name in title, but since I don't speak French, I'm not quite certain which parts of the package are the name and which parts are description. I'm not quite used to the idea of olives in something other than oil or water but I was quite curious about the package. I've never really had an olive with basil or at least just basil and honestly the basil doesn't really make much of an impression. They are certainly good, but green olives are a force in their own right, basil just doesn't bring enough to the table. I'm certain however these would be great as part of an appetizer or even might work well in a martini.

Found in World Market

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix

Probably the best part of going to Red Lobster is the Cheddar Bay Biscuits, it certainly isn't their puny depressing lobsters. Finally someone at Red Lobster decided to sell separately greatest product, probably because they haven't been doing so well financially. My guess is the sad lobsters caused it. Either way, their loss is our gain because these turned out really well. To be perfectly honest I've been using a different homemade recipe I found online that I like a little more, but this was very easy and very little mess. 

As you can see I didn't pay much attention to the size and spacing but even still the box worked like a charm. Since I've been making these for so long, I decided to try something new with them and added precooked bacon crumbles to part of the batch.

These turned out especially nice and if you are going to play with the recipe like I did I would also recommend adding a dash of Old Bay Seafood Seasoning after  applying the garlic butter coating.

Found at Giant

The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg Savory Dill Pickle Nuts

I've had plenty of different dill pickle flavored products and they all have two things in common. Dill, the primary spice that let's you know that there is a specific type of pickle and then there's the vinegar flavor. Vinegar is where most people go wrong, the tang of vinegar can be overpowering to some people so I can understand that companies out differing amounts of it in their products. Imagine my surprise when they screwed up the dill flavoring. Basically they are salt and vinegar peanuts, still good, but lacking that special push that makes them pickle tasting.

Found at Farm Home Store

Donated by my Mom

Oscar Mayer Bacon Dogs

While the expression "less is more" certainly holds true in regards to bacon flavoring (with real bacon "more is more") I feel that manufacturers are holding it a little too close to their hearts. Without reading the package you would be hard pressed to identify any bacon at all. They are a little darker than the regular Oscar Mayer hotdogs, as if they had been hanging out at the tanning salon, the only real taste difference is the smoke flavor. The smoke flavor does distinguish itself nicely, but considering that these are hotdogs, the quintessential grilling food, I don't see much call for it. Let's not forget this is Oscar Mayer here, they actually sell bacon, it wouldn't have been anything for them to put in some precooked bacon chunks in or even perhaps a vein of ground bacon inside like they do with their cheese dogs. In fact why hold back at all? They should have made bacon cheese dogs in the first place and not done these in half measures.

Found at Walmart

Nabisco Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Oreo

Two classic tastes that really don't need me to explain them merged in something that in retrospect seems inevitable. How could these not have existed before now? People must have been smacking their heads once these were made. As you can imagine these are very good.  The rich peanut butter and chocolate crepe balance and compliment each other while the traditional Oreo cookie  adds crunch and keeps your fingers clean. The only question I have is how long until they put an Oreo inside a Reese's?

Found at Giant

Wisconsin's Finest Smoked Ham Sausage

I really have to respect this, most people would be content simply having made ham, a foodstuff in its own right, but to go the extra mile and then grind the ham, out it into a casing and smoke the whole thing really takes dedication. All that dedication really pays off in this salty, smoky and yet still sweet, treat. They say those who enjoy sausages shouldn't see how they are made, but considering I found this in the discontinued bin, I may be researching how to make this sooner than later.

Found at World Market

Herr's Fire Roasted Sweet Corn Potato Chips

I truly wish to what was going on in the mind of the person at Herr's who thought this up. Had they never heard of corn chips? Are they trapped in a potato palace, forced to come up with ways to get people to eat more potatoes no matter what? Was this an attempt at breeding a corn-potato hybrid? Were they trying to find something they could dip in their ketchup flavored mustard? Regardless of the thought process, they truly mastered the taste of buttery sweet corn. Very buttery sweet corn. Taste accurate enough to confuse my already confused brain into thinking I really am eating corn. Crispy disk shaped corn with ridges. What if my dog, even though he looks like a dog, makes dog noises, and acts like a dog is really a cat? I better lie down.

 

Found at Walmart

Plantation Style Mint Julep Soda

Ah, a taste of the Old South. Well, not really, while it is most assuredly mint, a julep is defined as a sweet flavored drink made from sugar syrup that may contain alcohol or medicine, there is definitely no alcohol taste. So while it follows the technicality of the name, I was expecting a bit of a bourbon flavor. That being said it's very mint, very sweet and a bit more carbonated than most other real sugar drinks that I've had.

Found at World Market

Home Farm Store Bubblegum Marshmallows

This almost seems like a cruel joke for my brain. From an early age we are taught not to swallow bubblegum and someone creates a food that tastes like bubblegum, feels like bubblegum, and even kind of looks like giant pieces of bubblegum. Who would do such a thing? Why would someone mock the basic truths the universe holds dear? In any event they taste ok, not the strongest bubblegum flavor I've had, but you can certainly tell what they were going for.

Found at the Home Farm Store

Donated by my Mom

Bacon Maple Doughnut

Enough bacon on this bad boy that it needed top billing. Wonderful smoky salty bacon, charming maple glaze that was distinctive but not cloying on a soft chewy doughnut with just the right amount of heft. Truly superb.

Found at Home Farm

Donated (doughnuted?) by my Mom

Cicero Beverage Co. Candied Bacon Cream Soda

I think we all knew at some point I would find a bacon flavored soda. What I didn't expect was for it to be so underwhelming. I assumed it would be one of two things, either a display of nasty artificial bacon flavor that overpowered the senses or an eerie feat of engineering that made me wonder just how do they flavors so accurate. Instead, I got this, an average cream soda that makes me struggle to tell if there's any bacon flavor at all. The best I can come up with is that there is almost something to the aftertaste that's slightly different, but I would never guess that it's bacon. I went in with dreams of glory or travesty (I was expecting travesty), but all I got was mediocrity. I am saddened.

Found at World Market

Abali Yogurt Soda Mint Flavor

Never before have I earned the description reckless so much as when I ordered this. This was without a doubt the most heinous thing I've tried to drink. I was expecting a cool refreshing yogurt like you would find in a tzatziki sauce. What I got instead was the stuff of nightmares. This was salty and sour and the mint, instead of cooling it down, just lent itself to a medicinal flavor. I tried to finish it, but as my face twisted in horror my coworkers, seeing my distress, insisted that I had given it enough effort and to just give up. I slunk away, defeated. This truly is an abomination.

Found at Rose Kabobs

Enchiladas

Fairly standard, but still damn tasty.

Funyuns Chile Limon

Ulker Biskrem Cinnamon

Romanian (I think) cookies I found in a Persian market. They have a crispy cinnamon outside and are filled with cocoa cream. These are insanely good. I'm kind of surprised I haven't really seen an American equivalent. This is something I think a lot of people would like if they ever tried it.

Found in Assal Market

MacFuddy Pepper Elixir

While a small part if me was hoping for something truly bizarre, this Dr Pepper clone is, I think, actually better than it's famous inspiration. Made with cane sugar it lacks the cloying taste and heavily carbonated nature of actual Dr Pepper, plus the bottle is much more fun to read. 

Found at World Market

Tums Chewy Delights Ultra Strength Very Cherry

Due to my incautious nature when it comes to interesting comestibles I frequently find myself with an ailment I commonly call a "sour tummy". Even though I'm suffering though is no reason to abandon my quest to try new things so here we come to the product in hand, Chewy Cherry Tums. Bravely straddling the line between candy and medicine this  delight performed both tasks quite well. Once freed from its wrapper it proved chewy, very cherry, and most importantly it really made my tummy feel better quickly. Certainly an A+ out of 10 points.

Found at Walmart

Manzana Lift

A Mexican apple soda made by Coca-Cola. Tastes more like lightly carbonated apple juice than a proper soda.

Found at Fresh World

Buffalo Bob's Buffalo with Beef Stick Mild

Tender, juicy and mild this was quite nice. Not sure I could taste any buffalo-ness to it, but it's way better than a regular Slim Jim.

Peeps Party Cake

Quite disappointing really, the cake flavoring is indistinguishable from the regular peeps marshmallow taste. It's just a blue peep with multicolored sugar crystals.

Found at CVS

Mexican Fanta

Ginger Teriyaki Candied Bacon

Nabisco Watermelon Oreo and Planters Cocoa Peanuts

Ramen Burger with Ginger Teriyaki Candied Bacon and Wasabi Mayo

Not as good as I had hoped, the ramen bun was not as strong tasting as one would hope. The bacon was delicious but since it was candied it was far harder than anything else and tried to leave it compatriots. The surprise star was the wasabi mayo, just a pinch of store bought wasabi stirred into small bit of mayonnaise added zest and a tiny bit of heat.

Here's the recipe I used to make the ramen bun.