It’s MANGO MADNESS in MAY!!!!

Our Multi Award Winning Make Me Moan Mango will heat up any Spring Fling …BBQ that is!

For the month of May, purchase 2 bottles of Make Me Moan Mango and receive 1 free Rub Me the Right Way Sweet or Hot Rub!

A perfect BBQ combination!

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www.threehottamales.com

Take advantage of this offer today!
We are celebrating our SECOND First Place Scovie Award for CRY BABY HOT SAUCE and YOU will be reaping the rewards…. Visit our website and under “combo’s” look for the Scovie Award Special. Please specify what sauces you would like to purchase and you will automatically be sent a FREE bottle of Cry Baby!!!
Buy ANY 2 (two) bottles of our Hot Sauces (BBQ excluded) and recieve one (1) FREE bottle of our First Place Scovie Award Winner CRY BABY!!!!!! Thats a $ 7.00 SAVINGS …..
Our Price: $14.00

CALLING ALL CHILI COOKS!!!!
With just a little more than a week before the New England Regional Chili Cookoff it is starting to look like the largest chili event in New England!

All the numbers aren’t in as of yet but we expect a large number of chili cooks and we’d love to add your name to our roster!
It’s a simple matter of going to our web site http://chilict.tripod.com/(produced by Twisted Kat Pack Productions) and sign up for all three WCCC qualifying events.

Then you too can enjoy the camaraderie of chili cooks from 11 states, the chance to experience the pleasure brought by CT.Chair Massage,the opportunity to meet the Three Hot Tamales from NJ (Their motto is, “We make grown men cry”) and a beautiful New England country setting with a back drop of old tobacco barns!

With the live entertainment including 3 bands, Mexican folklore dancers and a world renown magician,the day will be excitement packed for all!

We hope you can join us on May 5th in Somers,CT. as we endeavor to help the Enfield Food Shelf!
Stay HOT!!

Mad Kat and Mad Mike

OK, so sometimes I cheat when I cook. Sometimes I am just preparing for myself and it truly makes my life easier. And sometimes it is just for the quicker prep and cook time. So, today I thought I would share with you my newest cheaters recipe. This served me with some leftovers. If you need it for more then one person, or if you just have a more healthy appetite, you will have to double or triple this recipe.

1 box Pasta Roni Garlic and Olive Oil with Vermicelli
1 vine ripened tomato (I did not have any tomatoes today and it still came out good but with the addition of just one, WOW would be an understatement!)
3 anchovies in oil, rinsed and then chopped
2 garlic stuffed olives, cut in half and sliced (if you don’t have these, just use whatever olives you prefer)
2 green or black olives, cut in half and sliced
1 teaspoon of capers, rinsed
pinch of parsley, hand torn
crushed red pepper flakes, about 3 full pinches (add more if you like more heat)
grated Romano cheese to taste (or any grated hard cheese you like)

Prepare step 1 of the Pasta Roni as directed. Add all ingredients, except the cheese, in step two of the Pasta Roni directions. Let cook 8-10 minutes. Once done, place on serving dish, sprinkle the grated cheese on top, and finish off with another healthy dose of red pepper flakes.

P.S.If anyone is interested in the story of this fabulous dish, click here.

One of the many surprises that THT received while in NM was an e-mail from Michael Freedman, AKA Mad Mike in the chili world. He asked THT if we would become vendors and to judge some competitions at the New England Regional Chili Cook off, NERCC for short, on Saturday Cinco de Mayo (May 5, 2007) to help benefit a very worth wild cause, the Enfield Food Shelf. After speaking to Mad Mike, THT decided to join in all the fun and festivities of the afternoon. Please read below for all the information containing to NERCC from the history to admission fees.

The New England Regional Chili Cook off has a very long and (personal) storied history. It started in 1985 as a small district event in Somers,CT (much smaller than a Regional or State Cook off). In 1990 it became a State Chili Cook off and then in 1993 it became a “Back to Back” cook off, which is a 2 day event. One day was the CT State and the next day was the New England Regional Chili Cook off. Around 1998 the sanction was lost due to a change of venue to a group in Ma.

This past December while at a chili cooks Xmas party, we’d heard that the MA people didn’t have a location any more. The very next day, we contacted the International Chili Society (the governing organization) people and begin the long but rewarding process of becoming the New England Regional Chili Cook off.

I alluded earlier to personal storied history. Our oldest son, Joshua (aka Big Moo…you will meet him at the cook off) participated at this very cook off as a very young kid. He was “Little Mr. Hot sauce” many years and played his sax to get votes. He and his sister Sarah (aka Wild Thang) both became “Foodies” due to these events. Moo just graduated from Johnson and Wales in RI, so….for all of our family and extended family….this is BIG for us to be the organizers!

In the past 2 years, my wife, Kat (aka Mad Kat) has won the NJ State Red Championship! She did it as a Rookie Cook. That has never happened before for a woman…so she made history! NOTHING gave me more joy than to see my baby on the stage with “The Big Dogs”….it was a very short 2 weeks after my mom had passed and Kat said she had an angel on her shoulder. I cried.

She also won Millvile, NJ Red and The MA State Red as well. I cooked chili for 20 years…and never won anything, but we always had a great time! However, all that changed when I met and married Kathy. I started winning. I have in the past 2 years won,the Pocono Mountain Red cook off, five 2nd places in Red last year and then I won the Maine State Red….the following week, I won an invitational chili cook off in CT. Being married to Kat has brought me luck, I guess.

The non profit that benefits from this event is one of the neediest I have ever worked with. The very 1st meeting we had was at their offices. I have more stuff in my cabinets than they did. T hey are a small but dedicated group of people that help so many in our town. They serve approximately 300 families a week. All on donations……they are as tenacious as I am…so this was a good match.

Admission to the event is $5.00 and 2 canned goods. We’ll have 2 -3 bands and music for kids. There will be face painting for the kids and TONS of chili. We’ll have close to 30 chili cooks from 7 different states. Hotels in the area are: The Crowne Plaza. www.cpenfield.Com They are our host hotel and will have a reception for the cooks, family and others the night before the cook off. To get a cheaper rate, ask the “park and fly” rate. The other good hotel is Red Roof Inn. They are located in Enfield, CT just off of route 91, use code B105000767-group name is New England Regional Chili Cook off. Call 800-733-7663 for reservations.
The NERCC web site is http://chilict.tripod.com/ where you can get all the HOT info.

*NERCC is still looking for some chili cooks to enter the cook off. If you think you have the best chili recipe around, stop your boasting and prove it by contacting Michael Freedman at MADMIKESKILLERCHILI@COX.NET for more information on entering the NERCC.

**Anyone wanting to become a vendor at NERCC, please contact Michael Freedman at MADMIKESKILLERCHILI@COX.NET.

OK, so between the fat ass jokes, the big head jokes, meeting new friends, the drinking, the salt laden food, the gambling, and the drinking topped off with more drinking - there was a Fiery Foods and BBQ Show held at the Sandia Resort and Casino in New Mexico. Now right before this show Nick asked if any of the attendees would mind giving the bloggers an insider view of the show. Now the only requirements were to take plenty of pictures and share with the HSB my experience in NM. As for the picture part, you will have to check out Flickr because I took not one picture in NM. Nope, not one. Kristi and Lisa got a few, but I kept forgetting to bring my camera any where I went. So I am hoping that I can at least get the “sharing the experience” part right.

Now any one who is an exhibitor at these types of shows know how much prep work that goes into being prepared for opening day. Also these same exhibitors know that no matter how many months of planning you do before the show, there are always a list of last minute things that need to be done that seem to out weigh what has been done for months! Plus you can never really plan for what the public will want or expect from you. The last four weeks before the show are always the “SERENITY NOW!” moments. (any Seinfield fan will know what I am talking about) But once you have done all you can do, all that is left is to get to the show and survive!

I hate traveling. I wish that I could just be zapped from one place to other. You either arrive at the airport “just” in time or way to early. Let’s just say we were in the “just” made it category. Between the highly intelligent people at the fast food drive thru we stopped at, that took 15 minutes for one sandwich, and our impromptu tour of Queens before reaching LGA, it was no surprise that we were told that we “just” made the cut off for checking in luggage. Not to mention going thru airport security. One word of advice for all those travelers out there, PLEASE wash your feet before you leave for the airport and invest in pair of odor eaters for your shoes! You know that they are going to make you remove your shoes. The smell of feet any time of day is just not right.

After meeting up with Lisa and Doug, we eat and get to work setting up our booth. Now Doug and Lisa got to the Sandia earlier that morning and hit the booth first to make sure all was Kosher. NOPE! EMPTY BOOTH! Not one box. So they go off looking for Disco Display for our items. Thanks goodness Doug found someone from there and our boxes. Then Lisa shares a story of having to dig thru the trucks with our empty boxes for the two specialty bottles we shipped out because of some eager beaver on the clean up crew. But all seems good now. Then we go looking for our credit card swiper and it is no where to be found with a lot of the other smaller incidentals. I thought maybe when we got our empty boxes back for packing some things would show up, but NOPE I was wrong. But eventually we get the booth looking the way we want it to and are all happy and afraid of what is yet to come.

Now here is where I want to talk about the food situation at the Sandia. Now on Thursday night most of us there had a “liquid dinner”. But we all enjoyed each others company and a little gambling to top off the night. “Liquid meals” are all well and good but eventually we all need something to help absorb the alcohol of the day and night before. All the food establishments in this hotel serve the same food. It is just sold under a different name with a different price in a different environment. I kid you not, the menus were EXACTLY the same last year! Nothing was different. Plus I think they are trying to hide the natural food flavors behind a wall of salt! Even Salty McSaltlick, Garry who salts salt, couldn’t believe how salty the food was. Now that is saying something! I was so swollen by Saturday night that none of my rings fit my fingers and by Sunday night I was so swollen from salt that I actually had CANKLES!

Now as for working the booth Friday-Sunday, what can I say? They are very long and tiring days that you make the best of no matter what you do. You know the gals and I need to look our best and we always start out with the best intentions, but by the days end we are either bare foot or in sneakers! There is always a sense of fun. We love having fun with the customers and the other exhibitors. Not to mention all of our chili head friends! By the end of each day we are all punchy and just about laughing at anything. OK, so the booze we shipped in helped a lot during the long days too.

Plus we had some great neighbors this year, Grumpy’s, Bodines, and Habby 2 to help get thru the long days and crazy clientèle. Garry and Doug really help THT out more then we could ever thank them for and even Chris K from the blog was out in the aisle bringing the folks our way. Plus who could forget Gary and Laura selling raffle tickets for us? To borrow Laura’s phrase there ain’t nothing like good “booth biatches” to help us out. Plus it helps pass the time to have genuinely good people around.

Come Sunday I realize I lost my debit card with money still in the bank. I go to the front desk who just stare at me for a while trying to figure out what to do like I am the first person to ever report a missing card. Eventually they decide to call security to check the last place I remember having it. They tell me to come back in 15 minutes to see if they have come across anything. I go back and they tell me that it was not turned in or found at the bar (yes, I know big surprise the last place I had it was at one of the bars). I ask if I can file a report and they ask me if I really want to do that. YES, I do. I checked my room and my clothes from the night before and it is no where to be found. Hell, I even checked in the folds of my cankles and the rolls of my fingers for that card. They were shocked that I wanted to file a report. I am staying in a hotel with restaurants and a casino. Why wouldn’t I? That process took another 30 minutes to get a guard to get the paper work and get my story. What a way to start the final day of the show!

I think the last day of the show is the worst. Your body and mind have just had it from the long days and the even longer nights filled with booze and debauchery. You start counting down the hours until you can pack up and leave. Then the time comes and you don’t even know where to begin! We had DK and Laura helping us out and after we all got into the groove of things, we got all our boxes packed and ready to go! Packing was pretty uneventful except that I had to hunt down our large display box. They swore up and down that we had it and then when I insisted we didn’t and described the box, they said “Oh wait, I have that back here by the dumpster. Must not have your name and booth number on it. Oh wait it does have your booth number on it. My bad sorry.” I didn’t kill him because I at least had the box and knew all would be well again. Plus I knew that the casino and bars had taken most of our money and that trying to scrap up bail would be difficult.

After packing up our booth that night we all meet up at the Bien Shur for Doug’s birthday dinner with some of other great chili heads. Yes same salty food as the rest of the weekend but it was more about the company then the food. I think we all had a great time. Some of us tried to have a few drinks after dinner but the bar closed early. So of course we gambled for a while and then headed to our room for the night knowing we could sleep in if we choose to. I know Garry and I choose to.

Monday we sleep in, showered, and packed up. We caught up with everyone who was still around in the lobby and said our goodbyes. Then we shuffled over to the buffet one more time to eat food we had no desire to eat again. We would have been better just eating a box of salt! We played some slots, lost more money, then hung in the lobby until it was time to go. Kristi, Chris K, Garry, and I finally said good bye to Doug, and gave our last birthday wishes, and to Lisa at her favorite slot machine shooting death looks at any one who even looked at her machine!

The flight home was uneventful and we were happy when we landed in LGA. We all forgot how cold it was back here in the East. But we were pleasantly reminded of that fact while waiting for our shuttle back to lot 5. By the time we reached the Jeep all of our fingers were painfully numb and not one of us could feel our faces. But in the end we were all glad to be home, safe and sound, already mentally preparing ourselves for next year.

Until next year…

I love to cook. Plain and simple. I love spicy food. My family on the other hand not so much. So I love when I can find a recipe that lets me play with the heat and make everyone happy all in one meal. I figured why not share with all my fellow bloggers a quick and easy one pot meal!

Arroz con Pollo

2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into chunks
2 large bell peppers (any color or a combo of colors), sliced
1 medium onion, diced (more if you like more onion)
3 garlic cloves minced (more or less depending on your taste)
1 jalapeño pepper, diced (you can add more jalapeños or any variety/amount of Chile peppers depending on your taste preference)**
2 scallions, diced
2 cups of long grain rice
2 cups of chicken broth (or 1 cup chicken broth and 1 cup of white wine..play with it and see what you like best)
1 14 1/2 ounce can of whole tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of diced olives
salt
pepper
1 lemon, juiced
favorite hot sauce

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Let sit and prepare rest of ingredients.***

Heat oil in a large pan. Add chicken and cook until lightly brown over medium heat, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from pan.

Add the bell peppers, jalapeño, scallions, garlics, onions to the pan. Add a pinch of salt and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in rice and cook for 1 more minute, being careful not to burn it. Add the broth, water, and tomatoes with liquid; break tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Return chicken to pan and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 20 minutes (remove from heat for last 5 minutes). Stir in olives and serve with your favorite hot sauce (mine is THT Cry Baby with this recipe, but that is my opinion).

**Now for the chilies. If I was not feeding my wussy family I would play with a variety of Chile peppers. Any type of Chile pepper will work well here from jalapeños to habaneros. Whatever you can find fresh! I would play with flavors and roast some of the Chile peppers, take some seeds out, leave some seeds in; you get my point. You can even add pickled or jarred Chile peppers to bring a new level of flavor to this dish. Even a combo of fresh and canned would be fantastic!

***As for the chicken try marinating it in your favorite spicy marinade or even in your favorite hot sauce. Cut the chicken into bite sized chunks and then add to a zip lock storage bag. Pour marinade over chicken pieces and seal bag. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes. A few hours would be even better! Then follow recipe above. You will not be disappointed!

From the bottle: You’d be a crazy mother pucker if you didn’t love Crazy Mother Pucker’s Peachy Perversion Hot Sauce! This sweetly perverted sauce is the perfect blend of peaches, Habanero and Cayenne peppers.

Ingredients: Peaches, Red Wine Vinegar, Natural Sugar, Habanero Peppers, Onions, Cayenne Pepper, Salt, Orange Extract, and Spices

OK, so I didn’t feel like cooking and I had left overs in the fridge. A little take out from the best Polish deli in town, Piast Meat and Provisions, and some Oven Fry pork chops that I made the other night. So I heated up a pork chop, the cabbage from Piast, and made some garlic and olive oil couscous. I of course wanted to add a little heat and an extra dimension of flavor to my meat, insert favorite joke here, so I looked on my to be reviewed shelf. I noticed I had a peach hot sauce that might go nicely with my meal.

The first sniff of this sauce is vinegar. Which is not always a bad thing but not always a good thing. I don’t really smell too much in the way of peaches or peppers but I do know that first smells can deceiving. First looks are nice though, you can see the fibers from the peaches, peppers, and seeds. It has a nice orange brown tint like an over ripe peach. The label is of your typical hot sauce label. Big animated cartoon sea gull coming out of what looks like a bull eye in shades of blue on this green shiny striped background. Makes me a little dizzy to be honest with you. And no, I wasn’t drinking, as hard as that may seem to believe!

I poured some into a small bowl for pictures. It was a little runny but nothing out of control. Now for the true test, taste. I put some on a spoon and opened wide! The first taste for me was the taste of vinegar followed by an under ripe peach flavor. Then I got the smallest taste of the peppers. I honestly wasn’t wowed yet but to be fair the true test is on food.

So I put some on my pork chop. It was OK. It didn’t add much heat to my food or flavor for that matter. I wanted more heat but I didn’t even want to add more sauce to my food. It felt lacking. It wasn’t sweet nor was it savory. It just was.

Overall Crazy Mother Puckers Peachy Perversion is a sauce that I will be putting on my collection shelf because I have no desire to eat it again.

Packaging/Label: 6/10 your run of the mill hot sauce label
Aroma: 6/10 vinegar
Taste: 3/10 not savory or sweet
Heat: 3/10 not much there

Overall: 4/10

From the bottle: “So here’s what we do: We caramelize the Peaches and then add the habaneros with the other ingredients and blend them together. Tada, Peaches & Scream!”

Ingredients: Roasted peaches, vinegar, onions, habanero peppers, brown sugar

Having to have called into my day job to stay home with my sick daughter the other day, I took the opportunity to make something a little out of the norm for the family for dinner. I was so tired of the same old same old. So I ventured into making something I usually ruin every time, stuffed pork loin. Hey, worse comes to worse I can always order a pizza! I am so glad that I tried again because it came out FANTASTIC! But what really bought it home was this sauce.

You can tell that this label was thought about very carefully. It is very elegant with just a picture of some peaches on it in some wonderful hues of yellow and orange with just enough black for contrast. I know it sounds boring but it is the way it is done that takes it up a level for hot sauce labels. You can truly tell that a lot of thought and hard work went into this. It is truly a nice change from some of your typical hot sauce labels.

The sauce is a wonderful roasted peach color. It is not quite brown, but not quite yellow. You can also see bits of habaneros and onions in the sauce. It has a wonderful consistency, it stays where you put it but flows with no hassles. The aroma is out of this world! You get hit with the onions first. Then you can smell the peaches. Just fresh from the tree peaches. WONDERFUL! As for the taste, it was like nothing I have ever had before! First taste is onions followed by that wonderful sweet tart flavor of the peaches. Next you get hit with the sweetness of the brown sugar. Nothing overwhelming, just enough to help bring out the taste of the habanero peppers in a wonderful slow burn. It is not a super hot but it does leave a nice tingle on the tongue. I have come to just taking a spoonful here and there during the day because it is just so damn good! (OK, it helps that I am a foodie and just like food but even if I wasn’t, I would have to just eat this sauce by the spoonful!)

When I added this to my stuffed pork loin, WOW! It was like I had cooked the peaches, brown sugar, habaneros, and onions with my pork! It even added a whole new level to my stuffing. You got a little more heat and less sweet with the stuffing. I honestly couldn’t wait for my next bite!

Seam splitting goodness! Now on the flip side of this sauce. It can so be a dessert sauce. My second thought for this sauce was for vanilla ice cream, a topping for a banana split, a topping for apple pie ala mode, ect. The possibilities are endless. I even think roasting an apple with this drizzled atop of it would be seam splitting goodness!

All in all this sauce ROCKS! It not only looks good but it tastes good! Not to mention how versatile it truly is when you think of all the savory and sweet possibilities this sauce has for revamping tried and true recipes to creating completely new favorites. I think no matter what your tastes are in the hot sauce realm, you should give this sauce a try just once. I don’t think it will disappoint!

Packaging/Label: 10/10 very elegant
Aroma: 10/10 sweet and savory
Taste: 10/10 PERFECT
Heat: 7/10 will leave a pleasant tingle on your tongue

Overall: 9/10

Denzel’s Gourmet Foods Ltd.
Box 398
Enderby, BC
V0E 1V0
Meet Your Maker: Denzel

Classy Delites Aztec Salsa Roasted Corn and Black Beans ingredients: tomatoes, yellow corn, tomato puree (water, tomato paste, citric acid), black beans, onions, jalapeno peppers, chili peppers, salt, bell peppers, red wine and apple cider vinegars, dehydrated onions, cilantro, lime juice, granulated garlic, spices, sugar, corn oil, xanthan gum

Denzel’s Pineapple Punch ingredients: vinegar, onions, habanero peppers, garlic, salt, pineapple

OK, so it is time for my night time snack (I know it is bad but I don’t mind being known as the round Tamale! There will be just more of me to admire!) I have not been to the supermarket in a very long time and my cupboards are bare! Searching for something other then the dust bunnies and chocolate chip Pop-Tarts in my cabinets I come across some corn chips. Good start. I also notice my jar of salsa to be reviewed. Even better. But I want something more than just chips and salsa. Ah, I have cheddar and jack cheese in the fridge. What else? Leftover strip steak just begging to be used. Do you see where I am going here……….NACHOS! (no Denzel’s yet….that story later)

So I open up the salsa and take a gander at it. Nothing spectacular. Looks a little better then your basic commercial supermarket salsa. You can see the corn and the black beans with onions in between. Aroma wise, basic supermarket salsa. I was disappointed with the taste. It was no better then my local supermarket salsa. No heat either. You know the jalapeno peppers and chili peppers are around but it is more like a friendly wave from them on their way to work. But, I was on a mission and to be fair to the salsa I had to try it on food. Not to be surprised it fizzled out there too. Once on the nachos the flavor just got lost with all the other ingredients of the dish.

OK, so now I am looking at my shelf of sauces that I have to review. Do you get where I am going…..do you? Yup, Denzel’s Pineapple Punch was just sitting there screaming at me for a chance to pep up my nachos. So I listened. I mean that punchy pineapple scares me a little so who was I to say no? Anyway, on first sniff my mouth was watering. I couldn’t wait to try it. The first taste of this sauce is savory with just a hint of sweetness then…….heat….then more heat…….then even more heat…..and then the full flavor of the habanero peppers shine! WOW! What a slow but wonderful burn. Truly great flavor and heat. There is a bitter after taste but as anyone who knows habanero peppers knows that is not uncommon. Perfect for my nachos! I poured 1/3 of the bottle on my nachos and perfection! And that bitterness, completely disappears once added to the dish. I am so glad I listened to that mean looking pineapple (I think I saw him smile as I enjoyed the pain of the burn but it could have been that my helmet was on too tight again).

Up close shot of Denzel’s Pineapple Punch Hot Sauce

I didn’t start off wanting to do two reviews from two completely different companies at the same time. But like many things in life I can’t always see what lies ahead of me. My overall opinion of my finished dish was satisfying. I was disappointed in the flavor of the salsa. It wasn’t the worst I have ever had but it wasn’t the best. The hot sauce really saved the day for me and I am so glad I put it on my nachos.

Classy Delites Aztec Salsa Roasted Corn and Black Beans
Packaging : 6/10 nothing that truly stands out but it doesn’t hurt the eyes
Aroma: 4/10 supermarket salsa
Appearance: 7/10 you can see chunks of corn, black beans, and onions
Taste: 3/10 supermarket salsa
Heat: 1/10 the peppers just call to say hello

Overall: 4/10

Classy Delites, Inc.
P.O. Box 340189
Austin,Texas 78734
1-800-440-2648 (Toll Free)
info@classydelites.com

Denzel’s Pineapple Punch Hot Sauce
Packaging: 9/10 I like the scary little pineapple
Aroma: 10/10 savory, mouth watering
Appearance: smooth orange sauce
Taste: 9/10 savory, sweet, then a slow burn-slight bitterness
Heat: 10/10 the habaneros call and STAY a while

Overall: 9/10

Denzel’s Gourmet Foods Ltd.
Box 398
Enderby, BC
V0E 1V0