Submitted by Ali
If you are looking for a way to spice up basic meat dishes like grilled steak, baked chicken, or sautéed shrimp, marinate them in an oil-based salad dressing. Any variety of Italian or Vinagrette will do. The oil helps to keep the meat moist & the flavorings will add that little zip you are looking for to fancy it up. It’s like the instant marinade in a bottle. With so many varieties these days you can try different ones to find your own favorite recipe.
Submitted by randilicious
If the recipe calls for vanilla extract & you have none on hand, try using equal amounts of Kahlua instead. Alternately when a recipe calls for vanilla extract, along with the vanilla toss in a half portion of Kahlua (e.g. if the recipe calls for 1 tbsp of vanilla extract, toss in 1 tbsp vanilla extract and ½ tbsp Kahlua). If you’re concerned about getting drunk on your creation, only do this for recipes that involve heating as the alcohol will boil off but the taste will remain.
Submitted by randilicious
Serves 8
| 1 large onion, finely chopped | 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped | |
| 4 cloves garlic, minced | 3 roma tomatoes, diced | |
| 2 tbsp tomato paste | 1 tbsp butter | |
| ¼ c. all-purpose flour | 1 tbsp dried oregano, crushed | |
| 1 tsp basil | 1 tsp ground cumin | |
| 2 tsp crushed red pepper | ½ c. chili powder | |
| 14.5 oz. whole peeled tomatoes w/ liquid, chopped | 1 lb. ground turkey | |
| 15.25 oz. kidney beans | 1 jalapeño pepper | |
| 2 tbsp Jack Daniels whiskey | salt & ground black pepper to taste |
Submitted by AnyasMom
Serves 6-8
| 2 sticks of margarine or butter | 1 1/3 c. crunchy peanut butter | |
| 1lb. powdered sugar | 1 c. graham cracker crumbs, finely crushed | |
| 1-2 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips | ¼lb. paraffin/bakers wax |
Have you been watching WineLibrarytv.com? If not, you’re sorely missing out!
Gary Vaynerchuk, Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ has been taking the wine world by storm since February 2006. Every weekday Gary puts out a completely improvised 22 minute web show where he tastes 3-4 wines, usually of a similar varietal. His energy is crazy and through the roof.
Gary’s appeared on Ellen, Nightline, and Conan to name a few. The guy is a machine in terms of his exposure on social media venues like Twitter and Facebook. Putting aside the marketing machine that the man is, he knows his stuff on wine. His trademarked “sniffy sniff” comes first where he analyzes the nose and aromatics of the wine. Once he’s given the wine a good long sniff and explained the wide range of smells that he picks up from the bouquet of the wine, he gives it a “whirl”. I’ve never seen anyone taste wine like Gary does… he swishes it around in his mouth with the fervor of a Listerine commercial.
All the wines are tasted at room temperature after a good amount of time left uncorked to breathe. At least, I haven’t seen one yet where he’s tasting a cold wine (even the whites are room temp). He does give the wines scores, although he insists that you shouldn’t give the wine scores too much weight since everyone’s pallet is different. And that’s one of the best things about Gary – he brings wine down to earth. He’s not presumptuous about wine like a lot of the traditional industry snobs are.
Gary’s enthusiasm is infectious. His knowledge of wine and down to earth nature make anyone even remotely interested in wine want to go out there and try it all. And there’s awesome 80’s pop culture references thrown in sometimes, so watch damn it! Become a Vayniac!
And since a lot of Askewbs are Jersey diehards, know this: Wine Library is an actual store, the Vaynerchuk family business that was around long before Gary’s life mission of changing the wine world. It’s in Springfield, so roll on by and check it out.