It can be done!

Leo has a new wine sponsor who evidently pays him in vino.  My computer was down so I had to go to Petaluma to do the new Munchcast.   Leo said “Great! We can drink wine!”, which spurred this topic.  What DO you drink with junk food?

It being Easter eve, I brought Peeps.  And just about the only thing I know about wine pairing is that the wine must be sweeter than the food or else it tastes crappy.  So to compliment the Peeps, we drank Sophia Blanc de Blanc, or champagne in a can.….

a delicious combination it turns out!

But to try anything more bold, we really needed an expert.  Thankfully, Mike Pierce of Maverick, has made the idea of pairing wine and junkfood his mission.  He actually holds junkfood pairing events at his restaurant.  Check it out!

what do you call your beverage?

Actually, there’s a much better map here, but I couldn’t get it to post. LOVED all the Canadians in the chat room who insisted they just call it “beer”.

Even more controversial than the generic soft drink name, is the Coke/Pepsi battle.  I’m a coke girl through and through, Leo…he likes that other stuff.  Personally, I’m a fan of any product that has its own theme park.

Lots of folks are excited about the return of real sugar in soft drinks.  For years I’ve been paying extra in the Mission for those Mexican cokes in bottles – real sugar just tastes better – and now many brands (and not just the organic hippie ones) are bringing back the cane!  Dig the Mountain Dew Throwback!

Almost as cool as the TAB label, which it turns out was much better than their marketing.  Listen to this commercial when you get a chance.  I can’t believe there wasn’t some sort of angry house wife uproar!

So many regional sodas!  So little time!  Faygo.  Moxie.  We never even got into Dr. Pepper, which I guess means that someday all you Peppers will get your very own episode.  Oooooh, maybe we can get David Naughton to chime in on that one!

So don’t take it personally if we missed your favorite bev.  That just gives us another episode.  Here are a few awesome resources if you’re still thirsty.

http://www.knowledgeforthirst.com/

http://www.sodapopstop.com/home.cfm

http://www.popsoda.com/

Oh…and dig this!  Mindblowingly beautiful.

PANCAKES

thanks to Ross in Ontario here are some Canadian syrup festivals:

Maple Syrup Festival in Elmira

Ontario Maple Syrup fests

VALENTINES DAY

Nothing worse than nursing a broken heart while everyone else is digging into valentine candy.  Here’s something special for the broken hearted, the bitter hearted and dumped.

SITES THAT WILL SUPPRESS YOUR APPETITE

I get tons of mail from folks who say MUNCHCAST makes them hungry.  Well it does the same for me.  But now whenever I get those phoney pangs and want to get my snack on I click on these sites and like magic, I’m just not hungry anymore.

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com

http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/cat_steve_dont_eat_it.php

BACON

Leo is over it.  But in case you aren’t, your holiday is fast approaching.  March 1 is National Pig Day.  Here are some sites to help you celebrate:

bacon candy

more bacon candy

the bacon explosion

28 days of bacon

and for all your bacon accessories – Archie

and something I’ve never known I’ve needed, but now may be a pantry staple:

Boccalone Pork Butter
located here in SF (Ferry Building Shop #21); Embarcadero; 415.433.6500

made from every possible part of the pig, plus herbs and spices, it’s supposed to be a most delicious condiment.  I’ll pick some up this weekend and give you a full report.  Seems like it would taste like bacon, but without the crunch.

No stinkin’ clever title needed for this post.  Nope, we are going back to basics.  To quote the Grilled Cheese Invitational “Bread + Cheese + Heat” is all we need.  Actually, I take that back, we do need another quote:

grilled cheese haiku

golden delicious
warm cheese melts me to my soul
i’ll have another

by matt  (from Grilled Cheese Inspired Poetry)

Doesn’t that look delicious!  On this episode, Leo and I discussed the traditional grilled cheese versus the gourmet, cheese selection, grilling technique, pairings (wine and soup) and, of course, the Virgin Mary.  Just in case you happened to be on a silence retreat in the Himalayas in 2004, here’s the genius who saved her holy grilled cheese sandwich for 10 years until someone paid her $28,000 for it.

Not sure what is more fascinating, the lady on the bread or the lady with the black lipstick.

If you want to make your own divine grilled cheese, here are some options for you:

http://www.blacktable.com/gillin041202.htm

http://www.cooltoast.com/

http://www.worldwidefred.com/holytoast.htm

Personally, I think swiss on sourdough is divine enough…with maybe a glass of sauvignon blanc.

Tis the season for chocolate, but then I find a reason for chocolate in just about every season.  But Valentines Day does get bragging rights for as one of the top chocolate holidays.  In fact, Nielsen research shows during Valentine’s week, Americans buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate candy, that’s $345 million in sales and over 5 percent of total annual sales.

On our Valentines Chocolate episode, Sussan Fussell from Candydish gave us the scoop on valentines day chocolates, including the telltale swoops that help identify the bordeaux from the caramels in your traditional box.  In honor of the chocolatey goodness that is Valentines Day, this week at  Candydish, they will be featuring all kinds of recipes featuring chocolate as a prominent ingredient.  Chocolate covered salmon anyone?

If chocolate as entree doesn’t float your boat, how about chocolate cocktails?

From Cocktail Times:

African Chocolate Martini
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 oz vodka
- 2 oz Amarula cream liqueur
- 1/4 oz creme de cacao
Garnish: chocolate shavings

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with chocolate shavings.   Delicious!  But I wouldn’t want to have more than one!

Or if you want to spice things up a bit, try this Hot Chocolate Valentine, a lovely libation, where the HOT refers to the paprika and chili peppers, not the temperature.

One thing we do know, is even though consumers are tightening the budgetary belts on most things, chocolate still ranks as a reasonable indulgence.  Introducing the Original Beans bar – $13 for 3 and a half ounces.  REALLY?  Is it that good?  REALLY?  You can buy a whole pound of See’s nuts & chews for that price!

my hero, Mary See

But every region has its own favorite chocolate.  I’d like to thank Maryanne from Canada, who introduced me to the Purdy’s chocolate hedgehog.

And then from Santa Cruz, CA, we have MacKenzie’s, home of the chocolate banana slug.  It looks like this:

it looks just like this...only chocolate!

Nothing says love like a chocolate banana slug.  BTW, they also make chocolate cell phones.

The next MUNCHCAST will focus on CHOCOLATE.  Just in time for Valentines Day.

Yeah… I know those are NECCO hearts and not chocolate, but I’m sleepy.   I heartily invite you to tip me off to your favorite chocolate.  And we’ll get all sweet and gooey on the next MUNCHCAST.

New Stupor Bowl recipes coming in!!!

Leo and I talked about the “Superbowl Sundae”………

Superbowl Sundae
——–  ————  ——————————–
1/2        gallon  chocolate ice cream — softened
16            ounces  chocolate syrup
1                jar  maraschino cherries
1         tablespoon  frosting
7             ounces  whipped cream, pressurized

Soften chocolate ice cream so that it can be removed whole from the carton.
Put into center of serving platter.

Shape ice cream into football.  Freeze for 2 hours or until firm.

Make stitching of the football on the top of ice cream.  You can also write
the team names on the sides.

Decorate with chocolate syrup, whipped cream and cherries.

Serve immediately.

But here’s an even more amazing football shaped crowd pleaser!

Now come on, just use your imagination.  You weave the bacon mat, smash down the sausage, sprinkle with crunch cooked bacon, then roll it up.   All you need to do is modify your rolling technique so that the loaf more resembles a football.  Fire up the ‘Q and smoke that baby til you can’t stand it any more.  Stuporbowl snack heaven!!!!

Those BBQ addicts are GENIUSES!

WE DARE NOT SPEAK IT’S NAME!!!!  But we can snack about it.  Here are some ideas for your S*****BOWL party.

GO PITTSBURGH: celebrate the Steelers with all Keystone state snacks.  I know this guy would appreciate it.

Snacks for the Steelers fan:

KLONDIKE BARS

IRON CITY BEER

Isaly’s Chopped Ham

Leo and I talked about the potential chicken wing shortage, and my sister Megan came to the rescue with a Frank’s Red Hot recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip.

Buffalo Chicken Dip
Serving Size  : 28
Amount  Measure       Ingredient — Preparation Method
——–  ————  ——————————–
8             ounces  cream cheese
1/2           cup  blue cheese salad dressing
1/2           cup  hot sauce — Franks Red Hot
1/2           cup  blue cheese — or mozzarella
1 1/4         pounds  chicken breast — shredded

Heat over to 350 degrees.  Place cream cheese in bowl, stir until smooth.

Mix in salad dressing, hot sauce and cream cheese, stir until smooth.  Stir
in shredded chicken.

Bake 20 minutes or until mixture is heated through.

Serve with crackers or vegetables

Thanks Megan!

Now, for Arizona Cardinal fans, here’s an awesome treat to bring to your football gathering.

Griddlecakes, flapjacks, pancakes….whatever you want to call ‘em, everybody loves a good stack!  Here are a couple of good sites for the pancake-o-philes among us:

WELOVEPANCAKES.com

Marjan’s Pancake Blog

Cook’s Online collection of International Pancake Recipes

And of course IHOP, which actually inspired this episode with their Pancake Stimulus promotion.  Don’t forget ***FREE*** pancakes at IHOP on January 24th, from 7 – 10am!!!!

As usual, Leo and I got a little sidetracked, and went from pancakes to a somewhat in depth discussion about Nancy Green, the original Aunt Jemima.  Someday I will have to do a MUNCHCAST about classic advertising icons.  Click here for more info on this one.

Dill pickles, sweet pickles, bread and butter….no matter your favorite, we all love pickles.  They’ve been one of humanity’s favorite condiments for eons.  According to the experts, Peter Piper has been picklin’ pecks of pickled peppers for over 4000 years!

But that’s not to say there haven’t been pickle innovations over the years.  Thanks to all my twitter pals who tipped me to everything from Golden Pickle Juice (a sports drink made from *real* pickle juice), to Koolicles (pickles soaked in concentrated kool aid til they’re fuchia), to the legendary deep fried dills.

YUMMMMY!!!!! You can also try fryin’ up some bread & butter pickle chips!  Delicious dipped in ranch dressing.