How to shop like a “healthy foodie”

Angel asks:

Q: Regarding dieting, healthy eating, and shopping…I’m curious if you find special challenges on this endeavor since your a chef or if it your knowledge of food helps. I’m not a chef, but I do love food and my knowledge of nutrition has been very slowly expanding since I had my son. I find myself often wishing I knew more about the taste dynamic of different herbs, spices and foods that would help me to come up with more tasty versions of healthy dishes.

A: Excellent question. I would guess that I actually have less temptation than most, as I have a very detailed shopping list to follow each week, to plan menus for our subscribers. I try to shop late at night, and eat dinner just before going to the store, so I’m not shopping hungry.

Be adventurous…there are tons of great fresh produce, meats, etc along the outside of the grocery store that you can experiment with. Try new fresh herbs, and unusual fruits. If you see something that looks interesting, write its name down, and Google some recipes until you find one that sounds good, then add that item to your next shopping list!

I’ll tell you, a handful of chopped fresh Thai basil will rock just about anything! Sample some cilantro (you’ll love it, or you’ll hate it), and find a good recipe for roasting your own garlic. Any of these will turn something as pedestrian as a Cup O’ Noodles into a satisfying repast, and turn a good recipe into a next-level one!

Personally, I think that, in terms of a general style of cooking, it’s hard to beat a great “traditional” (not Americanized) Italian cookbook for finding healthy, exiting new things to try (disclaimer: yes, I am Italian, and totally biased.) Greek cooking is pretty amazing, as well.

Brass tacks…if it’s something you love to do…DO IT…just find a way to do it right. I think the biggest deal-killer to most folk’s healthy eating, is that they believe that they have to deny themselves to eat healthy. We are, all of us, narcissists and hedonists by nature, and a deprivation mentality is a one-way ticket to a binge session. I speak from personal experience, lol.

Make learning, exploring, and experimenting with healthy eating something you love to do…and then indulge yourself! Try something new at the grocery store…take a field trip to your local farmer’s markets…throw a “healthy (country of choice) dinner” for your friend’s or family.

Make it fun…make it something you want to do…and you’ll do it!

Just one guy’s opinion.

- Perry

PS – Drop by our hautemealz.com blog for some great healthy (and free) recipes that are a little “haute-er” than you might find elsewhere,  lol.  – P

We have a WINNER!!!

WINNER WINNER! Wow, those were some great pictures, you guys made it tough to decide! Still, after some deliberation with my “staff”, we have a clear winner…

Congrats to: CHI-TOWN PIG ROASTERS!!!

Not only is that one beautiful swine you got there, but it was mutually agreed on that, given that I have that exact same aloha shirt, goatee, and lei, if I shaved my head, we’d pretty much be twins….which is to say, you’re a heckuva good lookin’ guy!

So, Chi Town…shoot me a DM with your name and mailing address. I’ll pass it on to Todd at A-Maze-N Products, and we’ll get your A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker to you asap!

Hey, do us a favor, and post some pics of your trial run!

Everyone else – those were some great pics, and some awesome lookin’ Q…stay tuned, we’re going to do it again soon!

-Perry

Tony vs Paula…on second thought…I ain’t buyin’ it.

So, returning to our previous conversation, “Paula Deen is Not Your Personal Savior”…I was reading today that Anthony Bourdain (of No Reservations fame) continued his verbal onslaught of Paula Deen at last week’s South Beach Food and Wine Festival.

Apparently, someone made a comment, during a Q & A, inferring that it might be hypocritical of Tony to lambast Paula’s “health choices” when he, himself, smoked on camera for years.

Here’s what he replied, courtesy of Ecorazzi:

“You are right. I did smoke cigarettes for a lot of years on my show. But I wasn’t selling you motherf-in’ cigarettes. I wasn’t selling Smoking Tony dolls for your kids. You couldn’t go to five or six casinos around the world and find the Tony Bourdain f-ing smoking section. And when I found a spot on my motherf-ing lung, I didn’t wait three years so I could get a deal so I could sell you the Patch, OK.”

Geez, you kiss your mother with that mouth, Tony?

Here was my knee-jerk reaction post…

“The problem is, it doesn’t matter how much make-up, snappy one-liners, marketing dollars, or jazzy music you use to clean up a drug & booze addled, foul-mouthed, elitist jerk, low-life cook…eventually everyone is going to realize that he’s still just a drug & booze addled, foul-mouthed, elitist jerk, low-life cook…and change the channel. The shock-jock is funny for a few minutes, but no one wants to listen to him all day…”

Nice, huh?

Then, as my engine was cooling, a thought sneaked in…one of those sudden flashes of the blindingly obvious…

This whole thing is total crap!

This isn’t really about Bourdain vs. Deen, it’s about Travel Channel vs. Food Network!

If TC wasn’t feeding (or at least encouraging) these comments, they’d have snapped Tony’s leash and he’d have heeled a long time ago.

This is a ratings gambit for one of Travel Channel’s quickly tarnishing golden tickets…and I’m sure that the sympathy vote, coming on the heels of Food Network’s  “Queen of Butter” (don’t get me wrong, I love Paula) revealing that she’s diabetic…isn’t hurting them, either!

Having worked a LONG time in marketing…I wouldn’t be even slightly shocked if we find out someday that this whole “fight” was planned out in a boardroom somewhere, lol.

So, I’m calling B.S. on this whole Tony vs Paula thing…you read it here first!

- Perry

PS – Now, do something productive and go check out our new site: http://www.hautemealz.com

PPS – Regardless, I do not retract my aforementioned comments on Tony Bourdain, lol.

Want to turn your La Caja China into an Uber-Smoker?…For free?

Hey all,

Okay, so we all know that I love my La Caja China (all of them), and, if you’ve read my smoker accessory review, you know I’m equally enamored with the A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS)…

Yesterday, I had the honor of sharing this amazing device with none other than my grilling guru, Mr. Steven Raichlen, (author of “The Barbecue Bible”, which is my gold standard for bbq/grilling cookbooks) who had posted the following message on his Facebook page:

“Yes, I’ve used caja chinas & they give you amazingly moist tender pork. Drawback is you don’t get a wood smoker flavor.”

Well, you know I couldn’t let that go…so I (very politely) replied that you could, indeed, get great smoke flavor in anything you roast in La Caja China, and pointed him to our review of the AMNPS. This morning, the awesome Mr. Raichlen posted the following…

“This in from Perry P: a smoker device you can use with a caja china. I stand corrected & and we all stand to eat like kings!”

Well, needless to say…my hat doesn’t fit too well this morning!

In honor of my 5 seconds of fame, the equally awesome Todd Johnson, over at A-MAZE-N Products, LLC  (owner and creator of the AMNPS) has generously offered to donate a brand new A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker, as a prize for the best barbecue photo posted on our Facebook page.

As if that weren’t enough…I’m going to throw in a copy of any one of our barbecue cookbooks (La Caja China Cooking, La Caja China World, or MEAT FIRE GOOD), for the winner, as well…just ’cause.

The rules:

• 1 photo per person. (G-rated, must be your photo, preferably with no minors in the shot.)
• We’re looking for finished foodie shots of meat on the grill, in the Caja China, in your Weber, your pit…you name it. Show us what you would add smoke to, with your free A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker, the next time you barbecue!
• Contest ends Wednesday, February 29 (‘cause that’s leap-day, and I thought it was cool.)
• Please do not post contact/mailing information, we’ll contact the winner.

Oh, and just to tease you…in June, I’m going to give away a MAJOR PRIZE here on Burnin’ Love BBQ (no, not a leg-lamp) for the best photo taken using the AMNPS! Seriously…this is going to be a biggie!

Any questions? Post them below, or on our Facebook post!

Okay, let’s see ‘em!

-Perry

PS – Again, my review is here, if you’d like to see more of my thoughts on the A-MAZE-N Smoker.

PPS – Make sure to check out Burnin’ Love BBQ’s latest venture, HauteMealz.com, as well!

President’s Day and Barbecue

Today is one of my favorite barbecue holidays…Presidents Day!

Oh sure, you can have your Memorial Day, and Independence Day, and Labor Day, but the problem with those are, everyone else is barbecuing as well! It can be hard to get enough folks over to justify a decent pig-pickin’ when every Weber on the block is burnin’ dogs.

Besides, Presidents Day has such a fine history or barbecue…

“When George Washington “went in to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night,” as he wrote in his diary for May 27, 1769, he won eight shillings playing cards and probably ate meat from a whole hog, cooked for hours over hardwood coals, then chopped or “pulled.”

By the early nineteenth century at the latest, a sauce of vinegar and cayenne pepper (originally West Indian) was being sprinkled on the finished product.  This ur-barbecue can be found to this day in eastern North Carolina and the adjoining regions of South Carolina and Virginia, virtually unchanged.” (Adapted from Holy Smoke: The Tar Heel Barbecue Tradition, by John Shelton Reed, Dale Volberg Reed, and Will McKinney to be published by the University of North Carolina Press, forthcoming 2008.)

Says Steven Raichlen, author of “Planet Barbecue” and host of “Primal Grill” on PBS, “Our presidents were known to be big fans of the laid-back pastime as well. George Washington’s diaries abound with references to barbecues, including one that lasted for three days. George Washington was a major barbecue buff, and when Abraham Lincoln’s parents were married, their wedding feast was a barbecue.”

Lyndon Johnson built his campaign around Texas-style barbecues, a variation on an old tradition: In the 19th century, roast pig and whiskey were staples at political rallies. Having combined generous amounts of Kentucky bourbon and slow-roasted pork on occassion myself, I can say with some authority that this is a wise political tactic…after several hours you would passionately cast your vote for the pig, if someone put a ballot in your hand!

In fact, President Johnson had a full-time barbecue chef, Mr, Walter Jetton, employed on the LBJ Ranch full time. I have his cookbook…it’s highly amusing.

Ronald Reagan engaged the BBQ catering services of Wayne Monk of Lexington for the 1983 Economic Summit in Williamsburg.

Even President Obama, who, having grown up in Hawaii, is likely to have an undeniable love of pork…I mean bbq of  course…got into the action with Iron Chef Bobby Flay, grilling up some fine looking steaks at the White House for the Young Men’s Barbeque in 2009. (Hope they were good…we payed for ‘em! lol)

So, in tribute to my favorite bbq holiday, here’s how you can prepare some fantastic, White House worthy pulled pork barbecue of your own on your gas grill or La Caja China (click links for recipes.)

And, of course, if you can get a herd of hungry revelers over, you can go whole hog…but I’d put the bourbon away first, if I were you.

And here’s my favorite “traditional” bbq sauce recipe, from …which is probably pretty similar to what Ol’ George sunk his wooden teeth into, at those all-night poker parties!

Perk’s Tradition BBQ Sauce

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine the white vinegar, cider vinegar, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in a jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 days before using so that the flavors will blend. Shake occasionally.

Enjoy the day!

-Perry