When it comes to biscuits and gravy, Jess is very particular.  She likes the gravy thick, flavorful, white, not greasy and lacking in sausage bits.  The biscuits must be soft, but not mushy and need to have flavor.  Now, when presenting her the dish from the Gravel Road, she wasn’t impressed.  The gravy was thin and full of sausage, but luckily she enjoyed it.  Well, let me correct that.  She liked it as long as you didn’t call it biscuits and gravy.  She said as biscuits and gravy go, it was bad, but if it were called something else and presented to her, it would be great.  I guess you’d have to eat it to understand (or perhaps you’d hafta climb into her head).  Due to her enjoyment, we decided to stop by and do breakfast “properly.”

The first thing you need to know about the Gravel Road is that in its current location (it recently moved), it is very easy to miss.  I blew past it the first time looking for it and you can see why from the photo below:

They need a bigger sign.

Really... needs to be much bigger.

That little sign is the only thing informing you of tasty eats.  Otherwise it looks like just another building.  Well, there is another sign closer to the road, but it is also pretty small.  Either way, memorize this building if you’re gonna visit.  Once you’re inside, you get treated to a warm and inviting dining area and bar (with a view of the kitchen).

View of the bar.

View of the back.

You may note the ATM in the back (as well as the message on their door)… one slight issue with the Gravel Road is that they take check and cash, but not plastic.  As long as you know this going in, it isn’t an issue… otherwise you’ll be paying a few bucks worth of ATM fees to eat.

The breakfast menu is nice and simple with about a dozen things to choose from, ranging from Eggs Benedict, to pancakes, to a breakfast pizza.

The breakfast menu... basic, but that's rarely a bad thing.

Since she tried them before, instead of going with the biscuits and gravy, Jess chose the “Eggs on Fire” which is an Eggs Benedict with a soy-sauce marinated steak in place of the ham.  Besides the standard English muffin, eggs and hollandaise, the plate also comes with a side of hash browns and a vegetable medley.

Nothing quite like steak for breakfast, is there?

Instead of choosing from the menu, I decided to go with their special of the day, which was seared Amberjack over Gouda and garlic grits.  This was topped with two eggs, hollandaise and arugula.

The first time I've ever had fish for breakfast (and definitely not the last).

Jess loved the vegetable medley and thought the eggs were cooked perfectly (over-medium), but wasn’t a huge fan of the meat.  The slight taste of soy just didn’t quite work with everything, giving it a weird taste that was quite hard to place.  In fact, the meat isn’t advertised as being marinated, she asked the waitress who checked with the chef to figure out why it had the flavor it did.  If it wasn’t marinated, she said that she’d probably get it again, but as it is, she won’t.  This also brings up a little point… if you have allergies or foods you don’t wish to eat, always ask if the food has it.  Jess didn’t think to ask if the steak was marinated and it wasn’t shown as such on the menu.

My dish was amazing… the amberjack was cooked perfectly, wasn’t dry and had a wonderful sear on it.  Like Jess’ dish, the eggs were cooked perfectly (over-medium), and worked amazingly well with the fish.  The gouda-garlic grits had to be my favorite part, though.  They were nice and thick, but not overly cheesy, so the flavor of the grits still showed through.  The arugula added just the perfect bit of bitterness to the entire thing.  To be honest, this is one of the best breakfast dishes I’ve ever had.  I could honestly eat this meal every week.  No lie.  Even Jess liked it… in fact, she actually enjoyed mine over hers and said that it were around next time, she’d get it (if anyone from there is reading… please make this a standard menu item, it’s glorious).  When it came time for the check, the bill for both of our meals (with tax) came to just $25.68… not too shabby for a breakfast that filled us up for quite awhile.  If you care to try it out yourself, here is the address and hours:

Address: 4935 E. Co. Hwy. 30-A, Seagrove Beach (Santa Rosa Beach), FL (click for map)
Hours: 7:00 am – 10:00 pm Mon – Sat, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Sun

So far, while not perfect, it has been our best breakfast experience since landing in this area.  Also, as breakfast is their newest course (I’ve been told that Gravel Road used to be lunch and dinner only), we’ll have to revisit them later in the day next time.  We’re still on the lookout for the “perfect” biscuits and gravy, so keep your fingers crossed that we find them (and if you have a favorite breakfast place, please share)!

Mmm... chili and chips! A better combo was never invented.

To be completely honest, Jess thinks it could be a tad less spicy, but I do so love the burn, so you’ll notice quite a few peppers in here.  If you make it, feel free to leave ‘em out or sub some less spicy ones (example, I use the spicier dried New Mexican Anaheim pepper instead of the more mild Ancho).

The funny thing about this chili is the fact that I ended up adding more ingredients to it than I planned as I had them laying around.  Luckily the whole thing turned out tasting pretty darn good.  Example: Jess was making some salsa and had a leftover tomatillo… into the pot it went.  I also misjudged the amount of beans needed and ended up having to use some garbanzo beans I had to spectacular results.  So, follow along with me as I throw random kitchen ingredients into a pot and somehow emerge with chili!!

Mmm... toasty.

A bit o' spices.

Made a mess.

Nice lookin' veg.

Ingredient Breakdown:

• 6 Chipotle Peppers (dried)
• 2 New Mexico Peppers (dried)
• 1 lb Ground Turkey
• 2 slices Bacon (thick), diced
• 1 tsp Coriander Seed
• 2 Whole Cloves
• 1 tsp Whole Peppercorns
• 1 tsp Allspice berries
• 1/4″ Cinnamon stick
• 2 Tbs Cumin
• 2 tsp Mexican Oregano (dried)
• 1 tsp Epazote (dried)
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 1 15oz can Tomatoes (diced), undrained
• 1 can White Beans
• 1 can Black Beans
• 1 can Garbanzo Beans
• 3 Tbs Tomato Paste
• 1 Poblano Pepper, diced
• 1 Medium Onion, diced
• 1 Tomatillo
• 1 Carrot, diced (small)
• 2c Chicken Stock
• 5 cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 Habanero Peppers, minced
• 3 Serrano Peppers, diced (small)
• 1 c Corn (frozen or fresh)
• Chayote Squash, diced
• Avocado, diced
• 1/3 c Cilantro (fresh)
• Salt
• Pepper

Instructions:

1. Seed, then soak dried peppers in 2c of boiling water for 30 minutes. Use a plate to keep peppers submerged.
2. Toast coriander, cloves, peppercorn and allspice for 5 minutes over medium heat.  Careful not to let it burn.
3. Add toasted spiced to spice grinder and pulse until powdered.  Add to other dry spices & reserve.
4. Add soaked peppers, 1/2 onion, chicken stock and 1/2 tomatoes to blender.  Blend until smooth.
5. Heat a pot over medium heat and add diced bacon.  Cook until looking crisp, but not burnt.
6. Add poblano, remaining 1/2 onion, garlic, carrot and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook for 8 min until veggies are softened.
7. Add habanero, serrano and spice mixture. Cook for one minute, stirring so everything is well coated.
8. Add turkey and cook for 5 min, or until cooked through.
9. Add 1 Tbs tomato pastes and 1 cup of sauce from blender. Cook 8 min, or until reduced by 1/3.
10. Add remaining tomatoes, corn and squash.  Stir and cook another 3 minutes.
11. Add remaining sauce and beans. Cook another 10 minutes, or until your desired thickness.
12. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Turn off heat.
13. Add cilantro, tomatillo and avocado.  Enjoy!

That’s it!  As I mentioned above, many of these ingredients can be changed around or left out and the results would probably still be very tasty!  This is my first time trying to make chili without a recipe, so any advice is welcomed!  On that same note, what’s your favorite chili recipe?

The first thing I need to do is just decide what I wanted to grow.  After some thought, I decided I really wanted peppers… hot peppers and I have become very close friends.  The second thing I needed were the seeds themselves.  I took a drive out to a few stores and found very little in terms of seed selection, which was very sad.  Then I suddenly had an epiphany!  I have a ton of dried peppers I use when cooking… perhaps the seeds from these will germinate if I plant them!  I started going through the dried peppers I had along with a couple seeds I purchased.  In the end I ended up with:

• Bell Peppers – Seeds purchased from store, colors unknown.
• Jalepenos – Peppers were smoked, test to see if the seeds will still germinate.
• Naga Jolokia – Leftover seeds from peppers I purchased at the Omaha Farmer’s Market last year.
• Chocolate Habanero – Same with Naga… leftover from Farmer’s Market.
• Poblano – Seeds taken from dried ancho chiles.
• Bird’s Eye – Seeds taken from dried peppers simply marked “Thai.”

So, now that I have my seeds, what do I do with them?  I’ll tell you what I should have done: I should have asked someone.  Instead of asking, I decided I’d figure it out I went along.  Another trip down to my local garden center and I grabbed a little seedling starter kit, planted the seeds (on 01/30/10), put the whole thing high up on a shelf near a light.  Perfect, right?  Not quite.

After the first week the first seedlings began sprouting and I was very excited.  By day 16 I had quite a few little seedlings, but a slight problem.  It turns out a normal light, placed about 3 feet above seedling, is just not enough light.  My little plants were all growing very tall, but didn’t really have any leaves. I started worrying that they would fall over, so I ran to my local Internet and started searching.  Turns out the peppers were becoming “leggy” due to the lack of light.  Also, I was beginning to notice some while mold/fungus growing on the soil.  Seems this is due (usually) to lack of air movement.  Of course the room I put these guys in had no ventilation… talk about good planning on my part.  I was beginning to panic and started researching lighting until Jess reminded me that I had an AeroGarden in storage.  Now, I didn’t want to make these peppers grow in the AeroGarden as I had way more peppers than it’d support (also, they’d had already started growing), so I decided to tinker a bit.

Behold… the PepperDome:

Behold... the Device!

Hope this works!

Grow baby, grow!

What you see is my AeroGarden unit rigged with some tape so the water doesn’t run, but the lights work.  I have the plants sitting right on top, with foil on the sides to reflect any light (as the tray is a little bigger than the opening for the aerogarden).  The fan over on the right is used in the mornings to move air over the soil so the white stuff goes away (it has worked, believe it or not).  You can see what I meant about the plants, though… very long and skinny.  Jess made fun of my setup, saying that I made a “fort for [my] plants,” and while I disagree on the “fort” part, I do hafta say it looks a little weird.  If this works out this year, perhaps next year I’ll have a better looking setup.  Either way, after 8 days in this new setup you can see how much better the little guys look:

Alright! Now we're growin' good!

That was taken this morning, now 27 days into my gardening for this year… not too bad!  You will also notice that the smoked seeds failed to germinate.  This is what I thought, but I had wanted to try and see as some seeds actually will grow better after being smoked (a long shot, but SCIENCE!!).  From the left to the right we have the Naga, Habanero, Thai, Non-Existent Jalapenos, Poblano and Bell.

My watering schedule is about a squeeze from my water bottle every morning.  The water is room temp and has about a capful of plant food added.  The little cloth under the plants catches any excess water (of which there shouldn’t be any), just in case.  The lights are on from around 6:00am to around 9:00pm, giving them a decent 14 – 16 hours of light.  I’ve positioned the lights around 2″ above the plants as instructed by many and now we just wait!  The temperatures outside are still very cold (highs still in the 50’s with lows in the 30’s) and I can’t put these guys outside until the low temps are over 60° F, so they’ll be inside for at least another few weeks.  The hardest part is the waiting, I tells ya!

Wish me luck and stay tuned for updates!!  So what are you guys all growing this season?

Click to see the full side-by-side comparison.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the old theme has a lot of wasted space, so that just had to go.  I’ve increased the size of the thumbnails (and rounded the edges) as well as increasing the amount of preview text shown.  I did away with the custom excerpt and now it displays the first few lines of the post itself.  I wanted to do that originally, but the way the previous theme was setup it wouldn’t allow it.  Speaking of preview text, I’ve made sure to add it down below where before it only showed the post title.  It isn’t much, but some content is better than none!

One major change with the front page was the doing away with the “Featured Article.”  In the old theme I had a featured article that was displayed at the top, but unfortunately it took away from newer articles.  In the new theme the “featured article” space is reserved for the latest post and is automatically replaced as new posts come around.

Besides front page tweaks and minor cosmetic changes, I also changed the way the search and archives work.  In the old theme they didn’t look the same and had quite a few bugs, so I spent plenty of time fixing them to not only look the same, but be pretty much bug-free.  It now tells you more details about the post instead of just a couple lines and a title.  I’ve added the thumbnail, page views and more.

Inside the posts themselves I didn’t alter too much.  The biggest change was that I removed a lot of the “meaningless” bits and expanded on the (possibly) related posts.  The last major change that took place involved my 404 error page… now instead of just getting an “Error: Page not found” message, you get some options that can help me to fix the issue (if it is on my end) as well as a few suggestions of other pages.  Any help is better than none, right?

One last thing to mention regarding this change is that when working on it, I had a few people take a look to make it compatible with IE6, and unfortunately none of us could get it to work correctly.  I decided that instead of spending any more time on it, I’d make a very basic alternate theme for Internet Explorer 6 only.  You can see below what it looks like, and yes, it is very basic.  I added a warning that their browser is out of date as well as a link to upgrade if they could.  I’m aware that some people can’t due to being in a workplace that doesn’t allow it, but many others just don’t know they’re on an old browser.

What IE6 sees... scary stuff.

I figure it’s the best of both worlds… the content still exists and I don’t have to waste time (mine and others) on trying to code this to work.  If anyone wants to know how I did it, just let me know.

Last thing regarding the changes… I now have a lot more space on the sidebar, so I would love to exchange links with fellow foodies out there!  If you’d like me to add you to my list of food bloggers, just shoot me a message and we’ll get it done! Thanks for sticking with me for the past year and hopefully you’ll continue to follow along as time goes by!

Fresh from the phone call I run up the stairs, go inside, and set down my things.  Standing in the kitchen, cursing at my food processor, is my lovely wife.  I asked her what happened and she relayed the story back.  She had just taken the potato out of the oven, and even though it wasn’t soft enough, she was sticking to her schedule and that meant it was time to mash.

I’ll pause right here to note this first issue, in that she didn’t bake until the potato was soft… she was cooking on a schedule and if she didn’t move on to the mashing she’d run out of time.  While not a major issue, it didn’t help.  One of the biggest rules of cooking I try to follow is that I’d rather have good food later than bad food now.  In other words, your cooking time needs to be based on the food, not the schedule.  As I said, this wasn’t the primary problem… let’s continue on with the tale.

You see, when Jess couldn’t find a potato masher (as I don’t have one) she decided to use the next best thing, which was (in her mind) the food processor.  I never realized it, but in all the times I’ve mashed potatoes over the years, she never noticed what I used to do it… who knew?  Either way, the potatoes were now whizzing around the food processor on their way to being mashed, or so she thought.  Apparently it started out well, and then the machine started struggling and the blades began moving slower… and slower… and slower.  This is when I walked in and where her story to me ended.  In short, I came in to a food processor filled with glue.  Edible?  Yes.  Tasty?  No.

Believe it or not, one ever told Jess that putting potatoes in a food processor (or blender) will turn them into a very glue-like substance.  Nothing against her, though, as a quick look around online shows a multitude of people who have done the same thing.  Why does this happen?  Well, if you’ve ever played with a “pure” starch like tapioca flour or corn starch, you’d know that just by adding some water the powder will form a very thick and gluey paste.  In fact, you can even make children’s toys (of sorts) with it.  So how does this explain the potatoes demise?  Well, potatoes are full of two things:  Starch and water.  The cells of a potato are full of starch, and as long as they remain intact, nothing happens.  Once the cell walls are torn apart by a very sharp, fast moving blade, the starch rushes out and combines with the liquid already inside the potato. What you’re then left with is, well, glue (a bioadhesive if you wanna get technical).

So why doesn’t this happen when mashing by hand or by using a hand mixer?  While you’re still going to break through the occasional cell wall, you’re nowhere near as good as the fast moving blades and would take a very long time to get there.  If you want great mashed potatoes fast, use a simple hand mixer, otherwise you’re getting book binding.  Delicious.

After explaining to Jess what went wrong, and realizing that there was no way we were going to be eating a meat pie now, I decided to boil up some rice and turn the dish into an Asian fusion sorta thing.  Some fish sauce, chinese eggplant, radish, culantro, soy sauce, chili paste and other fun things were tossed in the pot and it was delectable.  So I luckily made culinary gold out of this lead potato, but you may not be so lucky.  Take it from Jess:

Potato + Blender/Food Processor = Potato Emergency.

So, while we’re on the subject, what kitchen skills/tips have you learned simply by accident?

Hail to the king, baby!

Not only does it look like it could physically hurt you, but anyone who has eaten one will tell you that you shouldn’t open it inside your house.  Ever. You see, the durian has a fragrance about it… a certain air.  How does one put it?  Let’s let Anthony Bourdain, a durian lover, help me out:

“God it stank! It smelled like you’d buried somebody holding a big wheel of Stilton in his arms, then dug him up a few weeks later.”

“Its taste can only be described as…indescribable, something you will either love or despise. [...] Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.”

Yes, that is what someone who likes it thinks… so in case you think he’s biased, here’s what Richard Serling has to say:

“[I]ts odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away.”

Oh yeah… are your tastebuds watering yet?  Now, I want to tell you that while the fruit does smell, the taste and texture is something you’ll never come across again.  The texture of the fruit is something like a flan or a pudding: soft and creamy.  The flavor is quite hard to describe… I tasted a ton of tropical flavors that I likened to mango, banana and papaya and other flavors I couldn’t quite make out.  The little downside to eating the fruit is that when swallowing and you breathe in, you suddenly get a smell of the fruit and that may take some getting used to.

When it comes to the smell, I can best describe it as taking a bunch of ripe bananas and delicately setting them on a pile of rotting onions.  While nothing in the smell specifically screams “onion” to me in particular, something in it just triggers that.  Others I talked to didn’t get onion, rather they got a strong cheese.  I assume it is more of an association thing rather than the smell itself… either way, it brings out very interesting responses from people.

Due to the massive scent, scary exterior and awesome texture, durian has taken on the moniker of the “king of fruits” and it is easy to see why.  So, when out looking for some fish sauce, you can understand why I instantly had to buy this after seeing it sitting there… waiting for me.  Upon lifting the thing (using its safe mesh bag) and bringing it to the counter I was greeted with great excitement from the woman up front.  It seems not many people are fans of this fruit and she was hoping that I either was or would become one.  She even went so far as to tell me that if I like it she can get me other things, such as durian cake.  Interesting!

After buying my fruit and taking it home, I sat it on my counter and went about doing some research.  The first thing I wanted to know was: “Why does it have a black spot on it… is it bad?”

Frostbite?

Digging around told me that it was a cold injury and that many durians purchased in the US will probably have it.  Why?  Well, it seems that the easiest way to transport a durian is to freeze it, then ship it over here and defrost it.  Unfortunately most places still consider it to be “fresh,” but if I took a watermelon, froze it, thawed it and gave it to you, while it’d still be a watermelon, it’d be a little “off” when it came to flavor/texture.  I’m told that the durian is the same way and that the cold actually dampens the smell and, like an avocado, stops it from ripening fully.  That being said, if you want to try one outside of Asia, this is pretty much it. Even though the durian has many, many cultivars, only one is available to the international market… sad, no?

So, what else to do but crack it open, right?  Traditionally you lay the fruit on newspapers, but all I had was line paper… guess it had to do!  I will suggest to you that you do not skip this step, though, as it greatly helps with the cleanup.  The second suggestion, as noted by everyone, is to open it outside.  While you get a little bit of a sweet smell from the outside of the fruit, it really disguises the scent from within.  Using a large kitchen knife I split the beast in two, being careful to not cut myself on the very sharp spines and then leaned down to take a whiff.  Yep… it works as advertised, no missing that scent.  Within a couple minutes the smell spread out from just at the fruit to the entire balcony.  I’m happy that it wasn’t a hot, sunny day or else I have a feeling that many people would be wondering just what I was hacking away at up there.

Karate chop!

Braaaaainsss!

For SCIENCE!!

Do not eat!

You can see that the fruit surrounds a hard seed, which, unfortunately, I found out is edible if cooked after I had already disposed of them. Next time I’ll have to give that a try.  A quick warning, though… uncooked durian seeds are toxic, so do not eat them raw.  Seriously.

Fresh durian seeds contain [...] cyclopropene fatty acids including sterculic, dihydrosterculic and malvalic acids [...]. Due to the toxic and perhaps carcinogenic nature of these substances, it would be unwise to ingest uncooked durian seeds.

A fair warning to all of you getting ready to eat one of these: They’re messy. Expect to have your hands covered in fruit while digging it out from the shell and deseeding it.  In fact, many people eat the fruit with their hands, as it really is easier than using a spoon and/or fork.

When you’re all done eating, I’d suggest taking out the remaining seeds, putting the flesh in a baggie, then that in another baggie and either refrigerate (if you plan on eating it the next day) or freeze it.  Be warned, you may need to use a few bags, as the smell actually makes it through the plastic and will quickly make everything smell like durian.  I ended up freezing mine and later in the week I made durian cake (recipe will be coming) with the leftovers.

So, have any of you folks tried durian?  Have you tried it fresh (over in Asia) or thawed elsewhere?  Your thoughts?  Honestly, I think I like it!  It is so unlike anything else that if given the chance, I’d recommend everyone give it a taste!

Luckily the dust is settling and what was once my last post from Omaha will be my first post from Panama City.  Today I fondly remember some of my favorite food-related places around town.  This list will hopefully help newcomers, visitors and current residents alike.  This list isn’t in any particular order, just as I remember ‘em.

Tomato Tomato

Do you need something from the Farmer’s Market, but it’s not Saturday (or it’s the off season)? No worries! Odds are they have it here!  Say “hi” to Jodi, Dallas and all the others for me!

The Boiler Room

I took way too long to eat here, so don’t make that same mistake. This is, perhaps, the greatest restaurant in all of Omaha with a menu that changes daily and a ton of local products.

Frank’s Pizzaria

This is real pizza. The end. All those other places saying they’re NY pizza are lying. Frank is a guy from Brooklyn who makes a perfect pie. Make sure and grab the “white pizza” as it has always been my favorite!

Bailey’s Restaurant (PDF)

When I wasn’t up to cooking breakfast or wanted a quick lunch, this is where I came. Jess says they have the best biscuits and gravy in the entire city. Here’s a tip: On the weekends ask what the soup of the day is as it is never listed.

Shucks Oyster Bar (PDF)

From the people who brought you Bailey’s comes Shucks! Perhaps the freshest fish in the city cooked just wonderfully. I’ve heard they now have two locations!

Sushi Japan Yakiniku Boy

The sushi here was great, but my favorite thing is that they have traditional Japanese food like Oyako Donburi. I wish more places served that!

Omaha Farmer’s Market

Not just food, the Farmer’s Market down in Old Market is an experience.  People busking, lots of random crafts… it’s a great way to spend a few hours.

Village Pointe Farmer’s Market

Want the food with none of the fuss? Come up to Village Pointe.  Almost all the same foods, no crafts, buskers, or anything else separating you from the goodies.

The Tea Smith

My mornings just aren’t right without a blend of Yerba Mate and a black tea of some sort.  The Tea Smith were the suppliers of my wakeup juice and won’t stop being so any time soon. Trivia fact: The owner of Black Sheep Farms is the son of the owner of the Tea Smith.

Village Grinder

How I feel about the Tea Smith is the way Jess felt about Village Grinder.  When I first saw them, I thought they were a sub shop, but it turns out they’re even better. Stop by and try one of their many coffees or baked goods (and make sure you say “hi” to Emily for me!).

Aki Oriental

Every town has that one great Asian market… this is Omaha’s.  Whenever I needed any hard to find ingredient from that mystic of continents I knew they would have it there waiting for me!

Whole Foods

When I couldn’t find my ingredients anywhere else, I always knew I could count on Whole Foods to hook me up.  Jess was partial to their vegan cakes and I was always a fan of their whitefish salad.

There were/are many wonderful food related places in Omaha and I’m truly sad to not have had the pleasure at eating at them all.  Perhaps next time I’m up north I’ll stop by and grab a bite to eat.

Former/Current Omaha residents… what are your favorite food joints?  Did I miss some that others just have to visit?

The first thing I looked for was a Whole Foods, but the nearest is 4+ hours away. Yikes. The closest thing I could find was the Fresh Market, but even that is over an hour away. I’ve luckily stumbled upon a few farmer’s market type things, such as Off the Vine and Zen Garden Market, but I dunno how they will work. I also recently got in touch with the people at Twin Oaks Farm and was told that Seaside has a year-round farmer’s market as well (again, about an hour away). We’ll have to play it by ear for the first few months, but hopefully I’ll be able to locate what I consider the necessities:

• Farm Fresh Eggs
• Pasture Butter
• Grass-Fed Beef
• Locally Grown Produce

If I can locate these things, I’ll be just fine. The other things I need to find are some decent regional markets, namely Asian and Hispanic. Luckily some of the things I’ve grown to love up here (Penzey’s and The Tea Smith) allow you to order online, so I don’t have to miss out.

So, anyone out there know of some great restaurants in the Panama City area? Good places to get local food? If so, please comment and help a soon-to-be transplant out!

Yes, from the people who graciously brought us the bacon and chocolate candy bar comes the next generation.  Say hello to Vosges Bacon Caramel Toffee… it is pleased to meet you, I’m sure.

Chocolatey baconated toffee goodness

You’ll notice that it not only is a bar of baconated toffee, but that it is also covered in milk chocolate.  I don’t know how the people at Vosges get their ideas, but I need to find a way to make it my own.  They are truly chocolate gods.  From their mouths:

Some combinations seem to be written in the stars. Our sought after Mo’s Bacon Bar was destined to collide with our addicting crunchy toffee. Applewood smoked bacon and Alder wood smoked salt are embedded in our original crisp, buttery toffee. A layer of 41% cacao deep milk chocolate embraces top and bottom. And you thought the Mo’s Bacon Bar and Caramel Toffee were addicting…

So, for the people out there thinking that this is not a wonderful combination I say to you:  Try it.  Just try it.  I promise you, it’s awesome wrapped in a chocolate shell, topped with a bow.  The flavor of the salty pork against the very sweet caramel and rich chocolate just comes together in ways you’d never think possible.  To try and convince you of how great it is, check out this close-up shot:

You can see it's bacony soul...

You see, don’t you want to just eat that and never stop?  As Gwen Reyes (Reel Vixen) put it when we discussed it on Twitter:

oh my god, YUM!! I hope they serve that in my heaven

Yeah, it’s that good…

So, what’s your favorite bacon-related candy?

You won't even miss the gluten!

Now are you interested?  It involves a few oddball things and a bit of science, but don’t let that scare you off!  Let’s first go through the ingredients:

Ingredient Breakdown:

• 8 oz Earth Balance Sticks
• 11 oz Brown Rice Flour
• 1 1/4 oz Cornstarch
• 1/2 oz Tapioca Flour
• 1 tsp Xanthan Gum
• 2 oz White Sugar
• 7 oz Brown Sugar
• 1 oz Pomegranate Molasses
• 1/2 oz Vanilla Soy Milk
• 8 oz Butternut Squash Puree
• 12 oz Vegan Chocolate Chips
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Almond Extract (divided)
• 1/2 tsp Coriander
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Allspice
• 1/4 tsp Ginger (powdered)
• 1 tsp Baking Soda

Right away I’m sure you’ll notice the Xanthan Gum, as it isn’t something most everyone has in their pantry.  Now, Xanthan Gum is actually just a byproduct of the fermentation of glucose/sucrose by the Xanthomonas campestris bacterium and it has a pretty cool property: It thickens things up.  In dressings and ice cream it adds to mouthfeel, but in cookies it (along with the different starches) help create a chewy texture that the gluten usually provides.  The other weird ingredient is the Butternut squash puree.  This actually replaces the eggs and some of the milk that would be in the normal cookies.  By reducing the puree it will get rid of the moisture in the squash, but help aid in the texture.  Weird, but it totally works.  One fair warning, though, the Xanthan gum may be a little pricey, but a little goes a long way, so don’t worry too much about it.

Instructions:

1. Add squash, 1/2 tsp Almond Extract and spices to a pot.
2. Reduce the squash mixture down until it reaches 3 oz (at this point it’ll resemble very thick mashed potatoes).  This is a little over half and you’ll want to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.  When it is done, remove from heat and cool.
3. When cool, whisk with the soy milk, vanilla and remaining almond extract.
4. Sift the Baking Powder, Xanthan Gum, Corn Starch, Cinnamon and Flours together.  Set aside.
5. Melt the Earth Balance Sticks and cool.
6. Stir together sugars and molasses in a large bowl.  Add butter and cream for 4 minutes on medium.
7. Switch to low, add squash mixture.  Mix another 30 seconds, until well blended.
8. Add in flour mixture in 3 parts and mix until well blended.
9. Stir in chips (try not to eat too many).
10. Chill the dough for at least one hour.
11. Place oven rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 375°F.
12. Weigh out 1 oz clumps of dough and roll into balls.  Bake only 8 to a sheet.
13. Bake cookies for 8 minutes, rotate pan, and bake another 8 minutes.
14. Let rest for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
15. Eat and enjoy!

That’s it!  I find that they are most pleasing at room temperature, rather than fresh out of the stove, but that may just be me.  If you try this or alter it, please post your comments as I want to know how they turned out!!