SkyMall Monday: Baseball Bat Pepper Grinder

by Mike Barish on

Here at SkyMall Monday headquarters, I love to host barbecues and dinner parties for my SkyMall Maniac friends. Typically, I grill up some of my custom-branded steaks, chill some beers and enjoy the good times. But lately my friends have been complaining that my steaks are bland. That they’re poorly seasoned. In fact, there’s talk of not attending my parties anymore and instead hanging out with someone who writes about the Blair catalog. Frankly, I cannot let that happen (mostly because I want to be the guy who writes about the Blair catalog). So, it’s time that I spiced up my meat with the Baseball Bat Pepper Grinder!

Most pepper grinders are maybe 8″ tall. Perhaps you have a restaurant-quality grinder and it’s pushing 12″. I scoff at your inadequate grinders. I’m a man. I need a grinder that exceeds 28″ and resembles a piece of sporting goods equipment that is in no way related to food. I need the Baseball Bat Pepper Grinder.

There’s no better way to season your food than by standing up, taking a full step back from the table and grinding fresh pepper onto your plate from a safe distance. Every year, literally one person is mildly inconvenienced by getting a pepper flake remotely close to his eye. You can avoid being that person and show people that you love baseball. You need the Baseball Bat Pepper Grinder.

Maybe I’m not articulating this clearly enough. Brainstorm! Let’s look at the product description:

Hit one out-of-the-park as a gift for your Dad who’s MVP of the grill. Feels and looks just like a baseball bat but professional quality grinder delivers effective spice control. Made in the United Kingdom…

First of all, nothing sells a product better than clever wordplay. Secondly, I never knew that spice control was an issue but now I fear that I need to control my spices before something tragic occurs. And thirdly, who better to craft the perfect novelty baseball bat than the British?

Finally, my steaks will be seasoned in a way that demonstrates my spice control. My guests will be satisfied. And I can get started on writing about my favorite Blair product.

Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts HERE.

The new face of army food

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The U.S. Culinary Arts Team … yes, there is such a thing … faced an incredible challenge. The team had to cook 150 three-course meals in six hours without the benefit of a real kitchen. The crew had to work “in the field” – as the army calls being away from the plumbing, walls and heat of the barracks – which is never an easy task.

The IKA/Culinary Olympics, which occurred back in October, is where chefs come from 53 countries to vie for the top spot in categories such as community catering, regional and military. The civilians take advantage of state-of-the-art facilities, while teams in the military competition were shrouded in camouflage and fueled by propane.

Like any military operation, the team from the United States had rehearsed tirelessly, nailing down its menu.

Salad: seared tuna, smoked trout, and poached salmon over a seaweed salad

Entrée: herb-infused turkey breast with sweet potatoes, cranberry johnnycake, and bacon-wrapped green beans

Dessert: chocolate-mousse crunch cake with apricot-and-cherry sauce.

The military category consisted of 10 countries in total, including Hungary, Sweden, Germany and Slovenia.

The results? Our team finished a strong second, much to the surprise to anyone who has been assigned to Fort Sill, OK (trust me). The Swiss took top honors, and Great Britain shocked all by: (a) not finishing last and (b) serving something that the judges could actually taste.

[Via The Atlantic]

Vahrehvah.com: A superb resource for Indian cooking

by Abha Malpani on

Finding this Indian cooking website has changed my world. I can cook basic Indian food, thanks to my mum, but when it comes to anything a little complicated, I get a lazy — especially because (from experience) — after a hours of work, the end result has not been worth the effort. I would also blame the disaster dish on me living in Spain: “All the spices are not available and what are available just don’t taste the same.” It’s all rubbish. What I needed was a good guide and I think this is it!

A bad translation of “vah reh vah” in English would be “that’s just awesome”, but it’s enough to give you the gist. The website has recipes of over 230 Indian dishes, but the best part is that many of the Indian recipes have a video guide to go with them.

The “Vah chef” Sanjay Thumma is a great host. Very Indian. But great. His passion and talent for cooking is evident in the videos. For example, in his video that teaches you how to prepare Hydrabadi Biryani (one my favorite Indian dishes), he gets a little emotional in the end; when he tastes what he made, I’m pretty sure that his eyes welled-up with joy!

Another element key in making this website a super hit: Since it is targeted towards non-resident Indians, he often mentions in his recipes ingredient replacements should you not be able to find something specific in your country. You can also help yourself on this front by checking out the site’s Cook’s Thesaurus.

You can also access Sanjay Thumma’s video channel on YouTube. He is quite a personality, you will enjoy watching him. He has won a gold medal for his recipes in the All-India Chefs competition for culinary arts, and all the video work is his own production done in his digital studio, that by the way, has just gone HD!

Other than Indian food, there are recipes for other cuisines; however they don’t have video content. A must visit if you want to cook some good Indian food.

One for the Road: Where Flavor Was Born

by Kelly Amabile on

The photo on the cover of this travelogue cookbook has my mouth watering! And from what I can tell, the pages in between offer up much more eye candy for hungry travelers who like to cook. Where Flavor Was Born: Recipes and Culinary Travels Along the Indian Ocean Spice Route is a delicious journey that explores the origins of spices from Bali to Zanzibar.

The colorful book is loaded with glossy photos and almost 100 recipes, like this one for Indian Pepper Chicken. Need more tempting? Here are three more freebies that use curry from India, tamarind sauce from Thailand and cloves from Zanzibar. Food writer and TV chef Andreas Viestad (known for his New Scandinavian Cooking show), is the tour guide for this adventure of taste. The book is organized by spice, and includes a glossary for easy reference, which should be helpful when you’re up to your eyeballs in cardamom and coriander in the kitchen!

One for the Road: A Tale of 12 Kitchens

by Kelly Amabile on

This cookbook gem came out last year but, I stumbled across some rave reviews recently, and thought it deserved a mention, especially as the holiday cooking season heats up! A Tale of 12 Kitchens: Family Cooking in Four Countries follows Jake Tilson on food adventures around the world, including stops in New York, Tuscany and Scotland.

Tilson used his artistic eye (he’s a photographer and painter) to create a one-of-a-kind “cookbook-cum-scrapbook” that doubles as a travel journal. Readers are invited into Tilson’s inner circle — his foodie family is a collection of colorful characters obsessed with cooking. In unique fashion, the book celebrates the possibilities of food, and the deeply personal aspects of communal meal preparation. The eighty recipes included in the book are gathered from all corners of the globe, but the real treasure of these kitchen tales is the original and refreshing way in which they are presented.

Tilson will appear in New York on December 5 as part of The James Beard Foundation’s Beard on Books series.