Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Muffins

During our vacation in Northern California, I baked some Blueberry Muffins before going out to visit my sister in law Kristen in Bass Lake. I found the recipe on Pinterest from the blog, Mommy Moment (see link below). The muffins were soft and full of flavor from the fresh blueberries and vanilla extract. Since I am trying to cut back on sugar as much as possible, I took out 1 cup of sugar and the muffins were amazing. This is something to be mindful of when you bake and cut sugar out from each recipe if possible. See recipe below.

Yield: 2 Dozen Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups fresh Blueberries

3 cups All Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp Salt

1 cup, 2 sticks Butter, softened and each cut into eight cubes

¾ cup Sugar

2 Eggs, room temperature

2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1½ cups Whole Milk

Blueberry Muffins just out of the oven

Directions
Heat oven to 350.

Spray muffin tins with baking spray.

In a bowl incorporate the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In  a separate bowl mix together the butter and sugar until smooth. I did this by hand with a wooden spoon since I did not have a mixer on hand.

Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the butter/sugar and mix until incorporated.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine.

Blueberry Muffins cooling down

Add milk and mix until smooth.

Gently fold in blueberries.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 way and bake for 20-25 minutes or until done.

Test with a toothpick and if it comes out clean, they are ready.

Cool in tin for 10 minutes and then remove muffins and place on wire rack to cool completely.

Do like me and have one warm. Yum.

The Blueberry Muffins recipe is from:
http://www.mommymoment.ca/2016/02/best-ever-homemade-blueberry-muffins.html

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys

Sweetride Tongue Puncher Gourmet Hot Sauce

Sweetride Tongue Puncher Gourmet Hot Sauce

Chicken Wings with Sweetride Tongue Puncher Gourmet Hot Sauce

I was very excited to do my annual Memorial Day chicken wings with a new local New York State sauce. I used a great sweet and tangy sauce called Sweetride by Tongue Puncher Gourmet Hot Sauce. Tongue Puncher is based upstate from us in Rochester, NY. Tongue Puncher makes BBQ sauce and a few different hot sauces we will also cover over the summer.

Sweetride Tongue Puncher Chicken Wings just taken out of the oven

The Sweetride sauce had low heat and lots of bold flavor. Some of the flavorful ingredients are orange juice, pineapple, mustard, ketchup, lemon oil and crushed red pepper. The ingredients combined make a fairly thick yellowish hearty BBQ sauce. I liked the texture, the fruit pieces (pineapple), and the redness of the pepper flakes. Being low on the heat scale, my wife was also able to enjoy this as it is not extreme or overly hot. Though the heat was not hot in this particular sauce, I am sure their hot sauces will be packing a punch (to your tongue). I will say that Sweetride does give you a tongue punch of sweet tangy flavor. The mustard fruit base is very tangy and went well on our chicken wings. Sweetride would also be great on pulled pork or pork chops.

Ingredients for my Sweetride Tongue Puncher Chicken Wings

The following day I had leftover chicken wings for lunch and the flavors just continued to sink in overnight. Before basting the chicken wings with Sweetride Tongue Puncher on both sides, I sprinkled Kosher Salt and Cracked Black Pepper. I made the chicken wings in the oven at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes and turned them over half way. To accompany the Sweetride Chicken Wings, my lovely wife made her famous potato salad and for dessert we had watermelon. I recommend Sweetride Tongue Puncher for your BBQs and to add to your sauce pantry.

Sophia's famous potato salad! 

For further information on Tongue Puncher, please visit:
http://www.tonguepuncher.com

"Like" Tongue Puncher on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/tonguepuncher

Watermelon for dessert!

-Allen/Two Frys

Chicken Zoodle Soup

Chicken Zoodle Soup

Chicken Zoodle Soup with sliced avocado

I love soup and zoodles (Zucchini Noodles) and found the recipe at the Damn Delicious blog and had to make it with minor changes. I added more fresh thyme and used Mexican oregano and tri-color carrots. I omitted dry thyme and dry rosemary since I find rosemary can overpower a dish and the sprig I used was large. I cut all the vegetables in the morning before work and put everything in the fridge in ziploc bags to save time the day I was making the soup. Allen spiralized the zucchini in the afternoon and placed them in a ziploc bag in the fridge. This Chicken Zoodle Soup is a very hearty and healthy soup. It tastes so great from the spices and ingredients and is good for you. I recommend you try it. Recipe is below.

Chicken Zoodle Soup, yum!

Ingredients
2 Chicken Breasts, cut into small pieces

3 medium size Zucchini, spiralized

3 Carrots (I used TriColor ones), sliced

2 stalks Celery, sliced

My Chicken Zoodle Soup and sliced avocado

1 medium size Onion, chopped

3 cloves Garlic, whole

1 Bay Leaf

2 tablespoons Parsley, chopped

1 sprig Rosemary

1 tablespoon Thyme

1 teaspoon Mexican Oregano

Allen adding some NYC Hot Sauce and oyster crackers to his Chicken Zoodle Soup

Coarse Salt to taste

Cracked Black Pepper to taste

2 cups Water

4 cups Organic Low Sodium Chicken Stock

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed Lemon juice

2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 avocado, sliced

Cooked Chicken

Directions
Cut chicken breasts into small pieces and season with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and cook chicken, set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and add garlic, onion, carrots, and celery. Cook stirring often until tender, about 4-6 minutes.

All the veggies in the pot

Add bay leaf and rosemary sprig, and then oregano and thyme.

Whisk in chicken stock, and water and bring to a boil.

Add zoodles (zucchini noodles), the cooked chicken and reduce heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes or until zucchini is al dente.

Add lemon juice and stir.

Zoodles are almost al dente

Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir. Remove whole garlic cloves, bay leaf and rosemary sprig before serving.

Add parsley just before serving.

Serve with sliced avocado.

Please visit Damn Delicious for the recipe:
http://damndelicious.net/2016/01/13/chicken-zoodle-soup/

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys

NYC Hot Sauce Expo Page 1

Fourth Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo 2016

April 23-24, 2016
Brooklyn Expo Center, Brooklyn, NY

NYC Hot Sauce Expo

Sophia and Allen, Two Frys

Sophia and I attended the Fourth Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo Saturday, April 23, and we had a great time this year seeing our good friends and making new ones. The expo was well organized and I want to thank Steve and Lisa Seabury for presenting the attending Chile heads and heat seekers a smooth and fun experience for the attendees and vendors. This year there was an impressive amount of food and drink choices, and our VIP experience was the best to date. I recommend you purchase a VIP ticket for future expos. There were no long waits for either the food or drinks and the most we waited was 3-4 minutes. The VIP experience featured an indoor and outdoor patio area with tables to eat and drink in both areas. The food choices in the VIP area offered were good like BBQ style items such as sausage w/kraut on a roll, cheeseburger sliders, grilled cheese, German potato salad, and kale salad. There were drinks available from soda, ginger beer, craft beer such as the Coney Island Brewing Co., spicy Bloody Mary, whiskey, rum, and many other libations. We found some concrete blocks to sit on at the outdoor area for those who needed a break and a place to sit while eating. There were tables available outside as well. I also commend Lisa and Steve Seabury for putting together outdoor food and drinks for general admission areas. Vendors were selling popsicles, ice cream, hot dogs, meat pies, oysters, burgers and more. The overall layout was done well and spacious for the crowd that swelled to many by midday. The staffers of both the event and the Brooklyn Expo were helpful, kind and polite.

Allen goofing off at the Coney Island Brewing Co in the outside area

Sophia, the blue haired, tattooed mermaid, Coney Island Brewing Co

The crew from Coney Island Brewing Co

The contests were all a ton of fun to watch and ran smoothly. Some of the events we saw Saturday were The Spicy Guacamole Eating Contest, Hot Wings Eating Competition, Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Induction, The Screaming Mimi Awards, and the Margarita Mix-Down. We did not attend Sunday but there was the Jersey Barnfire Spicy Meatball Challenge (would have loved to see that one), Heartbreaking Dawns Spicy Taco Eating Challenge, High River Sauces Burrito Eating Challenge, The Bloody Mary Mix Down and the Puckerbutt Pepper Guinness World Record Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper Pepper Eating Challenge. Carolina Reapers are the Guinness Book of World Record hottest pepper record holder. The Carolina Reapers are from my friend Smokin’ Ed Currie of Puckerbutt.

John Dilley of Defcon, Hot Wings Eating Competition 

Maggie, Defcon in protection gear onstage, Hot Wings Eating Competition

John Dilley, Defcon, Hot Wings Eating Competition

The Spicy Guacamole Eating Contest

On Saturday, we arrived in Brooklyn at around 10:45AM and the line went quickly to get in. The VIP gift bags were great with a bottle of hot sauce, a bottle of Cajun Rum, mini bottles of Bird Dog Jalapeño Whiskey, Bruce Cost GingerBeer Unfiltered Original Spicy, Tabasco, a bandana, and Mason jar style plastic drinking cup from Stoli and some back issues of Chile Pepper Magazine, one of the sponsors. I picked up an older BBQ and Yucatan back issue from the VIP check in since I did not have them in my collection. I was very happy, as this magazine is jam packed with spicy and hot recipes. The VIP swag bag was the best one to date so thanks again, Lisa and Steve Seabury.

Manning the grill at the VIP area, see the smoke

Food at the VIP area

Bratwurst and sauerkraut, VIP area

The atmosphere was hopping and the expo rocked out playing heavy metal throughout the day in between the stage announcements and events. Sophia and I first visited the General Electric (GE) heat-sensing camera booth. The GE 1032Kelvin Hot Sauce was the first I had so early in the morning. 1032Kelvin was a mix of Carolina Reapers and Scorpion Peppers. These are the two top hottest peppers in the world. The sauce was very hot and hit me with a good burn. Then they took my picture with a heat-sensing camera and you could see the red heat in my mouth and lip area. This was a fun booth and a unique experience from GE. Visit #seetheheat or 1032kelvin.com/gomx for more info. Right after tasting the extreme hot sauce the camera snapped four pictures. I had to choose one printed for me (see photo). After I got my pic, I was rewarded with a Mint Ice Cream Sandwich to cool down. My image was on the large screen with other participants.

GE Thermal Imaging booth

GE 1032 Kelvin Hot Sauce, GE Thermal Imaging booth

Allen, GE Thermal Imaging booth

Allen about to try 1032 Kelvin Hot Sauce 

Allen getting his pic taken at the GE Thermal Imaging booth

Allen's heat sensing pic after having Kelvin 1032 Hot Sauce, bottom right where arrow points

It was awesome seeing new vendors this year. Some of the new vendors at the 2016 NYC Hot Sauce Expo were as follows: Bocas Hot Sauce, Big Daddy’s Hot Sauces, Angry Goat Pepper Co., Bravado Spice Co., Jak Jeckel, Meow That’s Hot, among others. Some of the returning vendors from former expos are N.W. Elixirs, A&B American Style, Benny T’s Vesta Dry Hot Sauce, Whitehouse Station Sauce Company, Big Fat’s Hot Sauce, Rippin’ Red Sauces, and Culley’s all the way from New Zealand. Making a comeback this year was Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce. 

View of Manhattan from the NYC Hot Sauce Expo

My Bud, Doug Spiros of Peppers and More and Allen

Doug Spiros getting some fresh air and talking about sauce

It is always great to meet new vendors as well as see our good friends at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo. Alot of the vendors we know were so busy they really could not visit, but busy is a good thing in the industry. All the hot sauce booths we visited were great and we enjoyed talking to all the hot sauce proprietors and staffers. Below are some highlights from the expo. Please note: Click the link at the end of this page to continue reading our expo coverage, which goes on for five posts.

Farmland Fresh Dairies dudes giving out ice cold Milk, the only thing to cool a burning mouth

Farmland Fresh Dairies 

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EXPO 2016 MAINPAGE

NYC Hot Sauce Expo Page 2

NYC Hot Sauce Expo Continued...

Angry Irishman Kevin Mackey in kilt

Angry Irishman Hot Sauces

Angry Irishman Rubs

Angry Irishman
It was great meeting the Angry Irishman owner Kevin Mackey and his wife, Mary Ann and chatting with them. I recently reviewed their first sauce as a featured vendor review for the expo. I tasted the newer sauce as well as two new rub products they are currently making. Both rubs were fantastic. The rubs are Angry Irishman – GoB Waterin’ Rib Rub and Angry Irishman Red Aye Rub. The rubs are smooth to the taste and have wonderful sweet and spicy flavors. The spices are well blended and the rubs are so good they do not need Cayenne powder. The Red Aye Rub contains coffee in the ingredients. I purchased a 4 oz. bottle of each for cooking and posting a future review on the blog. The kilt Kevin was wearing was an appropriate touch and fitting. Angry Irishman was a welcome new vendor addition to the NYC Hot Sauce Expo.

Baron’s International Kitchen with the great new labels

Baron’s International Kitchen booth

Baron’s International Kitchen
It was great seeing Therese Baron and we love the new labels on the Baron’s International Kitchen products. Therese’s booth was very busy when we got to it. Sophia featured Therese on the blog a few months ago, and we are huge fans of the product line. We bought the Portuguese Repolho Relish at a past expo and it is outstanding. We used the relish on turkey burgers and hotdogs. Baron’s Caribbean Marinade & Grilling Sauce is available in hot and mild and spices up your meat and vegetable dishes beautifully. Allen is a big fan of the Caribbean Hot Sauce made with Habanero peppers and the heat level is just right.

David Letterman our friend from Bonfatto’s Artisan Sauces

Bonfatto’s Artisan Sauces Dragon

Bonfatto’s Artisan Sauces - Wing Sauce

New Products from Bonfatto’s Artisan Sauces

Bonfatto’s Artisan Sauces & Products
We love to see our friend David Letterman from Bonfatto’s Artisan Sauces and have been fans for years. We first met them some years ago at the Grand Market, at the Food Network Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival. Bonfatto’s offer an extensive product line of wings sauces, marinades and hot sauces and heat levels ranging from mild to extreme. Sophia got a taste of Gooney Bird Choco Razz Hab BBQ Sauce and bought one to cook with pork. The heat level is great and the flavors are intense and balanced.

Born to Hula Booth

Ed Bucholtz  of Born to Hula slinging sauce

Born to Hula
Based in NJ, Born to Hula had some new items this year to sell at the expo. The sauce I was looking forward to buying was the Smokehaus Blues Hot Sauce made with Born to Hula’s Smokehaus Blend. It was nice to say a quick hello to Ed Bucholtz when I purchased the new hot sauce. One of their products Smokin’ Pineapple is a blog fave. The product line Born to Hula offer is diverse and all the sauces we have bought from them are so flavorful. There are many different heat levels to please all heat seekers. I am looking forward to cooking with the Smokhaus Blues Hot Sauce and reviewing it in the future. I recently featured Born to Hula’s Smokehouse Salsa as a featured vendor review for the expo. Born to Hula’s Smokehaus Salsa is a recommended product for fans of low to mild heat and smoky flavors and is one of the best, smoked salsas we ever tasted.

Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Member John (CaJohn) Hard and Allen of Two Frys

Cajohn's Caracara Chipotle Hot Sauce

Cajohn's 3X Award winning Firehouse Hot Sauce

CaJohn's Tiki Bar Hot Sauce, Allen bought one

CaJohn's Black Mamba, Hottest stuff Allen ever tried

CaJohn's Pepper Monkey Baby Hot Sauce

CaJohn’s

Hailing from Columbus, OH CaJohn’s always offers a great selection of awesome products ranging from hot sauces, BBQ sauces, salsas and more. I picked up some amazing items to cook with such as CaJohn’s Private Reserve Mesquite Smoke Tequila Lime Chile Barbeque Sauce. I purchased this item immediately after tasting it; it was that good! I am a big fan of CaJohn’s sauces and mail order from time to time. I also picked up a bottle of a sauce I had been looking forward to, CaJohn’s Tiki Bar Hot Sauce. This sauce is in style with the Polynesian Supper Clubs of the 70s. This retro style sauce reminds me of sauces I had as a kid at the “Don the Beachcomber” restaurant in San Jose, CA. Tiki Bar is sweet and fruity with Chiles. I am also excited about a bottle CaJohn’s Irish Scream BBQ Sauce. This sauce is an older gem they brought back and it is doing well I was told by CaJohn himself, John Hard. Irish Scream, packed with delicious ingredients contains Irish Whiskey in the sauce.

World's Largest Hot Sauce Collection owner Vic Clinco and Allen 

Vic Clinco working the CaJohn's Execution Station, THE HOT STUFF!

Vic Clinco, Man of Action and Sauce Specialist

It was a pleasure to speak to my friend CaJohn, a member of the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame. I appreciate that a person as busy as him took the time to chat about the CaJohn’s sauces and Irish Scream BBQ sauce he makes. Also at the CaJohn’s booth was a friend I finally met in person, Vic Clinco who owns the largest collection of hot sauces in the world. It was great to talk to Vic and take a picture with CaJohn and him.Vic Clinco was running the CaJohn’s Execution Station where you taste heat in succession from very hot to killer hot sauces one at a time. Vic was doing great with the attendees at the Execution Station.

CajunTex Salsa - Staff

CajunTex Salsa - Spicy Platano Chips

CajunTex Salsa more great products

CajunTex Salsa
We loved the CajunTex Salsa booth and were impressed with the product selection. CajunTex Salsa offers a variety of salsas, sauces and seasonings such as The Cajun Spicy Bayou Dust General All-Purpose Seasoning. The CajunTex Hickory Smoked Salsa Picante is their signature salsa. Other top-notch salsas include the Cranberry Salsa, Black Bean & Corn Salsa and the Five Pepper Extreme Salsa. They also sell Spicy Chips and Spicy Plantain Chips. They were also selling spicy chocolates. We hope to cover CajunTex Salsa in the near future.

Deception Salsa - Makers of Oink Real Bacon Salsa

Deception Salsa
I stopped at the Deception Salsa booth and tried a sauce they make called Oink Bacon Salsa. It is amazing and I hope to blog about “Oink” in the future. Bacon lovers need to purchase this salsa. Deception Salsa has a great product line of salsas and offer flavor profiles for every palate. The selection also seems to grow every year.

Angry Goat Pepper Co. - Hot Sauces

Angry Goat - lots of flavors from Mild to XXX Hot

Big Daddy A-Burn Hot Sauces

Big Fat's Hot Sauce our saucy friends

Blair's Death Sauce Booth great selection

Blair's Death Sauces - I dare you to try them, Hot Hot Hot!

Blair's Feel Alive Zone - Death Sauce

Bocas Hot Sauce - First Year at The Expo

Bravado Spice Co. Staff holding at Two Frys Biz Card

Culley's from New Zealand - Staff

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