Buffalo Bills Extra Smokey Beef Sticks

If you haven't already tried these Extra Smokey Beef Sticks from Buffalo Bills, you might wanna. They're are indeed "extra" smokey.

They have a great smokey flavor to them, and a somewhat spicy flavor as well, though I don't see anything in the ingredients list suggesting anything spicy. This even has some slight chocolatey notes to it, perhaps indicating something roasted, I dunno.

Unlike other meat sticks, these are very meaty. I mean, it's almost like eating a stick of salami, where you can see the meat fibers pulling away as you bite off a piece. In fact, this has a rather dry taste to it, kinda like salami.


My only "beef" with these beef sticks is they're rather salty. They're not too bad in the first several bites, but when you towards the end, the salt wears me down. I need some swigs of drink, and about 10 minutes of rest, before attacking another stick.

But mind you, these are beef sticks for real beef stick lovers. They're extra thick, the same width as a wine bottle cork, and about five inches in length. They might actually make a great cure for a hangover.

Comparison

I brought a bag of these beef sticks to a get-together that my friends and I attended last weekend. It was at the Long Shadow Ranch Winery in Temecula, where they have a "bonfire" every Saturday night. Another friend brought several sticks of Slim Jims in a variety of flavors.

I handed out these Buffalo Bills, and people thought they were pretty good.

But when they sampled the Slim Jims, they about ralphed. No one else could finish their Slim Jim samples. One guy said it was eating "meat flavored toilet paper". I mean, it actually did feel as if you were eating a chunk of toilet paper (not that I know from experience, mind you).

After the Slim Jims, my friends really loved the Buffalo Bills.

Funny how the best things in life are not readily available. The worst stuff is always easily found at a convenience store, but the better stuff you have to order online. It's just one of those things.

Get your Buffalo Bills Extra Smokeys here...

http://www.choochoorsnacks.com/

Read rest of entry

Man Has Eaten 23,000 Big Macs

Don Gorske, the man who claims to have eaten 23,000 McDonald's Big Macs since 1972, could very well be the nagging thorn in the side of health food proponents...

A 54-year-old man says his obsessive-compulsive disorder drove him to eat 23,000 Big Macs in 36 years. Fifty-four-year-old Don Gorske says he hit the milestone last month, continuing a pleasurable obsession that began May 17, 1972 when he got his first car.

http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880908073

That works out to an average of two Big Macs every day.

The article goes on to say that's he physically fit.

That's good news for all of us, because it tells us it's possible to live at least 54 years eating nothing but Big Macs, and only Big Macs.

Touche! All you health food fanatics!

Read rest of entry

Ole' Smokies Beef Sticks

Ah, the beef stick!

Where would the good ole U S of A be without it?

Where would fishing be without beef sticks? Where would truck driving be without them? What would the Boy Scouts be without them?

I managed to get myself some of these Ole' Smokies Beef Sticks, in this case the Jalapeno Cheese Beef Sticks. These things have pieces of jalapenoes in them making them good and spicy.

Seems like I have to have everything spicy now.

The cheese part was something I had to have at one point in my life, but now it's not important. Instead, it has to be spicy now. I prefer my burgers with jalapeno's on them now. I have to add hot sauce or salsa to my chili. I even sprinkle black pepper on my salads now (I never used to do that).

So I guess having these jalapeno beef sticks is only fitting.

These Ole' Smokies Beef Sticks are made by a company called "Choo Choo R Snacks". They make beef jerky as well, which I have had and found to be pretty good.


That green piece in the beef stick? That's a jalapeno chunk!

Do You Know What's in Them Things?

Every now and then someone warns me that I don't want to know what goes into a beef stick. The fact is that no one really knows what goes into much of the food they eat anyways. How many people buy stuff at an organic food store without reading the nutrition label? They just assume it's all good for them. That's called trust. It's what we all do, whether it's a beef stick or a package of soy jerky.

Most of humanity grew up on scraps. The impoverished folks have always had to settle for the cheaper cuts of meat. Pork ribs was something that was once considered scrap meat, handed off to the blacks, who found a way to barbecue them. And now, everyone wants barbecued pork ribs. Mexicans largely grew up on chorizos, which is the guts and entrails of pigs, ground up into sausage. Now, you can find chorizos on the menu at any upscale Mexican restaurant.

The beef stick is to American junk food as the apple pie is to American desserts, as sunflower seeds are to baseball.

As for those Ole' Smokies Beef Sticks, you can buy them online at Choo Choo R Snacks...

http://www.ccrsnacks.com/

Read rest of entry

Beef Crumbles - Pre-Crumbled Ground Beef

Chatel Farms made the world just a little bit better, by making ground beef "pre-crumbled", with their "Beef Crumbles" product.

The process of thawing ground beef is eliminated, because you just sprinkle these flash-frozen "beef crumbles" into your frying pan. You no longer have to manually crumble it apart.

Makes you wonder how much we're dependent on technology.

In the future, people will say "You mean in those days ground beef came stuck together, and you had to thaw it out, cook it, and then manually crumble it apart?"

Beef Crumbles are now available in Super Wal-Marts nationwide.

Learn more about it here...

http://www.chatelfarms.com

Read rest of entry

McDonald's and Gays

Good as You writes about McDonald's coming under fire (what tiny little fire it might be) from the American Family Association, because the company took action that made it appear as if they support gay rights...

...Mickey D's has become the latest American corporation to suffer at the baselessly extremist, rabidly anti-gay hands of Don Wildmon Inc. The McNugget company's "sin"? The refused to shun Vice President of Communications Richard Ellis for his decision to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).

Read on...

http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2008/07/exlcusive-afa-t.html

Read rest of entry

What Happened to Bob's Big Boy?

Bob's Big Boy announced today that they've brought back the "Super Slim Jim", a ham, swiss sandwich, witht their "special sauce", on a grecian roll.

Here in Southern California, there are some Bob's Big Boy restaurants still around, but not many. There used to be just many Bob's as there were Denny's here in the Southland. But then one-by-one, they all went away.

I know just a few of them are still here.

There's one in Baker, CA, which took over the old "Bun Boy". But this Bob's is nothing like the old Bob's. You set foot in there, and it feels like a "fake Bob's". The Big Boy statue may be outside, but the restaurant doesn't have that genuine Bob's feel to it. About the only menu item that has carried over from those glory days is that "Big Boy" double decker burger.

My wife and I used to go to Bob's in Laguna Hills for their breakfast buffet. I always found their bacon to be the way I like it, soft and dripping with oil. Let that oil drip down over the hash browns. Their hash browns was also the way I liked it, soft.

I just got news that a Bob's Big Boy is coming to Temecula, CA, just about 20 minutes from my home. It's taking over the old Ritchie's Diner. I'm sure my wife will be setting up a new home-away-from-home in there.

Read rest of entry

Win Free Beef Jerky for a Year

House of Jerky announced their video contest, where you can win free beef jerky for a year.

What you do is create a video saying how much you love House of Jerky's jerky, and upload it to their contest site...

http://youtube.com/group/houseofjerkycontest

The top two winners get the free chew.

Read rest of entry

Dairy Queen Launches New Girl Scout Blizzard

Dairy Queen officially launched its new Blizzard flavor of the month for July, Girl Scouts Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard.

The best selling Girl Scouts cookie is now a Blizzard variety, in a cool green color, minty flavored ice cream, with chunks of Thin Mint cookies.

The company sent me a coupon for a free sample of this new Blizzard flavor, so I hopped over to my nearest DQ, and tried it out.

It tastes very much like a mint chocolate chip ice cream, except instead of chocolate chips, it just has chunks of cookies in it.


The Blizzard got its start in 1985 as a soft serve ice cream with flavoring and bits of candy. However, the Blizzard trademark has been within the company since the 1950s, representing various concepts.

In China, DQ actually sells green tea Blizzards. I wonder why they don't offer that here?

The Girl Scouts Thin Mint Blizzard are available in DQ stores right now, and will be around indefinitely.

Read rest of entry

Spicing Up Your V8 Juice

For all you V8 juice drinkers, what do you do to spice up your V8?

While I consider myself a junk food junkie, I do like V8. I've been drinking the stuff since I was a kid, and can't seem to stop. I've tried the spicy V8, and V8 Fusion, and the Low Sodium V8. I like them all.

So today, as I reached into the refrigerator to grab a bottle of V8, I noticed the jar of Ortega salsa. And then, a question popped into my head, "What if...?"

So I pulled the salsa out of the refrigerator as well, and dropped three spoonfuls of salsa into the V8 bottle. The bottle was about 2/3 full at the time. Then I shook the bottle thoroughly, and took a swig.

Ummm, not bad.

It's like salsa-flavored V8, just like what you'd expect, but with chunks thrown in.

I'm not sure I'd stick with this however. While it's not bad, I don't think it'll sell.

So I'm thinking now, what else can I do to doctor up my V8? Lemon juice? Tabasco sauce? Pickled jalapeno juice?

If you like to experiment with your V8, let me know what you've found that tastes good.

Read rest of entry

Gallo Salame and Provolone Cheese Snack

I had the munchies late last night, and like a bad boy I found myself rummaging through the refrigerator, and found this package of Gallo Salame & Provolone Cheese Snack.

My wife bought it months ago. I don't know what plans she had for it. Sometimes she buys stuff just because she thinks I might like it. She's all too familiar with Junk Food Blog, and knows that I need material for it.

My first thought was, "I don't feel like having a sandwich". But then an idea hit me, "Who needs bread anyways?"

So I opened up the package, and put a cheese and salami together, folded it over, and voila! A sandwich.

I guess it's similar to having a hamburger without the bun. This is just a "low-carb" salami and cheese sandwich.


The package actually says "Snack Pack", so I feel better that I ate this to satisfy a snacking urge. Even if it was already past midnight.

Read rest of entry

We Can Now Sue Our Mothers

At least that's all I'm getting out of this report...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/ momsunhealthydietmayhavelongtermimpactonbaby

The article says that if you feed a pregant rat a diet of donuts, muffins, cookies, chips and sweets, its offspring will become more likely to develop heart disease and diabetes.

Even though I haven't been diagnosed with either of those, I guess it's still an ace-up-my-sleeve should I need to point the blame at someone.

But then again, my mother never ate ONLY donuts, muffins, cookies, chips, and sweets while she was pregnant. She actually mixed in some vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. So maybe I don't have that ace after all.

And why did they have to test this on rats? Couldn't they have gotten more realistic results comparing Americans with some nomadic tribe from Siberia?

Read rest of entry

Talk O' Texas Pickled Okra

One day my wife brought home this jar of pickled okra from a brand called Talk O' Texas.

I'm not sure what caused her to buy this, as I've never eaten pickled okra before. Though I have eaten okra in my time, just not very much of it. I never hated the stuff, but it just never pushed the right buttons on me. She thought that it was weird, and because of that, I would be pleasantly intrigued.

And yes, I was intrigued with it.

So I opened up the jar, pulled one out, and held it up to eyes so that I could get a good gander at one of these things. I might have looked like a scientist in a 1950's alien-invasion flick, examining some strange pod that was spewn forth from a glowing red rock that fell from the sky.

I bit off the pointy end of this okra, and chewed it a bit. My eyes moved a bit to the left and a bit to the right, as I wondered if this would gross me out or not.

Nope, it tasted pretty good.


Talk O' Texas says these things are hot. NOT! Those folks must have pretty weak tongues, because this is hardly hot. My cottage cheese gets hotter than this after I've sprinkled it with black pepper. I think they must put that label on there just to make Texans feel good about their tolerance for spicy foods.

This pretty much tastes like the same pickling juice as a pickled cucumber.

As for slime, which Okra tends to have a lot of, I didn't find much. There is still some sliminess to these pickles, but just not as much.

So, whatever beckoned the first Okra eater to put one of these space-pods into their mouths? It has no real "meat", only a bunch of seeds and slime. How did someone decide, "Hey, here's a vegetable that has no real meat, and is full of seeds and slime. I think I'll start a business around it"?

Will I be buying more of these pickled okra? Probably not. They're good tasting, but then a lot of things are good tasting, and I don't buy everything. I did however, slice up several of these and toss them into a can of Hormel Chili. Not too bad. It definitely gives the chili some of that pickling juice.

The company recommends putting one of these into a Bloody Mary. That sounds kinda good actually.

Learn more about Talk O' Texas Pickled Okra here...

http://www.talkotexas.com

Read rest of entry

Claim Jumper Chocolate Motherlode Cake

Few desserts are as impressive as seeing a "piece" of Claim Jumper's Chocolate Motherlode Cake delivered to your table.

The thing is massive.

But very delicious.

So, is a frozen version just as good as the one in an actual Claim Jumper restaurant?

I put that question to the test after the company sent me a box containing one frozen slice of the famed chocolate decadence. This box is actually available across the country at grocery stores, and is a part of a long series of Claim Jumper favorites designed for the freezer.

The instructions are pretty simple. Remove the cake from the box, and let it thaw for about 60 minutes.

While I'm not an expert on great tasting cakes, my wife is. She ate a whole slice, just as you see this picture, many years ago, for free. We were visiting a Claim Jumper restaurant, and after 20 minutes without a waitress asking taking our order, I complained to the manager. That's how I got the free Motherlode cake.

For this review, I did ask my wife to cut me off a small piece.


I'd have to say, "yes", it really does taste like a fresh piece of cake from Claim Jumper. I actually let my piece sit underneath my desk lamp, and allowed it to assume room temperature more quickly. I found it quite soft and moist.

It's just as chocolatey, and the icing is just as gooey, the little chocolate chips inside are just as sweet, and the whole thing it's just as rich.

My wife says it was absolute heaven.

Well, I'm not quite the junk food junkie that thrives on chocolate cakes. I tend to snack on beef jerky, sunflower seeds, and oatmeal cookies when my wife bakes them.

But I know that junk foodies come in all shapes and sizes, and those wanting to pull one of these baby's out of the freezers for lunch, will definitely have to be of a certain shape and size.

You can see all of Claim Jumper's frozen offerings online here...

http://www.claimjumperretail.com/

Read rest of entry

Claim Jumper Cheese Ravioli Parmigiana

The Claim Jumper line of frozen foods was extended recently to include this new Cheese Ravioli Parmigiana.

The company was gracious enough to send me a sample inside of a package of dry ice. No sooner did it arrive that I popped it into the microwave and heated that baby up. (It arrived at 11:30am, my time for lunch).

What probably helped score points with me is that the microwave instructions are pretty simple. Just poke the plastic cover with your fork, and nuke for about 6 minutes.

Not like some other brands where you have to lift the plastic half-way, then nuke for 3 minutes, then open up the package of sauce, pour, remove the plastic cover, and nuke for another 3 minutes, then turn half-way, nuke some more... That's too much work.

I'm a big fan of frozen italian food. For some reason, I eat more frozen italian food than italian food made on the spot. So, I kinda have some credibility on this.

This stuff actually does taste good. And not because the company sent me a free sample for review either (well that always helps). But I did find the sauce to be quite delish, on the tangy side, and the raviolis to be quite cheesy. Junk foodies might want to take note that this stuff does come with a fair amount of cheese on top. But I'd advise throwing some extra grated mozzarella on there.

It also has some of those spiral curly-q pasta noodles in there too.



This box contains 17oz of saucy cheesy pasta goodness, and it wasn't quite enough for quench my lunch appetite. I think taking it up to 25oz might be closer to what you'd get from visiting a Claim Jumper restaurant and ordering the same thing.

The box says this 17oz contains 2 servings. That just doesn't seem right.

Junk foodies and 24-hour bloggers might do well keeping their freezers stocked with this new offering Claim Jumper. It's easy to make, and goes down really well. It also tastes pretty good too.

You should be able to find these in most grocery stores.

Visit Claim Jumper Retail to learn more about their frozen foods...

http://www.claimjumperretail.com

Read rest of entry

T.A.G. Seeds - Sweet Sunflower Seeds

T.A.G. Seeds are sunflower seeds, in a variety of cool flavors, and without any salt.

If you like seeds without the shells, and you want them without salt, then you'll probably want to give these a try.

I actually found them to be pretty good.

The problem I've always had with sunflower seeds without the shells, is that I eat them way too fast. And T.A.G. Seeds are no exception. Each 2oz bag probably contains the same amount of seeds as a bag of 3 times bigger than this, but with the shells on.

Seems there's always three people in the world: those who like sunflower seeds with the shell, those who like 'em without, and those who just don't like seeds at all. T.A.G. strives to seek that middle-ground, offering something for folks who already love seeds, and offering flavors that non-seed lovers might like.

Here are the flavors they offer...

• Chocolate


• Chocolate Mint


• Orange


• Strawberry


• Maple


• Lemon

I tried the Chocolate, Chocolate Mint, and Maple. Pictured above is the Chocolate Mint.

I'd have to say that these really do have a chocolate taste. The Chocolate Mint is definitely chocolate-minty. But I think the Maple tastes better. Seems like maple is a flavor that goes well with seeds and nuts.

Personally, I think these would go much better as an ice cream topping. Add the Choocolate Seeds to some vanilla ice cream, to give it a contrast in taste, or try the Maple Seeds to some coffee ice cream.

Heck, maybe T.A.G. Seeds will come out with some seeds still in the shell with the flavoring on them.

A jalapeno variety is probably in order as well.

T.A.G. stands for "These Are Great".

Visit them online at...

http://www.tagseeds.com

Read rest of entry