Ultimate Foodie

I got the chance to sit down yesterday for a chat with one of our favorite guests, Bruce Bjorkman of Traeger Grills and host of Cookin’ Outdoors with Mr BBQ on 750 KXXL Radio in Portland.

We talked about all kinds of topics and even talked some recipes, but spent the most time on some tips on how you can keep on Grillin’ through the fall and winter months.

Bruce shared a great recipe for Grilled Marinaded Pork Chops that I am going to try out this week.

Bruce’s Bad Ass Grilled Pork Chops
1/2-1 cup of soy sauce (depending on how many chops you have)
1/4-1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup stone ground mustard
1/2 cup pureed pineapple chunks

Mix all of it together until it’s all smooth. Put pork chops into a zip lock bag. Add marinade, marinate for 2 hours in the fridge, turning over once.

Grill on high until done-approximately 12 min/side @ 1″ thickness.

Bruce gave some awesome tips on fall/winter grilling as well including some tips on modifying your grilling time for cold weather conditions (under 45 degrees) where he suggested adding 20 minutes of cooking time at 350 degrees per 5 degrees (F) under 45.

He suggested as well some good strategies for avoiding heat loss in your grill including using a bowl of hot water on the grill to maintain ambient heat, using bricks in the bottom of your grill (gas and Traeger’s especially) and using foiled insulation blankets from the hardware store to insulate the outside of your cooker.

The interview is in 2 pieces due to some technical weirdness … enjoy.

Part 2:

Karen and I took some time last week to speak with Jill Sloane, the Editorial Director at CorkSavvy.com - social network geared toward wine lovers and people who want to learn more about wine. CorkSavvy caught my attention in a press release a couple of weeks back when I saw a press release that they put out about a new mobile phone application that they have developed that allows wine drinkers to snap a picture with their phone cam, then email that picture to an address at CorkSavvy. The picture would then be uploaded into the users “Wine Diary” in their CorkSavvy account.

There is no excuse for not being able to remember a great bottle of wine that you find in a restaurant, wine shop or party again.

We also discussed the depth of wine content and awesome features on CorkSavvy including the Wine Cellar feature that allows users to maintain a wine database online and to share their collection with others if they like. The CorkSavvy also features a question and answer section on wine and recipes for cooking with wine and tips for matching wine with food.

In the last few minutes of the call, Jill and I geeked out on the New York restaurant scene and we heard some of her recommendations for places to eat great food and drink wine in The City.

If you are a wine lover or you are just looking to learn more about wine, UltimateFoodie.com heartily recommends that you check out CorkSavvy.com - it’s cool, it’s content rich, provides great tools, and best of all, it’s free. Enjoy!

Last week I had the privilege of chatting with Bruce Bjorkman and Lisa Morrison (The Beer Goddess) of the Libation Station radio show on KXL Radio in Portland. The Libation Station is a weekly radio show geared towards addressing some of the indulgences that make being over 21 great “sud’s, spirits, soda’s and stogies”

I had a blast with Bruce and Lisa as I am a big beer guy and especially a fan of the craft or microbrews.

We talked extensively about Oregon Craft Beer month and all that it entails, the craft beer industry in the Pacific Northwest and how we’re spoiled by the awesome selections we have available here. I complained bitterly about the lack of decent beers available on a trip to Michigan… it was so bad, I had to drive to Windosr, Ontario Canada to get a halfway decent brew.

We also chatted about the Boston beer scene as the Ultimate Foodie crew is on the way to Boston for a trade show next month. Lisa recommended the Publick House for a great place to drink beer in Boston with a ton of varieties on tap.

Bruce also shared a recipe for a Bourbon Milkshake that you have to try. I’m making one this weekend and report back.

We also chatted a bit about the Budweiser sell out to InBev and how you should support your local craft brewer and keep your drinking money state side.

Bruce and Lisa were an absolute blast to chat with and we’ll have them back again. If you are in Portland catch them live or listen to their podcast. They rock and are definitely friends of Ultimate Foodie.

One of the really awesome things about this blog is that we’ve been darn near inundated with people who want to send us product to write up, podcast with us , etc. I was really excited to chat with Bruce Bjorkmen - AKA “Mr Barbecue” last week. Bruce is also the Director of Marketing for Traeger Grills - a company that revolutionalized the barbecue/grilling industry by manufacturing and selling a grill that ran on pellets of compressed hardwoods. More on that in a later post (he sent me one and I LOVE it!)

It’s grilling season and we were excited to connect with Bruce to learn from an expert. We talked about the difference between grilling (direct, high heat) and grilling (lower heat, longer slower approach, less or no direct flame.) We also chatted about some of his suggestions for better barbecuing and grilling. I especially enjoyed his suggestion that you map the temperatures on your grill surface - enjoying a beer between each thermometer placement (he warned that there are over 40 different zones to measure and map, so bring a friend… or a new liver.) All and all he gave us 7 grilling mistakes to avoid.

Bruce gave us a great recipe for Baby Back Ribs with an awesome finishing twist (honey warmed and smoked on the grill) that I am dying to make.

We also talked about the Traeger Grill that Bruce’s company manufactures that is an awesome alternative to charcoal or gas grilling. The Traeger uses compressed hardwood (apple, hickory, grapevine, cherry, maple, mesquite, oak, etc) pellets as the heat source. This provided a cooking method that is more consistent in terms of heat, safer ( no coals to start garbage can fires) and delivers unbelievable flavor to the food. Best of all - since the fire is fed fuel from a hopper, you can literally put meat on the grill and walk away for hours while it cooks “low and slow.” My personal favorite part of the Traeger story is the moment when the founder lost his mind after a huge chicken fat-fueled grill fire and tossed his gas grill off his deck and down a mountain.

Bruce sent me a Traeger for review and you will read about my exploits here soon.

Bruce completely rocked and we’re looking to have him back for more expert advice on grilling and BBQ-ing. He also complemented us on our approach to food that is not snobbish - which was awesome.

You can catch up with Bruce Bjorkman at www.mrbbq.info or check out his radio show “Cooking Outdoors with Mr. Barbecue” on KXL Radio in Portland, Oregon. Bruce and his grilling partner Kim Wallis also run the “BBQ-U” a 6 hour intensive training course in BBQ technique that has been selling out for 15 years.

Enjoy the podcast.

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Last week, Karen and I were joined on the Ultimate Foodie Podcast by Drew Koven - a founder of and a guy who wears many hats (COO/CMO/Chief of eCommerce and 100% Customer Satisfaction) at Geoff and Drew’s Cookies.

Geoff and Drew’s is a Boston based gourmet cookie and baked good baker and retailer that has earned some awesome reviews from a variety of media outlets including Gourmet Magazine, Inc. Magazine, The Today Show, Modern Bride, Rachel Ray Every Day and more. The bottom line is… they bake some damn fine cookies and brownies.

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We talked with Drew about a ton of different Geoff and Drew’s Cookie related topics including their roots as a late night cookie and milk delivery service catering to Boston area college students, the write up that propelled them into the corporate gifting space, some of their capabilities in terms of personalized corporate gifting, the variety of cookie and brownie flavors they produce. I raved on their Chocolate Chunk cookies (the sweet vanilla-iness was amazing) and Karen added some rave reviews of her own for their Butter Crunch.

We also talked about the Research and Development and product testing process that they use at Geoff and Drew’s and begged to be including on the testing list so we could try all of the experimental flavors as well. We spent some time talking about our favorite cookies, brownies and other confections from Geoff and Drew’s and we tried to pin Drew down on a favorite… he claimed (to his credit) that they all were his favorites and he couldn’t choose. That actually makes a lot of sense as Drew puts his name on each and every box of cookies and brownies that come out of their facility.

We had a great time as Drew is a guy who is passionate about his company and his products and we always love guests with a genuine passion for food here at Ultimate Foodie.

Enjoy the Podcast and if you would like, take $10 off your order of $50 or more from Geoff and Drew’s Cookies by ordering through a link on this page and entering the coupon code “SAVE10″

Today, Wade and I had the pleasure of talking with the extraordinary Carolyn Tang from UrbanVivant.com. (If you are in the affiliate marketing industry, you will also recognize her as the ShareASale goddess she is.) We didn’t really have a set topic this time, so we covered a myriad of subjects in our 35 minutes or so, ranging from Carolyn’s own love of food, why she started her website and her favorite recipes to a fast paced discussion of our favorite Food Network hosts and shows. (I still miss the original Iron Chef! Come back Hiroyuki Sakai!)

Carolyn has always been one of our favorite folks because of her work in the industry, but now that we know she’s a foodie too, we love her even more!

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Carolyn Recommends:
Foodie Mag: Saveur - gourmet food magazine full of recipes, techniques & culinary travel
Great Chicago Eats: Gioco - hip, Italian eatery located in a Prohibition-era speakeasy
Facebook Application: Food Porn - user submitted pictures of incredible food

Her own recipes:
Steamed Pork with Ground Rice
Orzo with Asparagus and Cheddar
Quiche

We’re pleased to announce that UltimateFoodie has lost it’s podcasting virginity!

Karen and I welcomed Angel Djambazov, who runs online marketing initiatives for Jones Soda on the inaugural UltimteFoodie Podcast. We spent about 28 minutes chatting about all things Jones and other foodie topics. We covered Some history of Jones Soda, some of the unique flavors that Jones bottles,  and some Jones selections for the health conscious including 24c Vitamin Waters and Jones Organic teas.

Our marketing geek sides emerged as we chatted about the Campaign Cola initiative where Jones drinkers can make their presidential election preferences known through their online purchases of candidate branded sodas, the Jones Graffiti project on Facebook where user art generated directly on a Facebook app will be added to bottles, Jones winning contracts as the exclusive soda provider for Qwest Field in Seattle and the soon to open arena of the Nets NBA team and the company culture at Jones that encourages creativity and innovation and allows them to carve out profitable niches and developing a loyal customer following that is willing to pay premium prices for a unique product that they love.

We had a really great time chatting with Angel - he’s a fellow foodie and a really bright marketing mind and we look forward to working with him as a contributor to UltimateFoodie in the future.

Want to podcast with us? Just email us at info@ultimatefoodie.com and let us know what you’d like to chat about and we’ll hook it up.

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