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Holiday Gift Guide: Food, BBQ, and Wine Lovers 2018

November 30, 2018 By Mary 5 Comments

We’re chiming in today with some of our favorite gifts from the year. A few of these have been on our gift guides in the past, but that’s because year after year they remain our favorite gadgets or tools, always useful in the kitchen (indoor our outdoor kitchen). They are items that have made our…

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NewAir Black Stainless Steel Wine Cooler — Holiday Gift for Your Favorite Wine Lover!

December 13, 2017 By Mary 8 Comments

Let’s talk about wine fridges for a minute, since it’s the holiday season and this is the time of year the questions roll in. I get asked about wine fridges (also called wine coolers) and wine storage a lot but haven’t written about it much here on the blog. That’s because over the last three…

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Holiday Gift Guide for BBQ and Food Lovers

November 27, 2017 By Mary 1 Comment

I have a love/hate relationship with these holiday gift guides you see everywhere right now. Mostly I’m just overwhelmed with the amount of suggestions people have. My heart beats at an unhealthy rate when I see gift guides that contain “100 stocking stuffers under $15,” or “150 gifts for him,” or “75 perfect gifts for her.”…

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Holiday Gift Guide for Wine & Cocktail Lovers

November 27, 2017 By Mary 1 Comment

This is part 2 of our Holiday Gift Guide. See part 1 here, all about ideas for BBQ, Grilling, and general foodies on your list. In part 1 I discuss my love/hate relationship with most gift guides and why we narrow it to 10 in each category, and why when it comes to our favorite…

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Your First Smoked Turkey – Advice from the Pros and Joes

November 16, 2017 By Mary 10 Comments

Next week is the week, friends. Thanksgiving! I’ve crowdsourced from pros, hobbyists, friends, and anyone who loves to do Thanksgiving outside for their best advice on smoking your first Thanksgiving Turkey. Now I didn’t grow up on smoked turkeys. My mom would always cook two, both roasted in the oven. One would go straight into…

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Smoked Ice Cocktail

November 5, 2017 By Mary 3 Comments

A twist on a classic Old Fashioned using Smoked Ice. Yes, that’s right, Smoked ice. *UPDATE: We now have a video for this recipe! Scroll to the bottom for the recipe video. We’ve talked about smoked ice before, but we thought we’d bring it up again because it’s that time of year! You know what…

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Simplified Smoked Salsa Verde Chicken Soup

October 27, 2017 By Mary 11 Comments

A quick, easy, soul-soothing, cold-calming, delicious Smoked Salsa Verde Chicken Soup for when you’re not feeling well. And three ways to prepare in advance of cold season. This post was sponsored by Albertsons. As always all opinions, statements, and recipes are my own. I have bad news, friends. Cold Season is here! Have I ever…

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Smoked Pulled Lamb Sliders

October 13, 2017 By Mary 13 Comments

Lamb Shoulder is slow smoked to perfection, and then tenderly pulled making incredible pulled lamb sliders. You are familiar with using a pork shoulder, which is usually slowly smoked to perfection and then used to make delectable pulled pork sandwiches. But have you tried the same method with a lamb shoulder, and using that elegant,…

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Favorite Tools for Grilling Season on AM Northwest – and a Giveaway!

May 19, 2017 By Mary 23 Comments

We went back on AM Northwest this week to talk about our favorite tools for grilling and cooked up a simple recipe for a marinated flank steak. You don’t need a million gadgets to get started grilling. We we’re so stoked to go back on AM Northwest to talk about the most wonderful time of the year. Yeah…

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Smoked Honey Butter

September 14, 2016 By Mary 7 Comments

Smoked honey meets butter to create an incredibly elegant and delicious spread for rolls, toast, sandwiches, and so much more. Because we like to experiment with everything on our smoker we had the idea earlier this summer to smoke honey, just to see what would happen. The combination of sweet and smoky is a favorite…

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What we’ve learned about Smoked Pork Butt (Pork Shoulder)

July 27, 2016 By Mary 41 Comments

Full recipe and video tutorial for how to smoke a pork butt and make the ultimate pulled pork sandwiches. Also included is our favorite uses for leftover smoked pulled pork. Smoked Pork Butt (also known as pork shoulder, Boston butt, and Boston Roast) was one of the very first things we cooked when we bought…

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Photography Giveaway: Win a Phone Photography Prize Pack!

June 28, 2016 By Mary 5 Comments

We have another awesome giveaway to a lucky reader this month. This one is all about phone photography. As you know I’ve grown more and more interested in photography over the last couple of years, which has led to my recently receiving the award for Best Original Photography or Video on a Wine Blog at the Wine Blog…

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Reverse Sear Smoked Ribeye Steak

May 19, 2016 By Mary 31 Comments

How To Reverse Sear A Ribeye Steak for the greatest steak you’ll ever have! Reverse sear is an incredible way to cook a steak. Smoke at a low temperature for that unique wood smoke flavor, and then finish your steak hot and fast on your grill for the perfect crust. It can be applied to…

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17 Genius Uses for a Teeny Tiny Miniature Cast Iron Skillet

April 1, 2016 By Mary 33 Comments

Ever wonder what you could do with a miniature 3.5-inch cast iron skillet? Here are 17 Genius uses for that teeny tiny miniature cast iron pan! This past Christmas my mom gave me one. A super teeny tiny miniature cast iron skillet. It is small. Really small. Like 3.5 inches wide small. It’s just like…

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KitchenAid Giveaway

December 1, 2015 By Mary 29 Comments

Things may look a little different around here. They are. Stay tuned and I’ll explain the new layout and blog re-design soon. There are still bugs to work out, but feel free to explore the new site, but know that it will be evolving over the next couple weeks as I make a few more…

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BBQ Corner — How to light a charcoal grill

October 12, 2015 By Mary 1 Comment

We’ve been getting some reader questions lately. Some are about things that we often overlook, like how to start a charcoal grill. It seems simple, but many people fear the charcoal grill because of these seemingly confusing tasks. I know first hand, because the very first time I had to prep the weber grill…

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BBQ Corner (part 16) — Black Friday Edition, BBQ Shopping Guide

November 28, 2014 By Mary Leave a Comment

By contributing writer Sean, “the hubby” While I’m not a fan of standing in line and joining the frenzy of Black Friday (I’d rather be BBQ’ing and drinking wine to be honest), I do recognize that this is the time of year where awesome deals can be had and gifts are ready to be exchanged….

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Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

November 19, 2014 By Mary 18 Comments

These Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chocolate Chip cookies are made with olive oil instead of butter, and taste rich and incredible. You won’t even know they’re butter-free! Chewy, chocolaty, indulgent, delicious, and entirely butter free. Oregon Olive Mill cookies (left), My version (right) These came out exactly how I remembered them the first (and second) time…

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Learning about Olive Oil at the Oregon Olive Mill…

November 18, 2014 By Mary 3 Comments

… and discovering the many uses for Extra Virgin Olive Oil! A few years ago a good friend gave me a gift pack of fancy artisan olive oils and vinegars for Christmas. When she presented it to me she mentioned that she gave the same pack to several friends and predicted we’d probably be the…

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Fall Drinks Week — Sonoma Cider

November 3, 2014 By Mary Leave a Comment

I’ve been introduced to several delicious non-wine fall beverages recently and thus decided to devote the week to all things fall and drinks. Sonoma Cider The idea of hard cider has always conjured up memories of drinking nasty versions while living in England during a semester abroad in college. I’m talking about the cheap,…

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A St. Patrick’s Day Irish Cheese and Wine Pairing

March 17, 2014 By Mary 2 Comments

A much better alternative to dying your food green on this festive day. I met a chef recently who said pairing food and wine is really quite simple. “If you have good food and good wine people will be happy. There’s really not much more to it.” While he has a point, I would argue…

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Holiday Gift Ideas for Wine and Food Lovers

December 15, 2013 By Mary Leave a Comment

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Christmas is ten days away and I haven’t purchased a single present. Just this morning my mom lectured me about my procrastination. I assured her there’s still nearly two weeks left for me check off everyone on my list. That’s what Amazon Prime shipping is for,…

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Red Ridge Farms Annual Harvest Dinner, and why you should explore olive oils

October 24, 2013 By Mary Leave a Comment

A few years ago a good friend gave my hubby and I a gift pack that included several locally made olive oils and vinegars for Christmas. When we opened it she mentioned she gave several other friends and family members the same pack and joked that we would probably be the only ones to actually…

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Friday Favorites – Oregon homecoming

July 19, 2013 By Mary Leave a Comment

A weekly roundup of some of my favorite things this week in the categories of wine, food, travel, and lifestyle. I have officially been back in Oregon one full week now, and what a week it’s been. Our movers ended up being, oh, 5 days late, which left us with an empty house and a…

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