Tag: pork

Love Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co.

Spices have been a thing in kitchens since before Alexander the Great. The American Southwest is no exception as they are known for their chili’s among other things.

Located 49 miles south of Tucson, about 20 miles shy of Nogales and the open border, is a small town called Tumacacori, AZ. The town was founded by Father Kino who established Tumacácori as a mission dating back to January 1691. Since roughly 1950 a family run company located in Tumacacori has been producing spices and sauces. The sign in front of this wonderful company says Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co.

History: https://santacruzchili.com/

‘Jean England Neubauer’s family has influenced Southwestern cuisine with their Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co. seasonings for more than 75 years and no Arizona kitchen worth its salt would be without a supply of their chili powder. I don’t think you can even create the flavors of the region without them.’ says Chef Janos Wilder.


The Neubauer family’s impact extends beyond the dining room table and deep into local history. The Neubauer family tree runs deep, from Jean’s 3X great-grandfather who designed the saddles used by Union soldiers in the Civil War, to her great-aunt who studied painting with a young Diego Rivera, to her great-grandfather who, while Mayor of Nogales, lobbied to have a new US battleship named for the state of Arizona.

— Helene Woodhams Arizona Daily Star Sept 1, 2019

My mother said she has crossed paths with Jean Neubauer at some local Tucson social events in the past and told me Jean is a really nice lady, but my mom didn’t know her well enough to set up an interview.

The day after thanksgiving on 11.28.24 our family packed the car including our chihuahua, Uno, and decided to visit Tumacacori and the Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co. Upon arrival you receive whiffs of the beautiful scents from the parking lot but as you enter the building you really get hit with the wonderful aromas. The scented experience is blissful. I’ve always loved the scent of fresh ground coffee and spices. This place is next level.

I ended up buying 12 sauces (there are 2 more flavors than pictured; Picante & BBQ Chili) as work gifts and also a bunch of bags of various dry rubs for my home. Unfortunately 1 bottle of green salsa broke somehow on the way to work, but the Dude of Food will be back and looks forward to his return.

Muchas gracias Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co.

Historically delicious: Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co

The boss of a film crew I was working with gave the 7 member’s of our team thoughtful homemade gift bags for Christmas.
One of the cool gifts in my bag included a bottle of Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Company Picante Sauce.
When used in a dish I discovered this product was pleasantly surprising and complimented the dish nicely. The flavor was unique and delicious. The bottle information said the company and sauce were located near my mom. I asked mom if she was familiar with this brand of sauce and she said she knew the brand and told me the family was a well respected part of the local business community. It turns out the granddaughter of the founders of Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co and my mother had met her at an event somewhere in town in the past. My mom confirmed that the granddaughter was a very nice lady whose name is Jeanie England Neubauer.
Jeanie is the granddaughter of an international business agent named Beck Kibbey. Jeanie has done a great job maintaining the business her parents and another couple began in 1943. Her family roots are deep and have ties with the towns of Nogales, Arizona and across the border in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Her family history is amazing and the Anaheim chili became their friend. Gene England, Jeanie’s grand-father, had developed methods to stew and grind chili’s to make paste. They also ground chili pods down into powder for seasoning.
The folks at Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co still support the family traditions of the founders and have employees generations deep maintaining these traditions.


Go visit their web page. https://santacruzchili.com/

The online sales page will show you the various sauces offered. Other pages will show that these folks support some really cool causes.
If you are near the Tucson area and headed to the Mexican border you can go visit the Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Co gift store in person which is located a few minutes south of Tubac. The drive from Tucson is roughly 60 miles and if you love chili, then it’s well worth the trip.

Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Company
1868 E. Frontage Road, Tumacacori, AZ 85640

520.398.2591
520.398.2592 Fax

Store Hours
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Closed Sundays and holidays.

Muchas gracias Santa Cruz Chili & Spice Company

https://santacruzchili.com/

What’s inside that sausage?

Ever wonder what’s in that delicious looking sausage. Well the Dude of Food has been wondering and finally took the time to tear one down and see what’s in there. Above is your typical average sized sausage found in any US market. This is not a small breakfast sausage but a regular sausage. This one weighed in at 46 grams as shown.

The first thing I don’t like eating is the intestinal lining that sausage is held together with. There just doesn’t seem like any nutritional value to this stuff. The next thing I noticed was the amount of white fat speckles mixed in the meat so I cut the skin wrap from around the sausage and began to pick the specs out with the tip of a corn holder.

You can see in the photo below that there was a good amount of those white fat particles in there. The other things that were hidden in there are what look like small gristle beads. They are rounded and look like little white nuggets. I am pretty sure these things are about as healthy for you as plastic but who knows. Anyhow, I weighed the pile of garbage that had accumulated on the tin foil and it weighed in at 10.6 grams including the intestinal wrapping but not the weight of the foil. That works out to be roughly 22% useless unhealthy waste in every sausage.

So for nearly every 5 sausages you eat 1 of them is all fat and nasty gristle waste. Granted this was the first one I broke down and the brand was recorded but not given here as I want to test a few more brands and see what the averages are before any brands are named.

I also bought a small, stainless steel kitchen grinder and have been experimenting with grinding various blends of meats and spices for my own sausage patties and meatballs in search of a healthier mix.

Border Grill weekend brunch awesomeness.

If you like to be refreshed with a delicious fresh squeezed orange juice mimosa, then you need to get yourself over to the Border Grill in Santa Monica one of these weekends. Bartender Geronimo will keep an eye on your glass so you can concentrate on what awesome dish to order next.

Once you get your whistle wetted, it’s time to settle into an entree section with some incredible dishes to choose from. Chef Alex prepares these dishes with a full spectrum of forethought and care. The meats are naturally raised. All of the produce is organically grown on local farms.

The shrimp grits were pretty good and a great way to begin. The shrimps were big and they had a cajun taste to them that reminded me of Drew Brees and the Saints. The Yucatan eggs benedict stoked my taste buds pretty hard. The flaky crusted bisquit was light and perfect.

The next thing I had was another mimosa,  and the steak and eggs. This experience was cool.

It seemed I just couldn’t go wrong.

The beef came and reminded of that delicious skirt steak from the Brazilian steak house. It was tender and tasty with a perfectly cooked egg on it.

I was loving it.

Geronimo brought me another mimosa and chef Alex made some machaca chilaquiles for me. I was having a really good time just hanging out and enjoying really delicious food. The chilaquiles and mimosa came and my day just kept getting better. The tender chunks of beef were in a tasty sauce with guacamole, light eggs and pico de gallo. Delicious.

The next thing I tried were the Oaxacan pancakes. These were super yummy. They were light and had Mexican chocolate chips and coffee caramel syrup with whipped cream on them. Like I said, they were really good.

The staff at the Border Grill is amazing. I have tried both the downtown and Santa Monica spots and have found everyone to be really friendly and knowledgeable.  This proved true again and my crush on the Border Grill became stronger.

The next item i tried was the peanut butter & jelly with bacon, egg and jalapeno sandwich. It was not my favorite thing, but I have to say it was pretty good.  Standing on it’s own it was good, but the other dishes were just so tasty that they all couldn’t be the best.

Chef Alex came out and introduced himself and was another really nice person from the Border Grill tribe.

He was real cool, knowledgeable and hospitable. He let me in on a secret and made me the daily special ‘special’ which was a pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon with an egg. Again my taste buds danced and my good time continued.

The level of awareness is respectable. These folks have earned their places and a lot of thought and preparation goes into this operation to ensure your good experience.

A friend of mine arrived and she tried some of the things i hadn’t so I tasted the bisquit and gravy and the bread pudding french toast. The french toast is another favorite.

This brunch happens in Santa Monica from 10am-3p and if you like food or mimosas, then the Dude highly recommends you give this a try.  If you don’t like this you’re still a caveman.

Satisfaction guaranteed.