In 1935 The Clamato Corp had filed a patent in NY as the Clamato Products Co as early as January 23, 1935. In 1938, House & Garden magazine Vol 74 printed a recipe for “Tomato-Clam Juice Cocktail” consisting of tomato juice, clam broth, salt and celery salt. In 1940, “Lobster King” Harry Hackney was granted the Clamato trademark.
In 1957, McCormick & Company Inc. applied for and acquired the Clamato brand name for the seasoned blend of tomato and clam juice. This trademark is still valid and now owned by Keurig Dr Pepper.
San Diego Red claims it was in the Acueducto Bar, located inside the renowned Hotel Lucerna in Mexicali, where the drink was invented. According to Hotel Lucerna in 1967 a client entered the bar with an awful hangover and asked for a fix. The bartender chose to mix tomato juice with some of the broth from “abulón rojo” (red abalone). The abalone broth was eventually changed to a more affordable product like clam juice and today many sauces are added during preparation like traditional ‘Maggi’ sauce, soy, Tabasco, horseradish, english sauce, Worchester and lemon or lime juice among others. Maybe Hotel Lucerna did help create the formation of the michelada.
Clamato Original is the main ingredient in the Authentic Clamato Michelada and a primary go-to for many michelada makers. You can mix it with your favorite lager beer or mix it with a little vodka.
While reading the label recently I noticed a huge reason for me to stop using this product. I have a huge problem with the 3rd ingredient. Sorry, but the Dude of Food is a hard no on having High Fructose Corn Syrup unnecessarily in my food. The 4th ingredient is Monosodium Glutamate, which I also try to avoid. I discovered these are a main part of what makes Clamato and decided that I’m done using it. I now make my michelada mix from scratch.
Being the son of pioneers I’m not well rehearsed in modern kitchen tools. One gadget that has been getting quite popular recently is known as an air fryer and has me wondering about kitchen tools. Questions like ‘How am I this old and have never used one of these cooking devices?’ and ‘Do I really need this thing?’ kept floating up to the top of my head along with all the things I daydreamed that I could potentially prepare. My neighbor ended up purchasing an Instant Pot Vortex Plus from Amazon and I had to go over and check out the unboxing.
Food Network says the following about the Vortex Plus; “While it’s very similar to the 4-in-1 air fryer, the standout feature in the Vortex Plus is the dehydrator. If you’re looking for a reliable air fryer that can also produce perfectly dried fruits and veggies, the Vortex Plus is for you. Just like the 4-in-1, the Vortex Plus has a roomy, 6-quart basket with a nonstick coating for easy cleanup. Equipped with pre-programmed settings and a temperature-controlling dial, the interface is also super user-friendly. The only downside to this model is the broiler function, which is preset to 400 degrees F for two minutes and didn’t perform well for us in testing.”
The Instant Pot Vortex Plus has 6 cooking options:
Air Fry (increments between 180°F and 400°F)
Roast (180°F–400°F)
Bake (180°F–400°F)
Reheat (120°F–360°F)
Broil (350°F–400°F)
Dehydrate (95°F–175°F)
I’m still curious and can hardly wait to prompt my neighbor into making some cauliflower buffalo wings and some of the other things that look really good on the Eat with Carmen page.
In 1989 Project Angel Food was founded by a woman named Marianne Williamson. She was joined by David Kessler, Ed Rada, Howard Rosenman, Freddie Webber and dozens of volunteers who bonded to create a program that prepared and delivered food to folks living their lives with HIV/AIDS.
Their Mission Statement: ‘Project Angel Food nourishes the health and spirit of vulnerable people facing critical and life-threatening illness, by preparing and delivering medically tailored meals with love, care and dignity.’ Their service is an outreach of the Los Angeles Center for Living which helps people with life-threatening illnesses. The Center for Living provides numerous programs such as The Clean Team, Project Night Life and hospice care. They would also prepare lunch for drop-in clients, but as fewer and fewer were able to leave their homes, lunch was delivered to them.
It was then that Project Angel Food was born and 36 years later the program is still cooking and delivering.
After running a red light in a scam supported by disgraced, racist idiot and former LA City Council member Kevin de Leon at the 1st street bridge, I was ordered to do community service. Being interested in food I chose to help out at Project Angel Food. Their operation is set up in the old Otto Nemenz camera rental store on Vine St. in Hollywood which I was familiar with. Upon entering I noticed the place is organized and very clean. In the kitchen the first thing you notice is a huge banner announcing the million meals prepared in 2020 spread across the wall. Their brochure claims they produce 2700 daily meals or 1.5 million meals a year. Once you see how this place operates you’ll see how they’re able achieve these big numbers. Project Angel Food can produce large amounts of food and they have technology helping the pro-active staff to package the numerous nutritious meals. There is a huge amount of kitchen activity and the team keeps this place extremely clean.
Project Angel Food operates by an extremely efficient kitchen staff led by Chef Juan who sees all and keeps all the meals rolling out on time.
The people here worked really well together and everyone seemed genuinely happy. This operation is doing so well in their Hollywood location that they are expanding.
In these high tech times you might be surprised to hear that spam isn’t just for emails. Spam is a versatile ingredient that one can find served in many fine dishes like eggs, stir fry and just sliced and fried for example. I even saw a spam monkey bread recipe online.
For a breakfast change up I decided to use the spam in my kitchen cabinet. I looked up green eggs and spam but didn’t find anything that blew my stomach’s mind. Eventually I came up with the following delicious day starter, simple spam n eggs. I added a little white cheese on top to melt into the mix. If you are looking to try something new for breakfast, give spam ‘n eggs a try. Hawaiians do. Aloha.
Did you know that Portugal consumes 20% of all cod fish caught on the planet?! Oddly, cod is not found in the waters surrounding Portugal but the fish is so popular that the Portuguese people have more cod recipes than there are days in a year! Portugal has long had a love affair with cod, especially salted cod or bacalhau. This fish is more than just good food to the Portuguese, it is a part of their culture and everyday life.
Cod air drying.
Cod was introduced to the Portuguese people by Viking nomads. The Vikings captured abundant amounts of cod in the cold seas off the Nordic countries and tried to preserve the fish by letting it dry in the open air. During the Middle Ages the Vikings began preserving their cod with salt, which they learned from the Romans and the Basque. The Vikings obtained salt from Portugal and traded for cod for it. The Portuguese had plenty of salt to sell and cod fish became a solid source of food amongst the Portuguese people.
Meat was expensive in Portugal during these times and supplying fresh meats and fish to the interior of the country was a complicated task. Salted cod was an easy and inexpensive food alternative that was easier to transport and provide throughout Portugal. Salted cod also had a shelf life much longer than un-refrigerated fresh meat. This kind of exposure plus its nutritional value and likeable flavor made cod a popular thing to eat.
Dried Salted Cod
In the mid 1500’s a Portuguese expedition heading to India saw Newfoundland for the first time and a Portuguese cod fishing base began. The Portuguese fishermen were eventually driven away by the English and French corsairs that dominated the fishing activities in the region during these times.
Cod fishing was a hard and dangerous job. These fisherman led a life of sacrifice, as cod fishing was done the traditional way. Sailing from Belém, Lisbon, the cod fishing ships were luggers and sailing ships, which towed dories used for line fishing and had the capacity to carry between 900 and 950 tons of cod. The fishermen were forced to row away from the main ship, sometimes two or three miles, to manually fish with lines and hooks. Each man fished alone for hours until their small boat was full of cod. While fishing they encountered freezing winds, fog, strong waves and icebergs. Some didn’t make it back to the fishing ships and were lost at sea. If they did make it back to the ship they would then unload, scale and salt their catch making for even longer work days. After reaching land, the fish was washed to remove all the salt and dried until completely dehydrated. The codfish drying process took place outdoors on the South Bank of the Tagus, in Setúbal, Figueira da Foz, Aveiro and Viana do Castelo.
On the 9th of July 1920, the Portuguese Fishing Company was founded by four small shipowners. They set up headquarters in the old facilities of the Lisbon Company Cotton Factory in Olho de Boi, Almada. In an attempt to reduce foreign dependency and guarantee the country’s food supply Portugal’s leader, Antonio Salazar, made moves to centralize, organize and create cooperatives and cartels that handled the fish supplies which became the famous Codfish Campaign in 1934.
During World War II, Portugal maintained its fishing activity. While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, two cod fishing ships, ‘Maria de Gloria’ and ‘Delães’ were sunk by Nazi submarines. An agreement with the Allies would state that these Portuguese cod fishing ships be painted white to signal Portugal’s neutrality in the conflict and allow them to safely sail the Atlantic, thus becoming known as the ‘White Fleet’.
White Fleet at sea
In 1957, Portugal was already the largest salt codfish producer in the world and peaking. By this time, wheat and codfish were the commodities with the greatest impact on both the country’s diet and its trade balance.
The last three large cod fishing ships set sail for Newfoundland for the last time in 1974, coinciding with the fall of the dictatorship and the peaceful revolution of April 25th which brought democracy to the country.
The Portuguese still love codfish today and it is now claimed they have 1001 ways of cooking it. Presently, 70% of codfish comes from Norway and the Portuguese are always taking sustainable consumption, climatic change and versatility into consideration.
SALT FACT: Portuguese salt (Flor de Sal) is internationally popular and is similar to French salt (Fluer de Sel). Portuguese salt is collected from evaporation pools of sea water like they do in Nicaragua. With an area of 360 hectares or just under 900 acres, the Samouco Salt Pans in Alcochete were the main source of salt farming near Lisbon.
The old adage about ‘nice guys finish last’ comes to us from the world of baseball by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher in 1946. In the cooking world it’s a bit different as a nice dish can finish first and be very popular among restaurant eaters. Having just returned from 2 weeks of hell in the Pacific Northwest I was craving a nice, easy home cooked meal and decided a chicken cacciatore style plate is what I’d like to eat to bring some joy back into my life.
Many things in life start with desire and once I set my taste buds on this plate my mind focused and this dish was easy to pull together.
Sauce is a big part of a pasta dish and making a good one from scratch usually takes the better part of a day or a second day to have it set right. The Dude of Food believes that sauce is always better the second day. I decided to cut corners and use Private Selection sauce made in Italy and distributed by Kroger of Cincinnati. I actually used 2 jars of sauce. The first jar was Porcini Arrabbiata and the second jar was Tomato and Black Truffle.
Below is the simple ingredient list and procedure for preparation.
Kroger Private Reserve sauce – 2 jars 1 Porcini Arrabbiata and 1 Tomato Black Truffle 1 chopped yellow onion 6 chopped garlic cloves 1 tray of rubbed chicken: 8 legs salt pepper
Mushrooms, grated carrots, celery, olives or any other favorites are ingredients that could also be added to this dish.
Start by chopping up the onion and garlic. Put a small amount of wine in a pan and warm. Once the wine has warmed, the alcohol will lift. Then add a little olive oil into the pan with a touch of butter, salt and the onions. Simmer the onions on low to medium heat. When the onions begin to clear up add the garlic and let them warm up together. Once the garlic has had a chance to expand and release its flavor it’s time to add the 2 jars of sauce. Stir, cover and let simmer on a low heat, stirring occasionally.
As the sauce does its magic it is time to start heating the rubbed chicken. Get another pan and add a small amount of olive oil and a touch of water and heat. As the pan heats add the 8 rubbed chicken legs, lightly salt and cover. Pan fry the chicken on stove top over low to medium heat. You are trying to heat the chicken thoroughly but not overcook it or dry out. Low and slow is the way to go.
Time to check the sauce and stir.
Next add a pot of water to the stove top to boil the pasta and begin to heat. Salt can be added to this water if you salt your pasta water. Some folks do. Boil enough water for 1lb of fettuccine or your favorite noodle shape.
Now you have all the moving parts working and it’s time to clean up as you monitor and stir the heating pans.
The noodles will be ready first. Drain the pasta and add a little of the starch water to the sauce. Cover the drained noodles and let sit.
Once the sauce has simmered enough to be considered ready and the chicken is cooked enough to eat turn all of the heat off and prepare to plate these items.
Start by adding a lump of pasta in plate center. Surround pasta lump with chicken legs. Scoop sauce over noodles with plenty for the chicken too. Sprinkle the top with grated Parmesan cheese and serve.
The Dude of Food can’t remember where he crossed paths with the Herdez sauce representative but when he did he was given a few bottles to try by the agent. Since I had a couple bottles to play with I tried experimenting and discovered that this product is a great addition to my Croc Pot with a pork roast and some onions. After a few hours of slow cooking you’ll pull the top off the Croc Pot and discover you have a pretty amazingly concocted Chile Verde. When the Dude of Food tasted this product he realized that this little bottle of green sauce contained a kick.
The avocado hot sauce can simply be used as a dip for tortilla chips but is pleasantly spicy and might be too strong for some on its own. Splashing some hot sauce into freshly crushed avocados works well. Spooning some into a fondue or as a side dip next to a plate of chicken nachos or chicken fingers would also be good options.
Herdez did well when they came up with this product. If you click on the image or Herdez name you will be redirected to Amazon to where you can purchase your own.
I bought a Krups bean grinder for our work truck office as our crew was making many espressos during our night shoots. Like all Krups products the design is simple and functional. This Krups grinding machine is small but mighty. It doesn’t take up very much space on our countertop and has been totally reliable since the first use. It grinds the espresso and coffee beans perfectly and has been used to grind homegrown Rosemary and some smoking herbs too. One of the Dude of Food’s favorite things to take in is the rich scent of freshly ground coffee beans and the linger of good dank but I digress.
To get your very own Krups bean grinder click on this highlighted area and you will be linked to an Amazon page where you can have one delivered to your team.
It’s not very often that you see eggplant on your breakfast plate but the other day that is exactly what happened. I had some eggplant and potatoes left over from the night before. I cooked up some bacon, wiped the grease and heated the left over eggplant and potatoes in the same pan. Next, I fried up a couple of eggs and ending up making a hearty and delicious breakfast as seen above.
Using leftovers is a fun thing to throw in your breakfast recipe mix. In the past I have warmed up Chinese food from the night before and scrambled a couple of eggs into it. Another cool thing is scramble up some eggs and throw them on top of slices of warmed up pizza from the night before.
Eggs have been in the diets of humans for many centuries. Records from India show that by 3200 BC wild birds were captured and kept for their egg production. Roman soldiers would eat deviled eggs for snacks and a popular dessert was fried eggs with honey in Rome. Ancient Egyptians ate ostrich eggs.
Interestingly, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays, is credited with the introduction of bacon and eggs into the American breakfast diet after consulting doctors and confirming that eating a big breakfast is better for people.
Lastly, I grew up with chickens in the yard so we always had fresh eggs with dark orange yolks for breakfast. My mom would fry an egg and put it on toast like the photo below from Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen.
Make sure you eat a decent breakfast. It doesn’t need to be extravagant, expensive or full of sugar. Chickens provide eggsactly what we need.
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.
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.
