I spent all day working on the new business we’re launching, trying to figure out the pricing structure I want to use and the cut-offs I want to enforce before we get ready to file the regulatory paperwork, while Aaron oversaw the re-platforming of the sporting goods company. We came together around dinner time to realize that we hadn’t eaten much all day and didn’t want to go back out. We had a few things in the refrigerator and pantry – bell peppers of different varieties, jalapeños, sweet onions, spicy pork sausage, sugar in the raw, soy sauce, rice, whatever else we had sitting around … we figured, “Why not?” and decided to try our hand at creating another recipe from scratch. We’ve been doing this long enough to be comfortable with flavor profiles and balancing so we don’t have to work off cookbooks these days unless we want to to try something that looks intriguing, though we often prefer to measure everything so if we stumble upon something, we can recreate it with precision.
It was unreal. We devoured it in a few minutes at the kitchen counter. I can’t decide whether or not to share the recipe or stick it in the permanent collection so it’s one of the things we, and only we, keep in our proverbial culinary back pocket. It was this sweet, spicy, glazed stir-fry like dish that coated the rice so you wanted to lick it off the plate but you could easily adapt it to handmade pasta if you wanted to go in an Italian direction. The serving portions were way too big – all inclusive, roughly 1,250 calories per plate – but we can adjust for that in the future. It also needs to be prettier. The package in the refrigerator was pre-spiced pork sausage so I’ll need to make it by hand, getting the spice blend right and cutting the chunks in perfect uniformity.
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The basic idea was the same as the rainbow beef stir-fry but it doesn’t taste anything like that. We aren’t even sure what to pair it with because, as Aaron put it, “It has almost all of the flavors …” If we ran a restaurant, it would go on the menu by the end of next week. I could make customers for life and charge a lot for this.
This is one of those times I don’t like the limitations of the blog format … you need to try this! You need to taste it! The pictures don’t do either of us any good! I really should wait to re-make it so it looks more attractive now that we know what we are doing and not throwing stuff in a pot all rustic style for an impromptu dinner. And the crazy part is, the cost very, very low (not butter and sage low, but impressive nonetheless). You could probably serve three hungry adults comfortably for less than $3 a person. From start to finish it took less than 25 minutes, including the vegetable and meat prep.
I need to invite people over and make this, again. It needs to be perfected portion and appearance-wise. This flavor is money in the bank; a spicy sweet meat candy.
Also, after writing about the rise and fall of Noxzema, I discovered that the Baltimore Museum of Industry was gifted a bunch of the Noxell Company artifacts from Unilever last year. I’d like to take a trip and see them in real life. They have historical documents, jars, packaging, photographs, and other memorabilia. I encountered a bit of odd trivia, too. Jim Cramer – the CNBC personality and former hedge fund manager – suffered the biggest lost of his career up until that point shorting Noxell with his partners’ money before other trading desks squeezed him for a big loss.
Otherwise, it’s just a lot of work. I feel like I need to squeeze a year of output into the next four months to hit the targets I want to hit. I’ll find a way to do it – which, preferably doesn’t involve staying up until 5:24 a.m. like I am at the moment – but I’m enjoying most of the work enough it doesn’t feel like work. If I haven’t had a chance to respond to your comments, or mail bag messages, over the past 4-6 weeks, please forgive me. I have a few dozen ideas bouncing around my head and have several of you marked for responses when I get a few moments of respite. Bear with me.
I did manage to get the blog slightly updated today with bigger icon pictures and the header image of Kansas City! There’s still a lot to be done but it will happen in time. Ever forward …
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