Paula Deen is probably one of Food Network’s most famous celebrity chefs. With the perfect blend of Southern charm, delicious recipes, and butter, Paula wows the crowds with fun and food, as it should be. The cooking market is absolutely huge for celebrity chefs, including everything from DVDs and cookbooks to their own grocery store, signature chef lines. Paula has hopped on the bandwagon and at various stores, including the Food Network Store you can find a line of Paula Deen products that is guaranteed to spruce up your meal.

Paula’s line, from what I have seen, focuses a lot on mixes and powders. For example, you can find her biscuit mix, a grill seasoning, and her famous House Seasoning, which is what I am about to review right now. Overall, this is a seasoning that I find it hard to do without. Since I received it for review, I have used it in everything from soup to sprinkling it on burgers and steaks. It’s multipurpose, offers great flavor, but it never overpowers anything. It always ends up offering mild and enhanced flavors.

Before I delve too far into this review, I should say that this seasoning is not incredibly profound. It’s something that you could make at home if you had the inclination to do so. However, rather than purchasing a separate mass of seasonings to mix them together, Paula offers them all in one jar for a lower price. The seasonings consist of garlic and onion powder, salt, and pepper. The blend is perfect and it offers a nice taste to whatever you put it in/on.

The main complaint that I have is that the adorable jar does not have the slotted top that many seasonings offer. This gives you a better sprinkle-ability and allows you to measure things out more evenly. Sprinkling in the palm or dipping my fingers in for a pinch was somewhat of a hassle depending on what I was making. It wasn’t so much of a problem that I wouldn’t use it, because the flavor outweighs any negatives, but it would have been nice to not have to worry about thIS issue.

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You might be surprised to know that I’m as picky about what I drink as I am what I eat. I drink a variety of things, but certain brands of beverages suit my fancy more than others. For example, I’m a Coke drinker. Give me a Coke Classic, Mello Yello or Sprite any day over some of the other brands of pop out there (though I’m a sucker for A&W root beer and I am a major lover or Faygo Red Pop and Orange). I also like certain flavors of smoothies and slushies, certain kinds of juice, and I tend to drink a lot of water – especially carbonated flavor water.

When I heard Taco Bell was offering a new frozen, fruit drink I was curious, but cautious. Taco Bell isn’t exactly known for making delicious, drinking delicacies. As it is, some of its newer food offerings aren’t exactly as good as their television commercials make them out to be. When Ashtyn and her mom wanted to buy the frozen treats I got to try them without having to devote myself towards drinking them if I didn’t like their taste.

The first time we purchased the Fruitista Freeze treats Ashtyn got the Strawberry and her mom got the Mango Strawberry. After one drink of the Strawberry, which I kindly stole from Ashtyn, I was hooked. Bursts of strawberry goodness with chunks of strawberry mixed in make for a delicious and refreshing treat. The strawberry was so good we bought Fruitista Freezes the very next day. This time, Ash bought us one Mango Strawberry and one Strawberry Freeze (while her mom bought a Strawberry). I wasn’t sure how I was going to like the Mango. Surprisingly, it was pretty good.

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Before receiving the box set for Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run I was not familiar with the show. I was familiar with Alton thanks to his other show Good Eats and because of his work on Iron Chef America, but I had not had the pleasure of watching this show until the DVD arrived.

Alton is definitely one of the more interesting hosts on Food Network. One of the most impressive things about him is that he seems to know everything about food. His shows are also quite different than the average Food TV fare. While most of the shows offer a standard kitchen setting (whether live or taped) and a host that shows you how to cook the meal or food item of choice, Brown’s shows not only show you how to cook something (in one sense or another), but also how to eat it, as well as giving you more food knowledge about the item then you will probably ever need! Brown brings Science and History into the kitchen and makes cooking entertaining in a way that it wasn’t before.

The idea of Feasting on Asphalt was to mix Brown’s love for traveling and motorcycles with his love for food. The entire idea is for a group of travelers, led by Brown, to experience the best regional foods that an area has to offer. This leaves behind all of the corporate eateries that have taken over and allows the group to explore all of the small, yet famous spots with food that you can only imagine unless you’ve been lucky enough to taste it.

This three disc set offers the second season, which is known as The River Run. Apparently, in the first season the group went from East to West across the country. This time around they followed the Mississippi River, from Louisiana to where it ends in Minnesota. Along the way, they sampled the best of everything and offered a nice bit of education on all the good eats that they got to try.

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If you cook, you use salt in some form or fashion. Whether it is in a mix of a seasoning blend or it’s straight from your counter, you are getting your daily salt intake somehow. The problem is that salt can be very powerful in a bad way. It’s good because it brings out the taste in your food, but it’s bad because it can overpower the taste just as easily. This is all compounded by the fact that the majority of people have never been blessed with anything beyond the taste of pure white table salt.

I don’t know about you, but I have a love/hate relationship with white table salt. Seasoning, especially salt, is necessary, but it doesn’t taste all that great. When I began learning about Artisan Salts I was increasingly curious. At first I deemed them expensive, but when you consider how a little salt goes a long way, the prices are not really out of the realm of understanding. I contacted Salt Works, not knowing a great deal about artisan salts, but wanting to try them nonetheless. I needed to know if they were worth it or if all salt just tasted the same.

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If you read the Freschetta website, it will tell you that Pizzamore pizzas will transform your kitchen into your favorite pizzeria by taking one of these pizzas from the freezer to the oven. The claim to fame is a one-step bake and serve tray that takes all the fuss out of cooking. The tray was created to make a perfect pizza that is crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and that is evenly cooked. These are some lofty goals. When it comes to frozen pizza, I am incredibly picky. There are only one or two brands that I will bother to eat. I’d rather have homemade pizza, if I have the time to make it, instead.

I find that most frozen pizzas either have too much or too little sauce and they are overly bland. Add in the fact that they are either greasy or the toppings are unappetizing and it makes sense to not waste your money and to just call Hungry Howie’s instead. However, when I saw this large pre-sliced pizza in the frozen food section I decided to give it a whirl.

Feeding anyone in my house can be a battle. My mother rarely wants to eat anything, Dominick is a little easier to please when I am cooking, but when it comes to frozen or takeout he is a food snob (I can relate), and then our son is incredibly picky and resists new foods and brands like the plague. I figured this was set to be an interesting adventure!

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Hendrick’s Gin is not a name I was familiar with before receiving some for review. Come to find out, this is nothing new because most people have no clue who or what Hendrick’s is. Unfortunately, these sad people have no clue what they are missing. One of the newer gins on the market, Hendrick’s has only been around for a short time. However, it has made quite an impression since it came on the market.

One of the first things anyone notices about Hendrick’s is the bottle. The squat bottle is almost black in color. It’s dark enough that you won’t notice the liquor floating around on the inside of the bottle. The apothecary style bottle is hard to pass up because it’s the sign of something good. When it came time to open things up, I was immediately impressed. The cork top was a nice touch and so much better than the average screw top that is found on most liquor bottles.

As clear liquor, one expects something smooth and subtler than your average option in the brown liquors, which tend to offer a sharper taste and more burn for your buck. Hendrick’s is 88 proof and it’s certainly smooth. The smell offers the distinctive, unique flavors of a fine mix of roses, cucumbers, and a burst of juniper. While roses and cucumbers are certainly not the typical Gin flavor, the essence of these items helps to create a flavor in gin that allows Hendrick’s to be known as the best gin that is currently on the market.

I have had gin in the past and find it to be generally pleasing for the most part. However, Hendrick’s blows all previous gin experiences out of the water. The mellow cucumber flavor mixed with the standout flavors of the roses and the light juniper taste is absolutely remarkable. While Hendrick’s may not be well known, fans of this premium liquor are loyal to the brand and the taste of Hendrick’s.

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