Category Archives: Food

My Dinner with Betty

My Dinner with Betty
Photo-A-Day #1384

Average Betty that is. I have just started getting into this great food related podcast called AverageBetty. A while back I was at Staples and I saw thing gadget called the Mi book that was basically a video viewer for Food Network recipes, a visual way to see a recipe and cook. After seeing that I thought to myself, I bet that someone had the great idea of doing a show like that as a podcast and I can download it for free on my iPod/iPod Touch. There certainly is a great show and it is called Average Betty.

The way to describe Average Betty is that it is a show with the frenetic energy of Alton Brown – the major food knowledge + great hair + edginess – measures and recipe details + sketch comedy + a cast of “Betty” Characters – long drawn out details of other shows. Betty is fast, entertaining and the food leaves you wanting more of both Betty and the food. Betty has an amazing personality on screen and plays a bunch of fun and funny characters that toss around pop culture references like a pigskin in a backyard touch football game played by overly caffeinated Chihuahuas. It is my new favorite podcast, sorry Cali and GeekBrief.tv but Betty actually tells me about stuff that won’t break the budget.

If you are upset that the videos don’t have the full recipes never fear you can go to AverageBetty.com and get the recipes for the delicious meals and snacks and desserts that Betty is cooking up. There are step by step instructions with color photos. See, save the boring instructional stuff for the written page but keep the sexy (and by that I mean the final images of the food) fun stuff for the videos.

All of these great recipes and podcasts made my BLT and Cheese from D’Angelo pale in comparison even if I did ask them to put in a little thousand island to give the meal a little kick.

Fry Sauce Winner

During the Month of October I decided that the long awaited idea of an actual Fry Sauce competition needed to come to fruition and so I posted a call for recipes in BenSpark’s Ultimate Fry Sauce Recipe Contest and the call was answered by some talented folks. I received submissions for 9 sauces and I added my own into the mix to see how it fared.

I want to extend a big thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. Thanks so much. Here is my teaser video in case you missed it the 1st time around.

Here are the recipes and links to the creators (if they had a link)

Fry Sauce Recipes

Steve Robertson – Whenever I had a post about Fry Sauce there was a comment from Steve, he likes the stuff even more than I do. He’s tried to perfect and recreate the recipe from Arctic Circle Fry Sauce. Here is Steve’s submission.

1/2 cup Mayo
1/4 cup Ketchup
1 tsp dill pickle juice
1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Steve Roberson’s UK Friend
– Steve submitted this one on behalf of his friend.
2 cups Mayo
1 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup cheese whiz

MissBHavens – I met MissBHavens out in California and we shared some Fry Sauce and Sliders together. She was all about the junk food and tasty fry sauce and wanted to know when I was going to do this contest. So when I decided I let her know and this was her creation.

Recipe: Okay, here it is: no fuss, no muss fry sauce recipe. The official condiment of the overnight labor & delivery nurses of NYC’s very own World Famous Bellevue Hospital. Simple. Tangy. Sunset colored. Made from easy to measure take-out packets! You know the type…

1 packet ketchup
1 packet mayo (Hellmann’s, of course!)
1 packet hot Chinese mustard.
2 drops hot sauce of choice.
1 take-out packet salt
1 take-out packet pepper

  1. open liquid packets, spray into a pile on flattened foil that wrapped the take-out french fries from 24hr diner across the street.
  2. add hot sauce
  3. add salt & pepper
  4. mix with a plastic straw (they never send you spoon no matter how many times you ask) or a large, crispy fry until swirly but not completely blended.
  5. Dip fries, spread on burgers and enjoy!

Christine – Christine is a long time reader of this blog and also has a culinary background. Her recipe certainly had the most ingredients and was very tasty.

Recipe: Chipotle Fry Sauce
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2/3 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise
1/3 cup Heinz ketchup
2 chipotle peppers packed in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped (this came to about 1 tablespoon)
2 teaspoons adobo sauce from the can of chipotles
1 clove garlic, finely minced or put through a press (this came to about 1 teaspoon)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
—————————-
Put it all in a blender or food processor and whiz until smooth. Makes slightly over one cup.
—————————-
NOTES: I used Goya brand chipotles, this should be very easy to find, and they come in a small can. You can leave the seeds in the peppers if you’d like, but that might make it too hot for some people. As this recipe is, it is not really hot. It starts out tasting like a plain fry sauce, but then you get hit with the smoky flavor of the chipotles and cumin.

Chica – I have Chica to blame for my Fry Sauce obsession. She is the one who told me all about the delicious stuff.
1/2 cup Ketchup
1/2 cup Mayo
1/4 Salsa
1/4 Ranch Dressing (optional)
A dash or two of Restaurant Style Pepper. (optional)

Hillbilly Willy – I love cajun spices and this was a very tasty sauce in my opinion. Willy has been a reader of this blog for a while and I remembered that he had a blog about food as well as other things I let him know about the contest.
1/4 cup of Ketchup
1/4 cup of Mayo
20 drops of Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon of Kraft mustard
1/3 teaspoon of sugar
1/4 tablespoon of cajun seasoning (tony chacheries)
1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice

Hot Dog Man – The Hot Dog Man provided me with a recipe and ingredients. I went and visited him and was introduced to my most favorite hot dogs ever.
4 parts Ketchup
4 parts Mayo
2-4 parts hot sauce (depends how spicy you like it)(I substitute my special “Killer Pepper Relish” for the Hot Sauce-but I am not revealing THAT recipe here!)
4 parts melted Velveeta

JMomJMom runs a cooking blog with some very tasty recipes.

Recipe: this is the only way I eat my fries! Here’s my favorite fry sauce with an Asian twist: We’ll work with a slightly larger portion since most of the time I say I’m making it for me and end up having to share it with four other people who swear they only like ketchup with their fries 🙂 This recipe can be halved. BTW, I love Heinz and Hellman’s and that’s what I use anyway.
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1/4 cup + another squirt (OK, just say another tablespoon) Ketchup
1 Tablespoon Wasbi (the green stuff you get with sushi – can be bought pre-made in tubes)
1/8 teaspoon salt (or a dash/pinch)
Freshly cracked black pepper (three or four turns. Add as much as you like)
Mix it all together, and dip away!

Our Ultimate Winner

Roselyn – This recipe called for some aromatic fresh ingredients. Made for a very tasty Fry Sauce.
Recipe: HOT FRY SAUCE
Ingredients:
6 Tbsp Mayo
2 Tbsp Ketchup
1 tsp Chili Sauce (Any brand will do as long as it is made from hot peppers.)
2 stalks of young onion leaves, finely cut (set aside 1/4 part for garnishing)

Procedure:

  1. In a small ceramic/porcelain bowl, mix all ingredients.
  2. Sprinkle the garnishing on top and put inside the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour. This will give the flavors to blend well together.
  3. Serve with any kind of chips and fries, or salad.

Roselyn will be receiving a Big City Sliders Station.

Oh yeah, My recipe –
I mixed equal parts ketchup and mayo, tossed in some Red Robin Seasoning, dill pickle juice, a spoonful of cheeze whiz, a dill pickle, some yellow mustard and some lemon and lime juice. It was pretty tasty.

If you enjoyed that contest, don’t miss out on November’s contest for an Edge Tech 7″ Digital Photo Frame.

You know what I’ve wanted to try in Fry Sauce… Bacon. Luckily there is Mayo with Bacon already in it.