It's been a while!

It's been a while since the last entry - the first 3 months of this year have been total murder for Amanda and I - but you don't want to know about our problems.  No - I said you DON'T want to know!  But our customers have remained loyal and the orders are still coming in - Thank you everyone.


Slimkicker.com - For those of our customers who are interested in keeping healthy (as opposed to getting as much bacon-flavour as possible!) and like BaconSalt and Mother Nature's Seasoning because of the lower salt content, natural ingredients, calorie-and-fat-free, etc.  There's a new website/iPhone app called Slimkicker.com that has been in deveopment for a long time and now is live.  It's a sort of social network and target-making, target sharing site, for slimmers, keep-fitters, and even folks like me who do try (honestly I do!) to keep their dietry excesses to a reasonable level!  They are a fun group, so please take a look  and join.


Royal Mail Rip-Off - Meanwhile, our "dearly beloved"*  UK's Royal Mail has decided to revamp their concept of how to attract business . . . .   They are doubling your average customer's shipping costs!  While an order of just one jar of BaconSalt, Mother Nature's Seasoning, or MaltSalt has always been a bit expensive, and we've never really made any money on those due to trying to keep the "shipped price" reasonable, now there's gonna be a minimum package shipping  rate of 750 grams (that's SIX jars' weight!).

So, from the end of this month, we are going to have to change our policy of always showing the "final price" on our pages, and just add a fixed 750 gram shipping charge to every order of 6 jars or less.  A lot of our regular customers are used to buying 3 or 4 jars at a time, where that made the overall price very competitive (and allowed me to have a half pint of draft bitter on the proceeds!), so the solution from the end of this months is to buy SIX jars (of any of our products) at a time, and not to let the Post Office make another Treble Scotch out of it as well.

* - The term "dearly beloved" often reminds me of "dearly departed" - which is where the Royal Mail is going to be soon. Small mail-order companies, whith small, light products are not going to stand for this, and we're all watching for competition moving into the market, and then the Post Office will be making NOTHING from us, or from our customers.  Their web site says "sorry, but we can't afford to subsidise small packages", but are they really sorry? 

The mail that used to always deliver the next day (often before you left for work, for one low charge).  Since privatisation they have laid off staff, closed local post offices, and yet they still want more money from us for a " service" that includes a 2-tier tarrif  (actually 3-tier, because if you want it delivered early the next day you pay even more!) and a "Target delivery time" of 2-3 days, second class, where it used to be a guaranteed delivery next day with just one class.
[/end rant]

Bacon BBQ Rub - J&Ds have come out with a "new" offering;  a bacon rub for your Summer BBQ.  (I hear our UK and Northern European customers saying "What Summer?"!).  Seriously, we have blogged rubs using BaconSalt (as well as our Eastern Spices), which we believe are very good, but this one is especially aimed at the BBQ.  Would you like to see this on our offerings?  If so, please drop us a line at stuart@crazy4flavour.co.uk and we'll try to incorporate it.  We were going to bring a few jars in our current shipment from J&D's but then we realised that the jars are a lot bigger - about 3 times the size/weight (but not too much more expensive) and that we'd have a lot more complication on our web shop with the pending "Darned Royal Mail" charging changes.  If a lot of you are interested, then we'll work out a way of handling it.

From Amanda and Stu - Have a great Summer, together with family/friends, and plenty of flavour to go with it!

Postman Pat is getting slower - It's getting close to the "Post By" date.

The Royal Mail is recommending that "small packages" like BaconSalt, MaltSalt and our own Mother Nature's Seasoning, should be posted by the end of this week (17th December) to ensure their arrival in time for Christmas. So if you're thinking of a stocking-filler for someone (or even for yourself!) then you need to get your order in this week.

At the end of November, we doubled-up on our usual order from USA but, by last week we were on the phone again to "J&D's" in Seattle to get another order shipped to us Express, as BaconSalt and Maltsalt are flying out of our door. It's certainly the busiest Christmas we've had since we started just over three years ago!

Order your BaconSalt, MaltSalt, Mother Nature's Seasoning, now, to make sure it arrives 0n-time.

A very merry Christmas to all our customers :-)

Amanda & Stu

Mother Nature's Seasoning

One of our customers * Sandra W, from Burton-on-Trent * asked us if we could help her to find a seasoning salt called "Nature's Seasons" that Morton's make and sell in USA. She'd contacted Mortons (keen!) but they said they did not export.

We looked at the idea and, after a couple of trials, came up with our own light and deliciously-tasty variant on this idea. We call ours Mother Nature's Seasoning and it delightfully seasons any lighter flavoured dishes - salads, cheese, chicken, eggs . . . . . .



While we were developing the flavour, we thought about our customers who prefer a "Low-Salt" (reduced Sodium) diet, and we also have an option for them too; while "regular" Mother Nature's Seasoning is Sea-Salt based (although still only around one third of it its content is salt), our Low Salt variety is even lower - around half that amount of sodium salt, and a lot healthier* if you want to keep your sodium intake lower to be kind to your heart!

(*If you or someone in your family has a medical problem that means they should keep a low Potassium intake diabetes, heart or kidney problem, then they should check with their doctor before switching to this or any "sodium substitute" salt)

Oh - If you don't like to eat animal products, this (like many of our products) is Vegan too.

Bacon? in Saudi Arabia?

I spent a lot of years working in Saudi before I married Amanda.  The one thing that I really missed  -  well, there were two actually ;-)  -  was my breakfast BACON!

A friend told me about BaconSalt . . . . . but by which time I had left Saudi to live in Southport UK  :-(

But I frequently get feedback from some of my old friends in "The Arabian Gulf" that Bacon-Salt has solved their desires - at least for bacon.  They add it to their eggs, their baked spuds, even marinade veal chops in it beore barbcuing and fool their friends that they are serving much-prized (and probably smuggled) pork chops!  Using BaconSalt as a marinage or a rub really does make "everything taste like bacon".

There's a lot of expats in the Middle-East who order from us e very time they come home on vacation sothat they can take their bacon flavouring back with them to keep them (and their friends) happy when they can't get bacon for breakfast!

www.baconsalt.com in USA

www.crazy4flavour in UK and Europe

Bacon Mac-Cheese

I just love Macaroni-Cheese!

I like to add a few slices of bacon, scattered through the pasta and  decided to have that for my supper last night but only one slice of bacon in the fridge and my "reserve" pack was frozen solid in the freezer  :-( 

Out with the Hickory BaconSalt and sprinkled it liberally over the pasta.  A result!  A lovely baconey flavoured Macaroni Cheese and time saved cooking the bacon which meant I was able to satisfy my cravings much sooner  :-) 

Christmas Is Over

Christmas was hectic here!

We had almost "panic buying" and our stocks barely arrived fast enough.  It wasn't helped by UK Customs holding one shipment for 6 days before releasing it.  We were out of MaltSalt for almost a week, and just running out of a couple of flavours of BaconSalt when  our last shipment arrived, only just making it in time to ship out outstanding orders the day before "Last Christmas Posting Date". So the Friday before Christmas was a real panic packing session and the car was well loaded on the way to our local Post Office (we tied up one counter for over half an hour that day).  We knew that some of our customers were waiting for "stocking-fillers" so we really wanted to make sure that everything went out in time.  From responses that we got I'm pretty sure everyone got theirs by Christmas Eve.  "Thanks, Royal Mail".

After a bit of a rest before New Year (very few orders) we're now working at putting ourselves on eBay again.  So far we have the 3-packs of Bacon-Salt on there, but we plan to put more of our range on, including Malt Salt and the other Bacon-Salt products, as well as the "Eastern Spices", Baconnaise, and Bacon Ranch Dressing.

We also have just 2 weeks to finish our tax return (ugh!) and submit it - but we don't want to remind you about taxation do we?

Our evening meal tonight was Corned Beef Hash, with corned beef, tiny-cubed potatoes and carrots.  As well as Lea and Perrin's, I added a couple of teaspoons of Original BaconSalt.  Tasted very good  :-)  We'll try to get some more recipes on here in the coming weeks.

MaltSalt going Crazy!

MaltSalt is selling far faster than we expected!  Even while we were waiting for our first delivery, when nobody in UK had ever tasted it, we realised that we hadn't ordered enough and had more shipped.  As soon as we started taking orders we were deluged with them and we've placed yet another order from J&Ds in Seattle and it's on its way now.  Hopefully we'll be able to keep up!

My stepson, in the university in Ormskirk, visited last weekend and tasted the bottle that Amanda had opened to sample it herself - loved it - and the bottle immediately disappeared into his pocket!  Hopefully he'll share with his mates at Uni and they will be ordering their own stash.

The demand for Malt Salt has also increased our BaconSalt sales, so we've had to make an "emergency order" for that too so as not to disappoint our customers!

Malt Salt is now in UK!

Malt Salt has arrived at last!

There was a delay in shipping due to the factory in Seattle not having enough of one of the ingredients but today, a week behind schedule, Malt-Salt is now available from us - the FIRST to bring MaltSalt into UK.

Fish 'n Chips, HOT and without the SOGGY!

Now, days are gone when the chippie adds cold vinegar and your Fish & Chips arrive home cold and soggy.  Keep Malt Salt at home and you can add Sea Salt and Vinegar Powder there to have your food as crispy as it came out of the fryer.

Malt Salt is the creation of Justin and Dave, of J&D's Foods (who brought you BaconSalt) and even in USA, the supermarkets are clamouring for stock.  As the main UK/EU importer for their customers here, J&D's gave us a bit of priority - it arrived today and we have it now

Don't forget that we include postage in our pricing, and we'll combine orders of MaltSalt, BaconSalt, and our Eastern Spices.  If you order one of each, you'll get the postage actually charged at the 3-pack rate.

At the moment we are supplying individuals but, in a wek or so, we'll be working with a newspaper group in the Merseyside/Lancashire area to introduce it to chippies around here.  But don't wait - get your personal supply now!
www.buymaltsalt.co.uk
or
www.crazy4flavour.co.uk

Soon - MaltSalt!

Earlier this year, J&D's brought out another new product, but Bacon Ranch was still in the "Bacon Theme", as were all of their other products.

Well Justin and Dave have pushed the envelope now - another new launch, but this time - Malt!

MaltSalt  is packaged in the traditional BaconSalt "shaker" jars, but this time it's Malt Vinegar without the cold soggy effect that you get putting vinegar on your Fish & Chips!  Just take your FnC home from the chippy without cold, wet vinegar and shake on your MaltSalt.  FnC that's still hot and crisp - Aaaah :)

 MaltSalt is going off the shelves in USA like there's no tomorrow, and what do the Yanks know about Fish and Chips?  We're already seeing customers asking "when".  This is going to revolutionise Friday Tea-time in UK!

Crazy4Flavour has stock leaving USA this week (the earliest we could get a shipment!) so keep an eye on the web site, or email us to reserve a jar at stuart@crazy4flavour.co.uk.  We're expecting the first consignment to arrive in about a week and a half, and more a week after that.

Pork Casserole with Za'atar and Black Lemon

We made some more of the BaconSalt-Cheese Dinner Rolls (see the post below) for another fair, and had a few left over.  Amanda made a "spag-bog" for dinner last night, and spilt the rolls and made them as "Garlic Bread" - Oh! Garlic Rolls with a cheesey, baconey flavour - Totally Awesome!

 Now as for the Casserole . . . . . 

This is more of an "idea" than a complete recipe, as we didn't make a note any quantities when we were cooking it, but it worked out really good.

We had a small joint of pork in the freezer that really needed to be used, and no fixed plan for dinner that night, so decided to casserole the pork because (a frequent problem) all the family were in and out, with various commitments at different times - Amanda working an evening shift, I was out to my Buffalo Lodge, and young Alex comes home from school and half hour later heads off to football training!  The Slow Cooker appeared to be a good candidate for the meal - something I had never used until I married Amanda, and now I wonder how I ever existed without it!

The pork was diced into inch-by-inch chunks and seared in a pan, along with onions, the other vegetables lightly par-boiled (potatoes, carrots, swede - up to you what you include), and everything put into the slow cooker.  I thought that a little extra "kick" would be good, so added a fairly generous measure of Black Lemon Powder and a half a teaspoon of Za'atar Herbs (both available on our web-shop, Crazy4Flavour).

The Black Lemon is more traditionally used with Lamb, where it helps to reduce any excess fat, but we've used it with chicken and turkey before, to add a lovely tang, and the Zaatar is a herb/spice blend that you often find in Arabic bread cookery, but which adds a lovely aromatic finish to all sorts of meat and veg.

After bringing the whole thing to the boil in the slow cooker, thickened (and the Black Lemon and Za'atar added) it was then left to simmer for several hours, and then each of the family could ladle out what we wanted, when we were home.  The result was one of the tastiest casseroles I have come across.

The same idea would be good with lamb or chicken instead of pork, and it would be interesting to try it with beef too.  Experimentation on cooking often pays off with something new - Try it!

Bacon-Dusted Dinner Rolls

Thanks to Two Bites In Suburbia for this one. 

(http://twobites.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/bacon-dusted-mozzarella-dinner-rolls/)

As regular readers will know, I've always considered Bacon and Cheese "Natural Bed-Fellows".  2-Bites came up with a recipe combining both.  We had two "Food Fairs" last week and we made "mini-rolls" as tasters for Bacon-Salt - They went fast at both events!  Reprinted here (with permission from TwoBitMe).

Easy-to-make:

 Bacon-Dusted Mozzarella Dinner Rolls

Posted on March 17, 2008 by TwobitMe

Once you find yourself on the receiving end of such an eye-opening spice, you start wondering how you can apply to your recipes.  That’s the only reason I can come up with that would explain why every restaurant in Chicago was serving hearts of palm a year or so ago.

My current favorite?  Oh, it’s back.  The Bacon Salt has returned.  After falling in love with the stuff

last week, a discussion arose about what we could toss it on next.  Being of the baking persuasion, I wondered about bacon bread.  I’ll save you from the logic train that ensued, but let’s just say that we ended up with a recipe calling for cheese stuffed bread.

I had originally discovered this recipe over on bakingsheet, but hadn’t found a good reason to make them.  Until Bacon Salt.  I adjusted the recipe a bit, adding some butter to the activation process, and replacing the regular sugar and salt with kosher salt and brown sugar for taste.  If you don’t have Bacon Salt (blasphemy!), you could honestly sprinkle anything on top.  The original recipe calls for garlic salt, which would also be pretty dang tasty.  So, again, if for some reason you haven’t run out to buy Bacon Salt, make these with your favorite topping.

Baking these fresh, the aroma of cheese, butter, bread and bacon just fills the house, and that’s no bad thing.  It’s miraculous.  Try and eat these hot, because they taste like nothing else.  Die hard fans of my pretzel bread say these trump the pretzel bread, and they never thought they would say that.  I take that as a huge compliment.  Even Katie, who said she wouldn’t go near the Bacon Salt has been converted.  She loves these rolls.  She’s made me promise to make them only on special occasions because she’s afraid of what eating a dozen of these a day would do to her body.  (Hint: She’d probably smell like Bacon Salt)

Bacon-Dusted, Mozzarella-Stuffed Dinner Rolls

• 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup water, warm (110-115F)
• 1/2 cup milk, warm (110-115F)
• 1 tbsp brown or dark brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2-2 1/2 cups all purpose or bread flour
• Fresh mozarella cheese cut into 12, 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp Hickory Bacon Salt
• 1 tsp grated Parmesan Cheese

In a large bowl, combine yeast, water, milk, sugar and butter and let stand for 5 minutes, until yeast is activated and has gone foamy.  Add salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour, stirring well. Add the remaining flour gradually, mix until the dough comes together into a ball, away from the sides of the bowl. Place onto a lightly floured surface and knead until very smooth and elastic, 5 minutes should do.  Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a dish towel.   Let rise until doubled, about 60 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide dough into 12 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place a square of cheese inside each ball and pinch tightly to seal the dough around the cheese.  Reform into a ball if need be.  Place seam side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet, or into well greased cupcake tins, and cover with a dish towel for about 15 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 375F while rolls rest.

Using a fork, mix the Bacon Salt and Parmesan cheese.  Brush rolls with the melted butter and sprinkle with the Bacon Salt & Parmesan cheese mixture. Bake rolls for 18 minutes, turning after 9 minutes, until golden.

Serve right away, as the cheese is best hot.  You may end up with one or two cheese explosions, but really, is there anything better than slightly burnt cheese?

Makes 12 rolls.

Thanks TwoBitMe, we loved the ones that we "checked for quality" before the fairs; we'll be making some more for our own use after the customers scoffed all the "mini" ones that we made last week!

So What do you want NEXT??

Stu's traveling in the Middle-East again, and will be stopping off to visit our spice packers (and to pick up some urgent stocks)

This is a great opportunity to also bring back something new!  So we'd love to hear from our customers if there's a Middle-Eastern, or Asian spice that they like and find hard to find or overly expensive in Europe.

Our packers are in Bahrain, which is  one of the old "spice route" cities, and anything coming from the East to Europe used to come through there, so our people have a great knowledge of these spices and herbs, and stock many different products.  So please email (or post a comment here) if there's anything new that you think we should be stocking.

Our Bacon-Salt Prices Down!

Great News!  A little while ago, J&D's dropped their wholesale prices, and now the lower priced stock has worked its way into our inventory (we try to keep a good stock on-hand, of all the varieties, so that we don't have to disappoint our customers) so that we can now pass on the savings.

We've also kept our postage as low as possible (we only 'charge' a pound for shipping single jars, whilst it actually costs us around 35% more than that) so that what is our selling price for a jar (£2.45) costs you just £3.45 a jar delivered by 2nd class post.  We don't add postage at the last stage when you finally check out.

That's to let customers try Bacon-Salt without committing to a larger order of 3 jars at a time - of course, we far prefer if our customers buy larger quantities, as it is more cost-effective on postage (for you and for us), as well as on what Google Checkout takes from us on each sale as their 'commission' for handling your cards (we never even see the card details)

So don't let anyone else tell you that "they sell BaconSalt at the lowest price" - just look at what they charge for postage as well, then compare.

The other thing that we do to try to be as fair as possible is to make reductions (or refunds) when you order multiple items from any of our range.  If that causes the postage to be calculated too high, then we reduce the charge to what the postage actually costs us (Check our feed-back on Google Checkout to see what our satisfied customers have said about us - there's not a single complaint, and we have no say in what gets published there.)

Our aim is, and has always been, to give our customers a fair deal and we'll continue to do just that.

FREE ? Bacon-Salt!

We've got a lot of 'sample sachets' in our stock, but we find that just handing them out randomly doesn't help a lot.  People will accept anything that's free but tend to leave it in their pocket until it's 'pocket fluff' and gets thrown away.

So we're offering them for just the price of the stamp - a way for anyone who's not sure of they'll like it before they buy a jar-full or three (in which case, the prices shown include postage!)

I suspect it's going to be a lot of work though  :(

Christmas Problems - and New Products

Delays   :)

My family from Philadelphia departed safely on Christmas Day back to The States, and the Bacon-Brined-Turkey was a huge sucess.  Fortunately they were not on the flight where  some fool tried to blow up his underwear that day!

But not all was well -   Almost 2 weeks before Christmas, we placed an order to top up our dwindling stocks of Hickory and Natural Bacon-Salt, and it left the factory on the 14th of December.  It still hadn't arrived long after New Year and we started to worry!  The shippers at the USA end said that they could track it from Seattle to San Francisco where it arrived on the 17th, but at the UK end they assured us that it hadn't arrived on the 5th of January.

Fortunately it reappeared 'on the radar' at the end of last week and arrived with us today - a rush to get outstanding orders out in time for the post today!  Apologies to customers who accepted alternative, and those who chose to be patient and wait for deliveries.  Everything that was due has now been shipped.

News!

We had been waiting a couple of weeks to announce new products (some were in the delayed shipment), and today we have started to update the web site to include these.

In our 'Eastern Spices' range we have now added Saffron - top quality and very pure Iranian Saffron.  For those who don't know, Saffron is a very aromatic (when cooked) spice that is the stigma of the Iranian Crocus, and gives a lovely yellow colour to foods ('Saffron Rice' is one that any lover of Indian food will know),  It's expensive, but a very little is required for the full effect - only about 10p or maybe 15p per serving.

J&D's Maple Bacon-Salt has been added to the Bacon-Salt range from J&D's foods.  This gives a subtly sweet and smokey flavour to the baconey taste of Bacon-Salt.

Just before Christmas, J&D's also launched Bacon Ranch Dressing Mix in America.  This is a fantastic sachet that you add to buttermilk, cream cheese, or yoghourt, to really liven up a salad or as a fantastic dip that will be the first to go at any party!  (Like all of J&D's products, it's okay for Vegetarians, certified KOF-K Kosha, and not too heavy on the salt content.)

Supplies were initially a bit limited due to USA demand, but we managed to get enough to satisfy our customers for a while, and we'll be including more in our next shipment (soon!)

Finally . . . . .

A very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

to all of our customers.

Amanda & Stu

Christmas Turkey - Bacon-Brined!

With Christmas approaching, and with our daughter and her (American) family visiting us for the holiday, we decided that we should show our Trans-Atlantic guests that Brits could do at least as well as they do for their Thanksgiving Dinners - Maybe even to beat them!

So we went back to the recipe that we published here for Bacon-Salt Brined Chicken, added improvements that we've made over the past year, and planning to cook our turkey that way.

One of my favourite web sites is www.instructables.com, and they are running a competition for Christmas Foods 'instructables' so we thought it would be a good idea to enter this - with a lot of luck, we could add a brand new food processor to the Crazy4Flavour 'test kitchen'!

Rather than compose the whole thing here again, I'll simplify my efforts and add the URL for the 'Instructables' web site. (Read it here - click)

If you like the recipe, please leave us a '5-star' - It might help us to win the food processor!

Arabian Kabsah

Variations on traditional Arabian Kabsah, usually made using mutton ‘on the bone’, but we us prefer off the bone, lamb or chicken .

(serves 4)

• · 500 gms diced chicken breast or lamb
• · 1 medium onion
• · 1 can coconut milk
• · 4 teaspoons Arabian Spice Blend*
• · 8 oz long-grain rice

Chop the onion and lightly fry in vegetable or sesame oil. Add the chicken or lamb, stir-fry until meat is browned. Add Arabian Spice Blend, continue to stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk and turn heat down to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cook the rice in the usual way, adding a little Arabian Spice to give colour.

Serve either with the meat and rice mixed, or separately, and with Arabian bread ‘wraps’ with a drizzle of Zatar Spice* and olive oil.

*Arabian Spice and Za'atar are sold in our Online Shop (click)

BaconSalt Movie on YouTube . . . . .

Dave Lefkow (one of the inventors) posted this on YouTube - clips from American TV programs about BaconSalt (or "Bacon Salt")

The BaconSalt Movie - Click

*

Crazy4flavour (Stu Nutt) Twitter conversations: selling BaconSalt online to UK and Western…

Crazy4flavour (Stu Nutt) Twitter conversations: selling BaconSalt online to UK and Western…

Crazy BaconSalt Cartoons - Walter Newton

I just had to post this - A Glaswegian illustrator and animator has come up with some comic illustrations of his perception of the BaconSalt factory in Seattle. Hopelessly non-factual (we all know - don't we? - that BaconSalt is not made from pigs), but had me chuckling.

Lots of other illustrations on the site, as well as some great animations. Check out "Chess" and the "Panda" - Totally Hilarious.

Great work Walter!

It would be impolite to post one of them on our blog, but here's the link again -
http://www.walternewton.com/?p=184

Now I'd better get back to work (but I've saved Walter's web site location for a re-visit)

"Southport Visiter"

Food News journalist of the southport Visiter, Amy Salter, commented below that she's "testing" Bacon Salt and promising some ideas on her blog: The Kitchen - The World of Food

Looking forward to seeing them Amy - and if you come up with some new ones, I hope you'll share them with us here!

Bacon Mary!

I came across a neat idea this morning, and tried it out. And Bacon Mary sounds much nicer than Bloody Bacon!

1. Half-fill a glass (take your own choice of size!!) with Tomato Juice
2. Add a half level teaspoon (or to taste) of Peppered Bacon Salt
3. Add Vodka - to taste (I like them strong)
4. Ice - Stir - DRINK

CHEERS!

More New Products

It's been a while since the last update, but there's lots of news . . . . .

We've added two new BaconSalt varieties - Cheddar and Applewood Smoke.

Cheese is just a natural bedfellow to Bacon, so that one should be very popular. When I've been in a hurry, a cheese and bacon sarnie was quicker to make with Cheese and BaconSalt, and now I can 'grab a bite' even faster with the Cheddar BaconSalt!

We've been asked to get the Applewood in, so that one's available on the shop now too. Next? Maybe the Jalapeno in our next shipment???

Another new taste from the Middle East is Za'atar Spice. This one's very popular as a condiment for bread; Traditionally used with Arabic Bread (a bit like Pitta, but thinner and round-shaped) but these days very popular as a fill in Croissantes. You can also use it to 'spice up' Hommus, or even flavour meat in cooking.

Last Week at the Food Fair




We had a stand at the local Food Fair which was located conveniently close to Pippins Restaurant, so a swift negotiation with the manager and I was carting bowls of chips to the stand and sprinkling them with Hickory BaconSalt. With me wandering around in front of the stand, and offering 'BaconSalt Chips' to the passers-by resulted in Amanda getting mobbed with sales!

There was a total range of customers who tasted chips with BaconSalt and made a bee-line for the counter - everyone from 10 years old to pensioner ladies! The stand was a complete success, thanks to Pippins Chips.

Back Online! (Whoops)

A couple of days ago we discovered a problem - the latest update on the web site had a fault, and nobody could get anything on the "shop" page. A quick phone call to our webmaster fixed it, but nobody had been able to buy for a week

The site is back in operation now, with several great updates . . . .

Baconnaise (Bacon-flavour Mayo)
Black Lemon Powder
Eastern Spice Blend
BaconSalt Refill Packs - save you 30% or more when you already have your BaconSalt shaker-jars

Check it out!

Baconnaise

Okay - Folks asked for it, so now we have it . . . . .

A limited stock of Baconnaise (regular and "lite"). It ain't cheap, but it's a lot less than paying shipping from Seattle! £9 a jar (roughly a one pound jar) but another £2.30 for 2nd class post.

It's not on the web-shop (yet? - depends on the response), but if you want some, please email (stuart@crazy4flavour.co.uk) and I can send a Google Checkout invoice (same system as buying through the web, and the same credit-card protection from Google). If there's demand, then we'll bring a lot more.

Justin and Dave were on "Oprah" in USA last week, and that finally pushed us to rush in some Baconnaise stock.



See the video here

Sunflower snacks

I've got a little behind (my wife likes it though!) (sorry, couldn't resist that) but here's a response from "Bernie" from Denmark (we all know the Danes are really into Bacon)

Hey Stu.
Got my order today. I made a snack recipe you might wanna try out, its good!, (Bernie's Bacon Seeds) roast some sunflower seeds on dry pan just until they are a little crispy, put the seeds in a little bowl and add some sunflower seed oil (only to make the bacon salt stick on) then add bacon salt hickory (don't be cheep) enjoy! :)

Thanks for that Bernie - it gave us an inspiration for the "tasters" at the local food market last week; we didn't get sunflower seeds, but we oiled and "salted" peanuts with BaconSalt, as well as popping some corn with the magic ingredient. Both tasted great and were well-received by our visitors.

Pity about the British weather that day though :(

Lemon Roast Chicken!

Oooh! In all the years in the Middle-East, I used Lemon Powder to cook lamb - never thought much about other ideas (apart from mashed-potato patties, fried for breakfast, and a few other things like that)

Yesterday, Amanda cooked us Roast Chicken and generously rubbed it with Black Lemon Powder (after "annointing" the skin with olive oil) and - Wow! It was fantastic hot, and the left-overs (it was a big chicken!!) were even better cold for lunch today with a salad and new potatoes.

Normally we use Bacon-Salt on our roast chicken, but this will be a new addition to our regular family menu - maybe with Bacon-Salt stuffing ;)

There was a slight delay in the packaging for the new spices from the Middle-East, but now we have stocks all ready to ship and we're just waiting for the web shop (www.crazy4flavour.co.uk) to be updated so we can start selling.

Baconnaise, Bacon-Choc, and other spices

We have a few jars of J&D's Baconnaise coming in shortly. It's going to be a bit expensive, due to the cost of shipping 450-gram jars, but we've had inquiries so we'll give it a try. If you are interested then email us at the address on the Sales Site by which time we should have firmed-up the price.

We're just adding the finishing touches to the packaging before we can offer "Amanda's Bacon Chocolate" (pretty much as per the recipe here on the blog, but all done for you). The inspiration came from "Mo's Bacon Bar", a chocolate bar with real bits of bacon in it that sold out in Selfridges 2 days after it went on sale at six quid a bar (75 grams)! Ours will be a fraction of that price - including postage - and trust me, it's good!

Packaging is now done for the Black Lemon Powder and the Arabian Spice Mix - pictures are offto the web-site designers and these should be on sale within days now.

Business Picking up :)

After almost 4 months or hard work, trying to promote BaconSalt, business is starting to pick up. A good number of orders received in the last 24 hours, and a good "representation" from the Scandahooligans! It seems that the Danes introduced Britain to Danish Bacon, and now Scandinavians are almost our best customers!

Work progresses on the web-shop upgrade, and we're almost ready to "launch" the two new spices from the "East" - Black Lemon powder and Arabian spice blend - indeed, samples have already gone to a few customers.

Today's customers have also been sent samples of "Amanda's Farmhouse Bacon Chocolate". After sample-testing at the local market, it appears that folks either love it or think it's "disgusting"! So our customers can make up their own minds now - free!

Amanda's off to her evening job now,and I have "screen-eyes", so time to quit. Thanks for the support from all of our customers!!

New Products Introduced

Two new spices added to the range - Completely different and we believe not available elsewhere in UK.

Black Lemon Powder - Uniquely now available from us, this is lemons, dried from orchard in Iran and ground to a fine powder in the processors in Bahrain to use as a "rub" for lamb (or mutton or even goat!). The lemon counteracts the greasiness often found in lamb dishes and gives a tang to the meat that is incomparable. We have used it at home since I discovered Black Lemon some years ago in the Middle-East, and now it's on sale here.

Arabian Spice Blend - From the route of the old Eastern Spice Caravans, the Arabian Spice Blend is 16 different herbs and spices which are traditionally used in the Middle-East to give an exotic flavour to chicken and lamb. Marinade the meat in the spice, and then cook in the marinade, slowly, until the meat is tender and just thicken the juices before serving. It can also be used as a "base" for an aromatic curry - just add what you need to make it hot (as hot or otherwise as you like)

These new products opens up your kitchen to a whole flavour experience.

Keep watching - soon we are planning to add still more to the range.

Overseas Adventures

As promised, the Crazy Team are hunting for new tastes to add to the web-shop, including the long-promised Black Lemon. My travels have taken me to the Middle-East, places where Bacon is banned - Aaagh!

How do you survive in a country where there's no bacon, ham, pork? And where some of the local food tastes like **** to Westerners? The answer is in BaconSalt (not "Bacon Salt"!) I took a supply with me, and no worries about getting grabbed by the Airport Customs for "smuggling Bacon", as BaconSalt contains no Bacon (and not too much Salt), but it makes the unfamiliar grub taste acceptable - Gooood.

I'll be back at the shop soon, with new additions to the range (Oh, what I go through for you guys) and Amanda is faithfully keeping the orders going out while I've been away (and that is going to cost me on my return - there has been mention of a weekend trip to Liverpool - errrr?)

Liver and Bacon(salt) DOG FOOD !?

We've just heard that one of our customers has a very "special" show-dog. Apparently, it's normal for those who go for dog-shows to take along some liver to feed their dogs, but this guy's dog likes his sprinkled with BaconSalt!


He tells us that all the other dogs take great interest when his dog gets fed, so we've suggested that he take along some of our flyers to the next dog show - but maybe he doesn't want the other owners to know the secret of his success!

Something . . . in the State of Denmark

Looking at the "analytics" on our shop site, I can see a sudden "spike" in hits from Scandinavia and Denmark in particular. We've also seen higher number of "buys" from there too in the last week. Can't tell "who" the hits are coming from of course, just the internet company and the town of connection - and they are all over the country.

Not that we're complaining of course (!) but curious to know "what we're doing right" all of a sudden.

Meanwhile, I must get on with posting some more recipes; I'm afraid I've been relaxing and eating the Bacon Chocolate (which we are now making in one-pound batches!), and not working on my posts. Me BAD! ;)

Largest Order Yet!

Woot! Today saw our largest order to date - Thanks to SJ from Finland who placed an order for 12 jars! Hopefully the Post Office will accept a 1.25kg "small overseas parcel", or we'll have to bring it back and re-pack in two bags. (It only just fitted in our standard shipping bag, and we double-bagged it for extra security, though we use pretty tough bags and have never had a problem so far)

Either SJ is planning to work his way through all the recipes, including the ones on the previous pages, or he has a LOT of friends who like Bacon!

Any more out there like that?

Bacon Chocolate (Improved method!)

We didn't get to try out the Bacon Chocolate again when intended - the kids ate the chocolate! But here's how we did it when we got another supply . . . . .

My problem was "burning" the chocolate in the microwave - NOT the way to melt chocolate I am informed! This time the choc was broken up and placed in a large bowl, a size that would fit over a saucepan without the bottom of the bowl reaching more than halfway down the saucepan. Quarter-fill the pan with hot water, and then slowly simmer the water whilst stirring the choc as it melts. The bowl should not touch the boiling water, but be gently heated by the steam.

Once it is all molten and nicely fluid, then add a rounded teaspoon per 100 gms of choc. (more if you prefer, but we found that the "subtle" bacon taste was perfect)

Once well-mixed, pour the choc out onto a cold plate with a sheet of grease-proof paper on it. Once it has cooled (meanwhile clean out the bowl with your finger!) break into mouth-sized portions and consume at leisure.

Initially the choc flavour is most obvious, but the bacon-flavour develops deliciously, and finally there's just a tiny crunch from the BaconSalt spices that remain after all of the choc has dissolved.

Next time we're in town shopping, we're going to look out for some of those little rubbery ice-trays for fancy ice-cubes. The ones with bunny-shaped moulds should be great for Easter!

Roasted Pork Belly with a BaconSalt crust

Thanks Gerard for another recipe (no wonder you just ordered another 4 jars of BaconSalt - You really have great ideas for it - Keep 'em coming!)

Roasted Pork Belly with a BaconSalt crust

1 pork belly joint - can be anything up to 3-4lb's
Mustard - English/ french/wholegrain - whichever you prefer
A selection of spices
BaconSalt Original or Hickory
Molasses or dark brown sugar
Breadcrumbs

Heat oven to 200 degrees

Season joint liberally with BaconSalt
Mix your spices with breadcrumbs - i use cumin, coriander, curry powder, black pepper
pop a big spoon of mustard in and mix it to a malleable paste - similar to playdoh or plasticine
grate in some molasses if you have it, you can use brown sugar, syrup, anything sweet and soluble - I added some dark rum, butter and grated citrus zest as well to moisten it.
make a layer of your mixture on the skin side of the joint - it should be at least a centimetre thick
Dust BaconSalt over the top

Place in oven and cook for at least 1.5 hrs. The spice/ sugar mixture will slowly dissolve into the pork belly and the molasses will make it nice and sticky. The savoury BaconSalt mixed with the sweet spices will take it to new heights of flavour.

Gerard

That sounds really "something else"! I've just added a nice big pork belly joint to our shopping list for this week. Seems there are things us Brits can learn from our Colonial Brethren!

Beer-Butt Chicken (BaconSalt Style)

This one's from Gerard, down in Brighton. A "Baconey" version of an old favourite.

BaconSalt Beer-Butt Chicken

This is an amazing BBQ idea and really encapsulates the BBQ mentality of the southern states of the USA. Its designed to be cooked in a covered BBQ, but an oven is just as good, especially as it's not summer yet.

1 medium chicken
1 can beer - I used Budweiser
1 lemon
BaconSalt Original
Korean Red Pepper
Szechuan Pepper
Cumin powder
Coriander powder
Garlic
Butter

Take the zest off the lemon and slide it under the breast skin of the chicken
Rub all spices over chicken
Rub BaconSalt all over chicken, until it is orange - really get it in there
Open beer, drink 1/4 of the can
Using a normal can opener, remove the top of the can or spike extra holes in it
Add mashed garlic cloves, lemon, butter and BaconSalt to the remaining 3/4 can of beer - it will fizz.

Sit the whole chicken upright over the can - it should stand like a tripod, using the can and its two legs. You may want to refer to the picture for this.
Keeping it standing upright - place it in your oven at around 200 degrees and cook for 1.5 hours or more, depending on taste - i like it extra crispy

The joy of this recipe is that no matter how long you cook it, it wont go dry, as the can is providing hot flavoured steam on the inside, whilst the skin just gets crisper and crisper on the outside. The can's contents will boil and steam, the outside remains super crispy.

When it's done, just switch off the oven and leave it in there for 20 mins or so to rest. To remove the can, simply lift the chicken off of it, it will slide out easily but will be very hot. The skin will be crisp and bacony, the meat will be lovely and moist and even the thickest part of the chicken will taste of beer and bacon as it's been cooked by the flavoured steam.

Bacon Chocolate (mark 1)

After hearing about Selfridges London store selling out of bacon-flavour-chocolate, (google "Mo's Bacon Bar") I wondered about "BaconSalt Chocolate" (okay, we've already tried it with ice-cream!)

I took 100 gm of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and decided to melt it down, add BaconSalt, and see what was the result. I knew Amanda would call me daft, so I sneaked around the kitchen while she was engrossed in a DVD movie, and tried to gently heat the chocolate in the microwave. This was not a 100% success! At first nothing much happened, and the chocolate refused to melt. but then it started turning powdery - not good! I'd added about 3/4 of a level teaspoon and I then put the dish with the chocolate into a bigger dish of hot water and continued, in the hope it would turn liquid. (it didn't!)

Finally I added a little milk and stirred it frequently, and the consistency improved a bit, so I spread it on a shallow disk and refrigerated. The result had a sort of crunchy "fudge" consistency and I tried Amanda out on it - she was moderately impressed, but said I obviously didn't know how to melt chocolate (well, she used to work many years ago in a Thorntons shop, so she should know!) I think it's even more "more-ish" than regular chocolate and our teenage kids, Holly and Alex obviously like it too as I noticed this morning that a lot had vanished from the fridge before we got up!

Tomorrow Amanda has promised to show me how to do it "properly"!

Bookmark this space!!

Ready for the morning? (after the night B4!!)

Everyone primed for the celebrations this evening? Have you thought about the results that will be felt in the morning? You aren't going to be able to face your usual bacon-and-eggs with mushrooms, tomatoes and more bacon, are you?

This was suggested by a UK Bacon-Lover in Sussex. Piggy Mary!

Ingredients (serves one):

• a pint of Tomato Juice
• a teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce (Lea & Perrins of course!)
• Ground Black Pepper to taste
• a generous teaspoon of (preferably Original) BaconSalt

Shake all ingredients together (if it hurts your head to shake you can delegate that part!) and add some ice. Drink as quickly as possible!

Happy New Year from BaconSalt UK !

Christmas Left-overs; BaconSalt Bubble&Squeak!

Okay, we were all feeling bloated yesterday. We adapted the "Lemon and BaconSalt Brine" recipe below (by up-rating the usual large Ziplock bag for a bin-liner and increasing the quantity of brine to cope with a 3kg joint of pork and a 4.5kg turkey . . . . . and there was enough food left to feed a moderately-small famine-stricken nation. We grossly over-estimated what our (extended) family could get through and packets of frozen meats are now in the freezer to feed us for the next week or more (hands up others in the same situation!)

After Sunday Lunches, I always save the left-over veggies for breakfast as "good old British" Bubble-and-Squeak for Monday (and maybe Tuesday as well) but today there was so much that I mashed it all in a very large mixing bowl, added a third of a bottle of BaconSalt, and put the burger-press into service to make 2 dozen B&S patties. B&S made with BaconSalt is mouth-watering - I could *ALMOST* forgo the rashers that usually accompany it for breakfast!!

(Why do Bubble-and Squeak and BaconSalt both abbreviate to "BS"?? Need I say more!!)

Happy New Year British and European BaconSalt lovers!

BaconSalt Stuffing

. . . . And with Christmas coming up, you know we all want stuffing!

This easy one is credited to Amanda - Bacon-Flavoured Stuffing. You can use it to stuff the Christmas Turkey, or make it in a baking tin to serve separately. (adjust quantities to the size of your turkey - and family!

• 2 slices stale bread, crumbled
• 1 onion, chopped
• 8-10 sage leaves, torn up
• 1 teaspoon BaconSalt, flavour according to your preference
• 1 egg

Mix all ingredients together, place in an oiled baking tin, bake until slightly crispy at 200 C. That's it!

If you use it to stuff your turkey (or duck, chicken, dodo, goose, crow, albatross etc) don't forget the usual caution about making sure it is cooked right through, as the stuffing stops the oven's heat circulating inside the body-cavity. My personal preference is to use a meat-thermometer to be 100% certain.

BaconSalt at Southport Open Market

Our first "Public Showing" of BaconSalt at the Open Market yesterday. Weather was kind in that it didn't pour with rain - but the wind in the early part of the morning played havoc with the posters and the temperature dropped later in the day, so it was never exactly crowded!

Only a couple of "regulars" had decent takings, but we were satisfied with covering the stall rental and other expenses to "get the word out - even if only locally. Meanwhile the internet sales continue to come in - slowly, but picking up :)


We'll be adding some more recipes over the next few days - Keep watching!

Publicity!

All getting a bit hectic here . . . . Southport Farmers Market on Thursday next, 18th December. Amanda and I will be doing our first "public demonstration" of BaconSalt. Lots and lots of posters, advertising literature etc to prepare, as well as the "tasting samples".

We've also had a call from Sky TV who want to include BaconSalt in a forthcoming program on their UKTV-Food Channel - Guess we'd better subscribe to a Sky package so we can watch ourselves!

You Don't Have To Give Up Bacon!

I discovered BaconSalt because I love bacon - not because I wanted to stop eating it! Sometimes I need a real breakfast (being a healthy growing lad!!) and Amanda frowns as she gets out the frying pan, or at least fires-up the grill.

Coming from the South of England as I do, I've discovered different food-stuffs up here in Murky-Side, including a wonderful "snack-wrapper" locally called a "bin-lid" - more region-wide referred to as a Stottie (see Wikipedia) which is a bread bun, sometimes as much as a foot in diameter, which is split and filled with all sorts of breakfast goodies.
Our frying pan is about the same size as a 9-inch bin-lid from ASDA, so a couple of eggs, with the yokes slightly broken, fit just nicely, and four rashers of (grilled - for my heart's sake!) spread on top, the whole filling dusted with Pepperd BaconSalt makes a great breakfast for a chilly, damp, Murky-side morning.

Amanda has promised (threatened?) to do her "Slimmimg World" (or heart case!) Bacon Flan for me at the weekend . . . Please darling, can I have Bacon and BaconSalt in this too?

Bacon Lemon Thyme Brine for Roast Chicken

A blogger in Singapore recently posted a recipe for Brined Roast Chicken using BaconSalt. His recipe calls for a gallon of BaconSalt brine to marinate the chicken but I've been brining for a while and I save on the amount of brining mixture by using a tough "zip-lock" bag to put the meat and the chicken in. Here's my amended version:

• 1 ½ litres of water
• 5 teaspoons of Bacon Salt
• 100gm cup Brown Sugar
• Small bunch fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ head garlic (halved horizontally)
• 1 Tablespoon black peppercorns (or use Peppered BaconSalt)
  
• 1 lemon halved (or equivalent bottled lemon juice, added after the boiling)
  

Bring all ingredients to a boil and cook until the salt and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature then chill in the refrigerator. Once chilled put the chicken and the brine in a tough zip-lock plastic bag so the chicken is fully submerged and all air is removed. Allow to sit in the brine for 4-6 hours (turn it a couple of times).

Rinse and dry chicken. Rest the chicken uncovered in the refrigerator for 3 to 24 hours. Preheat Oven to 450°F and cook chicken to an internal temperature of 160°F. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

Thanks, BaconSalt Singapore, for the recipe!

Sales Coming In

Sales orders starting to come through now . . . .

One was for a lass who works in Saudi Arabia - as I know from sad personal experience, a place where all forms of pig-meat are banned, and the Western Expat population are desperate enough to travel to Bahrain to get their "weekend breakfast fix"! She was on holiday at home in Scotland when she heard about BaconSalt being available in UK and ordered eight bottles to take back with her!

I've done "mock pork barbecues" in Saudi, with veal chops marinaded in pork stock cubes, but I bet with BaconSalt sprinkled over, veal will be even better. Might give the "Turkey Bacon" a lot more flavour too!

Meanwhile, I tried Dave Lefkow's (the originator of Bacon Salt) father's favourite - BaconSalt on Ice Cream - Just on one corner - I didn't think that one did it for me until I got to a bit where there was just a hint of BaconSalt, and that was certainly something I'll check out again. (At the moment I've run out of Ice Cream :(

We're Live - Ready to take orders and ship

Good news -the shopping cart is now running and the first order has been processed through Secure Google Check-out. Sadly it was to our Webbo (she doesn't like that term, "Webmaster", so I have to add that) she's beautiful, sweet, honest, highly-skilled - that's why we hired her!! and MY SISTER!

Seriously, my thanks to Trish and Nigel of LeSoftCo for getting everything up and running. She's asking to put the charge for the "test order" on my bill, but she had a shipment already when I tested out packaging earlier ;)

So now we are at last ready to ship to"real" customers. Lots of stock available and if nobody buys it our family will have 10 years supply. :(

We're Off! Stocks here and ready to ship to Customers

A delivery van arrived this morning, and the guy staggered up the front path with 10 boxes. This can only be my "starter" shipment.

Now to print off the "EU-Compliant" date code and allergy info labels and have the shipping packaging delivered. Have to tell the "webbo" to make the sales site "live" and buy a lot of postage stamps!

Here we go - "BaconSalt UK" is off the ground and should be ready to send out our first orders on Monday!

Almost Ready to Go

Getting close to the launch . . . . I've been "jumping through hoops" for the WorldPay credit card account and that is probably still a few weeks away from being confirmed and the software on our site put in place by LeSoftCo, but the Google Checkout is ready to go online for all cards as soon as the stock arrives - should be here in about a week from now.

The basic price from Crazy4Flavour should be close to the ex-factory US$ price from J&D's, even after the shipping costs to UK have been paid, and postage to UK and even to Europe will be a lot less than postage from USA (and a lot faster!).

We got "hit" badly by the recent change in exchange rates for the US$ (which strengthened by some 20% in the week before our stock order was placed, and paid for!) but hope to keep the price in UK£ just under £3 for all but the more expensive "Natural", and a very competitive price now in €!

Stocks on the way!

I've just had confirmation that my shipment of several hundred bottles of BaconSalt, as well as some catering packs, are on the way from Seattle. Should be here in about a week and a half. By that time the "credit card merchant account" should also be ready to go.

(Just in time - we're running out of the original "sample" of 15 bottles in the family kitchen!)

The Origin of Crazy 4 Flavour

Working in the Middle-East for the last 20 years was a real "hardship post". You've probably heard how most countries there either ban booze completely or restrict its availability. As if this wasn't enough, they make even life harder by not allowing bacon! Imagine - Life without bacon :(

One of my "online friends" on an internet forum http://z3.invisionfree.com/JBSocialBoard/index.php?act=idx posted a link to BaconSalt, probably just to get me drooling, but by that time I was based back in UK and eating far more lovely bacon than my newly-acquired wife thought was good for me, so I checked-out where to buy this apparently wonderful solution to the wife's nagging about my fat intake and my lust for the taste of bacon. I checked through the list of sellers on the web site, and found that there was nobody selling in Europe, so contacted J&D's in Seattle to order some, but it cost me as much in shipping as it did for the BaconSalt! Someone should be selling this wonderful stuff on the Eastern side of the Atlantic!

Look what a wife-approved "healthy" sausage, bacon, and eggs looks like:
The BaconSalt is mixed in with the eggs while cooking, and some more sprinkled on the top - It's awesome!

So began the concept of CRAZY4FLAVOUR. After finding that it really did go with everything,and with my own supplies running out (the kids love it too, and put it on everything!) I decided to import in bulk and sell what our family didn't use!

Company name now registered, the domain in UK (as well as Europe, and the "dot-com") bought, company bank account, all this after ploughing through UK and EU food import and sales regulations to make sure that it did not contravene the myriad of laws that are visited upon us by our well-meaning (but not necessarily bacon-loving) .governments in Westminster and Brussels.

The web site is being built by LeSoftco - not finished yet (as you can see from the link!) - and the procedures for accepting Credit Cards for purchases are under way. All that is left is to get a couple of tons of the stuff shipped out from J&D's in Seattle ;)

Stu