I've been using my COUNTRY BOB's ALL PURPOSE SAUCE

Recently, I was VERY lucky to have won 2 bottles of COUNTRY BOB's ALL PURPOSE SAUCE in a give away contest sponsored by Linda at COOKING TOP OF THE DAY. It is a great thing that the prize came with two bottles cause it gave me a chance to use the first bottle on familiar items so I could see what it tasted like...

Well, first, it tastes GREAT... Not quite a steak sauce (although it reminds me of A-1 Steak sauce), but not really a BBQ sauce either. And in no way could it be confused with ketchup.

What it is is a vinegar based sauce, with a very tangy taste, sort of like a Worcestershire sauce. It has a sweet element as well for a nice balance. While it has a tang, there is very little heat to this sauce. My wife's delicate taste buds were not at all offended by the small amount of heat in the recipe. I checked the ingredient list and the sweetener used is molasses. They advertise all natural ingredients and all their products are gluten free.

OK... Here's what I did with the first bottle...

First night, I tested it out just to see what the flavor was like. It works wonderful as a dipping sauce. Here, I za za zinged up a jalapeno corn bread muffin my wife and i were given as a hostess gift for a dinner we had a few nights earlier. The muffins were terrific, but were just starting to turn stale. I added a little sauce, popped it in the microwave for just a few seconds and they softened up a bit. The sauce was wonderful as a dipping sauce!

Next night, I took the advice on the label and used some as a compliment to some simple burgers on the grill. No need to be average, za za zing them up with a great hamburger sauce!

Recently, I published a post about spareribs. They are so underrated, yet VERY tasty and you always have a bit of extra meat to make leftover with... Just a little cut up onion, a little red and green pepper, a little garlic and some of the "spare" rib meat diced up and a quickie stir fry. I added a bit of the sauce to add some za za zing and it makes a GREAT addition to snaze up leftovers!
And it especially works great to za za zing up some tasteless fish. Yesterday's post item, the George Forman grilled fish REALLY NEEDED some thing extra. This sauce transformed average to extra special.

And here's my favorite... Papa Murphy's Take 'N' Bake Pizza is our favorite. Their GOURMET CHICKEN GARLIC is really good as is. But add a little drizzle of the sauce, and it makes good take out food GREAT!

Bottom line... I LOVED this sauce. it certainly did add a lot of za za zing to my regular menu items. But, I always want to try to create something original with any of these products i am lucky enough to receive free.

So tomorrow come and hear the story of my vegetarian ZA ZA ZUNG savory bread pudding!

And a BTW, I am leaving you for a bit... Not as a blogger, I have fresh posts in the can as they say, and will be posting original content each of the next few days til I get back. But I am having a bit of a family thing going on, and need to spend a week with my sainted Mother (will try to give her a cooking lesson or two, but you know Mothers). So, I will not be able to visit your sites, nor comment on the wonderful things you will be doing. I will miss you all, and will be back Sunday (but remember to check back here daily for that fresh content I mentioned).

And now a couple bits of advertising/reminders. I have had terrific response to The O Olive Oil contest announcement. (for me) a record number of people commented, and my second most popular post ever (that "post that must never be mentioned again" was my most popular... But you can go to by clicking HERE)). The Good folks at O Olive Oil are allowing me to give away 3 SETS (not three bottles, but three sets of bottles) of their gourmet top quality oils and vinegars. Each set is worth over $30, and $100 plus worth of oil will be given to the winners. Stop over at this post (CLICK HERE to get there), if you haven't yet, leave a comment, if you haven't yet, leave a recipe link. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO POST AN ORIGINAL RECIPE ON THE COMMENT PAGE, POST a LINK to your site, with the page you think the judges would like. right now, I only have a handful of recipes, best odds to win go for recipe posters and that is the BEST prize (one of their seasonal collections, YOUR choice). TOP TOP TOP quality, and a terrific opportunity to try their products FREE!

I mentioned several gadgets during the past week, as well as books... Pus, I am including links for Julie & Julia pre-release (and even a link for a free JULIE & JULIA shopping bag with your pre-order). Take a look at the discounts Amazon.com offers (have I mentioned I am cheap, save a little here and there and you can live and eat like a king!