On a less jocular note, most of the barbecue sauces sent to us are simplistic recipes of what we pejoratively call “meat sugar”: ketchup (there’s already plenty of it in the ketchup), more sugar or high fructose corn syrup, and some onion and garlic powder that aren’t strong enough to cut through the sweetness.

Every now and then, we receive a barbecue sauce that we enjoy. It has complex flavors and a smaller dose of sweeteners.

So it was a good day when a box of samples from Le Pan’s arrived.

All natural La Pan barbecue sauces have more layering of flavors than we’ve seen just about anywhere.

Prior to developing his own line, Jon La Pan of Ladera Ranch, California was a foodie who liked to tinker with recipes to turn them into his vision of perfection. When he started to make barbecue sauce, his goal was “…to help anyone…turn a $5 piece of meat into a $50 steak.”

As tasty as the sauces may be, they won’t tenderize a $5 flank steak into anything resembling a $50 strip steak; but the sauces will taste good on just about anything.

Enjoy them with meat, poultry, hearty fish or tofu. Jon Le Pan uses them as a bread dipper, too. We prefer them with fries, instead of ketchup.

Foundation Gourmet BBQ Sauce

The first four ingredients in this barbecue sauce, are common to many recipes: water, tomato paste, sugar and brown sugar, along with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper and vinegar, Worcestershire Sauce and yellow mustard. More complex sauces add ingredients such as apple cider vinegar, molasses and natural smoke flavor. Spicy versions add cayenne pepper, chipotle and other chiles and hot pepper sauce,

But La Pan’s further layers on celery salt, cinnamon, coffee, cumin, honey, lemon juice concentrate, maple syrup, oregano, turmeric, and and raspberry juice concentrate.

That’s a lot of measuring, but the result is worth it.

Fiery Fusion BBQ Sauce

An excellent balance of fruit and medium heat, this sauce makes things interesting with the addition of apricot, mango, pineapple and habanero. Many spicy sauces just ratchet up the spice level on the basic sauce.

Don’t choose: try both. A 16-ounce bottle is $8.00 at LaPans.com.

The company also makes seasoning and Bloody Mary mix.

Find more of our favorite barbecue sauces.
  

Bloody Mary ice pops. Photo by Elvira
Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

This time, it’s serious: Bloody Mary ice pops.

You can turn any juice-based cocktail into an ice pop. We especially like Bloody Mary ice pops because they have no sugar (guilt free!) and because the kick of spices in the ice is very refreshing indeed.

 
Of course, you can also make Virgin Mary ice pops. They’re equally delicious.

Whether pop or slushie, enjoy!

“Official cocktails” are not news. Countries have often had them, to showcase their products. The official cocktail of Peru is the Pisco Sour, highlighting the country’s white spirit, pisco. The official cocktail of Brazil is the Caipirinha, made with cachaça. The Mojito is the national drink of Cuba, where there’s plenty of run with which to make it.

But “official cocktail” could become a closer-to-home trend.

 
And on the west coast of Florida, Naples has selected the Coquito Mojito as its official cocktail.

The Coquito Mojito was chosen among six cocktails created by a mixologist who was retained by a group of Naples restaurateurs, called the Naples Originals, seeking an official cocktail.
 
The Coquito is an eggnog-like beverage, a traditional holiday drink in Puerto Rico. It is made with coconut cream, coconut milk, egg yolks, rum, sweet condensed milk, and holiday spices: cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg (photo #2).

The Mojito is a Cuban highball of white rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water, and mint.

The Coquito Mojito combines the two concepts, taking the basic Mojito recipe (rum, mint, lime juice, sugar, and club soda) enhanced with coconut-flavored rum and cream of coconut, omitting the sugar.

> National Cocktail Day is March 24th.

> National Mojito Day is July 11th.

> National Coquito Day is December 21st.
 
 
RECIPE: COQUITO MOJITO

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Utensils

[2] A classic Coquito is a variation of coconut egg nog. Here’s a recipe (photo © Koloa Rum).

[3] A classic Mojito (photo © The Sea Fire Grill | NYC).

1. In the cocktail shaker, lightly muddle the mint in the coconut cream. Add lime juice, rum, and coconut flavored rum.

2. Fill with ice to the top, cap the shaker and give it a long, hard shake. Pour through a strainer into a glass over ice.

3. Add a splash of club soda. Garnish with a mint sprig, lime wheel, and coconut flakes.

If you’d like an official cocktail for your town, approach the Chamber Of Commerce and volunteer to be on the committee. You could find yourself with some new, civic-minded drinking buddies.
 

Find more of our favorite cocktail using the Food Categories pull-down menu on the upper right of this page.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Cool off with minimal calories. Photo
courtesy Sparkling Ice.

So we kept making bottles of seltzer with our Soda Stream, and mixed lots of our favorite new 5-calorie Lipton Tea and Honey To Go Stix Iced Tea Mix (in the Blackberry Pomegranate flavor) into individual bottles of cold water.

Then, we made our first diet ice pops of the season. All you need is ice pop molds and your favorite flavor of diet soda (we prefer fruit and root beer).

This tasty recipe uses calorie-free Black Raspberry Sparkling ICE with fresh raspberries. If you’re not counting calories, you can also use regular soda, juice or kefir.

The chopped fruit helps to bulk up the thinness of the soda.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. In a bowl, stir together soda and chopped raspberries.

2. Ladle mixture into ice pop molds and insert handles.

3. Freeze for at least 2 hours or until frozen.
 
The other Sparking ICE flavors can be adapted to pops as well: Coconut Pineapple, Kiwi Strawberry, Lemonade, Lemon Lime, Orange Mango, Pink Grapefruit and Pomegranate Berry. The line is certified kosher by OU.

The over-21 crowd can add a half teaspoon of gin, tequila or vodka per pop. Don’t add more without testing, or your pops may not freeze.

Dried morel mushrooms are available year round, but there’s nothing like the splendor of fresh morels—one of the most flavorful mushrooms, earthy and woodsy.

A perennial favorite of French chefs for the depth of flavor they give to almost any savory dish, morels grow wild in the woods from April through July. They are available in dried and canned forms year-round.

Morels have an unmistakable, honeycombed, hollow, cone-shaped cap which can be blonde, dark brown, grey or tan. The stems are white. The mushrooms range in size from two to four inches high.

One of the simplest recipes: Clean and soak the morels, cut them in half, then dip them into beaten eggs and then into seasoned flour (salt and pepper). Fry them for two minutes on each side, then drain. You can also freeze them this way.

Should you end up with more morels than you can use (what a luxury!), here’s a simpler way to freeze them, courtesy of TheGreatMorel.com.
 
After washing and soaking, dust with flour, place on a cookie sheet and freeze solid; then transfer to a in freezer bag. The flour keeps the mushrooms from sticking together in the bag.