Blake Makes

We just sent out another Sooper Secret E-mail. Check your inboxes and spam folders for the message. There’re some secret goodies in it, and even some clues.

Training wheels.

Think about it, Soopers.

Update: For those Blake Makers who want some Amano now, they’ve offered our readers a 15% discount code for purchases made on their site good through the end of May. Comment on this post if you want the code and I’ll email it to you.

Hi. Just to be clear, the giveaway is this Thursday. This post is just the announcement so you can get to know Amano.

Yay for my (Bridget’s) first giveaway! Despite being a major chocoholic, I am picky about how I indulge in my addiction. Although I will admit to sneaking a Hershey’s Kiss now and then, I love nothing more than high quality dark chocolate that’s rich and smooth.

That said, the chocolate lover in me was so happy when I took my first bite of Amano Artisan Chocolate. It’s wonderfully dark, but I didn’t taste any strong bitterness as often happens when I have chocolates that are 70% cacao.

I tried three varieties of Amano chocolate over the course of a week, and I loved them all so much that they were almost all gone before Blake got to take photographs (what you see below is what was left and it lasted about 5 seconds after Blake snapped the last pic).

Amano is one of only around a dozen manufacturers in the U.S. that makes its chocolate from the raw, natural bean. It strives to make the highest-quality product possible by creating the chocolate in small batches with the best ingredients (After talking to one of the Amano owners, Blake said they even get out in the fields to help with the harvest from time to time). The hard work definitely pays off because this is some truly yummy chocolate!

We know what you love about Blake (and Bridget) Makes…the free food! Well, here we go again! FREE CHOCOLATE GIVEAWAY, Thursday, April 24.

Note: I know we seem to be giving away a lot of free chocolate lately (almost exclusively), but we decided to squeeze this one in before the weather gets too warm. We have tons of free food, but chocolate ships best in cooler temperatures (and gets twice as expensive to ship with cool packs in warmer weather). We would have moved on to our other great food finds, but I had to get Amano in your hands first. It’s THAT good.

So, this is how the giveaway will work this week. We’ll post Thursday morning, and you’ll have all day to express your love for dark chocolate. Fifty (50) lucky winners will each receive three (3) bars of Amano Artisan Chocolate! You lucky Sooper Heroes.

Qualifications:

1. You have to be a registered Sooper Hero
2. You have to love dark chocolate
   
3. You have to have a blog, preferably a food blog
   
4. You have to be interested in showing Amano some love if you enjoy your free sample by blogging about it (and linking to their site).

Last year we took a trip to Washington, D.C. to visit our friend Norisha and we had a delicious meal at Pizzeria Paradiso in Georgetown. I loved the egg they added to the pizza midway through cooking because it added a creamy richness to the pie. Tonight, Blake has a late dinner meeting, so I decided to stay home, watch a girly movie and make a pizza that reminded me of our trip to D.C.

We had an unopened package of turkey bacon and leftover smoked mozzarella, so I decided to make a bacon, egg and cheese pizza. This took me almost no time to make and it turned out so well. Blake ended up eating half before his night out and declared it incredibly delicious!

My only regret was that I only used one egg; next time I’d use two so each half would be covered in delicious, sunny yolkiness (as seen below!). Now, I’m off to watch Nancy Drew!

Ingredients:

• Ready-made pizza crust (I like Boboli because it’s cheap, keeps awhile in the pantry and tastes good.)
• Marinara sauce
• Mozzarella (I used a combo of leftover bagged cheese and deli smoked mozzarella- the smoked cheese added tons of flavor, so I would definitely mix this in again.)
• 3 strips bacon
• Handful chopped Fresh flat-leaf parsely
• Salt and pepper
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
• Cook bacon, crumble and put to the side.
• Spread thin layer of marinara over crust, and add a few handfuls of mozzarella. Bake pizza on the rack for about 4 minutes.
• Pull out oven rack, and make sure it’s level. Crack egg in center of pizza and add a little salt to yolk. Push over rack back in, turn on broiler and bake for an additional 5-6 minutes, until yolk has thickened but is not hard (sunny-side up).
• Add bacon, parsely, grated Parmesan and black pepper to taste.

A few weeks ago we went to see the Big Easy Rollergirls roller derby bout (which I highly recommend if you are ever in town), and when we arrived home, we discovered a copy of Ralph Brennan’s new cookbook on our front stoop. Since I was craving fish last weekend, I thought it was the perfect time to peruse this generous gift. The recipe for Sesame-Seared Tuna with Avocado-Horseradish Sauce sounded wonderful- light and cool with just a bit of kick. I decided I just wouldn’t tell Blake about the avocado part.

This recipe turned out to be easy and delicious– perfect for a light lunch. (And Blake even said the avocado sauce was good…pretty high praise for someone who usually detests avocado.)

Note- Ralph serves this as an appetizer. I just made bigger portions and skipped the fancy plating for a simple lunch.

Recipe courtesy of Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Seafood Cookbook.

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Today’s my dear Bridget’s (Beez’s) birthday. In addition to the flowers, the cookie cake and the many gifts (hundreds of Taco Bell Fire sauce packets - ha ha) I’m showering her with, I’ve also promised not to touch my computer today, or over the weekend.

I’m sure you had an idea before, but now you know how much time I spend online, on my laptop, with my eyes glued to its screen.

Tonight we’re making white-trash nachos (a guilty pleasure), eating cookie cake and watching the highly anticipated return of the Office and 30 Rock.

A promise is a promise, so I’ll see all you amazing people next week (and maybe a bit, just a bit over the weekend). Hum…she didn’t say anything about my BlackBerry. LOOPHOLE!

Ha Ha!

Happy Birthday, Beez! I love you more than…more than?…more than Blake Makes!

I’m not usually a fan of fried foods, but I love this recipe for fried shrimp. My parents have been making these shrimp since I was a kid, and I always enjoyed the airy crunchiness the batter produces. The shrimp are not greasy and heavy, but are instead wonderfully light and fluffy. This is also a super simple recipe and is great for warm spring nights. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2-3/4 can beer
• Salt and pepper
• 1 lb shrimp for 2 people

Method:

• Mix flour and beer and allow to set 1-2 hours in fridge. (Batter and shrimp should be very cold.)
• Beat 2 egg whites and add to batter.
• Dry and season shrimp with salt and pepper and dredge through batter.
• Deep fry until golden brown.

Hello, Blake Makers. Try this one on for size. Introducing my latest idea: Meet Your Makers…(Blake Makers, that is).

Meet Your Makers (MYM) is a blog network that I am currently building (to feed the appetite of my exponentially expanding community). Like what you see on Blake Makes? Great! Now, let’s do it for everything else we find interesting. Like…

Blake Bakes - A baked goods blog

Blake Chocolates - A chocolate blog

Blake Cleans - a “green” cleaning products blog

Blake Reads - a book club blog

Blake Travels - a travel blog

You may be saying, “It can’t be done. At least not by one man.” And, you’re right. That’s where you come in.

I want Blake Makes to be big. Not just big, but a behemoth colossus, a kingdom, a universe.

Fair warning, this idea is still in its early stages, but Blake Makes started as a wisp of thought, a twinkle in my eye. There’s about 6 such ideas coming soon.

Starting now, I’ll be recruiting voices for each blog you see listed above. I’m also open to suggestions.

Here’s how (I think) it will work:

• Someone will come to me and say, “Blake, I love wine. I’d love to blog about it.”
• Me: “Great. Let’s call it BlakeSips.com.”
• I’ll design and launch it.
• I’ll lead and direct content for the blog.
• You’ll write the content and moderate the community.
• Then, I’ll turn on the “(Secret) Community Growing Machine.”

The bigger the networks become, the more revenue potential they’ll have. We can start selling ads and sponsorships and more. When we do, I’ll do a revenue split with my contributors.

So, just to be clear. I don’t make any money from Blake Makes right now, so any volunteers would be just that. But, if you like the direction I’m heading, and have a shared vision for where I’m going, let’s talk.

It’s going to be big. Express your interest in becoming a maker here.

Well, we made Blake Makes history. The chutney giveaway post got more comments than any other post in our history, so you all get a pat on the back, and a WOWSERS from me.

We had a really tough time deciding the winners. Bridget and I printed out all the comments, sat in our living room, and discussed them back and forth.

All of your ideas were great. They ranged from just plain yummy, to the innovative and creative, and some were quite unexpected.

We came to a decision late tonight, and were finally able to agree upon the final 24, which are listed below. The winners will be notified by e-mail over the weekend, and the chutney will be shipped out next week.

As we move forward, this post will shift down the page as it’s archived, but I’ll post an update to this post as the winners blog about their winnings.

THANK YOU to everyone that participated. If you didn’t win this time, don’t be blue. We’ve got tons more free food on the way. To all the winners, CONGRATULATIONS! Post when you can, and make sure you’re a registered Sooper Hero.

Check out the winners after the break:

Read the rest of this entry »

Great day! Really great day! And the fact that we got more comments on the chutney post than any other post in Blake Makes history is so incredibly exciting (btw, you Sooper Heroes still have a few more hours to comment).

I’m not going to spill the beans, or reveal too much, too soon, but the wheels are already in motion. In the coming weeks, I’ll be planting seeds, dropping clues and leaving you a trail of bread crumbs to the new things I’ve got cooking.

LOOK FOR FOUR BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT COULD HAPPEN AT ANYTIME… ANYWHERE… BAG BOY + BOX BOY + 007 + PURPLE CENTIPEDE …no, I haven’t lost my mind. Figure it out. I know some of you already know.

We’re getting a lot of attention…A LOT. Some are even calling it a kingdom.

I like the sound of that…

…stay tuned.

BTW, I’m trying to build a massive following on twitter. If you’re not on twitter, twit to it! Pretty soon, we’ll be doing some Sooper Exclusives for Blake Makes Twitter Bugs.

What is twitter? Finally, a sooper helpful video to explain it in plain english.

Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Ok, Sooper Heroes. You’ve got all day to sign up for a free jar of McQuade’s Celtic Chutney. Alison McQuade told me that the Fig ‘N Ginger is one of her most popular flavors, and she’s given me 24 jars to give away. I’m excited to see what you all come up with.

Comment on this post, and tell us what you’ll do (make) with the chutney. You don’t have to have a recipe. You don’t even have to have ever eaten chutney before. Tell us what you’re thinking; what you’d like to try; or that you’re just dying to try some of the good stuff.

We’ll pick 24 winners tomorrow night, and post them then.

Can’t wait? Buy McQuade’s Chutney on Blake Makes!

This payment gateway is a little something I’m testing (for a BIG little something we’ll be announcing soon). Stay tuned!