Just a quick note to say that CBSOP turned three years old today.  I hope to be here for another three and beyond, but I wouldn’t be here doing this at all if it weren’t for all of you wonderful folks out there.

In the past three years this place has seen hundreds of posts written and hundreds of thousands of people dropping by for a dose of real food made with love, the way food should be made.  Do you have a favorite recipe from CBSOP?  Is there one stand out to you?

Have I been lax on any subjects or is there something you’d like to see covered?  If so, just let me know in the comments.  After all, this is a journey that we take together.  You have the right to give it some input as well.

Have a great day, Y’All!

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Now that we’re in the new year, I thought I’d talk a little about the direction that Cooking by the seat of my Pants will be taking this year. For this blog the theme of the year is “back to basics”.

In all my writing here I have neclected the simpler items that grace our family table, this is completely wrong, and needs to be stopped.  Who am I tho assume that everyone in the world knows how to make brown gravy, or a bechamel?

It is sometimes hard to remember what it was like when I was just starting out, when I was hungry for new methods, new basics, new tools.  I have not adequately been covering these.  In failing to do so I may have been alienating a large segment of readers.  This year I intend to correct that.

It may very well be the year that CBSOP begins a series of videos on topics as well.  I’m hoping that it is, but I’m going to have to push myself to get the first one made, then see if Y’all don’t just laugh me out of the food blogging community.

don’t get me wrong.  There will still be a bevvy of dishes that were created on-they-fly, just as there have always been.  I am, after all, the cooking by the seat of his pants guy.  I’m not going to stop throwing goodness together on a whim.  If I did that, I’d be giving all the winging it cred to No Recipes, and we can’t have that!

Having said all this, I’m currently in the middle of a super hush-hush cooking marathon that must be completed tomorrow, so expect my year-in-review posts a bit later this week. (They’re compulsory… Who am I to argue that?)

For now, Peace. I’m out.

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I’m in agreement with my good friend Peter this year.  No long speeches, no resolutions, no fuss.  Just wishes to you and yours for a very happy and safe new year.

Enjoy your celebrations and time off if you have it.  Tell your family that you love them and appreciate what you have.

One last thing from me: a very heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you for making the past year a wonderful, warm and dizzying year.  This blog would not exist without you and I never forget that.  I just don’t mention it often enough.

Happy, Happy New Year to all.

Peace. I’m Out.

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Though I must admit that the food at a tailgate party is by far my favorite part of the day, there are a few other things that the rabid fans in your group might find both fun and useful for the perfect tailgate party.  Themed party plates and banners are fun, and the die hard fan will want to be decked out in team colors with official NFL clothing and perhaps a little face paint (for the more serious fans.)

A great spread with chips and salsa, brats, dogs, burgers and assorted finger foods is a must, of course.  Your bunch may prefer subs, hogies or wings.  some would rather have a steaming bowl of chili.  I think it depends on the region and the fan, but as long as there is good food, good friends, a decent game and a lot of laughter it’s the perfect party.

I’m sure there are a few in your bunch who like to bet on football while having a few too many of their favorite beverages, and that’s just fine too as long as it’s all in fun.  After all, wh doesn’t enjoy a good wager every now and then?

What foods do you make for your tailgate parties?  I’m the chili and wings type myself, but I’m sure other people have different favorites.  Let me know in the comments and I’ll try my hand at some of those recipes between now and game season next year!

For those who like chili as much as I do, here’s a great recipe for a no-bean chili that works just as well as a hot-dog topper as it does steaming in a bowl.  Enjoy!

Southern Chili Georgia Style

Ingredients:

• 3 lb chuck,cut in chunks
• 3 tsp. vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 cup  beef broth
• 1-1/2 cup  chicken broth
• 4-1/2 tbsp  California chili powder
• 4 tbsp.  Gebhardt chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp.  New Mexico hot chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp.  chimayo chile powder
• 1/2 tbsp.  pasilla powder
• 3-1/2 tbsp.  cumin
• 1 tbsp.  granulated garlic
• 4 tsp.  onion powder
• 1/2 tbsp.  brown sugar
• 1 tsp. Tabasco or your favorite hot sauce
• 8 oz. tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup  canned diced green chilies

Method:

Brown meat and add to chili pot along with broths, tomato sauce, and green chiles. Add 2/3 of the spices. simmer for approximately two hours.

Add remaining spices. Cook 1 hr or until meat is tender. Add salt to taste.

Share and Enjoy!

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Over the past few days I’ve received a few messages stating that some readers could not view the actual post content on this site.  It took a bit, but it boiled down to an error in Internet Explorer that caused that section of the pages to load improperly. (We’re not getting in to how stupid a parse-error this was, mind you.)

While browsers such as Firefox and Safari simply ignored the issue and displayed the pages properly, Internet Explorer, for some obtuse reason known only to the engineers at Microsoft, decided to render the glitch as a comment instead.  Why it happened is not relevant.  What IS relevant is that it has been repaired and everyone should be able to view posts normally now.

If you’re having an issue, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can fix the issue.

Thanks!

Peace.  I’m out.

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It doesn’t matter that your cell phone, PDA, or toaster can keep the time.  Regardless of the ability of these multitasking machines that today’s technology provides us, everyone still loves a humble and simple uni-tasker; the simple yet invaluable watch

Your watch may not be able to collect your email, surf the web or balance your checkbook, but what they do they do with an unfailing and sometimes comforting degree of accuracy.  They tell the time and keep your day on track.

I’ve been thinking hard about what to get the women in my life as gifts this year.  All are savvy in the ways of their modern toys.  Each one carries at least three different devices that can give them the time in several different timezones to within a millisecond of precision.  Regardless of that, each one still wears or carries a watch, so what better way to say I was thinking of you than to get them a new, trendy watch.

Michele Watches capture a stunning design philosophy fusing timeless elegance with contemporary art. The designs are whimsical, classic and to be honest, just a little funky.  They are perfectfor the more eclectic women in my life.  Not because they are currently the most sought after “must have” by celebs and the well-to-do, but because a gift that helps to make your life predictable is worth the additional cost. After all, a watch shouldn’t just look good.  It should be expected to work perfectly at all times….

Well, it should look good, too.

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As a kid I was, as are most children, a huge fan of October 31st.  I find that as I got older, I don’t care for the holiday as much, but I was wondering…  What are your Halloween traditions?

Do you celebrate Halloween? If so, is it trick-or-treating or just watching a bunch of scary movies throughout the month?  do you look forward to costume parties and get-togethers or are you more the sit-home and pass out candy type? Are you involved at all, or do you just turn off the porch light and pray you don’t get T-P’ed or, like my sister, do you deck the yard with everything you can imagine to frighten the youn-ones that will invariably be passing your way on October 31st?

Just wondering.  Leave a comment and share in the discussion.

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Winter is fast approaching, with some parts of the country already deep into cold weather.  With rising heating costs and even higher expectations of what the Holidays should be for most families this time of year can put a lot of pressure on parents.  Not only do you have to keep the house warm, the bills paid and food on the table, but you’ve got to save money away for the gifts of the season, if that’s your tradition.

How do you save money for the Holidays?  Do you start off on the lookout for cheap presents or do you start saving earlier in the year so that the money for gifts will be there when you need it?  do you make meal plans or skimp on finer foods before the large holiday dinners to help cut costs? Perhaps you eat out less to save money on take out meals. Are you considering getting a few payday loans to help ease the burden of the season?  If so, have you factored in the interest you’ll have to py on those loans?

Whatever it is that you and your family does to help get ready for the Holidays, I’m sure the readers here would love for you to share your experiences.  Leave a comment telling us how you save for gifts, get through the rough times or make sure that everyone has their day-to-day needs while still having a memorable day with the Fat Guy in the Red Suit.

You never know.  Your advice might just help someone else have a wonderful Holiday season this year.

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I mentioned in an earlier post that I was completely disenchanted with the new theme I designed for Cooking, by the seat of my Pants!  After just a few weeks of looking at This:

I had determined that it simply wasn’t going to work for this blog, no matter what I did.  I couldn’t stand it.  So yesterday I unveiled the New-New cbsop.  The current design (which, if you’re reading this blog a few years down the line and thigs have changed, looks like this:)

Hearkens back to the original design of Cooking by the seat of my Pants!, which unfortunately I do not have an image for.

I think this layout works perfectly to show off what this blog is all about.  The food.  The theme is designed specifically to always show a the latest recipe posted at the top of the page, with all other posts following, which makes certain that there is no strange content at the top of the lo when someone visits. (Paid posts, contests, personal ramblings like this one, etc.)

I hope Y’All enjoy the new look and remember: You can access Cooking by the seat of my Pants! via www.cbsop.com as well!

Have a great day everyone!

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Have you ever worked your tail off on something for weeks, really pouring your heart, soul and creative juices into a project just to come back to it a few weeks later and say:

What the hell was I thinking?

Yeah.  That’s me right now.

When I decided to update the look and feel of Cooking, by the seat of my Pants! last month, I was awestruck by the theme I built for my wife and determined that it would be a perfect for this site.  I wanted to simplify things, to make a cleaner presentation for my readers and to take the blog back to it’s roots as a linear experience.

One month in, I’m wondering exactly what I was thinking.  Sure, I love the sliding menu, but aside from that the new look is anything but elegant when compared to other food blogs that I admire.  The new look not only falls short, but feels nearly amateurish.

Worse, it doesn’t really capture what cbsop is about. The design of any online publication should serve several purposes. The design has to consider  ad placements, content, layout ease of use and accessibility, but at the same time the design as a whole should say something about what the blog or website is all about and help to share that concept with its readers.  In this I have failed with the current design.

Consider such notables as Simply Recipes, Steamy Kitchen, Chez Pim and Meathenge.  Each of these sites is elegant and simple to navigate of course, but the key to each is that they define the feel of the blog.  They are an extension of their writers’ personalities.  They just fit in the context they are supposed to.

My current design doesn’t do that at all.  It has no identity.  It’s just… There.

In fact, the more I look at it, the more I hate it.

So I’m asking you guys.  Where do you think I went wrong?  What could be done differently?  What could be done better?  I really need to know what you would like to see, not just what I’m thinking of changing.

This has to be a pretty quick process though.  The Holidays are upon us and it’s about to get seriously busy here in the CbsoP kitchens.  If I don’t act now, I’m not going to have time until mid December and to be honest I can’t stare at this thing for that long.

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