flavor of the week: Grass

I like Jelly Belly jelly beans and one of my favorite flavors is Grass. Grass is (or used to be) part of the Harry Potter Bertie Bott’s beans collection. Yes, they really have the icky flavors like in the books. While I think I’m pretty adventurous in my taste, I didn’t try all of them. I tried Vomit, Dirt, Soap and Grass and they all tasted like they are labeled (yes, Vomit really tastes like vomit). Obviously I’m not too keen on trying Booger, Earwax, Rotten Egg and the rest.

Grass does taste like grass. But not in a bad way. It’s semi sweet and once chewed it has the slight flavor of grass in the morning. The type of grass in your front yard, not the other grass although that certainly could be interesting. I wonder if some drunken chemists actually tried to capture that grass flavor in a jelly bean candy.

If you are a fan of Harry Potter (which I am not) you should try some of the flavors to really experience what some of them taste in the books. However, I don’t think even a warlock would actually enjoy some of the flavors. I keep myself to Grass and other Jelly Belly regular flavors.

beer can chicken

I’ve been wanting to try out beer can chicken but was too lazy to do it. A combination of nothing else was prepared and enough ingredients were present finally made me do it.
I used one whole cornish hen (a smallish chicken kind), a welch’s fruit juice can, pineapple wine (don’t ask), random bbq seasoning and virgin olive oil. I let the chicken to come up to room temperature and start rubbing it inside and out with olive oil and applied the seasoning generously. I filled the can with pineapple wine halfway through and cover it with aluminum foil with a big hole on the top to let the steam out. Then it’s just the matter of shoving the can up the chicken’s behind and let it grill standing up for about an hour on low fire. I did use a meat thermometer to make sure that the meat inside reached about 185F before it’s done.
I considered to result to be successful. The skin was crispy but not dry and the meat was so tender and juicy. However, there was a lot of room for improvements. The seasoning I used was not good. It was some old seasoning meant for BBQ beef. I probably will use other beverages instead of the pineaple juice inside the can. Maybe I should use Guinness beer or cola. Definitely something thick.
Unfortunately, we dug through the chicken before I remember to take a picture of the whole chicken. There wasn’t much left when I finally took a picture. Maybe I will post it anyway.