Product Review: Hell Fire Pepper Jelly, Aptly Named!

I'm not one to try the ghost pepper, or enjoy the incredibly spicy dry curry at Jitlada. Basically, I can't really handle spicy food (although I'm getting much better). Still, when they offered a sample of the Hell Fire Pepper Jelly, I was curious. Yes, I'd love to try it! I've had jalapeno jam before and it wasn't all that spicy.

The small jar came with a cute little spoon. The golden color looks unassuming. It smells both spicy and sweet - hard to tell which way the taste will lean but it smells good.

I didn't have any bread at home, so I went over to Wandering Chopsticks' house and for the first taste spread it over white bread, took a bite ... sweet, a little touch of tartness, .. then it creeps up on me: oh my god, SPICY!

Hell Fire indeed! This was no jalapeno jam I randomly tried years ago, this thing is the real deal! Now, white bread is probably not the best way to eat this. WC suggested this would be a good dipping sauce for meat. Perhaps glaze for barbecued meat? Yes, I think that would work very well with this. It already has the flavor components of a sweet BBQ sauce, with a super kick.

Bottom line: if you like spicy and want to try something different, this one is for you.

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Girls' Night Out and Beer 101 at Tony's Darts Away

If you hadn't noticed, there are quite a few women in the beer world in the area. Women brewers, beer writers, beer bar managers, etc, and they want to get more women out there to learn more and fall in love with beer. To that end, some of them decided to hold a girls' only beer 101 tasting class at Tony's Darts Away in Burbank, which houses over 30 California craft beers.

The beer tasting was led by Paige from Tony's Darts Away and Ting from Eagle Rock Brewery. For those of you who are interested, Ting actually holds girls' only beer classes at the brewery on the third Wednesday of every month.

Before the tasting, we had to first learn about the four major ingredients: water, hops, barley, and yeast.

Malt/malted barley gives color and body to the beer. Pilsner malt is the base malt (used in lagers) and determines the gravity (how much alcohol and sugar) of the beer. In addition, crystal malts are added. Named by numbers (like C-120), the higher number indicates a darker roast, which also gives more fruit characteristics.

Hops give bitterness to the beer (which comes from the alpha acids) and without them, the beer would be overwhelmingly sweet and have no balance. They showed us what the original dried hops look like (right) before they're packed into the pellets used today (left). The pellets save space and also make it easier to obtain consistent flavors.

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Indulge: Shakes and Waffle Sandwiches at Bruxie (Orange, CA)

Waffle sandwiches may be one of the few things that would make me venture out to Orange County. That's why when I had an invitation to the avocado cooking demo in Anaheim, I decided to make a day out of it and visit one OC place that's been on my list: Bruxie Waffles.

Most of my fellow bloggers love this place, although one warned me that some of the sandwiches weren't all that. Still, I wasn't deterred and made my drive on a hot summer day. My only problem when I got there was figuring out which one to order. Luckily, when I checked in on foursquare, I saw a tip from a fellow blogger, inomthings, saying to get the Green Eggs and Ham. Well, green eggs and ham it is!

The Green Eggs and Ham ($6.95) was filled ham and cheddar, jumbo egg, mayo, arugula pesto

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