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Dizzy Pig & ‘Foodie Finds’. We want to know your favorite spots! We’ve all been there and we’ve all had that experience … traveling in our hometowns
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Dizzy Pig & ‘Foodie Finds’. We want to know your favorite spots!
We’ve all been there and we’ve all had that experience … traveling in our hometowns or a less-traveled nearby community, ‘burg or hamlet … and there it is: a legitimate ‘foodie find’. A kindred heart and spirit in the form of a store owner/staff who understands … and shares your passion for food and the road less traveled!
Whatever their passion, they’ve created a storefront that shimmers with pride in their ability to create, and/or offer, food goods of uncompromising quality and craftsmanship. These are the stores that exist for the foodie, and these are the kinds of stores that Dizzy Pig would like to know about and be affiliated with.
Our success is determined by the passion of our customers, and we know our customers are passionate about all areas of cookery, not just bbq and not just big cuts of meat. They seek the best everywhere, and that is what thrills and inspires us in the feedback we get from our customers!
As a friend of Dizzy Pig, when you find a kindred spirit in a like-minded store, share your passion for them with us; perhaps there is a relationship we can forge to benefit everyone. All of us ‘small guys’ out there trying to make a mark, and make a difference in the land of foodland giants, need to stick together and our foodie friends/customers are the glue that holds it all together!
Found a great store that you think shares the same ideals as Dizzy Pig? Let us know! |
 Dizzy Pig Raging River sausage on the flat top! |
Dizzy in the Winter: Heating up the Indoors
Many Dizzyheads are proud and passionate about their ability, desire and passion for cooking outdoors, regardless of the weather conditions. In fact, come winter time, they often elevate their energies toward outdoor cookery, with wind, snow and sleet simply an added element to drive their cooking enthusiasm.
Having said that, there is much to be said for taking the winter season’s harshness as a brief interlude from bbq and focusing on flavor-filled Dizzy Pig seasoning inspired dishes from the hearth and from the stovetop! After all, Dizzy Pig spice blends aren’t just for the grill or smoker; they awaken the dishes from deep in your recipe file and elevate them to new heights, inspire new twists and give life to newfound ideas altogether!
So, if Dizzy Dust is your ‘go-to’ for pork tenderloins on the grill in July, why not pound out pork tenderloin medallions, hit with a healthy dose of that same blend in February, and have awesome pan seared pork cutlets for dinner tonight? Even proven winter comfort food staples like soups, stews, casseroles and chili can be brought to new levels by layering on flavors from Dizzy Pig blends.
Whatever you can do on the grill during the summer, you can re-invent and re-interpret for dinner in the kitchen of January!
Re-think, re-tool and refill your recipe file with flavorful winter ideas using Dizzy Pig. Here are a few of our favorites:
Swamp Crackers
Dizzy Chicken Pot Pie
Bayou-ish Deep Brown Pan Seared Fish and Chicken
Shakin’ the Tree Alfredo with Bayou-ish Shrimp
Swamp Venom Grits
Mediterranean-ish Brussels Sprouts
Chuck’s Corn and Green Chilies Casserole
Chocolate Double Cow Lick Cookies
Banana Rum Cream Pie with Bombay Curry-ish Spiced Crust |
 Zero degree outdoor winter baking is not for everyone. |
DizzyTip: Heat is Heat, but Dizzy Pig Stands Alone
By Mike Kerslake
I still consider myself a beginner when it comes to barbecue, smoking, charcuterie and just general kitchen cooking. I say this even though I’ve worked in the food industry as a chef/cook for pretty much the last decade and the bbq team I led was once a national champion. The saying, ‘the more I see, the less I know’ is truly fitting and I’m humbled by the sheer volume of knowledge that is available via the internet and just by simple self-exploration.
One of the first major lessons I learned came from a long-time friend and mentor, Reg Pelletier, from Niagara Falls, Ontario. Reg and I got into competition bbq at the same time, but he, at that time, already had a long history in the restaurant biz as well as experimentation in meat curing, smoking and other awesome pursuits like cheese making, brining and running a full brigade in a commercial kitchen.
Like most life lessons that stick the hardest, his most resonant instructions were simple and clear. One of the first, and the one I’m sharing in today’s DizzyTip is this: “Heat is heat”. You may be shaking your head and saying, “What does that mean?” Fact is, people often post/ask/request for temps for recipes based on whether they are cooking in their grill, in the oven or on another off-set cooker or smoker. Fact is, 250°F is 250°F, regardless of indoor cooking, outdoor cooking or mountain-top cooking (like my buddy Nature Boy is doing this weekend up in the hills of West Virginia)!
Once you get your head around the idea that heat is heat, the focus of your cook moves from the cooker itself, to the food, and the idea of cooking an amazing dish like a pizza, becomes much less complicated. Whether it’s on a Big Green Egg with a pizza stone, or something much simpler, the cook is reduced to simple time and temperature and … most importantly … the development of great flavors!
Dizzy Pig seasonings excel and flavor dishes regardless of cooking appliance or apparatus! Heat is heat, as my buddy Reg maintains, and flavor is flavor! Dizzy Pig seasonings and spice blends perform their taste bud tingling magic in any cooking environment you are working in. In fact, right now, the US east coast is getting pounded by major snow, so I’m imagining bbq time is at a premium. Don’t let the lack of grill access limit your use of Dizzy Pig spices. In fact, use them more, as they’ll take your pantry ‘emergency supplies’ to new heights!
In summary, and in hopes of bringing my point home to you in this DizzyTips offering, I’m going to refer back to a recent post I made on the Dizzy Pig Seasonings Facebook page. On there I posted a picture of a very nice (and very tasty!) pizza I made which incorporated the Dizzy Pig Mediteranian-ish spice blend in both the main protein (pork tenderloin) and as a finishing seasoning on the pizza itself. I’m sure many saw the savory result and figured it was done on a Big Green Egg or one of the other smokers in my arsenal. Fact is, neither is the case. |
 Perfect Mediterranean-ish pizza in $50 toaster oven |
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The pizza that has garnered nearly 1000 views on the Dizzy Pig site was created in our $50 home Hamilton Beach toaster oven. Proof that quality ingredients, whether grilled, smoked or otherwise -- when coupled with the awesome, balanced and fresh-ground burst of Dizzy Pig seasoning intensity -- can be incredibly flavorful and inspiring, regardless of the cooker on which they were created. Reg was definitely right, heat is heat, but there is only one true source for awe-inspiring spice seasoning: Dizzy Pig! |
Dizzy Pig Flavor of the Month:
Bayou-ish
One of the hardest things a chef can do is attempt to duplicate, re-visit or re-interpret a dish or flavor profile that is strongly identified with another chef or culture. So, when Chris (Dizzy Pig owner and flavorist), set out to create a blackening spice that not only matched, but surpassed that of the Cajun classic, he knew it was a tall order to fill.
Having said that, many who have tried Dizzy Pig's latest creation, Bayou-ish, swear that that the end result of Chris’s long trial of development and tweaking, does indeed outdistance the swamp standard he set out to surpass!
Dizzy Pig dares you to compare our fresh take on blackening seasoning to the Cajun original. We guarantee that when your protein of choice-- be it chicken, gator, redfish, catfish or other--hits that sizzlin’ hot pan, the aroma and flavor is going to win you over to the ways of Dizzy Pig!
Bayou-ish is no flash in the pan; it’s the real deal for sizzling hot blackening flavor. Try some of these amazing recipes using Bayou-ish. and decide for yourself if Dizzy Pig isn’t truly the king of the bayou!
Enjoy a complimentary sample of Bayou-ish with each online purchase of any of our seasonings throughout the month of February. No need to add it to your shopping cart, it will be in your package when it arrives.
If it is time to replenish your supply of fresh Dizzy Pig, you may as well do it now. Or check to see if you have a dealer in your area.
Happy Cookin! |
Comfort Food at its Best: Dizzy Pig’s Seriously Elevated 20-Step Stew
It has been a while since we were quite so excited to share a recipe before. We’ve shared a bunch of recipes over the years, and a few have been cooked by thousands of people. Maple Salmon. Ginger Lime Chicken. Tsunami Spin Duck Breast. Almost-Fried Chicken Wings. But this brand new recipe is a carnival in your mouth. Something like you would expect when you had that magic “best I ever had” moment.
At Dizzy Pig, we pride ourselves on putting a fresh flavorful spin on familiar favorites, but when it came to tackling mom’s traditional stew recipe it was hard to move past the memory of veggies cooked into submission in a brown gravy with the occasional bump of generically labeled ‘stewing beef’ floating about. Familiar and comforting is some ways, but certainly lacking the kind of kick in the taste buds we are used to experiencing here at Dizzy Pig! So, with the idea of building layer upon layer of flavor in mind, without shortcut or compromise, Chris came up with this intensive, and intensely flavorful, recipe that rethinks and reworks what a winter stew can be. Shut off your cell phone, put your tablet on airplane mode and block off about 4 hours and go full foodie commando. We promise; the time and the effort in building this bowl of wonderful comfort is definitely worth it.
Click here for the full recipe. |
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