Montgomery Inn Barbecue

Oy. I love food samples. I love trying new things that might not be on my radar.

The downside to food samples is that sometimes it takes me a while to do the sampling. I hate wasting food, and there's only so much that I can eat every day.

So when I got an amazing box of samples from Mongomery Inn, it took me a while to get through all the goodies.

Everything came frozen (well, except the sauce, which was just chilled from keeping company with the frozen goods) so it was safe for eating soon or for tucking into the freezer for later.

First, there was barbecue sauce in several flavors. Then, pre-cooked racks of ribs that just needed to be heated. A container of pulled pork arrived, too, as well as some baked beans.

I started with the ribs. They're seriously fall-off-the-bone, to the point where if I heated them and tried to cut them into individual ribs, they didn't hang onto the bones at all. Then I figured out that if I wanted to eat ribs on the bone, I could cut them while cold, then heat them to serving temp. The meat still fell right off the bone, but it was finger food rather than fork food.

I thought the rub was a little salty for my taste, but not terribly so. I slathered the ribs with the sauce before I heated them up, but I'm sure they would have been fine with just the rub. Yum!

The pulled pork was great for easy dinners, since all I had to do was heat it up and throw it on a bun. Since I like sauce ... I added more sauce to the top (did I mention that they sent me sauce? Yeah, they did). The meat was perfect for those sandwiches, and cooked to tenderness, but not dry or stringy. Seriously, all you need is buns and you're ready to go.

Last was the beans. I wasn't expecting much, but I was sooooo wrong. The beans said they included brisket, which had me imagining some dry shredded meat, but instead there were pieces of super-tender brisket along with some porky goodness as well. These were sweet with just a little kick. These are the beans that you order in bulk and bring to every potluck, where you tell people it's an old family recipe that you can't divulge. Seriously. These were insanely good.

The Montgomery Inn Barbecue Sauces are also available on Amazon, if you're looking for a new sauce to try for your own ribs, chicken, pork, whatever. But those beans ... so freaking good.

Dash Rapid Cold Brew System

I've fallen in love with cold brew coffee. It's smoother, not as bitter, and seems to be less harsh on my tummy. It makes cheap grocery store coffee taste good, and when I spring for the good beans, it's swoon-worthy.

I like to make the cold brew extra-strong, so I can add it to hot water to have drinkable coffee in the morning. Sure, sometimes I'll have iced coffee, but most of the time, I prefer it hot.

So when I got an email offering me the Dash Rapid Cold Brew System, I was very curious. When I make cold brew, I set it up in the evening an let it steep all night. The Dash system makes cold brew in 15 minutes or less.

What kind of sorcery is that?

Of course I asked for a review unit, and set it up right away. I ran plain water through it first to see how it worked.

Very eeeenteresting. *mustache twirling optional*

The device pumps water through the grounds rather than just letting the water sit and steep. It goes from the carafe to the grounds and then back into the carafe. What you end up with is cold brew coffee that has been agitated to release more flavor in much less time.

There's a timer that you can set for up to 15 minutes, but if you haven't reached the right strength, I don't see any reason why you couldn't start it over again for another round.

The pump on this is a little noisy. Not as noisy as a blender, but it definitely makes more noise than the pump on something like a desktop waterfall or my Aero Garden. But of course, this isn't meant to be soothing, and it's not on for a long time. Just long enough to make the cold brew.

I've used this several times now, making larger batches to store in my fridge so I can make my usual hot coffee. I haven't yet found exactly the right ratio of coffee to water to the most concentrated brew, but I'm getting close. For someone who doesn't want concentrate, it's just a matter of adjusting the ratio to make your preferred drinking strength.

I have to say that it's nice to be able to make the coffee so fast. There have been a few times I've forgotten to set up my overnight brew, which led to a sad, coffee-less morning. Now, the worst that can happen is a 30-minute wait.

Since the brewer pumps both clear water and coffee, I've been cleaning it between brews by running clear water through it. One cycle seems to be enough, but if it was putting it into storage, I'd probably do two brews for more complete cleaning, so there would be no coffee residue at all.

This takes about the same amount of space as my other cold brewer, although it's a different shape, and it's smaller than many standard coffee makers. On the downside, it requires electricity. Not a big deal, but you still need to set it up somewhere near an outlet. Since it's relatively small and lightweight, this is easy to move around or store.

Overall, I like this a whole lot more than I expected. And I like the idea that if I want a quick cup of afternoon cold-brew decaf, I can have it ready to drink in a very short time.

The Dash Rapid Cold Brew System is available at Target.

Who's it for: Pe0ple who drink coffee and prefer cold brew.

Pros: Yay, it works!

Cons: It's a tad noisy.

Wishes: With appliances in the kitchen that are made in so many colors, this one is only available in black. For now.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

GelPro Mat

A few years ago, I bought a gel floor mat for use in my kitchen. It was great at first, then the edges starting curling up, and the whole thing got a little wonky. I still kept it in the kitchen, and somehow trained myself to not trip over it.

Recently GelPro offered me one of their Elite mats to test.

Oh, heck yeah. Bring it on!

Then they asked me to pick a color and pattern. There are a freaking LOT of colors and patterns, and I'll admit I got lost in there for a while before I decided to go with a natural-looking option. But there are a ton of cool colors and patterns.

I opted for the Grasscloth pattern in Harvest Grain color. Not only does it blend well with my kitchen, but the pattern means that I can spill a little flour on it and it won't look horrifying.

By they way, the actual color is a little warmer than the photos. Lighting in my kitchen isn't particularly photo-friendly.

I mean, yeah, I clean up spills, but for that time between spill small amounts of flour and clean it up, it won't look like I disemboweled the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

When it arrived, I couldn't wait to compare it to the mat that I previously had. And there were a lot of differences. A lot.

The first and most obvious difference  between the GelPro mat and the one I previously bought - even before I got it out of the box - was that the GelPro mat has a soft-feeling, non-sticky-plastic surface. It almost feels like fabric, but it's not.

The construction of it is also very different, with edges that are nicely beveled rather than having flat, flappy bits around the perimeter. Those were the bits that first curled up on my previous mat before the rest of it started warping.

The GelPro mat is also thicker and sooooo soft to stand on.

Not quite like standing on a mattress, but much nicer than a throw rug or thin mat.

The only problem with this mat is that it makes the other one seem so ... awful ... in comparison. So now I'm probably going to buy two more mats, so I can have one at each place where I tend to stand a lot. I won't put one in front of the fridge, but for sure I want squishy feet by the stove and sink.

Who's it for: People who spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Pros: Sooooo comfy. Well made.

Cons: More expensive than the super-junky one I bought previously.

Wishes: Can I line my entire house with this stuff?

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Note: You can buy GelPro mats on Amazon, but there's a wider variety of colors on the GelPro website, and it's also a bit easier to browse through all of the selections.