This Weekend's Creation

It was one of those wonderful, liberating weekends.  I'd been tired for a week from too little sleep and way too much of balancing children, work and school.  I'm the financial accountability partner for my best friend, and a new job with new income meant it was time to re-examine the spending and saving plan.  Plus, we were going to enjoy a selection of absolutely delightful, totally unadult movies and a freedom from all parental responsibilities.  Being on a budget means resisting the urge to dine out (plus, it was COLD!), so we decided to cook.  Is there anything more fun than cooking with your best friend or a child?

Yummy, delicious one-bowl pineapple cake

Dinner was simply homemade Buffalo wings with celery and chips, followed by this stupid-easy, absolutely delicious pineapple cake.  The wings recipe is the marriage of two recipes I found at Allrecipes.com, though the sauce had an affair with my own creativity.  You can find the pineapple cake recipe here.  We didn't have pecans, so we skipped them and didn't miss them.

To make the wings...  (Sorry, they got gone too quickly for pictures)

• Before you get going with the chicken itself, make a batch of Italian dressing by following the directions on a packet of Zesty Italian dressing mix, substituting lime juice for the vinegar.  Let sit for at least two hours.
• Start with a 2.5 pound bag of plain frozen party wings, thawed.
• In one bag, combine 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper.*
• In another bag, combine 3/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (can also use plain bread crumbs) with 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper.*
• Pour 1/2 cup buttermilk into a bowl.  (If you don't have buttermilk, pour 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into a measuring cup and add milk to make 1/2 cup.  Stir lightly and let sit for 5 minutes.)
• Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Place party wings in the bag with the flour mixture, doing one at a time.  Shake to cover.  Dredge wing in buttermilk, then place in bag with breadcrumb mixture.  You can shake up to three wings at a time.  Place wings on cookie sheet.
• Once cookie sheet is filled, place in oven.  Cook for 18 minutes.  Flip, then cook for 18 more minutes.

While the wings are cooking, make your Buffalo sauce.  In a small saucepan, melt 3 T plus 1 teaspoon butter.  To this add 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of your Zesty Lime Italian dressing and 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper sauce (i.e., Texas Pete, Tabasco or something similar).  Gently stir together until hot.  Place wings in a large bowl.  Pour sauce over wings and toss to coat.

* Depending on how many wings you have, you may need to mix up more flour and/or breadcrumb mixture.  We made 25 wings and had to make up more of both, and we had just enough sauce.

These are a staple for our football watching events here, and you can bet we'll be making up a bunch for the Superbowl!  The lime juice adds a delightful flavor to the wings while somewhat mitigating the heat of the sauce.  Absolute perfection!  Serve them with crisp, cold celery and follow it with a slice of that scrumptious cake.

What's your favorite Superbowl food?

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How Are You Marketing Your Brand?

Image via Wikipedia

I read a great book this past Spring called The Various Flavors of Coffee, a delightful book by Anthony Capella, about - what else? - that black liquid ambrosia that gets so many of us going in the mornings.  Coffee!  It's a fascinating, fun read with delightful characters and, as a person who lives by the nose, amazing descriptions of the nuances of scents and flavors in coffees.  There's one section where Pinker, the owner of the coffee warehouse that sells and distributes Castle Coffees, is in a meeting with two advertising men.  I loved this dialogue:

"How are you marketing your brand at present, Mr. Pinker?" he inquires genially.

"With methods you yourselves, I believe, pioneered in America," Pinker answer promptly.  "Every packet of Castle Coffee has a voucher on the wrapper, which can be redeemed for a ha'penny off the next purchase."

"That's all well and dandy, sir.  But I think you misunderstood my question.  I did not ask how you were selling your product - I asked how you were marketing your brand."

Her father looks confused.

"The product," Mr. Cairns explains, "is what you sell.  The brand is what people buy."

Mr. Cairn goes on to explain that the brand is the expectation people have of a seller's goods and the importance of creating an "expectation of superiority."  It all comes back to a psychology of marketing and doing business, wooing consumers with how wonderful the products are, not bribing them with coupons.

What do you think of these assertions?  Would you agree or disagree with Capella's summation of how to market and sell products?

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