Red Gold Product Review & Giveaway

Hey guys!  Guess what?  It's football season!  That means cooler weather (well, not yet), team pride, and tailgating parties/cookouts!  We all have our favorite representative colors and no matter the rivalries, we also share a love of Gameday treats.

Now, I have a confession to make.  Before last month, I didn't know there were nacho-making alternatives out there, so I have just been advocating Rotel brand Tomatoes and Green Chilies for any and all Tex-Mex type recipes.  I know, sounds crazy right?  However, Red Gold asked if they could send me a variety pack of their products to try out, and I said that I would try them and review them in an honest post.

*Disclosure: Now mind you, although Red Gold provided me with some of their products for free, my opinions here about those products are my own.  I was not asked to write a favorable review.  I always give honest and straight-forward opinions about all products, services, and restaurants on OMG, Have You Tasted This? and will not sacrifice the integrity of this blog for any reason - ever.

That being said, I have now tried several of Red Gold's products and I want to share my opinion with you about them.

First off,  I like to make chicken quesadillas a few times a month (this recipe has been revised again, I'll update it soon).  They have become a staple in my house.  I have always just grabbed and used Rotel for this recipe, but the last time I made them, I used Red Gold's "Queso Ready" Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies instead, and there was definitely a difference in quality.  When I open a can of Rotel, I usually pick out about 10-20% of the under-ripe tomatoes before adding them to my dish.  Still, the tomatoes I use that are left are rather pale, but I use them anyway, because I didn't realize there were options.  When I opened the Red Gold can, I immediately noticed the vibrancy in the color of the produce, and I didn't find but maybe one or two not-quite-ripe tomato cubes, as opposed to the large quantity in Rotel.  This already told me that the attention to quality detail was better from the Red Gold company, and that is a huge deal for me.  The Red Gold brand also contained much less sodium (380 mg vs. Rotel's 520 mg), more calcium and iron (4% vs. Rotel's 2%), and more Vitamin A (15% vs. Rotel's 8%) per serving.  The flavor of the Red Gold Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies was good, and the heat from the chilies was nicely balanced.  Based on my experience, I will be buying the Red Gold product over Rotel from now on.

Another product that I tried from Red Gold was the Petite Diced Tomatoes with Lime Juice & Cilantro.  Remember the blog post I did about the fish tacos?  Well I decided to try them at home.  I had never blackened fish, (or anything else for that matter) and I wasn't sure what to do to make a spicy/sweet pineapple salsa.  But hey, I'm all about winging it, so I read up on how to "blacken" fish and went to the store and bought a can of diced pineapple, still unsure of what I was going to do with it exactly.  I dipped the tilapia in melted butter because I am all about eating healthy that's what I thought sounded good in some of the recipes I found.  I dipped it in the creole seasoning, and fried it for about 3-4 minutes on each side.  Yay!  The fish looked right, now what about the salsa?  I looked in the cabinet and saw the Red Gold tomatoes and thought that the lime juice and cilantro might go well with the fish seasonings. So I opened the can of pineapple and dumped it in a bowl with the drained Petite Diced Tomatoes with Lime Juice & Cilantro and mixed it all up.  It tasted great!  The citrus lime flavor mixed well with the pineapple, and the tomatoes and cilantro blended out the different tones and made a great tasting pineapple salsa for my fish tacos.  I got out the flour tortillas, placed the fish on them, followed by cabbage, the pineapple salsa, shredded Monterrey jack cheese, and topped it all with sliced fresh avocado.  D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!  This would also be good in the chicken quesadilla recipe, just FYI.

Ok, one more product that stood out to me from the Red Gold family, was Mama Selita's Jalapeno Ketchup.  Yes, you read that right.  Jalapeno ketchup!  I was like, holy cow, why haven't I ever thought of this?  Genius!  Ok, so the first thing I thought that it would go well on was meatloaf.  I haven't tried it on meatloaf yet, but I surely will the next time I make it.  What I DID have it on though, was cheeseburgers.  YUM!  Seriously, this is the best thing to happen to ketchup...well, almost.   I had one problem with it - it is made with high fructose corn syrup, which is a bit of a letdown for me.  I never buy ketchup made with HFCS, or anything else if I can help it.  But, if you don't have an issue with HFCS, then by all means, try this because it does taste wonderful!  I liked it because it was different.  In my opinion, Mama Selita's Jalapeno Ketchup is very well balanced between tangy, sweet, and spicy and I really loved dipping my homemade fries in it as well.  So if you want to add kick to your eggs, beef, chicken (oh, I tried this on some fried chicken fingers too, and it was better than the bbq sauce that came with them), potatoes, or whatever else you can think of, get some of this ketchup.

Like I said before, I wanted to give an honest review about some of the products that were given to me by Red Gold.  And I can honestly say, that they have definitely made me into a buyer of their products, at least some of them, over other brands.  Their website has a really interesting family history flip book that I recommend checking out.  You can find it here, along with other information about Red Gold.  

Now through October, Red Gold is hosting the Red Gold Run To Crush Hunger Competitive 5k & Family Walk.  Click on the link to find out how you can help/participate.  Following the run, there will be a chili cook-off as well, with a cash prize for the winner! 

Want to try grilling with these products?  Here are a couple of recipes provided by Red Gold.  Give them a go - enjoy!

Spicy Tomato Burger

1 lb ground beef

1 14.5 oz can of Red Gold Tomato w/Green Chilies

Salt and Pepper

Option: Pepper Jack Cheese

Combine beef & tomatoes (drained). Form into patties. Season. Add cheese to center of each patty for an added kick. Grill.

As desired, serve on toasted bun. use Jalapeño Ketchup or Chipotle Mayo. Layer spicy peppers.

Caribbean Chicken Burger

1 lb. ground chicken

1 14.5 oz can of Red Gold Lime Juice & Cilantro

Salt & Pepper

Combine ground chicken and Red Gold tomatoes (drained). Form into patties. Season. Grill

As desired, served on Toasted bun or lettuce. Layer guacamole or avocado or roasted pineapple slice. Top with a mango chutney or fruit salsa.

Those of you who follow me on FaceBook and Twitter, heard about Red Gold's summer grill/smoker giveaway last month, right?  They also gave away 1000 aprons for their Summer Grillin' Party Sweepstakes.  That was an awesome giveaway and I hope you participated.  If you missed out on the prizes, you have another chance right now.

**The Giveaway**

I have one Red Gold grilling apron that I will gladly give away to anyone who posts the best (most embarrassing) tailgating or grilling story in the comments below.  You have until September 30th, so if you can't think of any stories to tell, get out there and make some!

Fish Tacos & Rubber Chickens

First off, I am so amazed and inspired at the support that my sister and I received from Ohio State fans last week!  Even though the Easton Barnes & Noble gig got cancelled due to ordering issues (on B&N's part), you all managed to make our very limited book tour into a great success!  Thank you so very much!

Julie and me at the Amos Memorial Library signing.  More pics to come under the "Event Pics" tab.

Today I would like to review one of Norman, Oklahoma's local restaurants - the Interurban.  I know, it seems like forever since I did an eatery review.  Aren't you excited?  I am!  I actually feel like I have a lot to say about this one.  So here it goes...

Taken from the Interurban website here

Once upon a time, I had a hankering for a great, restaurant quality fish dish.  I'm not talking Red Lobster chain food, I'm talking about something different.  Now, I know where to get the best batter dipped Pub fish n' chips in Norman (McNellie's Abner Ale House), but I wanted something baked, or at least not breaded, and not world wide chain produced.  Someone suggested checking out the Interurban, and it occurred to me then, that I haven't ever been there!  For anything!  I checked out their menu online and just knew that now was the time to try it out.

We were greeted with a friendly and professional smile at the door and shown to our seats.  Our waiter was Brian, and he was also very friendly and professional, so already, I'm happy with my service - especially since it was at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a weekend.  In my experience, I hardly ever get the best service during off-times (meaning times that are not normal meal times), which gives me a good gauge for seeing the way a restaurant and all its cogs function at their worst.  I always take this into consideration when doing a review when I go, for good or bad.  In this case, it was definitely for the good!

I asked Brian a lot of questions and explained that it was my first time there.  He was very patient and extremely knowledgeable about the menu and the kitchen practices.  I decided to go with Brett's Fish Tacos.  Now, I have to explain that I never in a million years thought I would order anyone's fish tacos. The thought of fish in place of beef or chicken in a taco has brought out such disdain in me, that I could always feel my face actually involuntarily contort at the mere mention of fish tacos.  And yet, this sounded like the very thing I was in the mood for - non-battered fish, and something different.  I was not disappointed with my selection.

From the OK Gazette article titled "All Aboard!"
(This is a fantastic article about the Interurban in OKC. Check it out!)

This dish lived up to the description as well as my expectations, no...exceeded my expectations.  It is described as:

Blackened tilapia in 2 flour tortillas, fresh avocado, shredded cabbage, Monterey jack cheese, pineapple salsa, and bistro sauce.  Served with borracho beans. ~$10.49

I had never heard of borracho beans before so I looked them up before I went.  They are also called "drunken beans" by some, because they are pinto beans cooked in beer, and other flavorings.  Brilliant idea!  Not only was this my first experience with beer beans, but I had never had blackened tilapia before either.  I had only ever had cabbage in its vinegared form, so plain ol' cabbage was also new to me.  I asked them to leave off the bistro sauce because I don't really like mustard-style dressings, and plus, this was already a plethora of new tries for me in one dish.

A-mazing!

The spicy/salty blackened seasonings were quickly cooled by the chilled (and perfectly ripened) avocado and cabbage, and the pineapple salsa balanced the flavors out very nicely!  A pina colada or tropical rum runner drink on the beach would have made everything perfect, but in a land-locked state, I found this fish dish to be most satisfying indeed!  The borracho beans were too tangy for my personal taste, but I could see why they would be appealing to some, especially coupled with this dish.  The quality of Brett's Fish Tacos could not have been better, (and it wasn't even during peek dining hours).  I was truly impressed!

I solemnly swear that I will never again turn my nose up at the mention of fish tacos as long as I live.

That being said, I have a complaint about another time that I visited the Interurban and ordered the not-Brett's Fish Tacos.  Oddly enough, Brian was our waiter that time too, and he was just as fabulous!  I decided to try the Apricot Chicken because it sounded great!

Grilled chicken breast topped with our tasty apricot sauce and sliced almonds, served with wild rice and fresh steamed vegetables. ~$12.89

This was more expensive than I wanted to pay for lunch, but after the amazing fish tacos, I thought it would probably be worth it.  I was so very wrong.  The plate looked good when it was sat in front of me.  It smelled good too.  I tasted a bit of the sauce and it tasted good.  Excitedly, I cut into my chicken, scooped some of the almonds and rice onto the bite-filled fork and put it in my mouth.  This is close to what the chicken's texture felt like:

hiphound.com

Not playin'...not even a little bit.  It was so dense and rubbery and terrible that I could only picture the image of 3 frozen Tyson chicken breasts being pushed together with the force it would take to make a precious gemstone into one single nasty patty.  Seriously.  The quality of that chicken breast was so bad (and I don't mean the chicken was spoiled or anything, I mean that the actual quality was so bad) that I had to call poor Brian over to my table to have him take it back.  People, I don't remember ever sending back a meal because of the quality of meat.  I'm not really even the type to send things back at all, I'd rather just eat what I can and not make a fuss.  However, I've sent things back for toppings not being as I asked, or for something not being done enough, or for something tasting spoiled, but these things don't happen very often.  And I have NEVER had to send back a plate for the meat being such terrible quality with the garnish and sides being so incredibly high quality.  This did not seem possible to me.  I was very nice and apologized to Brian, but I just could not eat it, especially for that high of a price.  I refused to do that to myself.  

Brian was very nice and apologetic and he asked if he could get me something else.  I decided the fish tacos would be the best course of action at that point, because I liked the Interurban and I wanted to leave there feeling happy.  The manager came out and apologized a few minutes later.  He asked if it was the overall dish or something specific, and I told him.  He seemed to make a mental note and apologized again.  The fish tacos quickly made their way to my table and they were the same good quality as they were the first time I ordered them.  I'm not sure why the company would use such a low standard of chicken with such high-quality preparation and other ingredients, but I can tell you that I will not be ordering ANY of their chicken dishes in the near or distant future.

I am excited to try their pizzas though!  They have a Monday night special on their pizzas that I think would be a prime time to give them a go!  

So if you are around the OKC area, please don't let my review of the chicken deter you from trying the Interurban.  They have fantastic staff members, a nostalgic railroad depot ambiance, and the most amazing fish tacos!