On to February

Greetings All,

As January comes to a close we start looking towards Spring. After all it is only 50 days away. Yesterday's chilly sunshine gave us that glimmer of another warm season to come full of tourists and visitors to the islands. It just seems this winter season has lasted so darned long that we are chomping at the bit for summer and all it brings. Next Sunday is Superbowl Sunday and the Mariner's are checking into their spring camp. Buds on the trees have started sprouting as well as a few of our bulbs in the garden.  Sam and Tina McCanless checked in from Zest Fest this weekend and they've taken home 3 new awards for their wonderful sauces. See, we told you Stinger was a hit!!! And you told them too. Tina even made a "flaming dress" to go along with her hubby's flame suit. Check out the pic of Sam, Tina and Danny Cash  (to the left of Tina). We are so happy for them. Time to start placing orders and gearing up to fill the shop with new products. Danny Cash has a bunch of new products we can't wait to bring in and we were contacted by a guy on the East Coast who has developed a new unique product. It's a peanut that is coated in potato and deep fried and then flavored in a dusting of different coatings. There is a Jalapeno Cheddar, Nuclear, Bloody Mary, Crab Flavored (which is Old Bay Seasoning) and a few others. He sent us a sampling and they are great.  And we have to talk about the mom who poured hot sauce down her son's throat as a punishment. What was she thinking? It looked like Tapatio to us but it was just wrong. You WANT your kids to eat hot sauce, not view it as a punishment. I'd love it if he jumped up and asked for more! Seriously though, I just don't get parents these days. You can't smack their behinds anymore but you can pour hot sauce down their throats??? Seriously??? TIME OUT!!!   Wishing you all warm thoughts as we move towards Spring and we can't wait to see you all again this year.

January Greetings

Check Out Zipsanjuan.com and tell Pat and Stella Ed & Genie Sent ya!

As of the writing of this, there are only 61 days left until Spring officially arrives. We are so excited. It's been a rather wet and chilly winter but that's what we love about the great PNW. We have 4 seasons and there is constant change. As we head into the thoughts of warmer weather, clear skies and slight winds for the perfect boat adventure, we have done a lot of research during the off season and promise a lot of new products this year.  We are excited about Danny Cash's line of products, of course the World Famous Z and Z Honey Company has spent time creating new products and there are a lot of new West Coast producers we want to introduce you to.  In addition we will be bringing in a lot more apparel and housewares just to mix it up a little.  Recently, the San Juan Islands were voted by the New York Times, the #2 destination spot in 2011 out of a total of 41.  We are so proud of that honor and if you've never been to the San Juans, you gotta check it out. Also new this year is a new outfit called Zip San Juans. They open officially on April 1 and the locals are getting together to take a test zip. We can't wait. There is so much to do here and it's the perfect getaway to kayak, whale watch, hike, beachcomb, take a zip trip or just hang out and enjoy a picnic supper on the beach and watch the beautiful wildlife.  Be sure to drop by and say hello if you come to the island and remember we sample every day!  We look forward to seeing ya'll soon!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Greetings Everyone,

Hope this post finds you all healthy and ready for a new year.  Tomorrow will be 1-1-11 and the feeling of hope is in the air. Just about all of our customers lately have expressed the "hope" of a better year ahead.  We feel blessed for having the greatest customers ANYWHERE and our little business continues to grow. This next year we have big plans for growth. Without giving away too much, we want to start our own beef jerky product line and also our own spicy chocolate product line. We'll keep you up to date on the progress.

On Wednesday we were blessed with about 2 inches of snow. It's so beautiful but then the clouds parted and the temps went waaaaayyyyyy down. On our way into the shop this morning it was 28 degrees. The Trumpeter Swans were swimming in Lakedale keeping the center of the lake free of ice. If you've never been to the island in winter, it's a real treat.

For New Year's dinner we're cooking up a couple of Rib Eye steaks with a light marinade of Chipotleyaki before putting them on the grill. Then for a salad dressing, we're going to make up a batch of the Stinger X hot sauce blended in Vegetable Oil and pour it over a bed of mixed greens and feta cheese. Just hang out at the old homestead and welcome the new year. 

We hope this finds you all well and warm during the last holiday of 2010. 

All the best,

Eddie & Genie

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

To all our wonderful chilihead friends, hope you have a warm and wonderful holiday. All the best for 2011. It's gotta get better right???

Pre-Christmas Greetings to our Chiliheads

 Wet greetings from Gilligan's Island North! Wow, what a weather month December has been and it's only the 12th. We've had snow and now the Pineapple Express is dumping on us. Thank goodness we live on a rock with good runoff however some of the low spots on the island are even flooding. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be really soggy for us and all of Western Washington State. Stay warm and safe. Anyway, just wanted to send a shout out to our favorite chiliheads and say thanks for all the new subscriptions to the Hot Sauce of the Month Club. It's really taken off this season and it's not too late yet to get your membership for a Christmas delivery but time is running out. For details and info., check out the website at www.sanjuanhotshop.com, or give us a call.   We've also had a large response to the personalized label program and we've had a lot of fun creating many labels for the local businesses who have ordered cases as well as individuals who only want 1 or 2 bottles. It's easy to do and we can do it all by e-mail. All you have to do is e-mail us a .jpg of your favorite pic (high res) and tell us what saying you want on the label and we create a label and send you a proof before printing it. You can choose from 5 different sauces and then you can either pick it up at the shop or we'll ship it to you.  Excellent budget friendly gift giving idea while adding a personal touch.

The cook book is coming along nicely and we've gotten a few really great recipes from our friends but we still need more. Sam and Tina from Zane and Zack's sent us a sample of a new sauce they created called "Stinger" and "Stinger X".  Wow, they've done it again.  I had some chicken in the freezer so I thawed it out and added about 1/2 a bottle of the Stinger X to 1/2 cup of canola oil and used my electric whip to blend it all together. I basted the boneless chicken breasts with it and popped them in the oven and it was a flavor explosion. Served with some green beans and roasted red potatoes, it was a great meal.  We loved it so much that the next night I made more and even used it on iceberg salad wedges with various veggies and feta cheese. YUM! The sauce was just a sample sauce but I'm really hoping they market it. Tonight I'm going to try and use their "Sauce of the Rising Son" for the same thing. We just love their products and their products are some of our best sellers.

Holiday greetings to you all and we hope you have a safe and joyous season with your loved ones.
~~Eddie & Genie~~

Thanksgiving Memories

Wow, what a feast!  Ed did a 14 lb. beer can turkey on the grill and it was the moistest bird ever we ever ate. Ed used a Foster's Lager to shove up the bird and seasoned the outside with a cajun mixture of Gator Sprinkles (from the Gator Hammock Co.) and some butter and basted the bird throughout the 3 1/2 hour cooking process and it was scrumptious. Contrary to what you might think, the bird does not taste like beer at all.  The hops and barley in the beer evaporate into the bird and keep it soooooooo moist.  Even the leftovers were moist and tonight we're making turkey pot pie with all kinds of vegetables and gravy and of course Bisquick on the top.  We're even making a couple extra's for the freezer without the bisquick so we can enjoy it later in the season.  After all, winter hasn't begun and we've gotten quite a bit of snow already so we're expecting a long and cooler than normal season this year. Of course there was stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon and feta cheese, cranberry sauce and pumkin cheesecake for desert. The day after the holiday, we didn't even eat we were so stuffed. 

Well we hope you all had a warm holiday with the people you love and don't forget, we need your recipes for our book we're putting together. We give you the credit so include your name and hometown.

More Recipes Please!!!

Pre-Thanksgiving greetings!

We just had to share with you the excitement from a call we just received.  It seems a few weeks ago we had some wonderful customers in the store (our customers are the best) and they were getting recipe ideas and taste testing various products and it turns out there was a cooking contest coming up. It turns out that gentleman who was taste testing with Ed, Ross Jenkins, took an idea and made an award winning recipe.  He called us this afternoon to say thank you and when asked what he made, he won for biscuits and gravy.  But not just any ordinary biscuits and gravy.  He used Lizano Salsa from Costa Rica in the recipe and won first prize.  We got so excited when he called we had to share it with y'all. Congratulations Ross and thanks for the call.  Those of you who use Lizano know what a special taste it is.  Contrary to belief, it has no heat to it at all and they put it on their tables in Costa Rica like we put ketchup on our restaurant tables.  It's concocted from all vegetables (cauliflower mainly) and has a wonderful flavor of cumin, turmeric and other natural ingredients.  It's the best pulled pork sauce I've ever used and it's great on Oyster shooters, eggs, red beans & rice and about 3,000 other things.  Check out the recipe section on our website and you'll see many of our favorite uses listed. 

It's so exciting to get get that feedback from our customers that we had to share it.  As we get closer to the holidays and the "season of food" don't forget our wonderful pepper jelly's (served over cream cheese or a warmed brie with crackers is amazing). We've got lots of recipe ideas and if you need any help coming up with something new and unusual for a family gathering, just shoot us an e-mail and we'll share more ideas.  We're working on a SJHS cookbook too so don't forget to share your recipes and include your name and hometown so we can give you the credit. 

As we move into the end of November the weather forecasters are calling for lowland snow possibly this weekend.  Stay warm and keep the recipes coming our way. 

Have a great week!
~~Eddie & Genie~~