We’re having grilled chicken tonight, and we’re using the rest of our bottle of Texas Rib Candy on it. This won’t be the first time we’ve used Rib Candy on chicken, either. So far, we’ve used Rib Candy on several kinds of meat, but my family seems to like it best on pork ribs and chicken.

It was after reading the review of Texas Rib Candy on Shylah’s blog that inspired me to grill some chicken again tonight. The pictures and descriptions on Shylah’s blog made me so hungry for grilled Rib Candy chicken again! She wrote that she almost licked the stuff off the basting brush. I confess that I actually did, although I did manage to wait until after I was finished basting the chicken. Germs? I was past caring.

The chicken is thawing as I write, and tonight after work we’ll fire up the grill and put the chicken on. I hid what’s left of our last bottle of Rib Candy behind some leftovers in the refrigerator so the kids wouldn’t find it and use it on lunch meat – shut up; it’s awesome on lunch meat! – and I just finished making Spicy Potato Salad to go with the grilled chicken.

Oh, and how will I cut up the chicken before slapping it on the grill? With my awesome Messermeister poultry shears, that’s how.

Come on over; we’ve got enough chicken and potato salad for a crowd. Isn’t that how the best cookouts are?

Texas Pepper Jelly is awesome on sandwiches and toast, but sandwiches and toast require bread.  My family loves homemade bread, so I learned to make it.

I don’t use a bread machine, no, no, no.  I make genuine homemade bread.  I figure, if my fingernails aren’t spotlessly clean after I’m finished kneading that dough by hand, I’m not really finished kneading. 

Once you remove your bread from the oven, however, it has to be sliced before you can really start slathering the pepper jelly on it.  I’ve experimented with a lot of knives in my day – I’m kind of oldish so I’ve had a lot of days – and the knife I like best is the Messermeister 10-inch Kullenschliff slicer.

It’s a beautiful knife, all-round. Sharp as a razor. Easy to handle, too.

With some knives, cutting homemade bread is a big deal, and the slices are seldom smooth. The Messermeister Kullenschliff slicer, however, will give you a lovely clean slice every single time.

Remember, too, bread-bakers, that you really must let your bread cool completely before you try to slice it.

And now that your bread is sliced – thanks to your awesome Messermeister Kullenschliff slicer – you can start spreading that mouth-watering delicious Texas Pepper Jelly on it.

Mmmm, pepper jelly.

P.S.  It’s June: the wedding month.  Why not give the newlyweds some Messermeister cutlery?  It lasts practically forever, and everyone needs good kitchen knives.

Baked Pepper Jelly Ham is a wonderful company meal, Sunday dinner, or a family meal on those nights when you just feel like fixing something special.

I use a fully-cooked ham.  If you use a “raw ham,” add 20 minutes per pound to the baking time.

Ingredients:

One fully-cooked ham  (for five people, I use a ham that weighs about 3 pounds)

One 5-ounce jar of Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

cloves, if your family likes cloves

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

If your ham is wrapped in plastic, be sure to remove all of this coating.

Place unwrapped ham in a roaster or dutch oven, and cover.

Bake for about an hour.  Your ham is already fully cooked, so all you’re really doing is getting it really hot.

After an hour’s baking, remove the roaster/Dutch oven and set on top of stove.  Take a VERY sharp knife (I recommend our Messermeister knives) and score the top into squares, diamonds, triangles, or whatever design you like.  Just make sure your design is “fancy” enough to give the glaze some “cling.”  Spread the pepper jelly all over the ham, even the sides.  Return to oven and bake another half hour or so, until the pepper jelly glaze glistens.

Remove ham from oven and let it “set” for another half hour before you try to slice it.

If you’re serving four or five people with this recipe, you can count on a few slices left over for someone’s lunch the next day.  If I have a can of shredded pineapple, I sometimes mix that with the pepper jelly.

That sweet/hot flavor just permeates the ham, and turns it into something so good, there are just no words to properly describe it.  You’ll never glaze a ham with brown sugar again.

My son is the only one of us who likes cloves on this ham, so I usually just stick a few on one of the ham ends.  The rest of us just like the pepper jelly glaze on ours.  But a ham is big, so there’s plenty of room to “individualize” it a bit. 

No matter which spicy, mouthwatering Texas Pepper Jelly recipe you might choose for your family’s supper, there’s nothing like a nice fresh salad and a loaf of homemade bread to go along with it!

Unsliced bread looks so nice on your table. It’s more than just “pretty,” though; bread is a wonderful source of nutrition for your family, and with a little butter and some Texas Pepper Jelly of your choice, it’s almost a feast in and of itself. 

These days, however, it’s not considered good manners to just tear chunks off a loaf of bread; it needs to be sliced. To properly and smoothly slice bread, you need a good bread knife.

I use Messermeister’s Park Plaza scalloped Baker’s Knife.

Messermeister offers high-end cutlery in the Meridian elite, San Moritz elite, Park Plaza, Four Seasons, and Asian Precision lines. While marketing knife luggage, edge guards and other cutlery accessories.

“Messer”, meaning knife, and “meister”, meaning maestro or master, combine to create the company’s name; a company striving with full commitment and desire to provide the highest quality cutlery and complementary culinary tools for the home and professional chef.

Both 12″ and 14″ Park Place serrated baking knives have 3/4″ tang.  Awesome.

Order these fantastic bread knives right HERE.

Texas Pepper Jelly is proud to offer our distinguished customers the Messermeister product line. Messermeister produces quality knives, scissors and accessories for the serious chef or back yard bbq cooker. Browse all of their products and find that special item you have been looking for.

San Moritz Meridian Elite Park Plaza

Four Seasons Scissors Misc Cutlery

Messermeister is a true innovator of premier German cutlery. The company has been responsible for numerous category firsts, such as a professional Chef’s camber for precise rocking action and the bolster-less heel of the forged Chef’s blade so that allows the complete cutting edge to be re-sharpened. These innovations greatly improve both function and safety.

Messermeister is the first and only cutlery brand to offer the exclusive elite edge, the sharpest edge of all forged cutlery. This high-performance edge of high-carbon molybdenum/vanadium steel makes it distinctively easier to slice, dice, and cut food as the result of a special three-step sharpening and hand polishing process. The elite edge also improves safety because it requires less effort and force to accomplish the task.

Messermeister was founded over a century ago in Solingen Germany by August Klinkerman, but our products were not available in the U.S. until Klinkerman’s great grandson, Bernd Dressler, established The Messermeister headquarters in California in 1984. Today, the company remains under the leadership of the Dressler Family, who continues to maintain the tradition of unmatched quality, product innovation and customer service.

Production of Messermeister cutlery is still focused in Solingen, Germany, which is the forged cutlery capital of the world and birthplace of Messermeister. Several years ago, Messermeister established a strong franchise with professional chefs and cooking schools, and in recent years, while maintaining a commitment to the institutional market, has begun building its consumer business through fine specialty retailers and catalogs.

Messermeister offers high-end cutlery in the Meridian elite, San Moritz elite, Park Plaza, Four Seasons, and Asian Precision lines. While marketing knife luggage, edge guards and other cutlery accessories.

“Messer”, meaning knife, and “meister”, meaning maestro or master, combine to create the company’s name; a company striving with full commitment and desire to provide the highest quality cutlery and complementary culinary tools for the home and professional chef.

Those of you who don’t subscribe to our newsletter yet:  What are you waiting for?  It’s absolutely chock-FULL of fabulous advice, hints, deals, discounts, coupons, news, and recipes!  And it’s absolutely free!

Here’s some of this week’s newsletter from Texas Pepper Jelly’s big boss himself:  Craig Sharry:

Our newsletter signup is quick and easy. And it’s FREE! Do your friends and family a favor, pass this newsletter along so they can sign up today. Did I mention it’s FREE ?

A great thing about Texas Pepper Jelly is that it is quick and easy to use. Another thing that is quick and easy is our newsletter sign up. Tell your friends about it. Tell them it’s free. Then they can get their own copy every month.

Plus, anyone who subscribes today, will immediately be sent a free sample of our Country Sweet Texas Heat cookbook. These exclusive recipes will have your friends and family wanting you to cook all of their meals.

Be sure to watch for next month’s newsletter. There is a good chance we will be introducing another new product. I hate to talk about it too much so be sure to watch for your copy next month.

As always thank you for shopping at Texas Pepper Jelly.

Until next month,

Craig Sharry

Spicy Strawberry Bread is delicious, good for you, and will help wake you up in the morning!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar (I use Splenda.)

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 c. chopped pecans or walnuts

1 1/2 cups oil (I use applesauce instead of oil.)

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. Strawberry Habanero (or Strawberry Jalapeno) Pepper Jelly

Do this:

Dump everything into a large bowl and mix well.  Use your hands if necessary; batter will be very thick.  pour into two greased and floured bread pans, and bake at 350 for one hour, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool thoroughly before slicing.  Spicy Strawberry Bread freezes well.  Makes two loaves.

If you use the Messermeister Four Seasons Scalloped 8″ Bread Knife to slice your cooled Spicy Strawberry Bread, you’ll get lovely clean slices.

The first day of spring is a good time to tell our readers some great news, and to offer y’all some fantastic freebies!

First of all, you can now get almost any of our yummy Texas Pepper Jellies in both habanero and jalapeno!

AND, if you order this month and spend $25 or more, you get your choice of a free Messermeister Picnic Knife with Sheath (enter coupon code “Knife”) or a free Texas Pepper Jelly eCookbook (enter coupon code “Cookbook”)

You’ll also get a free eCookbook for signing up for our fantastic Texas Pepper Jelly newsletter! It’s full of recipes, ideas, news, and all kinds of interesting and useful information, free in your inbox!

What are you waiting for?  Your taste buds want you to order RIGHT NOW!

This is the Messermeister cheese/tomato knife. It comes in three colors: black, red, and blue.  I like the red knife best.  There is something in my head that thinks a red knife will cut a red tomato better.  I know, I know. 

We also use this knife to slice hard cheese.  It’s razor-sharp, lightweight, and makes it easy as can be to get a nice smooth slice of even the hardest cheese.

I am extremely particular about my kitchen knives; they must be RAZOR-SHARP, and lightweight, and strong, strong, strong.  Messermeister knives fill my bill perfectly.

Messermeister cutlery isn’t expensive, either.  The cheese/tomato knife is only $21.99, and worth every penny.  You can’t buy a knife this good in a store.  Not for that price.

My husband almost always has a brick of hard cheese going, and he’s crazy about the Messermeister cheese/tomato knife.

Messermeister knives go right in the dishwasher, too.  Just be careful loading and unloading it, because these knives are SHARP!!!  I love them.

Texas Pepper Jelly carries Messermeister cutlery, and it’s the BEST! I have several Messermeister kitchen knifes, and they’re my favorite ones.

The curved knife in the picture is the Messermeister Park Plaza 6-inch curved semi-flexible kitchen knife, and it’s perfect for paring, peeling, slicing, and pretty much everything you’d need a smallish, razor-sharp knife for, in your kitchen. I like the curved knives best, and the Messermeister Park Plaza curved knife is awesome!

The Messermeister ParkPlaza knives aren’t the only ones carried on the Texas Pepper Jelly website, either: Messermeister offers high-end cutlery in the Meridian elite, San Moritz elite, Park Plaza, Four Seasons, and Asian Precision lines. Messermeister also carries all kinds of scissors and other cutlery accessories.

These fine Messermeister knives make wonderful gifts, too.

If you have any questions about Texas Pepper Jelly or any of our other fine products, please feel free to email us at sales@texaspepperjelly.com, or phone us at 713-702-3489