Ina Garten Davita

When one thinks of smoked meat, pork tends to be the first thing that comes to mind. Unless you're from Texas, where beef, it's what's for dinner. But what about chicken? Low and slow, the BBQ mantra, seems overkill when dealing with humble poultry. I wanted the flavor and succulence of smoked meat, but I wanted it fast and easy so a chicken experiment seemed in order. I made two foil packets heavy with hickory wood chips and poked a few holes in the top. I set them on top of the grates at opposite ends of the grill. I lit all four burners and let the grill heat up to 500 degrees. I prepared the chicken simply, just a whole roaster, rinsed and dried, sprinkled with salt and placed in a tin pan. By now the wood packets were smoking nicely. I turned off the two center burners and placed the chicken between the wood packets and quickly closed the cover, as not to let out too much of the heat and precious hickory smoke. The temperature hovered around 400 degrees and I set the timer for one hour and fifteen minutes. It was hard not to peek as we poured a glass of wine and sat and set about enjoying the aroma of the hickory smoke as it filled the air. When it was time, we brought the chicken in and set in on a carving board to rest, it was a lovely golden brown and smelled amazing. The meat was perfectly cooked with a lovely pink smoke ring that dipped down into the top layers of the tender and juicy flesh. The joints came apart very easily and the meat pulled away from the bone in a most satisfying way. The flavor and texture was spot on, exactly what I was looking for. All the rich, smoky flavor and meaty yet melt in the mouth texture but without all the time and effort. Sublime.

You may want to sample Saint Germain and Casanova.

Laurin said I should start a food blog. I thought that was a great compliment. I love talking about food and getting in the kitchen and tinkering with new recipes. I was recently in hospital for 6 days having had emergency surgery and while I was there I was on a clear liquid diet. I lost 7 pounds, but other than that lovely bonus, not being able to enjoy food is one of the worst tortures about being confined to a hospital room. I have low potassium so we bought more bananas than I could eat or make smoothies with on our supermarket stock up when I was discharged on Thursday. A pile of overripe bananas just beg to be made into a succulent banana cake. I have a favorite banana bread recipe, but I decided to jazz it up a bit. Cranberry Walnut Vanilla Spiced Banana Cake Basic Banana Bread: 2 cups AP flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 eggs beaten 1 stick unsalted butter 1/2 cup brown sugar (I mixed dark and light) 2-3 cups mashed overripe bananas Additions: 1 tablespoon best quality vanilla extract 1 package cranberry walnut snack mix from Trader Joes (about 1 cup) tossed in 1 teaspoon flour 1 teaspoon best quality ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg Whisk together flour, soda, salt and spices. Cream together brown sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat egg and with vanilla and mix into the butter and sugar mixture. Stir in bananas. Mix into dry ingredients to moisten and then stir in the cranberry and walnuts. Pour into a prepared round cake or loaf pan. Bake cake pan for 45 minutes at 350 or loaf pan for 60-65 minutes. Let cool if you can stand the wait and then devour.

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Maybe try Moriarty (deep, dark, incensey) layered with Bordello (very fruity) to achieve what you're going for.

TKO is my top choice. I would love to have a massage with oil scented with TKO, it's delectable, relaxing and just so very good. Sudha Segara is a wonderful spa-like fragrance, very soothing, very high end smelling. Embalming Fluid, Shanghai and Manhattan are lovely, soothing yet refreshing. I would stay away from anything floral, foody, earthy, heavy or spicy.

I love the apothecary bottles. Fancy bottles would drive the Labs costs up and that would make BPAL collecting more costly to us. Where else can one get such a variety of high quality fragrances for such a steal?

"Many things -- such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly -- are done worst when we try hardest to do them." Sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, shea oil, coconut milk, witch hazel, French lavender essential oil, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Elixir blend. The TKO bomb smells just like the elixir straight from the bottle. Very heavy for it's size, it made such a beautiful plonking sound when I dropped into the hot water-filled tub. Good fizzing and really lovely water softening qualities. Being enveloped in a tub scented with a Panacea elixir is very different from dabbing a bit on, it gets into your pores and just works its magic. I soaked until the water turned cool, because I didn't want to leave the embrace of the soft and soothing lavender vanilla. Oh, sigh. The TKO tub was medicine for a really bad day. The only problem was it turned me to such goo, I had no idea how I was going to get from the tub to the bed. I slept very well that night. Deep, quiet, happy sleep.

I fear the chocolate and the cherry scents, they never work for me. I didn't order this because of them. I was able to swap for a bottle because I was interested in trying it out. The label is adorable. I don't get any chocolate or cherry. I'm getting the scent of cinnamon graham crackers and it's very nostalgic and comforting. I may keep this bottle and cellar it for holiday time because it's definitely not a spring or summer scent.

Mad Sweeney! Don't wear this scent and drive. You'll blow over the legal limit. I'd say that this scent may just be the ticket if a girl is trying to land herself a British husband. It smells like the most warm and sensual glass of very expensive Scotch whiskey.

I sampled Anaconda, posted my review and then went back and read the other reviews that had been posted as well as the comments in "Anyone Tried It?" I realize that noses and skin chemistry can be vastly different but I was surprised to see so many comparisons to Sugar Skull, but I didn't find the two scents to be similar beyond their both being sweet scents. I decided to do a side by side to see if my nose was playing tricks on me. I applied the Anaconda to my left wrist and the same amount of SS'04 to my right. Wet on skin~ Anaconda is a rich, smoky brown sugar bruleé scent. SS'04 is screamingly sweet but a very bright sweetness like sticking one's nose into a newly opened bag of white granulated sugar. Dry down~ Anaconda begins to sweeten up even more, brown sugar bubbling away in a hot sauté pan and then adding Snake Oil to the molten sweet mixture. This scent stays close to the body and the longer it's on my skin, some musky earthiness starts to develop. SS'04 also intensifies in sweetness but on a bright, white scale. Also I can start to smell the candied fruits lending a lovely purple hue to this stunner. This baby has tons of throw and seems to be gaining power the longer it dries on my skin. This scent doesn't morph much from the wet stage as it dries down. A few hours later~ Anaconda morphed into a sweet tobacco scent mingling with hints of the original Snake Oil. Much of the sweetness has gone leaving a soft smoky, almost musky scent. Still deep, still sexy. SS'04 is still throwing tons of white sweetness and candied fruits but now there is the slightest burnt edge peeking out. But this is white sugar bruleé. This morning~ I can still smell the Sugar Skull's faint fruity sweetness with a touch of the burnt sugar edge. Anaconda was just a lovely memory even by bedtime. Analysis of experiment~ Even though I got a touch of the burnt sugar edge in Sugar Skull after the long dry down, these scents are still completely different to my nose. The tobacco, brown sugar and Snake Oil components vs. the white sugar and fruits make these scents on the opposite ends of the scent-spectrum. One being bright white and then turning into an almost glowing purple scent, the other being rich golden brown with burnt black edges. I would say that the brown sugar aspect of Anaconda is much more similar to the brown sugar goodness in Monster Bait: Underpants. I enjoyed this experiment. If you have both scents available to you, try it out, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Coral Snake just screams bushel of apples! In the bottle, on the skin, on the long drydown it's all apples all the time. This scent is going to be cellared until September. I just know that 7 months of aging is going to turn this into the most amazing autumn blend ever.

This is a very soft, berry like scent. It's pleasant, not overly fruity which is a very good thing. I don't get any smokiness or spiciness that I was hoping for. Australian Copperhead stays very close to my skin, not much morphing or throw going on. I'm wondering if some aging might bring out some depth and smokiness.

Champaca is not one of my favorite notes and, unfortunately, it overwhelms this blend. It's a thick smell, that's almost fruity. I can't find the glory that is Snake Oil here, this blend isn't for me.

I loath the smell of vetiver, don't even want to put it on my skin. But I gave Death Adder the benefit of the doubt because it's Snake Oil with black coconut and vanilla ! Where is my vanilla? Where is my coconut? Where is my Snake Oil? Vetiver is just too aggressive. If I didn't know better, I would think that this is a bottle of vetiver single note. I need to wash it off.

As much as I adore chocolate and the scent of Beth's chocolate scents in the vials, chocolate scents smell literally like an unclean backside on my skin. But this scent may be an exception because of the Snake Oil. This oil smells like thick, rich, dark, fudgy cake frosting in the bottle. And it looks like dark chocolate cake frosting when you apply it. I get the chocolate assfunk just as it starts to dry and the Snake Oil starts to make its presence known. The Snake Oil is whipping the chocolate into submission. I think I might be able to wear this.

Chaos Theory scents aren't available as imps, the imp to which you are referring is most likely a decant. The Chaos Theory scents are hand blended by Beth and then randomly assigned numbers when labeled, so even Beth doesn't know which one is which. Check in reviews to see if anyone has reviewed that particular scent, then you can estimate what notes might be in it and go from there. (Just don't PM the reviewers as panhandling isn't cool.)

I'm working my way through the Snake Pit and Habu is the first one that is not working for me. The aquatic sourness of the bamboo is overwhelming and the black musk is very sharp. I didn't think that Snake Oil could be eclipsed by anything, but I can't find it in this little bottle.

It's no big secret that I do not like leather scents. But I can't tell that there is any leather in here. Western Diamondback is reminiscent of Snake Oil blended with White Light. It's very heavy on the tonka, with wisps of sandalwood and sage, we have a gorgeous warm and soothing blend. Love.

Pow! That thick, heady cherry almond scent hits you straight out of the bottle. It settles back to a rich amaretto scent when dry. The longer drydown reveals the Snake Oil components, a touch of orange blending with deep almond. It's very moreish and almond lovers will rejoice.

Wow. Snake Oil only green. Banded Sea Snake has the same vibe as the Fantasy Bath scent "Into the Green." It's got the hypnotic earthiness of Snake Oil but blended with a deep, dark and herbal quality. I didn't think I would like it as aquatics never work for me. But this, for me, is definitely not aquatic, but has a damp quality that is often associated with fresh moss. Really beautiful, soothing and even a bit somber.

I can't believe how gorgeously perfect Cottonmouth is. I can't stop smelling my wrist. It's hypnotic, romantic, creamy and pink. Yes, pink! Creamy and pink with a rich brown underbelly. Beautiful, sweet, creamy, rich, romantic, vanilla floral. With a delicately deep and spicy edge. This is LOVE.

Wow, the polar opposite of Saw Scaled Viper, Green Tree Viper is so minty and tingly. *shivers* You can really detect how many different layers of mint this scent has. I'm getting the Andes mint vibe, it's very potent. With the exception of peppermint, I've not found a minty BPAL scent that has really worked on me. But I'm loving this. The mint stays tingly as the creaminess of the Snake Oil starts to peek out. Nice! This is going to be a perfect scent for summer in the ATL.

Smooth, sweet and rich, but in a different way that Snake Oil is smooth, sweet and rich. I don't always have good luck with incensey blends, but this is one gorgeous blend. The orris is lending a sweet floral edge that is keeping the incense from going sharp, which is oft my biggest skin chemistry issue with incense blends. King Cobra is smoky but with a rich roundness, very sensual and comforting.

Whoa! Right out of the bottle, Saw Scaled Viper smell just like the taste of burning hot Ginger Altoids. Evil, evil ginger. I put the tiniest dab on the top of my right hand hours ago, having done dishes and washed my hands several times in between, the spot on my hand is still red hot and burning. The skin below my neck is pretty much made of asbestos. At the moment, I can smell faint ginger and just the suggestion of Snake Oil hiding beneath. Where is my cinnamon Snake Oil? I'm hoping with a bit of age, the Snake Oil component with intensify, the ginger will mellow and submit to the cinnamon. If you are of the delicate skin variety, please be careful where you apply this oil.