It's time for one of my favorite appetizers, Deviled Eggs!  This is one of those age old classics that never goes out of favor with party guests.  There are about a million deviled egg recipes out there, with anywhere from four to forty ingredients.  This recipe is relatively simple and while you can taste the bacon, it doesn't over power the original flavor of a true deviled egg.  Enjoy!

Okay, you're going to need this for an upcoming recipe.  It's an answer to an age old question:  How do you hard boil an egg?  I found this recipe somewhere and it's so easy.  I wish I could reference where I got it from.  If you are going to make deviled eggs, I suggest laying the eggs on their side in the refrigerator the night before.  This helps center the yolk.  This recipe works for any amount of eggs, so there are no adjustments to be made from 1 to a million.  Follow these steps:

We all have spice collections.  Whether we built them ourselves or received spice towers as gifts, we all have an assortment of spices in our cupboards and on our counters.  A lot of those spices might be unnecessary and some might be your go to seasoning.  But one things remains true, they are all going to lose potency over time.  Dry, leaf spices, like oregano and basil, will start to get weak about six months after opening.  Dry, powder spices, like paprika and cumin will last a little bit longer but not much.  So that bottle of mint on your rack that you used two years ago and haven't touched since?  Yeah, it probably tastes like paper.

So, when managing your kitchen pantry, it's important to keep up the "flow of spice".  You need to use up your spices before they go 'bad'.  You can still used them when they get weaker but you're going to have to use more and it still won't taste as good as before.  You'll end up spending more money on spices but your meals will be better for it.  There are few things you can do to keep up your flow of spice.  First, use a Sharpie to date every spice after you open it.  Second, keep your spice collection small.  If you don't cook a lot, you don't need to have tumeric and saphron taking up space in your pantry.

Lastly, try new things with your spices.  One day, I found out how good nutmeg is in a tuna fish sandwich, just because I was trying to use up my nutmeg.  Don't be afraid to try new things.  I'll also be posting some articles about how you can augment your lazy cooking(canned soups, frozen pizza, etc...) with the spices in your pantry.

Ah, Chipotle, also known as Hipster Crack.  I haven't been to a Chipotle in over 15 years.  I have a handful of friends who work for and love this company to death and still I don't go.  Well, I figured it was time to see what the fuss was all about.  As I've said, it's been 15 years since I went to a Chipotle and I don't remember anything from the experience.  But I've had a $15 gift card in my dresser for almost 2 years now, so I figured it was time.  Hopefully, the card was enough to cover the bill.

I came up with this recipe out of nowhere.  I sort of knew how to make Shrimp Scampi but I'm not a huge seafood fan.  I can handle shrimp every once in awhile, but it's not an every week thing for me.  My wife loves garlic, thus she loves Shrimp Scampi.  At the time of this recipe's creation, we were just dating and I wanted to impress her and still enjoy the meal.  So, I came up with this.  Basically, I ripped out the shrimp and added chicken breast.  Then I added bacon because, well, bacon makes everything better.  The recipe has changed a lot over the years, but it's still her favorite, even when I screw it up.

When most people really get into hot sauce, odds are they have only been using one sauce their whole lives.  Maybe they grew up in the South and only got a taste of Crystal.  Perhaps their parents were from Mexico, so they had a bottle of Valentina in the cupboard.  Or maybe their parents didn't like hot sauce, so they've only tried Tobasco, easily available everywhere.  Then they tried something new.  Maybe it was hotter or maybe it had better flavor, but it was better and they became inspired to try even more sauces.  Thus begins the journey for most Chile Heads.  And every Chile Head has their favorite that they will try and convince you is better than your stand by.  I've seen a ton of articles and blogs on the web attempt to rank the best hot sauces out there.  Truth be told, hot sauce is just like beer and wine, in that, no one sauce is best for everything.  Different types of hot sauces pair better with different types of foods.  Variety is the spice of life and this is no truer than with hot sauce.

So, consider this your awesome hot sauce users guide.  To qualify this list, I will tell you that I am a Chile Head who not only goes after heat, but after flavor.  At one point in my life, I had no less than 30 hot sauces in my fridge.  That's paired down a bit in the past few years.  This list only includes sauces I like to use regularly and with food that I want to taste, sorry, no seafood.  There are no boutique sauces on here and no variant sauces, such as Cholula Garlic(although, yum!).  There are no extremely hot sauces because this is about pairing a hot sauce with a food to enhance it's flavor(and give it a kick of course).

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Okay, time for our first recipe here at Social Eject, Southwest Ranch Dip.  This a zesty twist on your basic Ranch Dip.  They now sell packets of a similar style but it's a lot funner to do your own.  This will spice up any party without actually burning out the guests.  Enjoy!