It has been two weekends since I posted a food blog and the list of consumed item would make this blog a bit too long. So, let’s focus on the really good stuff. To be different today, I am going to go backwards. Yesterday was my birthday and usually I fix something expensive and rarely served. My initial thought was seared foie gras with caramelized onions and 12 year old balsamic vinegar. But as I considered that and other alternatives, I decided to update the birthday dinner my mother would have prepared for me. I fixed fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. The update was to brine the chicken in salt, pineapple, lemon and lime juice. It was excellent. The mac and cheese was made with gemilli pasta and the traditional béchamel sauce mixed with a few ounces of rich tomato sauce or gravy. The result was fantastic! Another side dish that proved to be very good was to roast small white potatoes in duck fat with salt, pepper and thyme. Then cover them with raclette cheese and return them to the oven. The result is a very rich and satisfying potato dish. Finally, the recipe of the week, seafood pizza. I both order and make pizza but our favorite way to enjoy pizza is to make it ourselves. The seafood pizza begins with a mix of tomato gravy and crème fraiche. The toppings included lobster, lump crab and wild mushrooms. The cheeses were fresh made mozzarella and provolone. These were selected to avoid overpowering the seafood. Finally, after removing the pizza and just prior to serving it, I garnished the entire pizza with salmon roe/caviar. I strongly suggest trying this recipe, Seafood Pizza. Enjoy!

Pizza, as ordered by Cisco

I decided upon the recipe of the week several days ago but was surprised that the lead story on Light Reading was about Cisco, Juniper and pizza. Apparently, Cisco believes that Juniper over promises and under delivers. I really don’t want to get in the middle of that debate as Broadvox utilizes products from both companies in our network and we recently made a commitment to deploy Cisco’s Hosted Collaboration Solution to update our Unified Communications offering. However, the notion of over promising and under delivering (OPUD) is one that we all need to avoid as we market our products and solutions.

OPUD is as unwelcomed as FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) when it comes to providing prospects and customers the information required to make good decisions. OPUD and FUD usually cannot camouflage the truth about a company or products forever but they can sometimes cloud the issue long enough to sway buyers into making the wrong decision. In such cases, the offending vendor then has to work doubly hard to satisfy the customer while rebuilding trust and the vendor’s reputation. There are better ways to win business than engaging in OPUD and FUD.

I’ll be in Austin in a few hours for IT Expo. Stop by booth #807 for a quick meet and greet. Perhaps, we can even do business together. I promise no OPUD or FUD on my pizza.