For those of you who do not live in Canada and do not know President’s Choice, let me introduce you! You may have noticed their products in many of my food photographs because I find that they are high quality for less price than large brand name companies. I do not buy pre-packaged food very often but I do trust this company and was excited to have the opportunity to review many of their exciting brand new products!
The PC Thick Cut Ballpark Hot Dog Flavour Rippled Potato Chips were exciting for me to try. Chips are one of my favourite things in the whole world and I allow myself to eat some once or twice a year. Tangy! Savory! Smokey! These really do taste like hot dogs but with the works, including relish. There is a distinct dill pickle tang which made my knees weak. I absolutely love these chips but then I love big and bold flavours. My husband liked them too but later got a stomach ache from the MSG. I eat pre-packaged food so rarely I forgot to check the ingredients. Sorry Sweetie!
I was really excited to try the PC New World EVOO Extra-Virgin Olive Oil. I usually use their Splendido brand of olive oil and we love it in our favourite salad. I figured that would be the perfect way to test the olive oil since I make this salad almost every week:
This spinach and strawberry salad felt like there was something missing. I believe the olive oil is so neutral that it just does not have the depth of the Splendido olive oil. For people who do not like strongly flavoured olive oils but want that single and cold-pressed quality, this is the olive oil for you.
I have never had sliders before. Those trendy mini burgers I see on foodie shows all the time look fabulous but who needs the hassle of figuring out what to do about those mini buns? Well President’s Choice has taken care of that issue. Their Slider Thins Mini Burger Buns are a stroke of genius! They even have some whole wheat in them so you can feel less guilty about indulging in some carbs. I was very excited to get out my grill and start making some mini burgers and grilled veggies for dinner:
The PC Angus Sliders – Mini Angus Beef Burgers looked way too big at first for the buns. I was also worried they would not cook all the way through from frozen in three minutes per side. So I cooked them for four minutes and they just kept looking juicier and juicer. I added some seasoning with the PC Barbecue Seasoning Grinder on top:
It took me forever to figure out how to use this thing! I saw that you could twist the top like you would a grinder but how did it work, really? After a while I saw that you could flip off the very top and then it made sense. You turn it upside down with that off and then turn the knob. It may seem obvious to you but not to me at all. The seasoning was lovely but that frustration? Not a lot of fun.
For my grilled vegetables I drizzled on some of the PC Glaze with Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and it was fantastic! Just enough flavour to bring out the fabulous summer flavours of the vegetables and add that tang I am always looking for. Even my husband who loathes all things vinegary loved it. I put less on his veggies in case he hated it and it turned out he wanted more. High praise indeed!
And the sliders? We LOVED them! I mean, LOVED them. They were so deliciously moist, perfectly cooked and the flavour so fantastic, I wished I had made myself more than just two! That is OK because I am going to make them again tonight, I loved them so much. These are a real treat that I will be indulging in this summer for sure. The burgers shrunk enough in size to perfectly fit in the buns and are just so darn cute!
President’s Choice is on tour across Canada right now and will be in my neck of the woods this week so I will definitely be showing up and celebrating summer’s approach with them. Click here for details.
So concludes part one of my PC product review and so far, in general, I am very impressed. And relieved! As much as I love cooking and baking from scratch, there are days my health will not allow me to do so and President’s Choice has made my life much easier.
Yes, you can trust President’s Choice to have quality products (unlike some other no-name house brands). Save-On Food’s Western Family is a good line too (I don’t know if you have that chain in the maritimes — but if you do, perhaps they call their house brand Eastern Family down there, ha ha!)
I am concerned about MSG. None of PC salad dressings say that they do not have MSG. Do you know?
I too am a big fan of PC products and will be trying some of their new stuff.
And how the heck did you get to be a tester? What a choice job!!
Huh – I contacted PC when we hosted our annual PC party in December and offered to become a tester but never heard anything more….
http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/2009/12/we-love-the-president/
Love your reviews though and am happy to live vicariously through you! We are using the mini slider buns today in cooking club to make Jamie Oliver’s cracking burgers!
We LOVE PC products! Some of the Blue Menu stuff is hit or miss but normally you can’t go wrong with their regular stuff.
I also love the variety of seasonal products! Yummers!
I bought a similar spice grinder – it’s Vanilla and Sugar and had the same problem figuring it out! I have to say though, these things last FOR AGES. I’ve had mine for longer than I can remember and I put that stuff in EVERYTHING – there’s only about 1/4 of it gone! Well worth the investment!!
I love PC products too and especially their commercials with Galen Weston 🙂
I’m still not convinced about the Hot Dog chips. They sound a little odd to me. But Loblaws was handing out free samples of the Sliders the other day and I loved them. They were so cute! They look great with your grilled veggies. Yum
Lucky you to get to try all these cool new products. We love our PC products as well, even my cats love their “Nutrition First” catfood (salmon and brown rice flavour)lol. The beauty of PC products as well is their “satisfaction guarantee”, if you don’t like it, they’ll refund your money. I’ve had a few duds and was able to return stuff in the past hassle free, they are also very curious and want feedback as to why the product was not satisfactory and what they can do to improve it. I like that attitude in a company.
I genrally like PC products…just bought the 63,000 dual cover dual gritll Barbeque, but i don’t feel that way about their food products.
You never know when you will get MSG hidden in something.
Barbeque sauces are ripe with MSG…labels as “SPICES”.
The blue label products claim to have a high level of purity, but don’t believe them.
Does Suzie know anything about MSG and its effects on 10-15% of the population…3-5 million Canadians, which is double those with peanut allergies and nobody does anything about it…or even knows they have the allergy.
Got unidentified headache & or serious gastrointestinal disturbance source…start your search now
Yes, I do know about MSG. My husband has big time MSG issues, it is tough, I know. I try and make most of my food but in general their products are better than other company’s most of the time.