SKAGGS

If, like us, you’re addicted to Hell’s Kitchen, Iron Chef, Top Chef, and you watch the Food Network religiously (we understand), then we’ve got a treat in store: a grilled chicken recipe by SKAGGS’ very own Joe Guzman. We’ve had so many requests for this during cookout season that we decided it deserves its very own one-off feature. Enjoy!

Serves a bunch of fairly hungry folks, and just a few VERY hungry folks.

For Brine:
3 Cups Water
2 Cups Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar or Spenda
2 Tablespoons Whole Black Peppercorns
4 Lemons halved
1 Head of Garlic Cut in Half
2 Standard Refrigerator Trays of Ice

For Marinade/Sauce:
1 Can Chipotle Chiles in Adobo
1 Bunch of Cilantro or Culantro Roughly Chopped
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Medium Onion Roughly Chopped
2 Tablespoons Ground Cumin
1 Tablespoon Chipotle Chili Powder
1 Packet of Goya Sazón con Achiote
Juice of 2 Limes
Salt + Pepper to taste

3 pounds skinless chicken breasts or thighs.

For Brine:
Combine all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil until salt and sugar are melted. Add Ice then cool in refrigerator.

For Marinade/Sauce:
Combine Chipotles, Onion, Cumin, Chili Powder, and Sazón in a Food Processor or Blender and process until smooth.
Then add the remaining ingredients until a paste forms. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside roughly 1/4 of the mixture to use for dipping/basting.

For Chicken:
Once Brine is cooled add chicken and allow to soak for at least a half hour and at most an hour and a half. Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse with cool water. Add the chicken to a Zip-top bag and cover with the Marinade. Place the chicken in the fridge and allow to marinate overnight.

Set up your grill for medium high heat and indirect cooking (for a charcoal grill, place all of the coals on one side of the grill, for a gas grill, light the flame on the side of the grill opposite the chicken). Cover the grill and grill the chicken until cooked through (internal temperature of 180). Then remove from grill and baste with reserved sauce, or set aside for dipping.

Serve with a cold Brooklyn Lager and enjoy.

And me too, and me too…

that’s the attitude and service we received from FedEx Kinkos’s while hiring them for a paid “test run” of poster for our client. Meanwhile, they’ve potentially lost a 1/2 million dollar job due to lack of managing their custumer service and quality control. I recently read that “Kinkos’s wasn’t doing too great…” I wonder why?

In an age where smaller businesses are ruling the roost and home printers have fantastic print quality, Kinkos’ business decline is no surprise! In my opinion, they need a big change in employee attitude and large modifications to their operations, NOT a new tagline or advertising campaign. This is a common and frustrating mistake with large corporations; instead of looking at the company internally and fixing the decay, they seek “new, shiny and expensive veneers” in the form of headline grabbing rebrands and “innovative” marketing. While they might attract the business, maintaining it is going to be a problem if you haven’t got informed and proactive employees. Did you know that consumers are 50% more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads and I’m quite certain we all know that stories of bad experiences spread far more quickly than good ones.

I’m not sure about the rest of the country, but I know for a fact that Kinko’s reputation in New York City is pretty much known for “bad service, unhelpful and/or un-informed staff. It’s a love/hate relationship - you usually end up HAVING to use them, because there’s nobody else available for your last minute or convenient job. You just have to grit your teeth and put up with the poor service. At SKAGGS we call this “Duane Reade Syndrome” (don’t even get me started on that).

Does anyone else agree?
If any Kinko’s employees or Kinko’s corporates are reading this, please feel free to enlighten me — I look forward to hearing from you.

I haven’t had much opportunity to travel extensively through America, but every time I do get the chance, I absolutely love it. Why? Because I see the most random stuff ever!
Take for example a trip I took a few months ago for an ad campaign we shot for Skanska in Ohio.
As Cole Ruth (Communications and Brand Manager at Skanska USA) and I headed down the highway at night we saw Jesus…literally. All 62ft and 42ft wingspan of him.
Read the rest of this entry »

We have several “Eagle Eyes” at SKAGGS and we totally understand the importance of having work proof read, although you’ve probably noticed a few typos on the blog. I have an insanely bad habit of being liberal with the comma. Not sure why…maybe because I’ve yet to fully grasp its correct usage. Anyway, I came across illustrator David Lanham. He was commissioned to do an illustration for Weiner + Weiner, a German company that specializes in proof-reading copy for publications.

It roughly says, “A comma in the wrong place can be a dangerous thing”.

I love the comma carnage, it absolutely cracks me up. See the full piece here.

About 2 years ago, I added the title of this post to my email signature. I don’t recall having seen this before and it just seemed like a logical thing to do given the amount of emails I see printed out at meetings and being read by people on the subway as they head home from work. I’m also happy to see that this phrase, or variations of it, seem to be in the footer of nearly every email I receive these days. It shows that people are taking an interest in saving natural resources and I just hope everyone is heeding there own advice.

Now if we can just figure out a way to get people to stop including those ridiculous, paper and screen real estate wasting confidentiality notices! Do they really make a difference and does anyone really care?

With their decadent confetti made of diced dollar bills (totaling a hundred dollars) to their S*** From Paris (a company dedicated in collecting, recycling and selling Parisian dog defections), it’s kind of difficult to describe what they do. I guess you could say that French duo Ivan Duval and Jean Sebastien Ides are in the business of ideas. They create/invent wonderfully quirky but well designed products, some of which is available to buy on their site. A good resource for off beat gifts methinks.

Why must people continue to do cool things that I wish I had done?!

In advertising and design you’re constantly told by the client and your inner Mad Man to think like the audience…It seems in their pursuit of ultimate audience thinking Via Group really did go the whole hog. Their work on the new Maidenform backless bra ad seems to prove this. I’m not sure what bothers me most…The dudes in bras, the fact that their “bras were too small for interns” comment was a little sexist (I don’t think I got the joke) or that the creative group seemed to be all men - working on a women’s ad. Maybe the “chicks” were off that day?
Joke sexism aside, it’s good to see creatives so passionate about thinking like the audience.

Just a word of warning to anyone that has gotten used to the stagnation of my blog page.

It’s ending.

Prepare for a flood of posts.

 
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”