(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

There are plenty of pre-prepared meal services out there, and while some might consider them somewhat of a lazy man's solution they're really not much different from dining out. Plus, often times you can get inspiration for your own cooking. Sometimes the meals even taste good.

The Caveman's Kitchen hit both of those last points really quite well. As the name suggests, the meals follow the paleo diet -- paleo/zone specifically -- and we'll leave it up to you to decide how you feel about that.

To us, the real clincher is the quality of the food, as these meals are hella good. So good I use "hella" to describe them.

Every ingredient is of high quality. "Grass-fed", "free-range", and "organic" are keywords used to describe their meals, and we can see why. Everything here has a fresh flavor to it.

Furthermore, the variation of the meals is impressive. Personal favorites so far have been the Puerto Rican beef, and the cauliflower breadsticks. The zuppa Toascana was excellent, and I rediscovered my love for artichokes through a chicken dish.

Pre-prepared meals might not be something most will subscribe to for extended periods. That's fine and understandable. But having some meals around during busy periods can be worthwhile, particularly when the meals are hella good, and healthy too. (We're not going to say carbs are bad or whatever, but it doesn't take a genius to supplement these meals with a potato.)

The Caveman's Kitchen has a few different ways to customize meals -- for individuals, couples, etc. -- and they deliver to local CrossFit gyms. Check out their Facebook page for prices and more information.

There aren't many pre-made meal services we'd recommend, but the Caveman's Kitchen has delivered some great meals to us. Give them a try if you're in the market for that type of service.

Do you follow Donald Trump on Twitter? No? Well, we don't blame you, but his self-indulgent, bizarre tweets really do lend themselves well to a drinking game.

Take a shot...

... whenever he quotes himself or his books.

... for every mention of how horrible wind power is. Take an additional shot if it's in context with his golf course in Scotland.

... for every mention of a person and/or media outlet he feels has wronged him. Double the shot for every consecutive tweet about the subject. Triple if, in his opinion, the outlet is dying. Quadruple if Rosie O'Donnell is somehow involved.

... when a tweet about himself includes the hashtag "#midastouch".

... whenever he tweets about how poor the Republicans are at negotiating. Do a second shot when he mentions how they should have taken lessons from him.

... every time both "Celebrity Apprentice" and "record setting" are mentioned in a tweet.

That's pretty much all he tweets about. In fact, just finish the bottle when you finally un-follow him, because, good lord, the man takes narcissism to a new level.

First, if you use "#snowkane" or, indeed, "#snokane" on Twitter, you're probably dead to us.

In completely other news, and by "news" we mean "things we're catching up on", Trickster's Brewing Company has opened its doors in Coeur d'Alene. The brewery seems to go a bit of a different route than most younger breweries by concentrating on smaller beers. In other words, don't expect beers that toss you to the ground while slapping you.

We briefly sampled a few sips of their brown -- dumbly enough after drinking one of the aforementioned big ones -- and we found it both interesting and promising. Go explore yourself in Coeur d'Alene: Their address is 3850 N. Schreiber Way, and more information can be found at their Facebook page.

And if you don't want beer, try coffee. Lucky Lab Coffee is in the process of marrying two current crazes surrounding good coffee, and mobility. (Two different crazes, mind you.) That's right, a coffee truck. There's a good deal of information on their website, and make sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook too.

To quote something Barry tweeted a few weeks ago: "Strongly believe this year was a turning point for Spokane, 20 years from now we'll look back and see it came of age in 2012."

We think that might just be spot on.

Is 2013 all about the $100 Mac & Cheese Challenge? It sure seems that way, and if you need a reminder about its origins...

... well, there you go.

Central Food recently put a mac and cheese on their menu, one that's a bit more unique than any of the other ones we've tried so far, and different, at least flavor wise, from how we remember Blaine's previous dish at Latah Bistro.

The actual mac and cheese is fairly basic: you simply have penne pasta in a cheese sauce, with the addition of breadcrumbs and spinach. Nothing wrong with that, and with a flavorful cheese and well-prepared pasta, the mac and cheese part is very good in its own right.

What makes this dish different is the duck. Now, duck in mac and cheese is something a bit out of the ordinary in itself, but as we had expected the duck to be incorporated into the dish, instead of being on top of it... Well, we were surprised.

To me it made sense putting the duck breast on top; it's flavorful, apparently house cured, and now you can mix and match the duck and mac and cheese to your own liking. It's not that different from having duck served on top a heap of, say, mashed potatoes. It's just a whole lot more hearty.

For some it might be a bit of a letdown not to have the duck mixed in the same way we've seen chicken used countless times. I can understand that. But with a nicely prepared duck like this, I, at least, feel Central Food went the right direction with this. The duck and mac and cheese compliment each other well, and it's not like this is a random pairing.

In that sense, the dish works on many levels. Be it duck and mac and cheese; mac and cheese and duck; duck in mack & cheese... It's like a LEGO set of mac and cheese. And duck.

We like it, and you should, if nothing else, be intrigued by it.

Update: @3reeka says it now has ribs on it. Ribs! Craziness!

(Photo by Jeremy Williamson, totally used without permission.)