Fire. Sticks. Meat. Dinner!

I'll admit it: I enjoy a few of humankind's most basic, primal pleasures. Namely, cooking things over a fire on a stick (what did you think I meant?). Because I so enjoy the finer art of cave-woman cookery, I consider myself pretty well-versed in all things cooking stick-related. But apparently, I'm still in the Stone Age. Just recently, it was brought to my attention that you can get flavor-infused cooking skewers: kabob skewers that have been pre-seasoned with everything from hickory smoke and honey bourbon, to Thai coconut lime and ginger mango. A cave-woman should be so lucky.

When I happened upon these modern marvels, of course I had to get some to try. Made by Callison's and simply called Seasoned Skewers, the packaging and marketing buzz claimed a well-seasoned meal was to be had simply by stabbing these sticks into the meat or veggies of your choice and giving them 15 minutes to do their thing. I got the hickory smoke flavor, and skewered away.

The steak kabobs I made were gussied up with a little spice rub and finished with a mopping of Guiness BBQ sauce, but I made a couple "control" kabobs of naked meat and naked veggies as well, to see how much flavor the skewers did, in fact, impart on their own.

Happy to report: the seasoned skewers did their job. The control kabobs came out with a nice smoky, hickory flavor. It wasn't very strong, but certainly it was there and did liven up their unseasoned subjects. The one downside that I found to these skewers was that they were so darn thick, that it was nearly impossible to string up the veggies. I had cut up some squash and mushrooms in very generous sizes, and still they split in half when I attempted to put them on the skewers. So, for what it's worth, if you want to give these seasoned skewers a try, you're better off just impaling meat. The caveman or woman in you will be proud.