Without sounding like a classic “I haven’t posted in a long time and need a lengthy post to describe how sorry I am”, I’m just going to say that I have a lot of yummy recipes and stories and pictures to share from the past 10 months that we’ve “been off” and that’s going to be happening>here.
Today was less of a meal, mostly because I don’t remember ever eating but we have pictures so I guess we did, as it was an awesome beer experience! Friend and loyal follower of YOTM Andy, celebrated his birthday with a trip to Petaluma to visit Lagunitas and Santa Rosa to visit Russian River. Andy’s friends Parker and Wes were visiting from Chicago where Parker works at a major beer bar that sells Lagunitas. Because of this connection Parker knows some people who work at Lagunitas and said we might get a tour.
Erica and I meet everyone in San Francisco after they had all had breakfast at the Pork Store, which sounded delicious but we were not motivating that morning. The men all piled into the Rav4, which made stopping on the hills on SF interesting, and we drove across the bridge to Petaluma. Lagunitas is in what looks like an industrial park that backs up to the train tracks. Assuming you can find your way, they have a beautiful beer garden with food and every type of Lagunitas on tap. This weekend was the kick off of SF Beer Week and there was a beer called SF Fusion brewed just for this beer week. I started with a glass of Fusion and Erica lead off with Lil Sumpin Wild. The SF Fusion was delicious, super bitter and extremely hoppy. Erica’s Lil Sumpin was as always amazing. It was a beautiful afternoon and we sat out in the beer garden waiting for the guy Parker knew to show up.
Once he got there he took us into the bar in the brewery where he offered up the entire selection of Lagunitas for our choice. Andy and I split a bomber of Maximus a very appropriately named IPA. He then took us on a tour of the brewery walking us through the whole beer making process. At the end he poured us a taste from the Sacramento Fusion beer that was still fermenting. It was a day or two away from being really but it was really cool getting to taste it and it actually tasted really good. Too bad they aren’t selling these beers outside of beer week. After consuming more beer we finished our tour and hung out in the beer garden for a bit before heading off to Russian River. On a personal note, this was one of the coolest experiences of my entire life and Lagunitas offiially has my business.
Russian River was located in a more downtowny type area, and it was very crowded. We had 8 people in our party and waited about 15 min to get in. Once inside the service was really good, which was pretty amazing because of the amount of people that were there. I was excited for my first taste of the world famous Pliny the Younger Triple IPA. Russian River also has a Pliny the Elder Double IPA that is fairly easy to find, but it is almost impossible to find Pliny the Younger outside of the brewery. It was a big, hoppy beer but not too bitter and was extremely smooth, especially considering it is 10.84% ABV! This beer is trouble and it is probably for national safety that it is not distributed outside of the brewery.
The evening continued from, details fuzzy, but it was an amazing day. Happy Birthday Andy! No pressure but we expect you to top this next year.
Until next time…
Dave
So I have had this incredible craving for onion rings lately. I know, it’s horrible. They aren’t by any means a food I should be dreaming of, but I figured that if I was going to succumb to the craving, then best do it in the comfort of my own home and try my hand at making onion rings myself!
Now, I’m no stranger to a homemade fry station- I’ve seen my way through deep fried oreos, dumplings, marshmallows (no, that doesn’t work) and the usual suspects of french fries and pickles. But onion rings, done right, are an art form. So I had to do my research. I ended up settling for all powerful Martha and using this recipe with a few of my own little variations. The main reason this recipe looked the most appetizing was the addition of lemon (citrus!) and that I had the beer (SuperBowl) and Buttermilk (coleslaw from SB), so it ended up being a cheap recipe to boot!
It was really fun to make the onion rings. I don’t have the perfect fry station set up, but a bit of oil, a candy thermometer and a $1 store strainer make for a pretty good operation!
There’s my prep station. I only used one onion so as to not end up with extra rings which would be too tempting to eat.
Golden brown? Yes please!
Better make sure they taste okay…
I think they look just like Martha’s! I don’t have the ability to make them float in air like she does, but that’s just a small snag.
Served with sliced steak (grilled, not oven baked), mushroom and red wine sauce and the ol’ reliable of broccoli.
MMMmmmmmm. Enjoy!
Stay Tuned- post coming soon!
This was another easy dinner night. Also, in keeping with our theme this week- we were trying not to spend very much money and use what was in our fridge. Tonight’s meal cost us a total of $3.50!!! That might be a bit deceiving because we had many of the ingredients either in the fridge or pantry, but it was under $4 just the same.
We used:
So, Dave did a beautiful job cooking the steak using the sear-quickly-on-each-side-then-finish-in-the-oven method, which is a great way to evenly cook a steak and keep it nice and moist.
I cooked up the veggies in a pan after sauteing the mushies, onions and garlic (in the same pan). Then we made the rice according the package directions.
Once the steak came out and rested, we cut it into thin slices and served up a big helping of veggies with a small bit of rice. The steak was small, but it was the perfect serving size for two and the meal as a whole was delicious!
Oh, some low sodium soy sauce makes a great accompaniment to this dish. Enjoy! -e
The day after having a Super Bowl is one of the greatest food days in the whole world. You have tons of food, but the fun challenge is making a meal out it. We had tons of Erica’s delicious spinach ip leftover and veggies from the party. I picked up some chicken at the store and we made a delicious spinach stuffed chicken.
I marinated the chicken in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper, and a little herbs de provence. Tossed everything together with the chicken and let it marinate for about an hour in the fridge. Then I pulled the chicken out of the fridge, cut then lengthwise making a pocket, be sure not to cut through the other side. Now, because I always cut through the other side and then the cheese leaks out on the grill, I lined the inside of my chicken pocket with fresh spinach. I then stuffed the spinach dip in and tied the chicken with twine. I grilled over medium heat until they had cooked through and we were good to go.
We also had come good old fashioned broccoli and garlic bread on the side.
Until next time…
David
The day is upon us. Steelers vs. Packers. I could care less. What I do care about is spending an un-godly amount of time preparing food for my friends to come over and consume. PLUS! Today happens to be Slow Cooker Sunday. I got to choose again, and of course in honor of the biggest snack day of the year, I chose SPINACH DIP!!!!!
Here’s my recipe, and I also added green onions, 1/2 a chopped white onion and a few other special ingredients. I did also manage to almost finish making it (after about 1 hour in the crock pot), and not add in the cream cheese. My advice to you: you need the cream cheese, add it in no matter what.
Oh, and I added extra artichokes. Cuz that’s just how I roll.
This is BEFORE I discovered my cream cheese error.
How would you like to see all the other delicious treats that made it over to our table? Oh, you would? Fantastic!
Brian’s SausageFest. Complete with Dijon mustards.
I made popcorns for snackies. The one in the back has melted Sea Salt Chocolate and the one in the front is chili powder and lime.
The Lovely Laura made dueling Packers vs. Steelers Deviled Curry Eggs and was kind enough to share the recipe with us:
Hard boil 12 eggs
Combine with yolks:
Then she used a ziploc to pipe in the filling just to feel fancy ;)
I also made some out-of-this-world Mini Potato Bites. They are not only easy, but crowd pleasy! Haha.
Here’s what you need:
Preheat the oven to 350*. Wash, clean and dry all the potatoes and then in a large bowl, pour in enough olive oil to coat each little precious potato. Then roll each in a bit of salt and put on a baking sheet. Into the oven for 45-50 minutes and once you pull them out, set aside to cool.
In the meantime, combine and stir equal parts gorgie crumbles and sour cream.
Back to the potatoes, slice each one just down the middle, not all the way through. Using a pinching motion, open each potato. Top with the mixture, chives and pancetta, if desired.
YUM!!!!! Potato skins are so passe, this is sooooo, way more in.
Oh, and we made dueling ice creams, Green Bay Packers Mint Chip vs. Steelers Vanilla with team sprinkles. The Packers actually won in that match up.
Until SB 46! Heart,
e
It was time to get out on the town on Saturday night and that meant meeting up with our very best friends, and having a few adult beverages with the perfect bar food to accompany. Now, I know that this does not sound like a meal that we won’t repeat, but I guarantee that we won’t. This meal was from Tide House in Mt. View. Prepare for the gluttonous feast…
Sweet Potato Garlic Fries.
Achiote Quesadilla: Achiote (ah-chee-oh-tay) spiced chicken, pepper jack & diced green chilies; house made guacamole, Cascade Amber beer salsa.
Then we walked around a bit and found ourselves in need of wine and dessert. A trio oughta do the trick!
Canolli.
Creme Brulee.
Tiramisu.
So yeah, I think that it was a pretty low calorie night. There were 6 people sharing those desserts BTW. That’s okay, right?
Cheers! Heart,
e
