Long Time, No See

So, it's been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and write something to go on here (mainly because I'm finally done with classes), but I decided that with Christmas and the other snowbound holidays approaching, it was time to return once again to the world of Beer.

The fact that I haven't been blogging should not in any way suggest that I haven't been partaking in tasty beverages lately. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Winter is my favorite time of year for beers. Something about the cold weather makes it the perfect time to smash as many dark ales as possible. To make up for the long Beer-Reviewless Draught, I will attempt to paint a word picture of the magical Beer Journey I have taken over the past months.

For the sake of this blog entry, I will touch on a few of the beers (both good and bad) that I have tried recently. They are (from most tasty to least tasty):

1. Sweetwater Festive Ale,

My Current favorite beer. So good! Caramel, Malt, and chocolate flavors as well as a sweet spiciness. Tastes like Christmas! The best part is that this beer isn't super hoppy which I expected from Sweetwater. AND it's 9% abv.

2. Lips of Faith Clutch

A really neat dark beer from New Belgium's Small Batch Lips of Faith series. The first time I actually had this beer was in Charleston, SC and I love it. Its dark brown in color and has a slightly sour kick at the back end. It's labeled a Dark Sour Beer, but is in fact a blend of dark beer AND sour beer.

3.Left Hand Fade to Black #3

A great porter from Left Hand Brewing's small batch Series Fad to Black. #3 is a pepper porter. Its dark, thick and has quite the peppery bite to it without giving too much of a burn.

4. Shiner Cheer

This is the beer I'm going to have at my wedding. Cheer is a Dunkelweiss with flavors of peach and pecan. Although different from the traditional dark and heavy winter brews, this light tasty beer is a great holiday option.

5. Breckinridge Vanilla Porter

Sweet. For those of you who don't like your beers to have a touch of sweetness, this beer is not for you. The flavor of the vanilla bean comes through very strongly. I personally loved it, but I could see how it could be too much for stout and porter purists.

6. Sweetwater Exodus

My current favorite of Sweetwater's non-seasonals. This is just a really good porter. Its not to much or too little of anything. It's got a thick head and a great aroma.

7. Red Brick Porter

Not as good as Exodus. Red Brick's Porter is easily the best beer that they produce year round; however, it's somewhat unremarkable.

8. Sweetwater Happy Ending

Not my favorite. Sweetwater's "Imperial Stout" should actually be labelled an American Stout. This is the happiest stout I've ever had. I bought the beer because I wanted a stout. Not an IPA.

9. Anchor Steam Christmas Ale

One of the weirdest beers I've ever tasted. The 2011 Christmas Ale smells and tastes like potpourri. If you love the smell and/or taste of potpourri, be my guest, but for me? No thanks.

10. Dogfish Head SahTea

Yuck. This beer was such a good idea. It smells amazing. And the idea of combining Tea and Beer? Brilliant. Too bad it tastes really nasty.

Quote of the Day after Thanksgiving 11/25/11

"I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land."

-Jon Stewart

Happy Turkey Shopping Hangover Day!

Quote of the Day 11/14/11

Thanksgiving is coming: only 10 days away! It's time for a little turkey inspiration!

"I love Thanksgiving turkey... it's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts."

-Arnold Schwarzenegger (Thomas' personal idol)

Bourbon Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes

For those of you wanting to make your own seasonal milkshakes (as seen in those delicious photos in the previous posts), here is the recipe that The Hungry People followed. The original recipe can be found here on the How Sweet It Is blog.

Bourbon Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes

- 2 cups vanilla ice cream

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1/4 cup cream or half-and-half

- 1 tbsp vanilla extract

- 2/3 cup pureed pumpkin

- 1/2 tbsp pumpkin spice [or you can substitute nutmeg & cinnamon like ATHP]

- 2 to 3 oz of bourbon

- sprinkles for decorating the glass rims [ATHP used turbinado sugar]

Mix up all those lovely ingredients (minus the sprinkles) in a blender and garnish with a beautiful sugar rim! Enjoy!

And thank you to Sydney for hosting our Pumpkin Extravaganza.

Westbrook Brewery

We drank a lot of beers. Some were better than others. But they were all, for the most part, delicious.

Here are the reviews from Christine:

Coffee Stout: "It kind of kicks you in the face with coffee flavor."
White Thai: "Christine had no comment"
Vanilla Tree: "So goooood! Very sweet, but not overwhelming. Awesome"
Citrus Ninja: The only IPA Sydney will ever drink.
Habenero Stout: AFTERRRBURRRRN
Saison: "Light, refreshing, no after taste. Easy to drink a lot of"
Imperial Stout: "A stout. Hooray."

These reviews were written while/after consuming mass quantities of alcohol, hence their brevity and strangeness.

PumpkinPalooza Part 1

 Bourbon and Pumpkin Spice Milkshakes!

 Fezzik is a fan.

Pumpkin Ravioli Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

For The Filling:

• 1 Two To Three Pound Pumpkin
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• 1 Onion
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 2 tsp Ground Sage, or 6-7 leaves fresh sage, chopped
• 2 Tbsp Honey
• 4 oz Goat Chevre
• Salt & Pepper, to taste

For The Pasta:

• 2¼ cups Flour
• ⅓ cup Water
• 2 Eggs
• Tablespoon Olive Oil
• Pinch of Salt

DIRECTIONS: 

Filling:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Quarter pumpkin and remove all seeds (set these aside and you can toast them!)Place pumpkin face down on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 30-60 minutes, or until a dull knife pierces the flesh easily (the skin may still be tough). When pumpkin is cooked, be sure to let it cool some so you don't burn yourself!

2. Meanwhile, pour yourself a cup of tea or glass of wine, and get started on prep work. Dice the onion finely, mince the garlic.

3. Cook onions and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When Onions just start too look clearish, add sage, garlic and honey. Remove from heat

4. Using a large spoon, remove the flesh of the pumpkin from the skin. Mash pumpkin with a fork (or toss it in a food processor)and stir into the onion mixture.

5. While mixture is still slightly warm, stir in Goat Chevre and mix until everything looks creamy and delicious. Add Salt and pepper to taste. Cover and set aside.

Pasta:

6. Combine flour, water, eggs, olive oil and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until it becomes too solid to stir.

7. Remove dough from bowl and knead on a clean, floured surface for a few minutes, until the dough has a smooth texture. You can use a pasta machine, or simply roll your dough with a rolling pin either way you want your dough to be thin enough that you can see the shape of your hand through it when you hold it.

Putting it all together:

8. Working on a floured surface, Start with two pieces of pasta, one slightly longer than the other. Using a spoon, place small dollops of filling in rows on the smaller piece of pasta - leave about 3/4" between drops of filling.

9. Starting at one side, gently lay the larger piece of pasta over the other, pushing it down onto the bottom piece of pasta in between each of the lumps of filling (if the pasta is too dry and won't stick, use a pastry brush and water to moisten it slightly). There is a bit of a learning curve here, but don't worry because this ravioli is always well received, even if it looks ridiculous!

10. Cut the ravioli apart from each other with a sharp knife, to be extra sure they'll stay together, and for a decorative touch, use a fork (or one of those fancy ravioli rollers) to crimp the edges

11. Put the ravioli in boiling water and remove with a slotted spoon as they begin to float.

 For the sauce, Sean and I went a little crazy. We browned some butter and sage and added some Alfredo sauce and these sundried tomato and garlic chicken sausages. It was pretty decadent.

 The final product, aka Pumpkin Overload

And then we carved some pumpkins.

 Pumpkin Carvings.

Of course, Ron Swanson has to make an appearance on the ATHP blog.


Happy (belated) Halloween!

Quote of the Day 11/8/11

Today's food quote is something I found a long time ago written on the wall of an airport Food Court (CLE, to be exact). I like it enough to ignore the fact that I don't really like Virginia Woolf. And the fact that she killed herself. I mean, who commits suicide by drowning? 
Obviously, she never read All The Hungry People.