Top Ten Holiday Beers

Story at NPR:

Top Ten Seasonal Beers.

Morning Edition, December 24, 2008 · Consider the libations of the season: Spiked eggnog. Mulled wine. What about a nice frosty Christmas beer?


Their list is okay... but how did they leave off Odell's Isolation Ale?

Tried Breckenridge Beer's Christmas Ale for the first time, which surprised me. It has cola notes but without the sweetness. With a porter or stout, I've never been fond of sweet additives... your vanilla porters or chocolate stouts don't do it for me. But BB's Christmas Ale is a completely different animal. Heavy but not thick, a bit of caramel but not syrupy or sweet.

To find seasonal beers in your part of the country, check out Season Beers dot org.

Prost!

Welcome Z-Man!

Just wanted to get some pix published.

Will fill y'all in on the details when we catch our breath.

Z's first photo album is here.

Parenting 101

We're so not ready for this. This is the only reading material we had in the house. To his credit, he seemed to enjoy it, although he told me that he found it a bit derivative of the work of Oates and Lowell.

File under "Stuff No One Tells You": Baby formula packaged at sea level and then shipped to the Mile High City will explode in your face, like a bad Nickolodian prank, when you open it.

Post-Thanksgiving Musings

Jambo, y'all,

Sitting here feeling very thankful — appropriate for the weekend following the fourth Thursday in November or any other weekend in which one has been surrounded by friends, family, and good food — so it seemed right to knock out a few words to the folks I haven't seen or talked to in far too long.

It's been a hectic summer and fall, and while I'm not crazy about the thought of scraping ice off of car windows and cleaning and drying dogs' paws after every trip outside, I am so ready for winter and it's slower days, longer nights, more time sitting by the fireplace, reading a good book and listening to Van Morrison, leisurely dinners over a hearty soup or stew and fresh bread, and in general a slower, more deliberate pace.

The big news is that Michele and I are officially certified as foster parents and have completed our training, inspections, home visits and home studies, and the various pokes and prods from government officials to make sure we're not just doing this because we need help with the dishes, vacuuming, and dog walking. It’s kind of crazy that just anyone can go and have a baby and the government doesn’t get involved one lick, and yet if you volunteer to help out where there most definitely is a need, then you get treated like an extra-terrestrial in a lab at Area 51. Financial disclosures, medical records checks and a full physical, police checks and finger-printing and references, and a home inspection to make sure that our water heater is set to 118.5º and that our kitchen does not contain any sharp objects (like knives), our medicine cabinet does not contain anything toxic (like medicine), and our home is generally free of those dangerous things like stairs and hard floors and gravity. I laughed when I realized that our wine rack contained both intoxicants and heavy, blunt objects that could pose a hazard to the industrious and inquisitive non-ambulatory infant.

The whole process could be a bit silly at times, but I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t worth it. Having watched kids from afar for so many years, the whole process of child-rearing seems like one of those things you’ve always taken for granted yet never seriously pondered (right up there with, “why isn’t a toothbrush called a teethbrush?”) With the perspective of a visitor to another planet, I kept finding that the list of known unknowns and unknown unknowns was a lot longer than the list of stuff I did in fact know. We were maybe three weeks into the training, and Michele and I were talking about attachment issues, trying to understand Medicaid benefits for foster kids, and other Big Picture items when all of a sudden I screamed out, “I don’t know where the school bus stop is!! They’ll never give us a kid, because I can’t get him / her / it to the bus stop!!”

But that part of the problem is over, fini, put to bed, so now we’re just sitting by the phone, waiting on the call for us to come down to the fire station or hospital or the county family services department to pick up a screaming bag of joy. I think it was Eleanore Roosevelt who said you should do something that scares you every day. This should cover me for the next 18 years, I imagine. Forty-four years old and about to be a first-time father, probably on a temporary basis at least once but quite likely for keeps. So, we’ll see what happens, and we’ll keep you posted.

Had our first real snow this weekend, which has me itching to get up into the mountains. Not enough of the cold frozen stuff yet for any fun, but enough to remind us that it’s just around the corner. And more than enough for the dogs, who ran around like puppies on their last walk, chasing the flakes and sticking their nose into it and then flipping it up into the air. That kind of stuff is good for the soul. When I lived in Korea, my best buddy used to say that everyone needed the occasional mental regression weekend, where you act like a kid and run around outside, getting muddy or playing in the snow and forgetting about grown-up worries and concerns. This place definitely has that in spades.

What’s funniest about the dogs running around like puppies is that one of them couldn’t run at all just a couple of years ago. Zo’s arthritis had him walking around like Freddie G. Sanford, and the “G” stands for “gimpy.” He’s been getting acupuncture for a couple of years now, and the difference is night and day. But still, he just turned nine, which is like 80-90 in Great Dane years. Watching him get old has been rough (was so tempted to type “ruff,” but I held back), but on the handful of occasions when the puppy in him comes out, it’s a healthy reminder that age is just a number and it’s our job to make the most out of every tick of the biological clock, since none of us know when that last alarm is going to go off, and hitting “snooze” isn’t an option.

So that’s our plan for the next several months: standing by the phone, and trying to get outside and soak up the daily dose of solar-delivered vitamin D. In between, I’m going to try to wear out our Dutch oven with stew and soup recipes and then struggle through my painful attempt at the Great American Novel (spoiler alert: it was the White House barber).

I hope 2008 has treated you well, and that 2009 brings nothing but wondrous new experiences, or at least a lot of the same old stuff that you have enjoyed from previous editions. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, give us a shout. And if you’re not, feel free to shout at us anyway.

Bon hiver, happy winter, mele kalikimaka and a hearty zum wohl to everyone.


Steve and Michele

First Snow

Quick "Happy Thanksgiving" to one and all! And an early "Bon Hiver" as well.


Say "hello" to the flakes — first real snow on the Front Range. Not enough for snowshoeing...but soon enough, soon enough.


Oh the snow, the beautiful snow, filling the sky and earth below. Over the house tops and over the streets, over the heads of people you meet. Dancing, flirting, skimming along. Oh the snow, the beautiful snow, how the flakes gather and laugh as they go. Whirling about in their maddening fun it plays in its glee with everyone. Chasing, laughing, hurrying by, it lights on the face and sparkles the eye. And even the dogs with a bark and a bound, snap at the crystals that eddy around. The town is alive and its heart in a glow to welcome the coming of beautiful snow.
Bon Hiver Cicely!

— Chris Stevens, "First Snow"

A Month-full of Muffins

The beauty of this batter is that it keeps for about a month, so you can whip up a batch on the weekend, and then make a couple or three muffins each morning. You get a freshly baked muffin each day for about the same amount of energy as putting a PopTart in the toaster. Slap some batter in the muffin pan, finish reading the paper or applying hair products or pack your lunch or have a cup of coffee, and then twenty minutes later, you have a muffin to take to work or pop in your kid’s lunch pail.

The recipe makes 4 dozen — cut it in half if that’s too many for your family for a month.

8 cups of Raisin Bran cereal (one 14 oz box)

5 cups flour

3 cups sugar

5 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

4 cups buttermilk

1 cup oil

4 eggs

1.5 cups dried cranberries

1. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: the cereal, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredient (buttermilk, oil, and eggs) and whisk until smooth and completely blended. Pour the buttermilk/eggs/oil mixture into the cereal/flour/sugar/baking soda/salt bowl and gently stir until just blended, and then fold in the cranberries.

2. Place in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate overnight. Important: do not stir the mixture again. When you need some batter, spoon from the top — do not remix the batter.

3. Preheat the oven to 400º. Grease muffin pan and spoon in the batter. Bake 18 minutes (check the first time with a toothpick). Cool in the pan for a couple of minutes, then serve warm or throw ‘em in your lunch box.

Game Day Beer Reviews

Made pumpkin bread yesterday and forgot the baking powder/soda. So instead, wound up with pumpkin hard tack.

Just in case anyone wants to spice up their kit bag for the next Battle of Wilson Creek reenactment.


And in keeping with the spirit of the new Forum decorum... pumpkin hard tack goes great with a Boulder Beer Cold Hop, a British style ale with a floral hop aroma that balances the expected light bitterness.



Okay, enough about Colorado beers... for those of you who don't live in God's Country, here's a recommendation for Game Day (Beat Buffalo!). If you've been to Riley, Leonard Wood, or Leavenworth, or anywhere in the mid west, you've probably seen Boulevard Beer, from Kansas City. They've had a pretty good distribution network lately, and you can find Boulevard just about anywhere these days.

And if you've ever been around me in any of those locales, you know I'm not a fan. Boring, bland, and not worthy of even making their way into a pot of borracho beans or beer-butt-chicken.

But all that changed when they came out with their Smokestack series. These beers stack up well against just about everyone, even my backyard brewers.

The Sixth Glass is a brilliant quadrupel ale that reminded me of fresh German bread. A little bit of carmel, a little bit of malt, a little bit of pepper, and a little bit of spice, perfectly balanced. And a 10.5% ABV that is still quite drinkable.

Long Strange Tripel (9% ABV) is a Belgian-style bottle-conditioned ale that is crisp on the tongue, tastes as good as it looks, and finishes Sahara-dry.

And one of my favorite IPAs is the Double Wide. An IPA is going to be marked by a hoppy bitterness, and this one has that in spades, but there's enough malt action to round it out without losing any of its character. In heaven, you will watch Army beat Navy on a wide screen TV with a Double Wide in one hand and Cricket-burger with green chilis in the other, surrounded by your closest family and friends.

Okay, sun's up... time to put in 50 miles before the first kick-off...


Cheers and Beat Buffalo!

Autumn Salads: Mixed fruit with maple dressing

Western slope honeycrisp apples are now available, so while this recipe usually calls for a tart Granny Smith, I prefer to use the locally grown varieties. You can use honeycrisps, Granny Smiths, macouns, honeygolds, or any sharp, tart, crisp variety.


Maple Dressing
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar, or Champaign vinegar if you have it (but don’t buy it just for this recipe — white wine works just fine)
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Mix it all up, preferably with an emulsifier.

Salad:
1 bag mixed baby greens
2 apples: Peeled or unpeeled, cored, and julienned or sliced into matchstick-sized slivers
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (toasted at 350º for 5-10 minutes)

Makes 6-8 salads.

Is it officially football season?

Seems like all across the country, there's one thing we can agree on: football season may have technically begun, but it's not really football season until you can see your breath as you stand in the parking lot, firing up the Weber and embarrassing the kids with your musical selections blaring on the car stereo.

This Saturday, Autumn says "bring it on." It's time to separate wheat from chaff, big dogs from the pups, and to see who's got the goods to stand out in the freezing cold, clad only in team-color-appropriate outerwear, and making liberal use of the appropriate mix of Milwaukee's finest antifreeze, California tonsil polish, and Gaelic brain eraser.

The only problem is... it ain't cold yet! Unless you have tickets for the next U of Buffalo game, odds are you can still get away with shorts and slippahs for this Saturday's game, with maybe a floppy hat for some cranial SPF.

So this weekend, we need a transition menu. It's not quite time for some hearty winter chili and a thermos of Irish coffee, but we're past burgers and corn on the cob.

So here ya go: this weekend's Game Day menu.

1. Friday night or early Saturday morning: Prepare the Kalua pork.

Now, the real deal Hawaiian version of this requires a full day of cooking, and either a pit in the ground or at least a pressure cooker. You also need to understand the Polynesian culinary term "full chicka," and you need a source of ti leaves (cordyline fruticosa). But this version gets you 95% of the way there, and it's the easiest recipe you'll ever try. In fact, don't even call it a recipe. All you need is some pig and a Dutch oven.

Ingredients:

One Boston Butt (bone in, bone out, either way), boneless pork butt (rolled), pork shoulder, or pork roast — really doesn't matter.
(About 5 pounds)

One Tbs liquid smoke, hickory seasoning, or the like

Two Tbs course Hawaiian salt or sea salt
(Hawaiian sea salt can be pricey, but I get it from Savory Spices for about $8 a pound. )


Put the pig in a Dutch oven. Add water until the water is 1/3 to 1/2 up the pig. Add the liquid smoke to the water. Add one Tbs of the salt to the water, and sprinkle one Tbs of the salt over the pig.

Cover and bake at 350º for 3 hours. Turn down the oven to 250º and bake for 2 more hours. Remove from heat, let cool for ten minutes, then pull the meat apart.


Add BBQ sauce and store in an air-tight container until game time. You can serve it cold, or wrap it in tinfoil and warm up on the grill over indirect heat.

Serve on toasted buns, with cole slaw on the bun or on the side. I go with the cole slaw on the side, and a spoonful of chopped Clausen kosher dill pickles on the pork.


2. Cole Slaw.

Whisk together 1/3 cup mayo; 2 Tbs apple cider vinegar; 2 Tbs sugar, honey, or agave nectar; 1 tbs dry mustard.
Pour mixture over a bag of slaw mix or 3 cups total chopped green and red cabbage.
Salt to taste. I usually add a dash of dill weed or some celery salt.

Serve on the side, or on top of the pig meat.

3. Chipotle sweet potatoes.

At home, slice 2 pounds peeled sweet potatoes into half-inch-thick rounds. Spray with olive oil and store in a container. Mix 2 Tbs olive oil, 2 Tbs honey, 1 Tbs lime juice, 1-2 Tbs canned chipotle chilis in adobo (chopped fine — seeds removed if you want a milder sauce), and 2 Tbs finely chopped cilantro. Store this in an airtight container.

At the stadium, preheat the grill to medium high. Coat the sweet potato rounds with the sauce and grill 5 minutes per side. Salt to taste.



This Saturday: Army vs Texas A&M, at College Station, Texas. 12:30 EST, on Versus.

Beat the Aggies!

Peach Pie

Betty Crocker's 9 inch Pastry shell

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
⅓ cup plus 1 Tbs shortening
2-3 Tbs cold water

Measure flour and salt into bowl. Cut in shortening thoroughly. Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until all flour is moistened and dough almost cleans side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons water can be added if needed).

Gather dough into ball; shape into flattened round on lightly floured cloth-covered board. (for Two-crust Pie, divide dough in half and shape into 2 flattened rounds.) With floured stockinet-covered rolling pin, roll dough 2 inches larger than inverted pie pan. Fold pastry into quarters; unfold and ease into pan.

For One-crust Pie: Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1 inch from rim of pan. Fold and roll pastry under, even with pan; flute. Fill and bake as directed in recipe.

For Two-crust Pie: Turn desired filling into pastry lined pie pan. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1/2 inch from rim of pan. Roll second round of dough. Fold into quarters; cut slits so steam can escape. Place over filling and unfold. Trim over-hanging edge of pastry 1 inch from rim of pan. Fold and roll top edge under lower edge, pressing on rim to seal; flute. Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil last 15 minutes of baking. Bake as directed in recipe.

Note: If using self-rising flour, omit salt. Pie crusts made with self-rising flour differ in flavor and texture from those made with plain flour.
Note: If possible, hook fluted edge over edge of pie pan to prevent shrinking and help keep shape.
Note: Simply roll dough out on wax paper, invert dough and wax paper into pie dish, and peel off wax paper.

Filling:

5 cups sliced fresh peaches
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs butter

Heat oven to 425°. Prepare pastry. Mix peaches and lemon juice. Stir together sugar, flour and cinnamon; mix with peaches. Turn into pastry-lined pie pan; dot with butter. Cover with top crust which has slits cut in it; seal and flute. Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil last 15 minutes of baking.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes, or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.

Reference: Betty Crocker’s Cookbook - 1972, Page 316.