FEED THE RESISTANCE: COOKING WITH BUD LIGHT!
Feed The Resistance: Cooking With Bud Light!
With all the controversy surrounding Bud Light the last couple of weeks, I wanted to see who I could offend by cooking with Bud Light. I did a little Googling and found a recipe for Brats With Beer Gravy. The recipe specifically calls for Bud Light...5 bottles, in fact! Beyond the beer, it's some onions, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and a little sugar...plus, of course - BRATS! Basically it all gets put together in a pot, bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down and let it simmer for about 4 hours.
You've probably guessed by now...the beer that Dee paired with the Brats in Beer Gravy is...BUD LIGHT!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: NATIONAL BEER DAY!
Feed The Resistance: National Beer Day!
Today is National Beer Day - so I went straight to a cookbook called "The American Craft Beer Cookbook" for a recipe that originated at Gritty McDuff's Brewpub in Portland, Maine. The recipe is for Blackened Shrimp and Corn Chowder (follow the link to The American Craft Beer Cookbook - and then scroll down to the "Take a Look" section - the recipe is there). The soup has a great, spicy flavor that paired perfectly with the "Lady Luck Dark Red Ale" that Dee brought in from Karben4!
My only suggestion is to do as the instructions say, and use good FRESH SHRIMP (the recipe says "preferably Maine-harvested") - I used cheap frozen shrimp, and while it tasted good, the shrimp came out a bit rubbery!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: APRIL FOOL!
Feed The Resistance: April Fool!
Tomorrow is April Fools' Day, so immediately my mind went to "Mock Apple Pie." People of a certain age will remember the recipe from the back of Ritz Cracker boxes, back in the day. They no longer print the recipe on the box, but with a little online digging, I was able to find the original recipe, that replaces apples with, you guessed it...RITZ CRACKERS!
I've never made this recipe before, in fact I've never even tasted a "Mock Apple Pie" - but I had to give it a try, and honestly, it's pretty good!
Dee did a couple of pairings with this one - each going in a totally different direction. First we tried the pie with "Farmer's Market Fall" from Young Blood Beer Company, part of their "Saturday Beer" series. This was an obvious choice, as the beer is brewed with apple, pear and cinnamon. The second pairing came from 3 Sheeps, it was their "Lightweight Black Wheat Ale" - which, ironically is a much darker beer.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: THE RIVER FOOD PANTRY!
Feed The Resistance: The River Food Pantry!
Spring is here, so I thought this would be a good time to spend some time at the river...THE RIVER FOOD PANTRY!
I invited Chris Tuttle, one of the chefs at The River to join us today and talk a little about the FAM (Family At-Home Meals) and the MUNCH Mobile Lunch programs. We also learned about The River's "Match Madness" - where, throughout the month of March, donations to The River are matched, dollar for dollar, up to $20,000, so your donation goes twice as far this month.
Chris brought this week's FAM meal with him - a delicious Tamale Pie with all the fixings. Dee paired "Fantasy Factory" from Karben4 with that tamale pie.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: ST. PATRICK'S DAY 2023!
Feed The Resistance: St. Patrick's Day 2023!
It's St. Patrick's Day! To celebrate, of course I cooked up a little Corned Beef, and and then I found a great recipe for the leftovers on the Food Network website. It's Corned Beef & Cabbage Grilled Cheese!
To go with our Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Dee could have gone with the obvious, and brought out a Guinness, but when has Dee ever gone with the obvious choice? Instead of Guinness, we enjoyed a Maibock from Lakefront Brewery. Maibock is known to be a great spring beer...and the official start to spring is just a few days away!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: THIN MINT STUFFED OREOS!
Feed The Resistance: Thin Mint Stuffed Oreos!
The Madison St. Patrick's Day parade is on Sunday around the Capital Square (have I mentioned that I'm the Grand Marshall?)...and Girl Scout Cookie Season has arrived in Madison! I wanted to do something to celebrate both of those things - so of course I turned to Thin Mints for inspiration. I'm guessing that there is actually nothing Irish about Thin Mints, but mint is green, so I have declared it to be the most Irish of all of the Girl Scout Cookies.
I found many recipes using Thin Mints, but the one that intrigued me most was Thin Mint Stuffed Oreos!
A week or two ago, we were talking about the fact that IPAs pair very nicely with anything chocolate, so Dee brought in "Disaster Artist" Hazy Oat IPA from Karben4!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: BEER CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES!
Feed The Resistance: Beer Chocolate Truffles!
As Grand Marshall of the 2023 Madison St. Patrick's Day Parade - I believe it's my duty to decide when the party starts! With that in mind, we're starting the party about a week and a half early this year! The dish that I made this morning isn't strictly a St. Patrick's Day dish, or even necessarily an Irish dish - but I did find in in an article on Food 52 called "31 St. Patrick's Day Treats We'd Be Lucky to Feast On." What I made today is "Beer Chocolate Truffles" - and to make them just a little bit Irish, I made them with Guinness!
The obvious beer pairing for the Beer Chocolate Truffles made with Guinness, would of course be GUINNESS. So, Dee went a different direction. Dee actually brought in two different beers for us to try. She always tells me that when pairing beer and food you either look for similar or contrasting flavors - so she did one of each. On the contrasting side, we have "Pulp Culture" - a Hazy IP from Working Draft, and on the similar side we have "Kong's Garage Band" - an Imperial Stout from Bevy.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: INDEPENDENCE SOUP
Feed The Resistance: Independence Soup
As Black History Month comes to an end, I wanted to cook up something from Chef Marcus Samuelsson's "The Rise" cookbook. The Rise traces the rise of black chefs in America. What I made for today is what he calls "Independence Soup" or Soup Joumou. The story that he tells in the book is about black people in Haiti being forbidden from eating this soup during enslavement, because the soup was considered a delicacy. So, when they gained their independence, Soup Joumou became a symbol of that independence, and is now served on Haitian Independence Day.
The soup is pumpkin based, with lots of good spices, including allspice, cloves, thyme and nutmeg. Toasted chestnuts and chili-nutmeg oil is served over the top of the soup.
To pair with the soup - Dee brought in "To Those Who Wait," a Czech-style pilsner from Working Draft here in Madison.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: MARDI GRAS 2023!
Feed The Resistance: Mardi Gras 2023!
O.K. - the story of this dish goes back a few years. I love shopping at used book sales - in particular library sales. I always find something interesting, and often it's an interesting cookbook. That was the case a few years back, when I found a copy of Paul Prudhomme's "Louisiana Kitchen" cookbook at a library book sale. The book had obviously been previously owned by a little old lady. There were several scraps of paper tucked into the pages of the book - notes from friends, clippings from the newspaper, and a few handwritten recipes. One of those handwritten recipes was for Cajun Potato Salad - and that's what I made today. Honestly, it doesn't taste all that cajuny to me - but I like it anyway.
To pair with the Cajun Potato Salad, Dee chose this week's Tap That beer of the week - Abita Mardi Gras Bock.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: STRAWBERRY-CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!
Feed The Resistance: Strawberry-Chocolate Ice Cream!
With Valentine's Day being next Tuesday, Dee wanted Strawberries and Chocolate this morning. Since I don't do a good job of following directions - I wanted to do a little more than just dip strawberries in chocolate. So, I found a recipe for Strawberry Chocolate Ice Cream...or more precisely - Strawberry Chocolate "NICE Cream" (it's a vegan version of ice cream). I found the recipe in the most recent issue of Forks Over Knives magazine. The "NICE Cream" has a base of frozen bananas and frozen strawberries - added to that is just a touch of maple syrup and a dash of salt. That's all mixed up in a food processor, and then add some chopped up chunks of chocolate.
Warning: Frozen bananas and frozen strawberries take a long time to process in the food processor. In the end you want them to be nice and creamy - you can eat it right when you get to that point, and it will be like a soft-serve, or you can put it in the freezer for a few hours and it will become more like ice cream.
To pair with the Strawberry Chocolate Nice Cream, Dee brought in Vintage Brewing Company's "Bock's O-Chocolates" Chocolate Doppelback. The beer went perfectly with the Nice Cream...and even made for a fantastic Beer Float!
