FEED THE RESISTANCE: MEAT FREE IN 23!

Feed The Resistance: Meat Free in 23!

It's the start of a new year, and that means people are making their New Year's Resolutions.  A good chunk of those resolutions will have something to do with being more healthy, a good chunk of THOSE will revolve around eating more healthy, and a good chunk of THOSE will include a meat-free diet, or at least eating LESS meat.

With that in mind, this week I grabbed a recipe from Forks Over Knives magazine.  Their Quick Creole Gumbo is a really simple vegetarian take on the traditional Creole Gumbo.  I said really simple - it uses a frozen pepper & onion mix, canned beans, and some really simple spices.  About the only thing that you need to cut up, is the garlic.  Even the roux for this gumbo is simple - you just toast some flour until it turns brown, and then it later add it to your stock.  While the recipe for Quick Creole Gumbo is not on the Forks Over Knives website, I did find an article on making the simple Dry Roux that is used in the recipe - in fact America's Test Kitchen has a couple of options on how you can make a simple roux, without spending an hour standing at the stove stirring it up.

Dee paired Midwesty Pilsner from Karben4 with this dish - figuring that the crisp taste of the pilsner would cut the spice of the gumbo nicely...and it did!


FEED THE RESISTANCE: "HIPPIE" JOHN FOR THE NEW YEAR!

Feed The Resistance: "Hippie" John for the New Year!

It's an old southern tradition to serve Black Eyed Peas to ring in the new year.  The specific dish, that is said to bring good luck in the new year, is called "Hoppin' John."  Today, we dug into the Feed The Resistance archives, for a vegetarian take on Hoppin' John, called "Hippie John!"

The traditional Hoppin' John has a fair amount of meat in the dish...

"Hippie" John, the vegetarian alternative, skips the meat, and turns the dish into a salad...


FEED THE RESISTANCE: IT'S FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US!

Feed The Resistance: It's Festivus for the Rest of Us!

When I saw on the calendar that today is Festivus, I did a little research to see if there are any traditional foods to serve at your Festivus celebration.  Of course Festivus originated in an old "Seinfeld" episode, in which they celebrated with the "airing of grievances"..."feats of strength"...the completely unadorned "Festivus aluminum pole"...and to eat, they served meatloaf.  So, meatloaf would be the obvious dish for your Festivus celebration, but I found in my search that lots of traditions have popped up around the idea of Festivus.  One of the dishes that I found was the Festivus Chocolate Salami.  The recipe was originally published in a book by Allen Salkin, titled "Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us," it was developed with help from Saveur Magazine's senior editor Gabriella Gershenson and her mother, Anna Gershenson.  The recipe was eventually reprinted in Saveur, alongside an article titled "Yes, Virginia, There is a Festivus Salami."

Of course the Festivus salami is not a traditional salami at all, it's a whole bunch of CHOCOLATE!  So I love it!  The beer that Dee chose to pair with all that chocolate comes from Karben4.  It's the 2022 edition of their "Priest, Prophet & King," a barrel-aged barley wine ale.


FEED THE RESISTANCE: ALICE IN DAIRYLAND BUILDS A BUTTER-BOARD!

Feed The Resistance: Alice in Dairyland Builds a Butter-Board!

Just by chance last week I met Taylor Schaefer, the reigning Alice in Dairyland for the state of Wisconsin.  Taylor (Alice) introduced me to the concept of "Butter-Boards."  The boards intrigued me, so I invited her to come share the concept with the rest of the world.  Taylor created two butter-boards for us this morning, one savory board with red onions, salt & pepper, and one sweet board with basil and honey.  I also created a board with a variety of butters that I had infused with various herbs and special flavors.  I made garlic-butter, basil-butter, and sage-butter, and then finished off my board with an andouille-butter.  While we weren't eating seafood today, that's what I usually serve with the andouille-butter, shellfish is especially good with it.

Dee wasn't in, but she left me some beer and notes on what to drink with each of the butters.  For the sweet butters she recommended a Scotch Ale from Third Space Brewing.  For the spicy she gave us a Modelo.  Taylor also brought along a couple of Limburger cheeses to try, and Dee paired those with Hacker Pschorr's Munchner Gold.

 


FEED THE RESISTANCE: I LOVE OLIVES...& BEER!

Feed The Resistance: I Love Olives...and BEER!

Another simple dish that will impress your friends at your upcoming holiday parties.  This is a dish that my wife and I made for a Christmas party several years ago, and EVERYBODY loved it!  Usually when that happens, we right down where we found the recipe, so we can find it again.  For some reason, we didn't do that this time.  So, I did a little search and found several recipes pretty similar to what we made that Christmas.  A couple of the recipes that we found that came the closest to what we remember were from Bon Appétit magazine...and from Food & Wine magazine.  For today's dish I took a look at those two recipes and one other that I found in a cookbook at home, and picked what I liked from each of them for the marinade.

Dee had two ideas for today's pairing - Belgian Quad from MobCraft...and Blue Moon.  In the end, we felt like the Blue Moon worked better with the Olives.


FEED THE RESISTANCE: Smoked Trout Paté

Feed The Resistance: Smoked Trout Paté is paired with "Holiday" Beer from Potosi!

Well, we're getting into the holiday party season, so this week I wanted to put together a dish that is really simple to prepare, but will impress your friends and coworkers at a holiday gathering.  I found this recipe for Smoked Trout Paté several years ago, and I've been bringing it to holiday parties ever since.

For this week's pairing, Dee went with the "old-school" feel of Potosi's Holiday Beer to go with the old-school feel of smoked trout.  The Potosi Holiday Beer is also this week's Tap That Beer of the Week!


FEED THE RESISTANCE: THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS!

Feed The Resistance: Thanksgiving Leftovers!

We dig into the "Feed The Resistance Archives" this week and pull out a recipe that gets prepared at my house twice a year - once for Mardi Gras, and once for Friendsgiving, which we usually celebrate the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Whether or not you celebrate "Friendsgiving," this Smoked Turkey Gumbo is a great way to use up some of that leftover Turkey!


FEED THE RESISTANCE: CRANBERRY RELISH WITH SHINER "HOLIDAY CHEER"

Feed The Resistance: Cranberry Relish paired with Shiner's "Holiday Cheer!"

Every year, right about this time, my wife and I pull out our copy of Anthony Bourdain's cookbook "Appetites," as we get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner.  Bourdain had a special love of Thanksgiving - in the book, he devotes an entire chapter to the holiday and sets up a "Three Day Thanksgiving Strategy."  That strategy is laid out roughly like this...

Day 1...

  • Buy everything
  • Organize it all
  • Cross-check with all your recipes
  • Make your stock
  • Leave Bread out to get stale for the stuffing

DAY 2...

  • Turn the Turkey Stock into Turkey Sauce or Gravy
  • Make your stuffing
  • Make Cranberry Relish
  • Prep your sides

Day 3...

  • Roast your small “Stunt” Turkey – this is the pretty one that will be on display for all your guests to see.
  • Finish up all the sides and stuffing
  • Roast your “Business” Turkey – this is the one that you’ll carve up and serve to your guests.
  • Put your “Stunt” Turkey on display...this turkey will should be artfully garnished for everyone to see. After everyone has seen it – take it back into the kitchen…presumably to be carved.
  • In the privacy of your kitchen – pull the “Business” Turkey from the oven and carve it up to serve.

In that chapter of the book, he's got recipes for just about everything you'll want to serve for Thanksgiving, including what I made today...Cranberry Relish!  When I told Dee that I was making the Cranberry Relish today - she immediately grabbed this week's "Tap That" beer of the week - "Holiday Cheer" from Shiner, figuring that the Peaches and Pecans in the beer would go good with the orange and cranberries in this dish.  She was right!

 


FEED THE RESISTANCE: DUKE'S MAYO...AND BEER!

Feed The Resistance: Duke's Mayo...and Beer!

I was on vacation a couple weeks ago, visiting friends in Charlottesville, Virginia, and I went into my favorite Charlottesville Brewery - Champion Brewing Company.  When I lived in Charlottesville, that's where me and my friends hung out, mainly for the good beer, but also because Champion hosts a run club every Wednesday night.  So, we would all go for a run, and then sit around after the run and drink good beer.  When I was at Champion a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a new beer on the menu - a collaboration between Champion and Duke's Mayo called "Family Recipe."

Also, while on vacation, I was in the local grocery store and saw a pre-packaged Pimento Cheese with fake crab-meat in it.  So, this morning I cracked open one of those Family Recipe beers, and paired it with my own Pimento Cheese (made with Duke's Mayo) - and I added a little fake crab-meat to the cheese, to make it just like what I saw in the grocery store in Charlottesville.

 


FEED THE RESISTANCE: CAJUN SHRIMP SCAMPI WITH "LAWN LINES" BEER!

Feed The Resistance: Cajun Shrimp Scampi with "Lawn Lines" from Saturday Beer!

I was on vacation last week, and I spent a lot of time sitting around doing NOTHING (and it felt good!).  Of course while I was doing nothing, I probably spent a little too much time on social media.  While I was wasting all that time on social media, I started to notice how many recipes randomly appear on my feed.  So I decided to make one of those recipes today - "Cajun Shrimp Scampi."  This particular recipe appeared in the Facebook feed from a group called "Soul Food Recipes - The Original."  The page is a whole lot of people sharing pictures of what they made for dinner last night, and occasionally a really good recipe is included.  This was one of those times!

Dee chose a Hazy IPA called "Lawn Lines" from Young Blood's new line called Saturday Beer to go with the spices in the scampi.  Dee also pointed out that IPA's almost always go with seafood.