Merry Christmas, everyone!!!
I hope your day is filled with grace, loved ones and celebration!
A good brew wouldn’t hurt, either.
Or wine. I don’t judge.
Merry Christmas and God bless!
(Memories of Christmas past)
Merry Christmas!
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Christmas Foods Roundup
It’s Christmas Eve Eve! I think it’s about time to get those recipes in order. Here are some of our family traditions and my recommendations for some epic meals for the day!
Savory Christmas Bread Pudding – aka Eggs Portugal. We’ve had this every year as far back as I can remember, and I can’t imagine a Christmas without it! Serve it with fresh apple cider and coffee, and you’re good to go!
Eggnog Spiked Christmas Kettle Corn – in between second, third and fourth helpings of the bread pudding, this is an easy and delicious go-to snack to keep up the blood sugar!
Molasses Spiked Sirups Kager – these are a slightly healthier version of a family recipe, and can be made vegan-friendly!
Vanilla Porter Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies – wonderfully rich chocolate cookies with a burst of sweetness from the maraschino cherries and a boozy frosting to top it off.
Wilted Kale and Quinoa Salad with Maple-Glazed Pecans – if you need a break from the sugar, this is a wonderful appetizer/side dish/meal to help you feel just a tad better before sitting down for the Christmas ham (or fifth helping of Savory Christmas Bread Pudding in my case).
Caramel Pecan Caffetini – finish the long day with a decadent chocolate-coffee martini, drizzled with salted caramel sauce. Make sure you’ve changed back into fuzzy pajama pants for this if you got dressed for some strange reason during the day.
Happy cooking!
Do you have any traditional foods or family recipes you make every year for Christmas?
Trimming the Tree
I think the Christmas Kettle Corn did the trick! I really am starting to feel the Christmas spirit!
I finished that entire batch all by myself over the course of an hour after I made it. It’s really addictive – be forewarned.
I finally finished ALL of my Christmas shopping! I celebrated with a taster flight from the newest brewery in Loveland: Crow Hop.
Exposed brick, warm lighting and heaters blasting. We then traipsed across the parking lot to Henry’s Pub for mass quantities of mango Sriracha wings, fish ‘n chips and even more brews.
Little Red Cap ala Grimm Brothers Brewhouse!
I also celebrated by buying myself some Christmas presents… Debating whether to drink this or age it for a year… Thoughts?
Another gift to myself. I’m very generous. This one will be aging while we enjoy the other three that I cellared over a year ago!
Today was “decorate the tree” day! We normally don’t wait so long, but with all of our busy schedules, it was the first chance we had.
Silk Seasonal Nog and coffee to start off on the right foot!
We have quite a collection of ornaments that we’ve accumulated throughout the years. This is one I got for my parental unit two years ago when I was in Breckenridge with the artist.
My first Christmas ornament! Man, I’m old.
“Mom, look! This was eleven years ago!” No…. make that 21 years ago. Man, I’m old.
I had a lot of teachers who encouraged homemade ornaments. I give you – gingerbread house by Becki Kregoski, age 6.
The year we learned about fossils and the imprints they leave in rocks.
Indian Princesses corn husk doll from when I lived in Boulder during elementary school.
My teacher made this one (as what I assume was an apology for all of the ugly crap with which her students were adorning their parentals’ trees) in 1996.
“Squeeze my cheeks and I’ll give you a kiss” Santa. My mumsie and I used to make these when we lived in Illinois. You’d squeeze the sides, Santa’s mouth would open and a Hershey’s Kiss would be sitting inside!
This was gifted to me right after high school when my dreams of becoming an actor were in full blossom.
Those dreams gave way to a different dream/career after college.
A very, very different career.
My parental unit knows me so well!
Now I’m off to bake Busia’s Yuletide Cookies – aka Thumbprint cookies, before a loooooong day at the brewery. And, it’s snowing outside! Tis the season!
Do you have any holiday traditions that you just can’t skip?
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Eggnog Spiked Christmas Kettle Corn
Anyone else feeling way behind in the holiday season? Our tree still doesn’t have ornaments on it, and for us, that is a HUGE deal. Normally the tree is up and decorated the day after Thanksgiving and I’d be ready for the Christmas music to finally cease at this point. Instead I’m trying to catch up to the whirlwind of the season and feel a little Christmas spirit before the year is over!
Barrel-aged Velvet Merkin – this is a good start. Rich oatmeal stout with a potent aroma and flavor of bourbon in front of the fire? Sounds like Christmas-time to me!
I also thought a little seasonal snack might help. I was never a big fan of eggnog as a kid, but ever since I found this Silk Seasonal Nog, I can’t get enough!
Pop some corn…
Make some nog-glaze…
Prettify the glaze….
Drizzle and enjoy! Sweet, salty, crunchy and vegan-friendly!
[gmc_recipe 6791]
Happy holidays!
Are you having trouble getting into the spirit of the season? I blame the late Thanksgiving!
They Called It Puppy Love
My goodness, the week JUST started and it’s already been insane and overwhelming!
I worked at the brewery on Saturday and participated in some terrible awesome brewery puns. “Wouldn’t IBU like to know?” I’m so very hilarious. You’re welcome.
Myself and some of our customers played “dodge the impaling snowflake” aka the putty that held up our Christmas ornaments and decor didn’t work out that well. Nothing like a little excitement/fear of dismemberment to spice up the day!
On Sunday after church, I met up with my bro for pho and brews! We swung by Grimm Brothers and got a taste of cask – Santiam dry-hopped Farmer’s Daughter. I love this beer on its own, but the Santiam hops really enhanced it with a gently sweet floral flavor. And I love cask ale. Cask cask cask. Cask.
Curtis and Liz Chism stopped by the brewery! I met Curtis virtually through Bites ‘n Brews a few years back and then randomly ran into him at Hess Brewing and met him in person almost two years ago. He and his wife Liz are starting up Council Brewing in San Diego in the next year. Check out their Kickstarter here and get in on the ground level! They were in Colorado enjoying what will likely be their last vacation ever. I kid, I kid. Kinda… The perks of owning a brewery!
Have I inundated you with enough pictures of this guy? My parental unit’s pup, Barleywhine, wasn’t feeling so good on Sunday. We’ve had health issues with all of our previous pets that (for the most part) weren’t too terrible, so we let him rest for a day to see if the issue would resolve itself. It didn’t. We took him into the vet on Monday morning and found out that he was suffering from HGE – hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. I’ll spare you the gory details, but this is a really bad disease that can result very quickly in death. The vet told us that basically his blood was turning to sludge. We left him in the vet’s care where he was put on an IV and covered with a heated blanket to raise his temperature.
Since our vet isn’t open 24 hours, we had to pick him up late Monday night and play puppy-ambulance to take him across town to another vet that would watch him overnight and make sure his fluids were still being pumped.
He was somewhat more perky at this point until we had to leave him. Oh, the guilt escalated quickly when we saw the realization in his eyes that we were leaving him yet again. Early Tuesday morning we returned to puppy-ambulance him back to the vet for another day of monitoring. Guilt. Overwhelming.
But it was all worth it! He’s alive and healing and HOME! I have the privilege of keeping his crate in my room to monitor him overnight and since his colon is reawakening, there’s an oh-so-lovely aroma that just won’t air out. This is love, guys.
This is love.
I’ll be back with some holiday recipes later this week!
Anyone else suffer from insurmountable amounts of guilt when leaving your pet? It can’t be just me!
Filed under Daily Life
Turkey Potstickers with Spicy Sweet Gingerbread Beer Dip
Do you guys remember a few weeks ago when I got a delicious present in the mail?
I was sent some of Bison Brewing’s Organic Gingerbread Ale from the owner of the company to develop some recipes and pairings. I wracked my brain for ideas and finally came up with a stroke of beery-genius last night after making homemade potstickers. They were tasty but not quite mind-blowing, and the spicy sauce I served them with was overpowering and unbalanced. A lightbulb switched on and I remade them for lunch today with some boozy additions.
California and Colorado – these two were made for each other.
[gmc_recipe 6724]
I’ve always loved making balsamic reductions for salads and ice cream, and decided to go for it with this beer as well. For this recipe, I recommend starting the Gingerbread Ale reduction while you assemble the potstickers.
Combine the brown sugar and Gingerbread Ale, whisk together and set to simmer for about 40 minutes or until reduced by half.
That’s about right. Remove it from the heat, whisk in the hot sauce and pour it into a serving dish.
Combine the first twelve ingredients and prepare for a hassle with some wonton wrappers. The hassle is worth it, I promise you.
Wet the edges of the wonton wrappers with water and place a teaspoon of the filling in the center, being careful not to overstuff it.
Fold the wonton wrapper over and press the edges to seal in the goodness.
Repeat until all your filling is used up.
Put ’em in a hot pan and brown each side.
Pour in just enough vegetable stock to coat the bottom of the pan and immediately place a lid on top to steam these bad boys for another minute.
Serve them immediately, paired with a Bison Brewing Organic Gingerbread Ale to tame the flame from the spicy sauce.
This is a sauce I think even the Heat Freaks can get behind! Enjoy!
Any recipes you’d like me to beerify? Have you ever beerified a recipe?
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Wilted Kale and Quinoa Salad with Maple-Glazed Pecans
How’s everyone faring after the long, intensive weekend of leftovers?
Our second Thanksgiving was stuffed full of butter and excessive amounts of meat, just because. We had to make up for the vegan binge the night before.
Since that fateful day, we’ve been starting each morning with a kale smoothie. Of course, the kale smoothie might just happen to come after I’ve eaten more leftovers, but I feel like it kind of balances it out, right?
Today I’m bringing the recipe for that kale salad that we had on Thanksgiving. I think I’ll be making it again for Christmas dinner with the addition of some roasted pomegranate arils!
[gmc_recipe 6674]
This salad is pretty easy to put together once you’ve done the rinsing and chopping. We had leftover quinoa in the fridge so we didn’t have to labor over that for half an hour.
Toasting the pecans.
Maple-glazed! This makes the salad!
So does the white balsamic vinegar – Cara-Cara Orange/Vanilla from my favorite olive oil shop in Fort Collins.
Throw everything into a bowl and top with warmed quinoa, then toss.
I hope you’re all having a good start to the week! I’m off to another day at the brewery and I couldn’t be happier with my life. Prost!
What are your post-Thanksgiving cleansing foods/plans?
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Food Coma
Happy Thanksgiving, take 2!
I hope you’re feeling just like this today, otherwise you didn’t do it right. My parental unit and I went over to my bro and sis-in-law’s house, also known as The Vegans, for Thanksgiving dinner last night. Today we’ll be making a second dinner so we have leftovers for the rest of the weekend, as is tradition.
For those of you who were asking about or confused by my Untappd check-in, I did not have Bud Light as a beverage. I just didn’t want to enter all the stats for my brother’s pumpkin homebrew – which was absolutely epic. Sweet and caramelized with actual flavors of roasted pumpkin, spicy cinnamon and a bite of clove. Also epic – that kale salad in the background. Recipe coming soon!
I loaded up a very attractive plate with turkey from the organic farm (story to follow below), vegan green bean salad, vegan meatloaf, vegan stuffing, kale salad (you guessed it – vegan) and vegan mashed potatoes with vegan gravy. VEEEGAN! Luckily, The Vegans have had years of experience in the vegan kitchen and have learned how to make absolutely delicious vegan food, sparing me from making many mistakes. Vegan.
For a special dessert, James decided to add a little rice whip to the top of the pumpkin ale. I stuck with Andrew’s homemade bourbon-scented coconut whip.
Whisked a little for an even more attractive picture… Horrible picture, delicious flavor.
Now for a little story about my trip to the organic farm. Please don’t read until you have finished all leftover turkey:
My Trip to the Farm
My mumsie and I drove up to a house at the head of a dead end road in farm country. The gate was closed and I would’ve been more than happy to continue on to the confines of a warm and bright grocery store to find a turkey vacuum sealed and easy to handle. My mumsie had other plans. We both stepped out of the car and walked to the gate.
“Hello…?” My mom called out across the muddy yard.
“Come on in.” A man wearing knee-high galoshes came walking out from the open garage, scanning the bushes around the perimeter, rifle in hand. I didn’t budge. There was no way I was making the first move.
“Come in!” He repeated, “Just close the gate behind you so the dogs don’t get out.”
We slowly entered, latched the gate behind us and stood there, waiting for the next instructions. The man continued his jaunt through the bushes, randomly poking into a few of them with the nose of the rifle before continuing on.
“Hi! I’m Shannon! What are your names?” A bouncy little girl with a pink bow wrapped around the crown of her ponytail came running up to us. My mom introduced herself and asked, “Shannon, where do we get our chickens and turkeys?”
Shannon smiled widely, took a deep breath and said, “I have chickens and ducks and ALL MY DUCKS ARE DEAD…”
I stood there, a terrified smile plastered across my face. We turned to the open garage where Shannon’s mother was efficiently sawing off the head of a plucked chicken before spraying out the inside with a high pressure hose. We walked over as the husband came back from his stroll around the yard.
“You didn’t find them?” His wife asked. “You know, I couldn’t find where they nested last night. We can’t just let them run free.”
He looked at his wife, shrugged and said, “These are hollow point bullets. It’d be a chicken explosion! I’ll just kill them tonight.” And walked off.
CHICKEN EXPLOSION. The end.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Filed under Holiday
A Weekend Getaway
On Friday the parental unit and myself went up to Fraser, Colorado for a nice long weekend getaway.
Stunning views from our cozy little cabin. The temperature ended up hanging around between 20-32 degrees Fahrenheit the entire time.
I don’t think the fireplace turned off for longer than five minutes the entire weekend. It was chilly! On Friday night we went out to find a place to warm up and stuff ourselves.
The Library Sports Grille and Brewery is a brewery (durr) in Winter Park, right down the street from Fraser.
The pub has seating that overlooks the little 5bbl system. I obviously chose that seating.
They have seven beers on tap, so we ordered a flight.
My personal favorite was the Big Nose ESB – malty, clean and simple. Sometimes you just need a straight forward beer.
Sometimes you also need fried pickles. I tried fried pickles for the first time a few years ago at my brother’s wedding rehearsal dinner at Coopersmith’s in Fort Collins and fell in love! Since then I’ve always preferred fried pickle spears, but these worked out just fine as well – especially with the spicy dill aioli they came with. Drooool.
We also got potato skins stuffed with smoky bacon and overloaded with cheddar cheese. Droooool again.
Those pickle chips and potato skins were accompanied by the hottest wings in the universe. Or at least the hottest wings in Winter Park. I had two of these and had to raise a white flag in surrender.
We returned to the cabin, restarted the fire and relaxed with a growler of Loveland Aleworks Robust Porter and a movie.
The rest of the weekend was taken up by exploring the local lakes and small towns, and we finally made it into Cheeky Monk – a Belgian beer bar located in the middle of Winter Park Ski Resort.
They had a pretty nice selection of draught beers. I’m assuming that the Denver location probably has more because distribution is easier, but I was happy!
My pops got St. Bernardus Abt. 12 – notes of raisin and molasses with a nice warming sensation from the alcohol. Just what he needed for the freezing day.
I perused the bottle list for a while, wiping the drool from the list before it could smudge the ink and finally settled on a nice, crisp Bud Light.
I’m beyond joking! I went for Delirium Tremens Golden Strong – spicy with hints of white pepper and an extremely dry ending. Truly a beautiful beer.
When we got back to the cabin it started to snow, so we turned on the fire (again) and enjoyed the misty view.
Sometimes you just need a quick getaway/vacation. I feel so blessed that we’re only two hours away from such a nice, quiet town like Fraser (which everyone calls Freezer thanks to the low temperatures, apparently).
I also feel blessed that such a quiet, secluded town is still just a short distance from some awesome beer bars and cute little restaurants. And pickle chips.
Ever tried fried pickles? What do you like better – spears or chips?
Filed under vacation
Psychosis
Something is wrong with my dog.
If you don’t hear from me after today, it’s because Barley went completely off his rocker and murdered us all.
For now, I’m off to pick up a growler just in case we get trapped in another freak snowstorm and need to survive off of liquid bread.
Happy Friday!!!
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