Tag Archives: Savory Bread Pudding

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!
eggsSavory 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!
am5Eggnog 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!
kagerMolasses Spiked Sirups Kager – these are a slightly healthier version of a family recipe, and can be made vegan-friendly!
PorterCookiesVanilla 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.
AM8Wilted 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).
caffeCaramel 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?

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Christmas, Breweries and Beer

It is so incredibly hard to get back into the swing of real life after a glorious 11 days being spoiled and pampered by my parental unit.
AM4Savory Christmas Bread Pudding aka Eggs Portugal. We have this every Christmas, Easter and birthday morning. Drool.
AMIt snowed on Christmas Eve! I set a beer outside to let it chill and when I came back out, it was covered in a good half inch of this beautiful white stuff!
AM1Bare feet in the snow on Christmas morning. I don’t recommend it.
AM3Delicate crystals atop the table.
AM2I snapped a few pictures before rushing inside to escape the 3 degree weather. The rest of the day was spent roasting in front of the fireplace.
AM6My Christmas gift from my bro and his wife! He made this himself the night before. Quite awesome, if I do say so myself!
AM7It also came with this – unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to brew out there with all of the brewery tours we had lined up, but I’m creating a recipe at this moment for my next visit!
AM8IPA tastings. I am head over heels in love with Myrcenary and Mountain Standard by Odell Brewing. Le sigh. Please distribute to California, already!
AM5My favorite nephew got to spend the day with us. Nothing like having the whole family there for Christmas!

A few days later we picked up Commander Matt from the airport and headed straight down to Boulder for the first brewery tour on our schedule.
AM9Avery Brewing! We found the brewery hidden back in an industrial area – the true sign of a real brewery. Scouting out the locations is half the fun!
AM10A beautiful beer list! I’ve only had one or two of Avery’s brews before, but as much as I wanted to try them all, the altitude was still making me a cheap date (read: tipsy after a taster), so I stuck with a taster of Out of Bounds Stout and…
AM11MEPHISTOPHELES’. 16.2%ABV. I couldn’t NOT try that!
AM12Out of Bounds on the left, Mephistopheles’ on the right. The Mephistopheles’ was full of rich bourbon flavors, thick roasted coffee, spicy dried fruits and bitter dark chocolate powder. We may or may not have taken a 12oz bottle home. And by may or may not, I obviously mean we did.
averyJon Cross was kind enough to give us a tour of their 40bbl system. Avery is prepping to move up to a 120bbl system over in Gunbarrel in the upcoming year!
AM13Perhaps they’ll allow diving in the new, gigantic mash tun. We visited two other breweries after, neither with beer worth talking about, and the next day we went to one of my old favorites.
funkOh, Funkwerks, how I adore thee. Best small brewery of the year – well deserved! We tried the cask of the week – peppermint saison! Amazingly potent peppermint nose, but a surprising bite of black pepper, hints of light citrus and rounded out with a fresh, clean mouth. The first sip was a little odd, but after the second sip I was ready for a full pint.
AM14Natalie was in the middle of lautering when we arrived, so she was able to give us a grand tour of the place and answer all our questions about sour beers, barrel aging, bottling and a zillion more things that kept coming up.
AM15After an hour exploring the place, we headed over to New Belgium where we were scheduled to tour thanks to my job. Perks!
AM19It was a much longer tour than the last time I took it – over three years ago. They’ve built many expansions since and turned a half hour tour into ninety wonderful minutes!
AM16Brewhouse 1.
AM17Not too much heavy lifting going on here except on the brain.
AM18We moved upstairs and drooled over the tanks, checking out each progression from mashing all the way to the rolling boil they had going on. You couldn’t smell anything inside, but the air outside smelled lusciously of hop resin being released from the grips of its pellets.
AM20The barrel aging room was next. Epic. I don’t know how many oak foeders they had in there, but I could’ve wandered for hours and been content.
AM21We got many, MANY samples throughout the tour, but this was my favorite. I hated La Folie the first time I tried it three years ago on the same tour, but now it’s pure adoration. Sours have won me over.
AM22The next part of the tour took us outside past the gigantic bright tanks and into a relatively new building where the bottling and canning line are.
AM23Capturing the deliciousness happens in here!
AM24The brewery is covered in random art. I’d love to see this chandelier lit up at night!

After the tour officially ended, Matt and I saw one of the brewery employees at the bar and asked him some questions about New Belgium’s pilot system and cask program. He happened to be JR, the cellarmaster. He also happened to say, “Wanna see?”

Um, yes.
AM268.5bbl system. They measure everything here in hectoliters. I spent a lot of the tour on my phone doing conversions from hectoliters to barrels. I’m cool like that.
AM27Quite a colorful pilot room.
AM29This system has one of the best views of the brewery. Look at all the pretty foeders!
AM28Poor neglected Sputnik was empty. There were four fermentors that were full of experimentals. I spotted a stout, a dark set for release in fall of 2013, a light set also releasing in 2013 and a collaboration. I can’t get into any more detail than that – don’t want to give away the secrets!

The trip ended with the traditional – shooting range!
AM30Fire! I shot this thing once and said no more. Not a fan of fire in my face and a kick that almost makes me drop the gun on top of my head.
AM31Aaand an assault rifle rental from my bro. Kinda like a BB gun with laser sights.

We celebrated New Years Eve with my parentals and their best friends (who I consider my second parentals) playing five hours of the rousing game HedBandz, sipping champagne and rare beers like the Eclipse Series from Fifty Fifty Brewing, and flipping on the TV to catch the ball drop with three seconds to spare. All of this in a onesie. Again, I’m cool like that.
FoxA belated Happy New Year to you all!

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Quarter Century

As of yesterday, I’m officially old. My age times four equals 100. My knees ache.
I’m officially twenty-five years old! I started off the day in the traditional way.
Eggs Portugal! Nothing like a deliciously fatty and savory bread pudding to start the day!
Add chocolate covered donuts to that and I’m a happy girl. A happy, aging girl.
The day consisted of a trip to Santa Barbara, perusing the REI (my favorite store in the entire world) up there, driving down the coast and visiting Island Brewing Company for a delicious taster flight. My birthdays seem to center around food and beer. I’m okay with this.

After my day on the road, I headed to my homebrew club meeting at Enegren Brewing, had a few tasters of the amazing homebrews that were present (the coconut porter was ah-may-zing!)…
…then this dashing young man took me out to dinner at Old Place Cornell and spoiled me rotten. I took the night off from the camera and fully immersed myself in the joy of devouring part of an entire chicken covered with balsamic glaze and a baked potato that was overloaded with bacon and homemade sour cream. A portion of a skillet cookie may also have been consumed, as well as an Anchor Porter and some complimentary Pinot Gris… It was the perfect birthday dinner – so very spoiled!
I also got to bite into this ridiculously rich triple brownie cake that was delivered via Mama Enegren – thank you so much, Kathy! Heaven on a plate, seriously. I ate until I hurt – as it should be on a birthday!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Now it’s time to have a quarter-life crisis: I’m thinking a motorcycle, skydiving and a tattoo, maybe? Any suggestions?

Suggestions will be accepted via comments on the blog, Facebook and Twitter! Do your worst!

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Savory Christmas Bread Pudding!

Feeling nostalgic for Christmas yet? That’s where I come in – to take you back to that magical time, four whole days ago, so you can live in the peaceful, magical feeling that Christmas always brings.

Silent night, holy night.
All is calm, all is bright.
     Christmas Eve always brings the reading of “The Night Before Christmas“, viewings of “A Christmas Story” and the prepping of foods for Christmas Day. It’s been a tradition in our family, since before I was born, to have Eggs Portugal on Christmas morning. This savory bread pudding has tender pieces of sausage, strings of cheddar cheese, delicate mushrooms and nutty whole wheat bread.
 Eggs Portugal – Printable recipe HERE
8-10 slices whole wheat bread, cut into cubes
3/4 lb grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 lb sausage, browned
4 eggs
1.5 tbsp prepared mustard (aka yellow mustard)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
5 oz. can sliced mushrooms, drained
2.5 cups milk (I use soy)
1/4 cup apple juice
     1. Butter a 9×13″ casserole dish.
     2. Place bread cubes in bottom of dish and top with cheese, then sausage.
     3. Beat the eggs with milk and mustard and pour over the top.
     4. Refrigerate overnight. (VERY IMPORTANT!)
     5. Before baking, stir together soup, apple juice and mushrooms and pour over the top of the casserole.
     6. Bake at 300 F for 2 hours, uncovered.
     7. Enjoy with a glass of apple juice or cider. (Also VERY important to enhance enjoyment!)
NOW it feels like Christmas!

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