400th brew for the beer & food dude

Over the weekend, I tried BBC Maibock, which was a great beer, but the really special thing about it is that it was my 400th beer tried!

I have been keeping track of every beer I try on this world of beer sampling adventure. It is easy to keep track on living social beer website(beer.livingsocial.com). It is very simple and user friendly and a great way to keep track of the ridiculous amounts of different beers out there. I had a lot of fun keeping track and want to keep going and growing my beer tasting portfolio. Hmmm when will I hit 500? As a beer enthusiast, I am proud to hit that 400 mark. With so much more beer out there to keep going, I am still very much looking forward to building the list. There is a link to the live feed of beers tried right on my blog page. Time to figure out what I will try next!

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Easter Dinner

I am not big on church at all, but I do love an easter dinner and an excuse to see family. We enjoyed a very high quality ham from a local shop. My mother in law made a sweet glaze with honey and pineapple juice and cooked slices of pineapple right on the ham. Came out nice and sweet, juicy and tender. We had buttery,creamy mashed potatoes, corn, deviled eggs, homemade applesauce on the side. I carved the ham which I like doing. I brought over some cheesecake I picked up (chocolate peanut butter) and of course cadbury eggs. Easter isn't a big deal but I look forward to it every year just for all the array of great food to enjoy!

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Mexican Night!

To celebrate my fiancees birthday, we went to a really neat mexican restaurant called mama iguanas in Northampton,MA. I love the funky atmosphere! We had our fresh salsa and warm freshly made tortilla chips. For an appetizer we had fresh guacamole that was made tableside! I am not a huge fan of corona, I don't normally get it when I go out to mexican restaurants. I tend to go with other mexican beers on draft. Thiis restaurant happened to have dos equis amber on draft which is probably my favorite cerveza. Its got some good flavor, very smooth, and very drinkable and clean finish. The type of beer you could drink all year if you wanted to.

Whenever I go to mexican restaurants, I almost always get fajitas because yeah thats my favorite mexican dish! But, I decided I was in the mood for something different. I went with the Tex-mex enchiladas! They were filled with beef with spices and chiles, and smothered in a black bean and bacon sauce which was truly amazing! I love black beans and with the bacon it was nice and rich and smokey. Came with 2 enchiladas but I wish it was 3! I savored every last bite down to the rice and black beans on the side mmmmm. What a great mexican night out!

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Compliments to the Chef Salad

I am a guy who is not affraid to admit that I like a good salad. Buffalo chicken salad, asian salad, taco salad, salads are great! One of my favorite salads is a chef salad. You can put whatever you want in this bad boy. I love the salad bar. This salad that we made is like a pre-made salad bar chef salad. A little bit of everything! Romaine lettuce, hard boiled eggs, chopped ham, cucumber, red pepper, cherry tomatos,onions, crutons and french dressing. This is the best salad I have had in a long time. The best thing is you can make your own the way you like it. Have everything already chopped and mixed in the bowl and you've got a complete quick dinner salad for busy weeknights!

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Beer Battle Face-Off : Victory whirlwind vs. Weyerbacher blanche

The battle of 2 belgian style "witbiers" or "white ales" both brewed out of the state of Pennsylvania

Weyebacher Blanche (Easton, PA) est. 1995
5% alcohol by volume

This beer is very typical when it comes to witbiers. It has a very mild tart, small hint of citrus, light golden color, light and crisp, smooth, drinkable, not hoppy, typical wheat flavor, balanced but a little bland. This beer is an average witbier nothing special.

Victory Whirlwind Witbier (Downingham, PA) est. 1996
5% alcohol by volume

I can't help but love this beer a lot. I like my beers with a kick and punch of flavor, and this one delivers. Very cloudy with lemonzest floating, golden color, lemonzest tart flavor, spicy clove, white pepper, very spicy for white ale, mild but noticible hop flavor, lots of citrus, lots of flavor, clean finish.

Weyerbacher Blanche : 2.5/5
Victory whirlwind witbier: 3.5/5

Winner: Victory Whirlwind witbier
A victory for victory (sorry I had to)


Knowing nothing about the 2 beers before hand, I thought it would be a lot closer. Nothing wrong with the weyerbacher, but the Victory whirlwind really did it for me!

 Wayerbacher Blanche

Victory Whirlwind
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Pizza Night Sampler!

I love pizza. I love pizza night. There is nothing better than pizza on a relaxing night in with your lover to munch on while watching movies. I can never seem to get sick of pizza. However, there are nights where I want to try something different and am not sure what I want. There is an easy solution to this! Make it a combo! I love my combos and I am not affraid to admit it. I like my variety. Some people like getting a large pizza half this, half that. I love getting a few small specialty pizzas to try. I love pizza places that have a nice variety of odd ball specialty pizzas. One of the pizza places that deliver has some great classic specialty pizza ideas like supreme, buffalo chicken, and cheeseburger. But they also have some out of the ordinary ones. This weekend when we were having pizza night, I decided I wanted to do some combos and get some variety and try some new ones. First small pizza we got was gourmet veggie which included tomatoes, garlic, broccoli, eggplant, herbs and spices. The next pizza I wanted to try something kinda weird. Seafood pizza. I have had seafood pizzas before from other places, and I liked them so why not? Just as long as its not anchovie pizza BLECK! This pizza had shrimp, crab, red onion, garlic, cajun spices with red and white sauce. I was worried I might not like it but it was well balanced and I really liked the sauce and the cajun spice! All thats left to say is that it was a great pizza night and having variety to your pizza night is a great idea!

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Beef-Nacho Casserole

  When it comes to my woman, shes the one. When it comes to the casserole she introduced me to when we first met, its the one! This is the best damn casserole I have ever had. How can you not like nachos? This casserole tastes like a nacho with every bite. It is so simple and economical to make too! It is the type of recipe you can stock up on the ingredients and have it as a quick option for busy weeknights. I have made and enjoyed this so many times that I memorized the recipe and I still love it. Finally, I am blogging about this household favorite and giving you the recipe off the top of my head and lots of step by step pictures!

Ingredients:

12oz jar salsa

1 pound of ground beef or turkey

2 cup bag of preshredded cheddar or mexican blend cheeses

3/4 cup mayonaise

1 cup of corn (frozen or canned)

1 tablespoon chile powder

Tortilla chips

You will need a 13x9 non-stick baking dish or large round casserole dish



Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F

Brown the meat in a skillet and drain

In a mixing bowl, combine mayo, salsa, cooked meat, corn,and chile powder.

Put a layer of the mixture evenly coating the casserole dish

Put a layer of crushed tortilla chips

Cover the chips with some of the cheese

Layer the rest of the mixture, then chips, the cheese.

Cover and bake for 20 minutes

Thats it! So simple, so good! Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

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Trying random imported beers

I like to enjoy local craft beer a lot and even quality beer from all over the usa. I feel that america makes great beer and deserves more credit than we get! However there are great beers all over the world and I saw some at the big store that I always go to that I knew nothing about but decided to try anyway

First beer I tried was Stiegl Gaudi Radler. This beer is half lemon soda and half beer. I have had beer brewed with lemonade before but never a beer that was half beer and soda. A lot of beer snobs dont like fruit beers and have a lot of issues with them. I am very open-minded when it comes to beer. When it comes to fruit beer I prefer a beer that has a more natural taste where it still tastes like a beer, is not too sweet or overpowering with fruit. I was expecting this beer to be too sweet or overpowering. However, it did still taste like a beer with a malty finish. The lemon flavor was there but not too sweet. The beer was very low in alcohol content making it very refreshing, crisp, and drinkable. Great for summer. 3/5.

The next beer I tried was the Wells Bombardier from England. England usually has great beer and this one caught my eye. This beer was an average ESB type beer, but nothing too special. Slight bitter, spicy hops, malty caramel, drinkable, crisp, but could be a bit more balanced. I did enjoy this beer and would get it again. 3/5

The next beer I tried was a little disapointing. Zipfer original, another one from Austria. There is really nothing great about this beer. Very cheap and mediocre taste. A bland fruit-malt taste, very watery with a slight skunkiness. This is definitely not my kind of beer but drinkable enough to get it down. Just ehh...2/5

Whether great, average, or poor, it is always good to try random beers from around the world, why not?

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Awesome local brew pub changes names, still awesome!

I used to go to a local brew pub all the time by the name of John Harvards. It is a local brew pub chain only in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The one near where I grew up and currently live, recently closed for a few weeks to fix a water leak and was then bought independantly and announced to be renamed. The good news is that the same brewer is going to still be doing his thing there. Today was the first time I went to it with the new name of Tallycross tavern. The menu was pretty much the same with a few new additions. I normally got the cuban sandwich (sooo goooood) but I decided since they changed up their menu, I'd try something new.

First off I had to order my usually sampler of beer. Like most brew pubs, you get a set of 5 small classes of beer to sample and they usually get you a variety from a lighter beer up to darker. The beers I sampled were light lager, pale ale, IPA, stout, belgian black, and I got an extra sample of the vienna lager.

The light lager was similar to sam adams light. It didn't even really taste like a light beer and was better than the one I had when it was called John Harvards. It was not watery like some cheap american light beers and pilsners. It has a nice malty taste and a nice hop note. It has good carbonation and light feel. Very drinkable, but great flavor for a light beer.

The pale ale was good too. It had a great hop flavor and smooth finish. Almost slightly creamy in feel. Had a toasty malt flavor and very slight finish. American pale ales tend to be hit or miss, but this one was on point!

The IPA was a good beer as well and I love my IPAs. It was not an overpowering hop flavor, but it got the job done. It was a well balanced IPA. It had a smooth finish and slight sweetness and no aftertaste. A solid IPA, could have used a little more hop flavor. Not my favorite, but I enjoyed it.

The stout was amazing. I am not always a huge fan of stouts, but when I get a good one, I enjoy it very much. This stout was not bitter at all. Heavy, smooth, creamy, nutty, no aftertaste. Some chocolate notes and slight sweetness. Some stouts are hard to drink, but this one was well balanced and was easy to drink. Mmm.

The vienna lager I tried was damn good. It is a style very similar to an oktoberfest ( which is a favorite). Amber in color, with slightly sweet caramel and citrus notes. The beer had a slight bitter finish, but still smooth and easy to drink. What a great beer!

I saved the best for last. The Belgian dark beer. It is like a Belgian white but almost pitch black. Dark toasted wheat flavor. Smooth and creamy but still drinkable. Wasn't very hoppy or bitter. Had a nice fruit flavor slighty sweet hint. This beer was quite unique and very enjoyable.

I have never quite had such a good experience with beer sample before. There was really nothing bad in the bunch and it was very well rounded. Yes the beer was the highlight but the main reason I was there was to eat lunch.

The menu there is great. They have a lot of classic pub dishes like shepherds pie, fish n chips, mac n cheese, wings, burgers, sandwiches, etc. But they also have some different stuff like salmon, cuban sandwich pasta and bbq meatloaf.

Like I said before, I normally get the cuban sandwich, but since they had a new menu I wanted to mix it up.

I ordered a small plate of wings for an appetizer. These weren't just any old wings, they were beer battered wings! They reminded me of the chicken tenders at chinese restaurants but over a wing. The batter made them poof up with the carbonation from the beer and the batter was light and crispy with very juicy chicken inside. Just when you thought it couldnt get any better, the wings were covered in a very delicious stout bbq sauce!

The main dish I ordered was BLT sliders. I love little beef or chicken sliders, its a trend that I am very happy about. This is the first time I have had a BLT slider so I was excited to try. You get 3 sliders with crisp bacon, fresh lettuce, tomato, and a chipotle mayo. Mmmmmmmm. And my side....beer battered onion rings!

So, I was a little worried about the name change ruining a good thing, but I am proud to say I had one of the best lunches ever and nothing has really changed, if so its probably a change for the better!

Tullycrosstavern.com

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Free Beer Movement

I love beer, especially free beer. And I love sports especially soccer. The free beer movement (thefreebeermovement.com) combines all of these things. The blog and web page is the center for an idea of offering free beer to friends and family who aren't into soccer for a chance to spread the love and passion for the game. I have played sports my whole life, especially soccer. I have always watched sports here and there, but it seems like the older I get the more I like to follow sports. What better than relaxing at home watching a game or going to a local sports bar for a favorite brew to watch your favorite team. I can't help but love to watch soccer/futbol. I was very excited when major league soccer started in the early 90's and being a guy from new england, I am a huge revolution fan. I am going to be moving closer to the stadium and am looking forward to going to a lot of games. I havent been to a new england revolution game in years. I am considering joining a local supporting club and tailgating with them before games. Beer, grilled food, and live sports! I am there! I am very excited to move and get more opportunities to enjoy this under-appreciated sport. I like the concept of the free beer movement. I am skeptical of how well this will work, however. People who love baseball and american football could care less about some sport that Billions of people love all over the world like. But I like the idea of the movement, and it is worth a shot no matter how stuck up sports fans are. I think a big problem is that a lot of soccer fans only care about english premier league soccer and dont even like the local mls teams. For me, its all about the local team. Why not support a team that you can drive to watch a game or not have to watch it live at 1am? I think the mls is very exciting to watch and very competitive and a lot of soccer fans are missing out. I think more people should enjoy local soccer and soccer in general. It is a very team oriented sport that takes a lot of skill and strategy from the whole team to win. I support this movement to get the sport noticed, but part of the reason I love soccer in this country is that it is the underdog and its rare and not overkill. Either way, I am proud to put a concept that combines 2 of my favorite things ( beer and soccer) . So whether you are a soccer fan or not you should check out thefreebeermovement.com and maybe get some free beer while enjoying an exciting sport.!

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Dogfish Head My Antonia

    One of my favorite things about craft beer is that it can be like a treasure hunt to find some of these beers. When you hear about a beer and you want to try it but you have to go all over to get it, and then finally it becomes available to you its incredibly exciting like finding a rare collectors item or some type of treasure but better because you get to drink it! Sam Calagione is the president and founder of Dogfish head beer and he is definitely a cool guy. On the documentary "beer wars" he claims you can call or email him and talk to him personally. It is true because I had emailed him and he got right back to me and answered all my questions. How many presidents of a relatively large company will do that? Not many. Anyway, Sam had been working on a collaboration in Italy for a beer in 2008. The beer started being brewed in delaware at the Dogfish head brew pub and was named "My Antonia". Then it apparently started being bottled and shipped out because I found it at my craft beer specialty shop that I always go to.

  My Antonia is an imperial pilsner. When I think of imperial beers (which I do like) I see a lot of imperial stouts and imperial IPAs. But an imperial pilsner? Awesome, must try!

  Pours a golden-copper color with a high fluffy head which is a lot for what you think of when you think of a pilsner. It smells very faint floral, you can't really smell the hops. The 7.5% alcohol is well hidden with its crisp citrus flavor. The flavor is a lot stronger than a typical pilsner with a in your face grapefruit citrus hoppy flavor. It is still very drinkable and has a clean finish. 4.5/5

I have had a lot of different Dogfish head beers because it is one of my favorite breweries out there. But this beer in particular is fantastic. I can't wait to try more of their collaboration and specialty beers!

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

I like to make dinners ahead of time for the week and I wanted something simple but good and I wanted seafood.

I haven't made any tilapia in a long time but here's what I decided to do.

I beat some eggs until blended with a fork

I combined equal parts of italian bread crumbs and parmesan cheese on a plate.

I then dipped the tilapia in egg and quickly coated in the bread crumb mixture

Repeated this process until all the fish was coated

Baked the fish for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

The crust came out golden-brown and the fish wasn't overcooked at all.

I paired the fish with a mixed green salad with olive oil vinegar dressing.

Simple, delicious, great week night meal that I just threw together without a recipe, I did it again! Mmmmm.

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How can you not love leftovers?

Especially when you come up with something good out of extras in your kitchen and fridge, it can be fun and very tastey. I had some leftover chicken that I had been marinating in garlic and herb marinade. Also, some leftover potatoes. I decided to make oven fries out of the potatoes. Put olive oil on them with salt,pepper,paprika, and garlic powder. For some reason they came out a little spicy, maybe I put too much black pepper?, they were still good though. I grilled the chicken to perfection. Even though it is a little case of carb overload, I decided to make some leftover instant stuffing that we had. I thought it was a very satisfying meal, grilled chicken (really liked the marinade and was still juicy) oven fries and mmmm stuffing! Yes of course I am a beer guy but I do like wine and I decided to enjoy some wine with this wing-it type dinner. The dinner worked out very satisfying and I can't wait to see what I can throw together next with extras and leftovers!

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Burger & Beer night out!

I took my fiance to a burger bar called Plan B. Plan B uses fresh ground hormone free, vegetarian fed, humane beef! The taste difference is definitely there! The restaurant has received many awards and praises for a variety of reasons. My reason for coming back a second time is the menu of wacky culinary bending burger ideas from a chili burger to a fresh made veggie burger to a lobster burger, I want to try them all and I was very pleased with their beer selection as well (of course!)

I asked to see their ever-changing draft beer menu. A lot of good selections on there, hard to decide! But I wanted to try something new, something different.

I started with the Blue Point brewery's spring fling. The long island based brewery has impressed me with a lot of different beers from them, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. The beer is a nice copper color. It was smooth at first and slightly nutty, almost slightly creamy but still light feel. It was a decent typical amber beer in the flavor. There was this slight bitter after taste to the beer that was a little unexpected and kinda got old after a while. The slight sour aftertaste to the beer made me change my mind a little about it but before I could complain too much I realized the beer was empty! Time to try another one!

I decided to go with the Smuttynose summerweizen. A summer seasonal from New Hampshire's brewery. I have liked everything I have tried from smuttynose and I was in the mood for something summer to go with the burger. I love hefeweizens and wheat beers for summertime. They pair really nicely with burgers. The beer was nicely carbonated but not a lot of head dissipated fast. The beer had nice strong wheat beer flavor with orange peel and citrus with a spicyness to it. However, instead of being too sweet it was more dry hoppy tasting than most hefeweizens but I liked that a lot because I love hop flavor and IPAs. The hop flavor wasnt overpowering but it was definitely present.

Although the beer is great and I am a big time beer guy of course, but the real reason we were there was to eat dinner so you've gotta get some real food to go with your real beer. I decided on the pretzel burger with no pink. The pretzel burger has this great pretzel bun that it is served on. It tastes exactly like the fresh made pretzels from the pretzel shop that I love so very much. It even is sorta shaped like a pretzel. It comes with that spicy mustard with the seeds in it that I have to dip my pretzels in every time I get one. Also cheddar cheese, romaine lettuce and pickled on this bad boy. I had to order the "disco fries" that I heard about last time I was there. Literally fries smothered in cheese sauce and gravy, I am drooling just writing about it, oh my god, so ridiculous. I forgot to mention the fresh deli pickle they serve too. So the beer with the hops and citrus pairs so damn well with that spicy mustard burger I cant stress it enough. The burger is classic pretzel meets classic burger tastes together with a summer beer and smothered fries!, so good I almost passed out, culinary goodness overload.

Since we were out on a date night we had to share a dessert. Pecan pie with ice cream, I dont think I even need to say it but, yeah, it sure hit the spot and completed the evening.

So, with great beer, fresh beef burgers, and awesome dessert , it was a flavorful experience I will not forget!

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