Entree

Trashed Up Beer Cheese Tater Tot Pizza

04.11.2014 25 Comments

Trashed Up Beer Cheese Tater Tot Pizza.
Worth every. single. calorie. SO good.

A great blog sucks you in.

Not just the food, or the photos, but the person behind it. A person you become a least mildly obsessed with. A real-life human who writes in a way that you makes you want more of them. When I first started blogging, Jess from How Sweet It Is was that girl. After I found her blog I binge read her past posts for at least two hours, and then proceeded to creepily google stalk her.

The most shocking thing about this endeavor was that she was on the other side of the computer, stalking me right back. When I finally met her in real life she gave me the biggest, most genuine hug I’ve ever been on the receiving end of and said, "I love your blog! I even google stalked you!" I was too shocked and flattered to tell her that I’d done the exact same thing to her, so I tried my best to play it cool.

Of all the people I’ve been fortunate enough to meet in this crazy world of blogging, there isn’t anyone more genuinely nice than Jessica. She’s even more of what you want her to be, sincerely gracious, food obsessed, blogging groupie, people fan, she’s the real deal and absolutely worthy of your google stalking hours.

She not only makes incredible food, she’s also making a human. In her guts. In honor of this incredible feat, a bunch of bloggers, all of whom have done our share of Jessica How Sweet Google Stalking decided to show her some love. We trashed up some food in her honor.

And I can’t wait to see the human she makes. Someone as nice, talented and genuine as Jess, I think she should make all the babies from now on.

My Top Five Favorite How Sweet Posts Using Beer:

Trashed Up Beer Cheese Tater Tot Pizza

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb pale ale pizza dough
½ cup pizza sauce marinara or barbeque sauce
1 cup mozzarella shredded
2 cups tater tots cooked according to package directions
Olive oil for crust about 2 tbs
2 tbs Butter melted
2 tbs Flour
1 tbs Cornstarch
½ cup beer wheat beer, blonde ale, pale ale, pilsner
1 cup shredded Cheddar do not use pre shredded
½ cup whole milk
salt and pepper
¼ cup cilantro chopped
4 strips bacon cooked and chopped
¼ cup pickled jalapenos nacho jalapenos

Instructions

Place 10-inch cast iron skillet in the lower third of the oven. Heat to 425 degrees with pan in the oven. Heat for at least half hour prior to baking.
Stretch the pizza dough into a 10-inch circle, avoid a rolling pin as this will remove the air bubbles that give great texture. Carefully remove the skillet from the oven, gently placing the crust in the pan.
Spread with sauce, top with mozzarella cheese and then cooked tater tots. Brush exposed crust with olive oil.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese has melted the edges are golden brown.
While the pizza is baking make the sauce.
Add the melted butter, flour, cornstarch, beer, cheddar cheese and milk to a blender. Blend on high until well combined. Add to a pot over medium high heat until thick and bubbly. Salt and pepper to taste. (If you encounter any issues with the texture, just re-blend until smooth).
Once the pizza is cooked, remove from oven, top with beer cheese sauce, sprinkle with cilantro, chopped bacon and pickled jalapenos.

I used this Beer Pizza Dough recipe

Check out the rest:

trashed up salads

Gimme Some Oven – Asian Broccoli Salad with Peanut Sauce
The Lemon Bowl – Brussels Slaw with Tahini Dressing and Za’atar Crostini
With Style & Grace – Kale Salad with Apple, Hazelnuts & Bacon

trashed up cocktails

Dine & Dish – Hot Buttered Rum Cocktail
Food For My Family – Cranberry Orange Dark and Stormy Cocktail
Minimalist Baker – Bourbon Pumpkin Milkshakes
Stylish, Stealthy & (sometimes) Healthy – Apple Cider Shandy
A Spicy Perspective – Preggy Punch Mocktail
Girl vs. Dough – Boozy Maple Peanut Butter Cup Milkshake
Honestly Yum – Maple Bacon Pisco Sour
Cookin Canuck – Pink Grapefruit Margaritas
A Thought For Food – Mezcal Citrico Cocktail
A House in the Hills – Pomegranate Rosemary Spritzer
The Novice Chef – Ginger Bourbon Apple Cider
Bran Appetit – Citrus Cider Punch Floats

trashed up burgers

Edible Perspective – Meatloaf Veggie Burgers with Mashed Potatoes + Gravy
The Little Kitchen – Salmon BLT Sliders with an Avocado Aioli & Brie
Daisy At Home – Balsamic Beef Burger with Mac and Cheese
Cookies & Cups – Candied Bacon Maple Cheddar Burger
Climbing Grier Mountain – Trashed-Up Steak Burger with Chicken Fried Bacon & Dijon Gravy
Dessert For Two – Bleu Cheese Burgers + Sweet Potato Fries
Country Clever – Fig Rosemary Roast Chicken Brie Brussels Sprout Panini
Foodie Crush – The Best Cheeseburger Soup
Lady and Pups – Spicy Sambal Chicken Meatball Sub with Eggs
Two Peas & Their Pod – Sweet Potato and Kale Grilled Cheese
Bake Your Day – Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich

trashed up tacos

Spoon Fork Bacon – Crunchy Ground Beef and Cheesy Tacos
The Fauxmartha – Boozy Beef and Butternut Tacos
With Food + Love – Harvest Hash Breakfast Tacos
Mountain Mama Cooks – Crispy Kale and Brussels Sprout Tacos with Bacon
Heather Christo – Bahn Mi Tacos with Spicy Sriracha Honey Sauce
A Couple Cooks – Loaded Huevos Rancheros Tacos
Fitnessista – San Diego Lobster Street Tacos

trashed up desserts

Table for Two – Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate, and Brown Butter Shortbread Bars with Sprinkles
My Name is Yeh – Mini Vanilla Loaf Cakes, All Trashed Up
Picky Palate – Pumpkin Spice Butterscotch Sprinkle Cupcakes
Sprinkle Bakes – Cake Batter Confetti Cupcakes
Averie Cooks – Easy Homemade Funfetti Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
Sweet Phi – Trashed Up Shortbread Cookie Bars
Love & Olive Oil – Loaded Junk Food Brownies
Lauren’s Latest – Bakery Sugar Cookies
Cookie + Kate – Peanut Butter, Banana, Honey and Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Flourishing Foodie – Triple Layer Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
The Sugar Hit – Salted Caramel Popcorn Ice Cream Cake
Hummingbird High – Breakfast Cereal Cake Donuts
Top With Cinnamon – Triple Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Crumb Cake
Bake at 350 – Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sundaes
Simple Bites – Lemon Layer Cake
Bakerella – Baby Block Cake Pops
She Wears Many Hats – Chocolate Covered Grapefruit

trashed up pizza

Bev Cooks – Beer Battered Fried Calamari Pizza
Rachel Cooks – Apple and Chicken Sausage Pizza with Macaroni and Cheese Stuffed Crust
Foodie With Family – Trashed Up Barbecue Turkey Pizza
Shutterbean – Pesto Potato Bacon Pizza
i am a food blog – Grilled Cheese Pizza
My Life as a Mrs – Chili Cheese Dog Pizza
Simply Scratch – Steak + Blue Cheese Pizza with Crispy Fried Shallots and Honey Balsamic Drizzle
The Beeroness – Beer Cheese Tater Tot Pizza
Yes I Want Cake – Roasted Pumpkin Pizza
Two Red Bowls – Bacon Mashed Potato Pizza
Dula Notes – Pork Bahn Mi Pizza
Weelicious – Trashed Up Mexican Pizza Pockets
Take a Megabite – Roasted Beet Pizza
Hungry Girl Por Vida – Hard Cider Braised Pork with Sour Cherries and Cheesy Polenta
Bakers Royale – Trash’d Street Tacos

Rosemary Potato Brown Ale Galette

29.10.2014 9 Comments

Rosemary Potato Brown Ale Galette. Vegan, healthy and insanely delicious. Perfect side dish for Thanksgiving!

I once knew a woman who had marched on Washington with Martin Luther King. She was fascinating and captivating and no matter how many interesting stories I can tell you, she had me beat on all levels. I sat at a small formica table drinking bad coffee with a woman who was closer to my Grandmothers age than my own and she told me about praying with MLK Jr. in a tent the night before the big human rights rally. I was captivated. I looked at her hands, gripping a white paper cup and I imagined them gripping his. Facing each other, his hands tightly folded into hers, eyes closed, praying for the day to come, possibly wondering if they would both make it through alive. I felt like I was in the presence of Royalty. "One of the best things he ever said to me was to collect compliments, and disregard insults." I smiled, apparently she had picked up on the fact that I tend to disregard compliments and collect insults. "I’ll give you one, one that I hope you collect. Here it is: you get it. Most white people don’t, but you do. You get it. For as much as someone who has never been a minority can get it, you do."

To this day, it’s one of my favorites. More than Carlos Santana telling me I was pretty, or Tommy Lee saying I beautiful. It was a compliment that mattered from a woman I was intimidated by. It beat out Evan Kleiman saying my recipes are smart and even a woman I adored saying "you’re the kind of girl I hope my son marries." But all of these compliments I’m keeping. I’m saving them up and pulling them out when I feel beaten down. You should too. Collect the compliments, disregard the insults. After all, if someone wants to throw a nasty comment your way, it says more about them than it does about you.

Rosemary Potato Brown Ale Galette

Print Recipe

Ingredients

¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped fresh sage
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
4 lbs russet potatoes sliced into ¼ inch slices
1/3 cup brown ale

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400.
In a small bowl stir together olive oil, rosemary, sage, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Microwave on high for 45 seconds, allow to steep for five minutes (you can also add this to a small pan and bring to a boil on the stove top).
Place a layer of potatoes in an overlapping circle in the bottom on a 9-inch spring form pan.
Brush potatoes circles with olive oil mixture. Add a second layer of potatoes, brushing with oil, repeat until all potatoes are used. You should have three or four layers of potatoes, each layer brushed with the herbed olive oil. Once all potatoes have been used, pour 1/3 cup brown ale gently over the top.
Cover spring form pan with aluminum foil, bake at 400 for 25 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake for an additional 30 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.
Remove from oven and preheat broiler. Place potatoes under the broiler for 3 minutes or until the top is slightly crisp and golden brown. Press down firmly on the top of the galette with a spoon or fork. Allow to cool. Remove the sides of the spring form pan, cut galette into wedges.

This recipe is crazy delicious and just so happens to be vegan. It’s a beautiful way to serve a side dish to a diverse crowd at Thangsiving. It can even be gluten free if you use GF beer and it’s relatively healthy. Want a delicious and different breakfast offering? Put an egg on it.

Want to know how I made these incredibly delicious beer battered grilled cheese bites? You’ll love them. Check them out on the Harry & David blog.

One Pot Tomato Parmesan Brown Ale Fettuccini with Chicken

24.10.2014 8 Comments

One Pot Tomato Parmesan Brown Ale Fettuccini with Chicken. Even the pasta and chicken get cooked in the same pot!

Sometimes I like to look at photos of old living rooms I used to occupy. The one when I was kid with the brown tweed couch, and the one with the tan futon from college, and the one I painted orange from right after I graduated. I stare at these images and think that if I just tried hard enough I could go back. I could walk in the door, throw my bag on that weird built in shelf next to the stove that Sophia chewed on when she was a puppy. That the awkward wrought iron table would still be there and the bad bathroom tile would still be covered in lady bug decals.

Then I remember that fight I got into with my academic advisor when I was in college. He was also the dean of my department and the type that would wear thin short sleeved button down shirts without the obligatory Hanes barrier between my eyes and his man nipples. He always had a way of pissing me off, but for some reason I told him that I was having a hard time adjusting, that friends had never been that easy for me to come by, that even going home felt more empty than I’d imagined.

"It’s true what they say," as he leaned back in his chair his large mass caused the seat to creak in protest under his weight, "You really can’t go home again."

I stood up, angry at him. He was right, and it made me furious.

Sometimes I think he might be wrong. For a second I think that there might be way, if I could find the key, that I could open the door and it would all be the same.

One Pot Tomato Parmesan Brown Ale Fettuccini with Chicken

Print Recipe

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs
salt and pepper
3 tbs olive oil
½ yellow onion diced
1 large carrot diced
15 asparagus stalks trimmed
3 cloves garlic minced
12 ounces brown ale
2 lbs fresh tomatoes diced
6 wt oz tomato paste
4 wt oz parmesan with rind
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
8 wt ounces fettuccini noodles

Instructions

Sprinkle chicken thighs on all sides with salt and pepper.
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Cook chicken on both sides until cooked through, remove from pot, chop.
Add onions and carrots, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes.
Add the asparagus and garlic, cook until asparagus is slightly browned.
Stir in the beer, scraping to deglaze the pot.
Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, simmer until the tomatoes have broken down. Grate the parmesan, reserve the rind. Sprinkle the pot with parmesan, stir until combined, Add the rind to the pot as well.
Stir in the garlic powder, oregano. Add the fettuccini noodles, cooking until noodles are al dente.
Plate the noodles, top with chicken.

Sriracha and Beer Fried Chicken with Sriracha Honey Glaze

20.10.2014 8 Comments

Sriracha and Beer Fried Chicken with Sriracha Honey Glaze. The best fried chicken I’ve ever made, and really simple.

The best fried chicken I’ve ever had was in a trailer park in Compton, a particularly rough part of South Central Los Angeles (you can read that story here). Since then I’ve had a mild obsession with perfecting the at-home fried chicken recipe. It’s an easy recipe to obsess over, its meant to be an at-home recipe. It’s origins are in home kitchens in the South, kitchens that don’t have fancy equipment or any need for expensive ingredients. It’s a recipe that often turns out better in a home kitchen than in a commercial one. Fried chicken is meant to be shared, made in larger batches, and eaten with both hands. I’ve learned a few things along the path of my obsession that help get that perfect bite that turns Fried Chicken into Crack Chicken:

1. Brine. Always, always brine. A mixture of beer and buttermilk gives you an incredibly juicy chicken that has no trouble standing up to the heat of a deep frier.

2. Sweet and heat. A little brown sugar and chili powder will give you a nice full, rounded flavor to your breading that can’t be matched. Don’t be afraid of the sugar, it’s a secret ingredient for many, many chefs and home cooks.

3. Wire rack. Skip the paper towel covered plate, it’ll make the bottom part of your chicken soggy. Place a wire rack over a baking sheet and the entire thing will stay crispy.

4. Skip the spendy oil. Because of the low smoke point of olive oil, it’s the last thing you want to use. Use canola oil or peanut oil for best result. Some home cooks (particularly the Southern Grandma types) like to use a mixture of Crisco and peanut oil.

5. Use your oven too. It’ll take a while to cook 3 pounds of chicken, make sure that the first batch is as warm as the last by sticking it on a wire rack over a baking sheet and placing that in the oven while you finish up. It will also help keep the crispy coating from turning soggy.

6. Let it sit for a few minutes. Allowing the chicken to rest between the buttermilk/flour step and the deep frier will help your chicken cook more evenly and help the breading to stick to the chicken.

My last advice is to pair it with a highly carbonated, moderately hopped pale ale. But that’s your call. Have a great fried chicken tip? Please add it in the comments section!

Sriracha and Beer Fried Chicken

Print Recipe

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken pieces thighs, legs, wings
2 tbs kosher salt
1 sweet white onion sliced
1 ½ cups buttermilk
12 ounces pale ale
1 tbs sriracha
2 cups flour
2 tbs brown sugar
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
canola or peanut oil for frying

For the Glaze:

¼ cup honey
3 tbs sriracha

Instructions

Arrange the chicken in an even layer in a large baking pan.
Sprinkle evenly with kosher salt, top with sliced onions.
In a small bowl whisk together the buttermilk, beer and sriracha, pour evenly over the chicken, cover and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.
In a medium sized bowl stir together the flour, brown sugar, chili powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne.
One at a time remove the chicken pieces, dredge in the flour mixture then gently re-dip in the buttermilk/beer marinade and recoat with the flour mixture (double coating of the flour mixture will give you a crispier chicken), set on a wire rack that has been set over a baking sheet.
Allow the coated chicken to sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 250.
Add the oil to a large pot until about 6 inches deep, heat to 350 degrees using a cooking thermometer clipped to the pan, adjust heat to maintain that temperature.
Working in batches fry the chicken until golden brown and cooked through (between 4 and 12 minutes each, depending on how thick the chicken and if the piece has a bone in it, use a meat thermometer to check for doneness).
Once each piece is done, return to the wire rack and place baking sheet in the oven while the remainder of the chicken is cooking.
Whisk together the honey and sriracha, drizzle over the chicken just prior to serving (alternately, it can be used as a dipping sauce).

Porter Ginger Glazed Salmon

17.10.2014 7 Comments

Porter Ginger Glazed Salmon. 20 minutes and SO good! #salmon #recipe #quick #easy #asian

I have this bizarre ability to have strangers confess dark secrets to me without provocation. Several times, after such admissions, they’ll say, "I can’t believe I just said that," as they further expand upon the revelation. Maybe it’s something in my eyes, or maybe it’s that I have a Master’s Degree in Feelings (Psychology, whatever), or maybe it’s that I genuinely do care about people, but sometimes it’s jarring.

I was at a local market buying salmon when I start chatting with the clerk about my recent move to Seattle from Los Angeles and my love for the Dodgers that hinges on my unabashed adoration of Vin Scully. She’d lived in LA too, decades ago "I left because I had a drug problem," the 70-year-old checker declared. She gasped and waited for my reaction.

"Looks like you’ve kicked it, congratulations. Seems like it was a good move for you,"

She gave me a childlike smile, "I did some nude modeling too, but that was when I was much younger,"

"Look at you! So saucy, I bet you were quite the dish back then,"

"I WAS!" she said, with a huge grin on her face.

My transaction was complete, salmon packed in my shopping bag so I left, I didn’t want her to Next Level her admission. Although, there was part of me that wanted to invite her over for dinner and hear the rest of her stories. If I got drug problems and nude modeling in 6 minutes at the check stand, imagine what she’d admit to after a few beers.

Porter Ginger Glazed Salmon

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

3 tbs olive oil
¼ cup porter beer
2 tbs soy sauce
2 cloves garlic grated with a microplane
1 tbs grated ginger
1 tbs brown sugar
4 salmon fillets
1 tbs sesame seeds
3 tbs green onions

Instructions

In a medium bowl stir together the olive oil, beer, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, brown sugar. Add the salmon. Allow to marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes.
Preheat the broiler. Add the salmon to a baking sheet that has been covered with aluminum foil, pour the marinade into a saucepan.
Bring the marinade to a boil, stirring frequently until thickened, about 6 minutes.
Brush salmon with glaze, place under broiler for 2 minutes, remove from oven, re-brush with glaze and broil for two minutes, repeating this step until salmon flakes easily with fork.
Plate salmon, sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions.

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce

08.10.2014 15 Comments

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce #beer #recipe #tailgating

On the way to making quick chicken tacos I decided to make a burger. One that takes a couple of hours, one that I decided to call a sandwich instead because I felt like it. One that I decided to spice up with jalapenos. Because things that take a few hours need to be made. There’s a feeling of accomplishment, of unguarded control, a way to push back against the restraint of the rest of your life, the parts that you can’t govern as you want.

But you deserve a little control, a little bit of your life that you have total say over. A little bit of something that goes right, and no one is pushing you around, or taking advantage of you, a space where your work doesn’t go unnoticed. No matter what great things you’ve done this week, and I know there have been plenty, you won’t be getting a parade. Or a Congratulations card. Or even a confetti shower when you walk in the door. But you should, because I’m sure you’ve done something to deserve those things. But with these, all that hard work won’t go unnoticed. You might not get a piñata and a present, but you will get some delicious sandwiches. Even though I’m sure you deserve much more.

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Short Ribs:

1 tsp salt
3 lbs bone in beef short ribs
3 tbs flour
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cumin
1 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs olive oil
1 ½ cups beef broth
12 oz porter beer

For the Beer Cheese Sauce:

2 tbs butter
2 fresh jalapenos diced
2 tbs flour
2 tbs cornstarch
1 cup IPA beer
1 cup whole milk
2 cups 4 wt oz shredded cheddar cheese
8 sour dough rolls split

Instructions

Sprinkle the salt on all sides of the short ribs. In a small bowl stir together the flour, chili powder, black pepper, garlic powder, cumin and brown sugar. Sprinkle the ribs on all sides with the flour mixture.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the short ribs, browning on all sides.
Add the broth and beer, bring to a low simmer. Add the lid at a vent, cooking until short ribs are tender and falling off the bone, about 2 ½ hours, remove from heat. Using two forks, shred while still in the pot. Allow to sit in braising liquid for ten minutes, remove from braising liquid.
In a pan over medium high heat, melt the butter. Add the jalapenos, cook until softened. Sprinkle with flour and cornstarch, whisk until well combined, allow to cook until a light brown color.
Add the beer and the milk, bring to a low simmer. About ¼ cup at a time, whisk in the cheese, making sure all cheese is melted before adding more. Keep warm while you make the burgers (sauce will thicken as it cools, add additional milk or beer and add to heat if the sauce thickens too much).
Add the ribs into rolls, top with cheese sauce. Serve warm.

Sweet Potato and Brown Ale Soup with Crispy Sage and Pomegranates

06.10.2014 11 Comments

Sweet Potato and Brown Ale Soup with Crispy Sage and Pomegranates #soup #recipe #beer #sweetpotato #pomegranate #fall

Do you ever get wrong number phone calls?

I’m a bit of a magnet for them, even though I’ve had my current cell phone number since I was a teenager.

I get the same woman calling me about once a month, and she never remembers that she has the wrong number. Although I don’t know for sure what she looks like, in my head she is an older African-American woman, in a floral bathrobe sitting at a vintage oak dinning table sipping Taster Choice out of an old mug.

This was our most recent conversation:

My phone rings, I know it’s her.

Me: “Hi!”

Her: “Oh…Um…do I have the right number?”

Me: “Honey, you’ve called me every month for the past two years and this still isn’t the right number.”

Her, laughing: “Girl! Haha! Do I really? Aren’t you a sweetheart! Why you keep takin’ my calls?!”

Me: “Because if I don’t answer you just keep calling! Plus, I’ve gotten used to this.”

Her: “You are so sweet! You’re my girl. I won’t call you again, I promise! So nice to talk to you again.”

Me: ” Ok, hon. Talk to you next month.”

And I hope I do.

I have her number saved in my phone as Mrs. Tasters Choice and when her number pops up, I get a big smile on my face. She’s told me stories about a friend of hers in the hospital, about how she used to sell pies at Penn Station, about her husband that passed away a few years ago from a heart attack right in the middle of a Sizzler. She’s seen hard times, that’s obvious, but she’s the kind of woman who chooses to be happy, to brighten people’s day. At least that’s what she always does for me.

Sweet Potato and Brown Ale Soup with Crispy Sage and Pomegranates

Print Recipe

Ingredients

4 tbs unsalted butter
¼ cup chopped shallots
3 tbs flour
2 tbs brown sugar if using orange sweet potatoes, reduce to 1 tbs
12 oz brown ale
1 ½ cups chicken broth
3 lbs 6 cups white sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ cup heavy cream
2 tbs olive oil
¼ cup fresh sage leaves
½ cup pomegranate seeds

Instructions

Melt butter in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the shallots, cooking until softened. Sprinkle with flour, stir until well combined, thickened and flour has browned.
Add the brown sugar, brown ale, and chicken broth, stir to combine.
Add the sweet potatoes, cook until potatoes are fork tender. Remove from heat.
Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth.
Stir in the salt, pepper, cayenne and heavy cream.
Heat the olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium high heat until hot but not smoking.
Add the sage leaves, fry on both sides until crispy, about 10 seconds per side. Remove from oil, allow to drain on paper towels.
Spoon soup into the bowl, top with sage leaves and pomegranate seeds.

Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits

01.10.2014 9 Comments

Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits

I was once friends with a man who was 100 years old. We had a bit of an unlikely friendship, since he had reached retirement age long before I was even born. He was smart, funny, and seems to have no concept of the age gap.

Life was a constant opportunity to make people laugh, and he took full advantage of it.

When he moved to Los Angeles in the 1940’s to get his pneumonia stricken daughters out of the frigid East Coast winters, he was without money, without a job, and without an education. He walked in to a Taxi company headquarters and asked for a job. He had a fantastic driving record and a winning smile, in his book, that’s the only resume he needed. As soon as the hiring manager found out that he had only lived on the West Coast of a week, knew nothing about Los Angeles freeways, and had never driven a cab, he shut down the interview.

“If you don’t know how to get from LAX to the Roosevelt Hotel, how are you going to get the client there??”

Jack responded with this famous smile, “Well if you don’t give me the cab, it’s gonna take a whole lot longer!”

He got the job.

Jack worked as a cab driver, running tourist from the Airport to Hollywood for over 30 years. He was also the very first Employee of the Month for the cab company, and to date, the recipient of the most complimentary letters ever sent to the cab company about any one of their employees.

As I sat with him only a few months before his 101’s birthday, eating biscuits that his nurse had made us, I asked him if he had any regrets.

“Not really. The secret to living 100 years old and not regretting anything is this: Do your best. Don’t hurt anyone. Make friends with anyone who will let you.”

When my job moved me farther from his apartment in the valley, I wasn’t able to visit as often as I used to so I wrote letters, postmarked from my Santa Monica office. One day I got a return letter, addressed to me with flowery handwriting. It was from his 76 year old daughter:

"Jackie,

I’m not sure what it was that formed a friendship between you and my Dad, but I wanted you to know how much he valued you. Your visits brightened his day, even his week. If there was a highlight from his last decade of life, it was the time he spent with you. He spoke of you often, and although my sister and I were at first skeptical of a friendship between him and a girl in her 20’s, it quickly became clear that there was a special bond between you two. I’m so sorry to tell you that he passed away, just a week shy of his 101’s birthday. I do want you to know that we appreciate the time you spent with him in his last year. Thank you."

I cried. And ate biscuits in his honor, his favorite breakfast. To this day, "Do your best. Don’t hurt anyone. Make friends with anyone who will let you” is some of best advice I’ve gotten.

Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Biscuits:

3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
8 tbs unsalted cold butter cut into cubes
1/2 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup Belgian ale or wheat beer
2 tbs melted butter
¼ tsp course sea salt

For the Chicken and Gravy:

3 tbs butter
2 boneless skinless chicken thighs
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
¼ cup chopped yellow onion
8 wt oz chopped crimini mushrooms
¼ cup flour
1 cup beef stock
¾ cup stout beer
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tbs honey
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400.
In a processor add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
Pulse to combine. Add the cold butter, process until well combined. Add to a large bowl.
Add the buttermilk and beer. Mix with a fork until just combined.
Add to a well-floured flat surface, pat into a rectangle. Using a cold rolling pin (preferably marble) gently roll into a large rectangle, about 1 inch in thickness, using as few strokes as possible.
Fold the dough into thirds as you would a letter about to go into an envelope. Roll lightly, once in each direction to about 1 inch thickness, fold in thirds again. Gently roll into about 1 1/2 inch thickness (this will give you the flakey layers).
Using a biscuit cutter cut out 6 to 8 biscuits. Place in a baking pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Brush biscuits with melted butter, sprinkle salt.
Bake at 425 for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
While the biscuits bake, make the gravy.
Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat.
Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Sear on each side until golden brown, remove from the pan, chop (they do not need to be cooked through).
Add the onions, cook until softened, about five minutes. Add the mushrooms, cook until mushrooms are dark brown and soft.
Sprinkle with flour, cook until the flour has turned brown, about 2 minutes.
Add the beef stock and stout. Simmer until thickened. Add the chicken cubes back into the pan, simmer until cooked through.
Add the cream, honey, stir until well combined.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Split the biscuits, fill with gravy.

Stout Mongolian Beef

26.09.2014 19 Comments

Stout Mongolian Beef, twenty minutes and so good.

Until this year I was given a smooth transition into fall, which in LA seems to happen sometime around the end of January. September is always scorching, October is "brisk" in that low 70’s kind of way, we’ll get a day of rain in November to which all true Los Angelenos will first say, "I can’t believe it’s raining!" which will be immediately followed up with, "But we need it, so it’s ok." It’s the Los Angeles Rain Manrta, we all say it. Every. Damn. Time. Just the way ever single radio station thinks it’s clever to play No Rain by Blind Mellon followed by I’m Only Happy When It Rains by Garbage chased by a little Umbrella by Rihanna.

Not so much the process with the way the seasons change in Seattle. It was upper 80’s until it wasn’t. It was sunny until it wasn’t. It went from the blistering depths of summer to grab-a-latte-and-pull-on-the-wellies fall, literally overnight. But the oddest part, is that no one moaned. The first time in my life that the first rain of the fall brought a collective sigh of relief from across the City I live in. People wanted it, the way you’re glad when the last guest leaves a good party at 3 am and you finally get to go to sleep. It was as if the City said, "We’re back to normal!" For me, there’s some getting used to that still needs to take place. I’m a lizard on a rock and I need the sun. My tolerance for scorching heat is high, but my rain and cold threshold is still pretty low. So, of course, I spent the day cooking. I made something warm and comforting and reminded myself of all the things besides endless sunshine that this City has to offer.

Stout Mongolian Beef

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

1.5 lb flank steak thinly sliced
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp ginger minced
3 cloves garlic chopped
1/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup stout
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
¼ cup green onions sliced
rice for serving

Instructions

Sprinkle the steak on all sides with cornstarch, toss to coat. Allow to sit at room temperature while you prepare the sauce.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Add the ginger and garlic, stir for 30 seconds.
Add the soy sauce, stout and brown sugar, simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
Heat the canola oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the steak, cooking until browned on all sides (the steak does not need to be cooked through). Pour off excess oil.
Add the sauce, simmer until thickened.
Add to a serving plate, sprinkle with green onions.

Roasted Garlic and Potato Beer Cheese Soup

24.09.2014 28 Comments

Roasted Garlic and Potato Beer Cheese Soup

I’m a bit of a free spirit, an outside the box person. The thought of taking a cruise makes me feel panicked and trapped, as does the thought of living in a tract house, or working in a cubicle. These are all things that people want, right? To feel safe, secure, solid. There comes a day when these "things we should want" lose the gilded film of social pressure and we start to ask: but did I ever really want these things in the first place? Maybe you do, but maybe you don’t, neither authenticates your personhood.

I’ve had more experiences than I should legally be allowed for someone my age, at least twice what I’d ever admit to. I’ve told you about teaching anger management to gang members in South Central Los Angeles, I’ve told you about Italy, Spain, and almost dying in Morocco, and then there are the years I spent with the marginally famous in Hollywood (which I probably won’t ever tell you about unless you get me drunk enough), but there is one thing that I’ve learned that I know for sure: most decision, if made correctly, come down to a quality of life issue. And it is certain that another persons idea of a great life, and whether or not I have it, doesn’t raise that quality. This is freeing. I can wear what I want, live where I want, work how I want, and learn to ignore the social and Pinterest pressure to behave otherwise.

It takes some time for this all to sink in, and you’ll have some question to answer over (and over) again, but it’s a better way.

I like it, it always seems to fit.

Roasted Garlic and Potato Beer Cheese Soup

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 head garlic
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs unsalted butter
½ cup chopped carrots
½ cup white onions chopped
2 tbs flour
2 tbs cornstarch
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
12 ounces pale ale wheat beer or pale lager
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp chili powder
1 large russet potato about ¾ lbs, peeled and chopped into small cubes
½ cup heavy cream
2 cups shredded cheddar
½ cup shredded parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425.
Cut the top tip of the head garlic off, just enough to expose all of the cloves. Place garlic on a piece of tin foil. Drizzle with olive oil and seal the foil around the garlic.
Place garlic packet on a baking sheet or baking dish. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Once it has cooled, squeeze the head to remove the cloves, chop/smash the garlic into a paste.
Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the carrots and onions, cooking until softened. Sprinkle with flour and cornstarch, stir until thickened.
Add the broth, beer, basil, roasted garlic paste and chili powder, bring to a low simmer.
Add the potatoes and cook until softened, about 15 minutes.
Stir in the cream. About ¼ cup at a time, add the cheese, stirring well between additions.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Honey Mustard Mushroom Stout Chicken

17.09.2014 13 Comments

Honey Mustard Mushroom Stout Chicken: 30 minute, one pot chicken dinner.

A few years ago I was stuck in a small town in south Italy on a 22 hour layover.

While trying to figure out if sleeping in the tiny terminal was feasible, I met an Italian girl about my age. Her English was good, she was stunning, and she was about half way to earning her pilots license, I was instantly enamored with her. She asked if I’d like to stay with her for the night, in the small apartment she shared with her mom. I quickly agreed, jumping in a cab with her to head to a crowded part of town.

She’d planed to drag me around Pescara, first with her boyfriend, then later with a much older man she referred to as her lover, but before then we were obligated to sit down at a small dining table with her mom, who’d been cooking all afternoon. After an incredible meal of homemade bread, a small green salad, smashed peas and a roasted chicken, I’d offered to do the dishes. Half way through the clean up, Chiara came into the small kitchen dressed in tight jeans, shiny black heels that made her well over 6 feet tall and tight, tiny tube top. She leaned against the counter as I finished drying the larger platter and asked me about my life in LA and the celebrities I’d met. As I talked, she lit a cigarette she had buried in her purse. A few drags in, she froze as we heard her mom coming around the corner, she shove the cigarette into my hand and took a big step back. Her mom gasped as she saw the American girl in her kitchen with a lit cigarette, smoke wafting towards her hanging plants. I froze.

Her mom screamed at me in Italian, shooing us out the door. As soon as we were safely on our way to the bar where her boyfriend was eagerly awaiting our arrival, she thanked me. "She doesn’t know I smoke, and she won’t care if you do. You know, because you’re American." After a long night of following Chiara around Pescara, meeting the throngs of men that where throwing themselves at her, we finally returned home to a dark apartment.

Her mom had left a note on her table for us. Chiara translated it for me, her mom had left some bread for me to eat in the morning, she knew I had a really early flight. She had also packed up some of the chicken for me to take with me on my flight. I was touched. "That’s good," I said, "She must not hate me."

"Oh no," Chiara responded, "Even if she does she would still feed you. No one will ever go hungry in my moms house, friend or enemy."

To this day I have no idea if there is an older Italian woman on the East Coast of Italy that abhors the thought of me, but either way, her chicken is fantastic.

Honey Mustard Mushroom Stout Chicken

Print Recipe

Total Time 30

Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken thighs
1 tbs salt
1 tbs pepper
2 tbs butter
¼ cup chopped shallots
4 cloves garlic minced
8 wt oz mushrooms shitake, crimini, oyster. Fresh not dried
1 cup stout beer
½ cup beef broth
simmer until reduced by about half
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tbs raw honey
1 tbs whole grain mustard
¼ cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
rice for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425.
Sprinkle the chicken on all sides with salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in a pan over medium high heat. Add the chicken, skin side down, cook until skin is browned and crispy, flip the chicken, cooking on the other side until slightly browned. Remove from pan (chicken will not be cooked through).
Add the shallots, reduce heat to medium, cooking until slightly browned. Add the garlic and mushrooms, cooking until the mushrooms have softened, about five minutes. Add the beer, scraping to deglaze the pan. Simmer until reduced by half. Add the broth, thyme, rosemary, honey, and mustard, simmer for about five minutes. Add the cream, simmer until slightly thickened.
Add the chicken back into the pan, place the pan in the oven (make sure this pan is oven safe, if not everything can be transferred to a baking dish instead) roast at 425 for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked to 170F degrees.
Serve over rice with sauce.

Notes

Note: if the skin is no longer crispy after roasting, place pan under a preheated broiler for about 2 minutes or until skin has crisped.

Porter Chorizo Black Bean Soup

15.09.2014 7 Comments

On October 17, 1814 the streets of London where flooded with beer. Porter to be exact. At around 6pm, a 22-foot-tall monster barrel of beer, containing over two million pints of porter, succumbed to the pressure of the liquid pushing mightily against the large iron hoops. The burst was so loud, a literal explosion, it could be heard as far as five miles away and caused a chain reaction of erupting barrels across the Meux’s Brewery’s rooftop.

The resulting tidal-wave of beer flooded the streets, the crowded nearby tenements that housed impoverished Irish immigrants, and a local church. In an attempt to score free beer, and salvage the precious liquid from the perils of waste, the local citizens ran through the streets with pots, pans, and mugs to stock up on the wealth of brew that had been bestowed upon them.

The beer tsunami killed a total of nine people, the last man succumbed days later to alcohol poisoning in a valiant attempt to assist the cleaning of the streets by consuming as much of the rogue beer as possible, but most drowned in the beer infused streets or where crushed under the weight of beer toppled structurs.

So when the questions comes up, "Is there really such a thing as too much free beer?" the answer, apaprently is 1,224,000 liters happens to be too much.

Porter Chorizo Black Bean Soup

Print Recipe

Ingredients

2 tbs olive oil
1 cup chopped white onions
12 wt oz Mexican Chroizo divided
24 oz porter beer
3 cups beef broth plus additional to taste
1 lb about 2 ¼ cups dried black beans
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cumin
salt and pepper
½ tsp chili powder
½ cup chopped cilantro
½ cup shredded cheddar

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add the onions, cooking until soft. Add the chorizo, cooking until browned. Remove approximately half of the chorizo, reserve for soup topping (alternately, you can cook half of the chorizo in the soup pot, and cook the other half just before serving the soup).
Add the beer, broth, beans, garlic powder, cumin, and chili powder.
Simmer the soup until the beans have softened, about 4 hours. Salt and pepper to taste. Add additional broth to thin, if desired.
Ladle into bowls, top with reserved chorizo, cheese and cilantro.

Spicy Miso Stout Udon Noodle Soup

10.09.2014 10 Comments

Spicy Miso Stout Udon Noodles Soup. Only Takes twenty minutes.

I once got beligerantly drunk at a cafe in Spain and asaulted a waiter.

That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration, unless you ask the waiter. My sister and I had been traveling south from Madrid on our way to Morocco and stopped for a few nights in Tarifa. My sister is a fantastic traveling companion, mostly because when I get a few drinks in her she giggles like she can’t speak English. She was one of the youngest attorneys in the State, passing the BAR at 22-years-old, she’s one of the smartest people I know and she turns into a school girl when she has a glass of wine, which is fantastic.

We’d ordered sangria (they’d brought us a giant pitcher to share), calamari, and a tortilla espanola. About half way through the sangria, both of us giggling so loudly we officially became "Those Damn Americans" at the back of the resturant. I was starving and it had been 45 minutes since we’d ordered and the food portion of our order hadn’t arrived, the empty stomach giving the Sangria more power than it should have had.

I stumbled through the resrutant looking for the waiter, completely unsure of how to ask about my food with my limited Spanish skills.

I finally find him by the bar, loading a tray of martinis. "ummm….¿Dónde está mi comida?"

"¿Que?"

I wasn’t sure if it was the Spanish slaughtering that he was confused by or the food order.

"Mi Comdia….Tango hambre." Which, due to the alcohol and lack of Spanish skills, turned into me telling him that I was a man, or a hamburger. This made him more confused, and it made me more frustrated. Which, any man who is trying to feed his hungry girlfriend can tell you, the combination of tired, hungry and drunk does not bring out the best qualities in an otherwise lovely girl.

"Necesito comida!"

He frowned, shoved a menu in my face "¿Qué quieres, SENORITA!?"

I should have been worried about the result of badgering the person who brings me food, but I was too hungry. A few minutes later a plate of food was literally thrown on the table, fried squid falling onto the floor. He didn’t even stop walking when he handed off the comida. Which of course made my sister and I burst out laughing, in a ridiculous display of drunk girl bi-polar emotions. The food was fantastic, and on the way back to our hotel we were chase by a couple "mal chicos" who were trying to sell us cocaine. But that’s a story for another day.

When you find yourself on the recieving end of a hangry woman who "Necesito comida!" this is the perfect soup. It’s full of flavor and warmth, and it only takes 20 minutes. Just don’t throw it at her, she’s not herself when she’s hungry.

And we apologized by leaving a giant tip, we might be unreasonable when we’re drunk and hungry, but we aren’t bad people.

Spicy Miso Stout Udon Noodle Soup

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

1 tbs sesame oil
2 tbs chopped shallots
2 wt oz shitake mushrooms
1 clove garlic minced
3/4 cup stout beer
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup yellow miso
1 tbs garlic chili sauce I use the Huy Fong version
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 lbs raw shrimp
7 wt oz Udon noodles
¼ cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup chopped green onions
8 sheets roasted Nori chopped

Instructions

Heat the sesame oil in a pot over medium high heat. Add the shallots, cook until softened, about five minutes. Add the mushrooms, cook until softened. Stir in the garlic then add the stout beer. Add the chicken broth, miso, garlic chili sauce, fish sauce and red chili flakes. Bring to a simmer.
Add the shrimp and noodles, simmer until shrimp is cooked through, about 3 minutes.
Ladle into bowls, top with cilantro, green onions and nori.

I use this Chili Garlic Sauce, it’s fantastic, I go through about a bottle a month. (affiliate link)

Porter Marinated Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps with IPA Chimichuri

27.08.2014 11 Comments

I spent the better part of the last two weeks throwing myself into my second book. Cooking at 1 am, editing photos at dawn, trying to pull sentences out of my weary brain that would actually be ones that you would want to read.

Monday at 2 am I finally sent it off to my publisher. 100 recipes, all made with beer, all intend for parties. Small bites, appetizers, desserts. The years I’ve spent in the beer world have given me an overwhelming appreciation for the community that exists here. The people who gravitate to craft beer are those who want to share, not just beer but ideas, companionship, trust, knowledge, this is a community of people that thrive together. Of course, a book about beer food to be shared just made sense. I hope you love it as much as I do, I hope you make food to share with other, and I hope that maybe somewhere, the craft beer community is grown a little stronger because of the book I spent so much time creating. It’s the least I can do.

Porter Marinated Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps with IPA Chimichuri

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Steak:

12 ounces porter or stout beer
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tbs brown sugar
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
2 lbs flank steak
1 tsp kosher salt

For the Chimicuhri:

1 cup Italian parsley loosely packed
½ cup cilantro loosely packed
¼ cup fresh oregano loosely packed
¼ cup olive oil plus additional for red pepper
2 tbs rice vinegar
2 tbs IPA beer
2 garlic cloves
½ tsp crushed red chili flakes
½ tsp salt

For the wraps:

butter lettuce
1 red bell pepper

Instructions

In a shallow bowl or baking dish stir together the beer, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, chili powder, pepper and onion powder. Sprinkle the flank steak on all sides with salt, add to the marinade. Marinate for at least one hour and up to overnight.
In a food processor add the chimichuri ingredients, process until smooth.
Preheat the grill.
Grill the steak until desired degree of doneness, about 4 minutes per side for medium rare. Allow the steak to rest for 5 minutes.
Rub the bell pepper with olive oil, grill until soften and grill marks appear.
Slice the steak and the bell pepper.
Fill the butter lettuce leaves with steak and bell peppers, spoon on sauce.

Asparagus and Sausage Meatball Orzo with Parmesan Beer Cream Sauce

13.08.2014 10 Comments

I get a little itchy if I don’t get to cook.

The way musicians get when you keep them away from a stage, or an athlete when you take the ball away or how a runner will start to chew on the curtains if he can’t get out on the road. Even on the tail end of writing recipes for my second cookbook, like this one, I spend most days cooking in my kitchen surrounded by dirty dishes and half empty bottles of beer. And even though I should be writing recipes for my cookbook, I just wanted to make something that I wanted to make because I wanted to make it. It just happened to turn out photogenic, and so delicious that I wanted to share it with you. It’s an amalgamation of stuff in my fridge as well as half started recipes in my brain, and it also helped me use up one of those half empty bottles of beer I had laying around. And in the midst of cooking three other recipes, this one just took twenty minutes, which is good given the amount of cooking I need to do on a daily basis.

After six hours of cooking, and three rounds of dishes, I feel a little less itchy. But I do need a beer, a full one.

Asparagus and Sausage Meatball Orzo with Parmesan Beer Cream Sauce

Print Recipe

Ingredients

½ lbs raw Italian sausage removed from casings
2 tbs pale ale plus ½ cup pale ale, divided
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbs olive oil
1 lbs asparagus
¼ cup heavy cream
2 wt oz fresh shredded parmesan cheese about 1 cup
1 tsp honey
½ tsp black pepper
2 cups orzo
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup grape tomatoes optional

Instructions

In a small bowl stir together the sausage, 2 tbs pale ale, and 1 tsp red pepper flakes with your hands. Form into small balls, about half the size of golf balls.
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the meatballs, cook until browned on all sides and cooked through, remove from pan.
Add the asparagus to the hot pan, cook until softened and starting to blister, about 5 minutes, remove from pan.
Add the remaining ½ cup pale ale, scraping to deglaze the pan. Lower heat to medium, stir in the cream. Simmer until reduced and thickened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the parmesan, honey, and black pepper
Cook the orzo in lightly salted boiling water for 6 minutes or until just before al dente. Drain and add the orzo to the sauce, stirring until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add the meatballs and asparagus back into the pan, simmer until meatballs are warmed through. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with parsley and tomatoes.

Beer Brined Pepper Lime Chicken with Gorgonzola and Blackberries

06.08.2014 7 Comments

I was once asked to be in a porn movie. I was 21.

I was a social worker for gang members, working with a rough crowd of teenagers in an unsavory section of Los Angeles. On a particularly frustrating day of trying to convince a hot-tempered kid why punching his teacher wasn’t a "dope idea," I decide to take a break and walk a few blocks to the nearby by mini-mart for a soda and some breathing room. As a way to exagerate the few small years that stood between my age and theirs, I always came to work a bit overdressed. As a way to look like I wasn’t still at the tail-end of my teens, I was wearing black pants, red heels and a crisp white button down. Which wasn’t the usual wardrobe choice for this particular area of the Southland.

On the way back, sucking down a Diet Coke and trying to formulate a response to angry-teen-guy logic, a brand new BMW pulled up beside me. The overly tinted window rolled down and I hear a voice asking for my attention. I was completely unsurprised to see an overly tan, overly hair gelled guy in an undersized tank top. He passed me his card and told me he was a producer. Now, we need to pause for a second to explain a little bit of the LA culture. While you should ALWAYS be skeptical of anyone who tries this line on you, and under no circumstances should you meet this person in an area that isn’t highly public, it’s not the strangest situation. I was cast as an extra in two TV shows and a movie that all started with similar conversations.

I keep a safe distance from Tan Hair Gel Baby Gap Tank Top Guy, while grabbing the business card he passed across his passenger’s seat. "I need to let you know it is an adult film, we can negotiate the sex" he says with a smarmy wink.

"Ahhh, ok," I drop the card on the passenger seat, "I’m good, but thanks for the offer." I quickly make my way back to work as he yells dollar amounts at me. Which, in case you’re wondering, isn’t at ALL degrading.

Upon returning to the office I tell the office manager what happened. She was a 50-year-old former nun, and still in practice as far as the celibacy goes, and I was a little worried about her reaction to something so tawdry. "That’s so offensive!" she yells. I knew it would disgust her and I was a little embarrassed to have told her, "I walk to that QuickMart every day and I’ve never been asked to be in a porno movie! What’s wrong with me!? I’m offended."

Not the reaction I was expecting but somehow it make the entire interaction worth it.

Beer Brined Pepper Lime Chicken with Gorgonzola and Blackberries

Print Recipe

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken thigh fillets
12 ounces pale ale
1 tbs lime zest
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp pepper
½ tsp salt
2 tbs olive oil
2 wt oz gorgonzola
½ cup fresh blackberries

Instructions

Add the chicken thighs to a large bowl or baking dish, pour beer over the chicken, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Remove from beer, pat dry.
In a small bowl stir together the lime zest, flour, pepper and salt.
Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium high heat until hot but not smoking.
Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture until well coated.
Cook the chicken until golden brown on each side and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side.
Plate the chicken, top with a sprinkle of gorgonzola cheese and blackberries.

Porter Marinated Steak Skewers with Cilantro Horseradish Cream

30.07.2014 9 Comments

We have caveman like instincts, I have lots.

I have this nearly uncontrollable urge to knock over that giant tower of perfectly stacked wine glasses in Crate & Barrel. I walk past, barely glancing at the shimmering tower that’s mocking me from it’s white square pedestal as I clutch my purse tightly and imagine swinging it right through the center, sending it all crashing to the ground. And I promise you that if I’m ever on the receiving end of a giant cash filled windfall, it’s the first thing I’ll do. Some people will buy a car, or that ridiculously overpriced pair of shoes, but for me: walk right into the nearest Crate & Barrel, swing my purse right through a six foot tower of glassware, throw down a wad of hundreds and walk right out, completely satisfied. Don’t think I wont.

Until I’m a millionaire, I’ll have to control myself. I’ll just sublimate my destructive urges by eating meat off a stick. It’s caveman like, and it’s less expensive.

But If I ever win the lottery, you should alert all of the nearest high end house-ware retail chains, just to be safe.

Porter Marinated Steak Skewers with Cilantro Horseradish Cream

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Steak:

2 lbs thin slices flank steak
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt plus 1 tsp divided
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbs olive oil
1 cup porter
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
2 cloves garlic chopped

For the cream sauce:

1/3 cup sour cream
1 tbs cream style horseradish
2 tbs chopped cilantro
1 tbs lemon juice
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp garlic powder

Instructions

Place the flank steak in a baking dish or wide bowl. Sprinkle all over with brown sugar, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil, rub oil and spices into the meat.
Pour porter, Worcestershire, soy and garlic over the steak. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove steak from marinade, cut into 2 inch strips, thread through metal skewers (or pre-soaked wooden skewers). Sprinkle with remaining salt.
Grill until desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium rare (depending on thickness.
In a small bowl stir together the sour cream, horseradish, cilantro, ¼ tsp salt, lemon juice, and garlic powder (can be made up to a day ahead of time, flavors develop after a few hours).
Serve skewers with sauce on the side.

Beer Brat Dogs with Grilled Peach Salsa and Fried Onions

28.07.2014 7 Comments

I tried to make sausage from scratch once.

I went to Lindy & Grundy and had along talk with the gorgeous Sausage Making Queen of Los Angeles, Amelia. Armed with sausage casings, several different types of pork and pork fat to be ground, and tips for success from the pros who instruct the pros, I was confident. I spent hours grinding meat, adding spices, filling casings and turning my dining room light fixture into a drying rack.

Then, it was time to fry up the profits of my labor.

It didn’t go well. The casings split, the filling was mealy and dry. Turns out, unless you make sausages in a meat locker you’re not headed for success, sausages need frigid temperatures to turn out perfectly. Which explains why the best sausages come from cold climates as opposed to tropical locations.

I’ll always make as much as I can from scratch, but some things just need to be left to the pros. I’ll never buy pre-made tortillas, I’ll always make my own whipped cream and canned frosting makes baby Jesus cry. But sausage making needs to be left to the pros, it’s an art. It takes years to get right, and talent to make perfect. I’ll make the buns from scratch, and the toppings, but I’ll always be on the look out for a butcher shop that makes the best sausages, and when I find it I’ll trade beer for sausages. I know my place.

Beer Brat Dogs with Grilled Peach Salsa and Fried Onions

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
½ white onions sliced
canola oil for frying
6 raw bratwursts
24 ounces pale ale
2 ripe but firm peaches sliced
¼ red onion cut in half
2 red jalapenos sliced in half lengthwise
¼ cup chopped cilantro
6 hot dog buns

Instructions

Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a small bowl, add the onion, toss until well coated.
Add 3 to 4 inches of oil to a saucepan, use a deep fry thermometer to bring the oil to 375, adjusting heat to maintain that temperature.
Drop the onions in the oil, fry until golden brown, about 4 minutes.
Remove from oil, drain on a wire rack or paper towels.
In a pan with a lid add the brats and the beer, cover and simmer until the brats are cooked through, remove from pan.
Preheat the grill to medium high.
Add the brats, peaches, red onion and jalapenos, grilling all until grill marks appear on all sides.
Chop the peaches, onion and cilantro, add to a bowl along with the cilantro, toss to combine.
Add the brats to the buns, top with peach salsa and fried onions.