Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots, your new favorite side dish!
No offense to turkey, but it’s not the star of Thanksgiving, that honor goes to the side dishes. Fight me. Because if I had to choose between a plate full of turkey and a plate of any one side dish, the turkey would get shoved to the side, especially if I could also include a buttery dinner roll on my side-dish-only plate.
THESE ARE THE THINGS I THINK OF NOW! Thanks, 2020. But we finally have something to look forward to, right? Thanksgiving is coming up, and even if that means only a few people this year at your table (and a LOT of food), we need it. We need something to look forward to. I will be focusing on a menu plan because it’s better than stress eating spoonfuls of peanut butter and trying to escape the news.
This Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots is worth stress eating, though. It’s sort of like that green bean thing with the crispy fake onions, but only vastly superior. You also get an excuse to open a beer, so that brings it to a level above Vastly Superior, whatever that is. And your mom will be happy that you’re eating vegetables, so that’s another win. So drink a beer, eat your veggies and avoid anything that stressed you out, even if just for a day.
Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots
2tablespoons(28g) olive oilplus additional as needed
1shallot blubchopped (about ¼ cup)
1lb.wild mushrooms, chopped*
½lb.asparaguschopped (ends removed)
½teaspoonsalt
1teaspoonpepper
1teaspoongarlic powder
2tablespoonsflour
½cup(4oz) beerBrown ale, porter
½cup(45g) shredded gruyere cheese, packed
¼cup(2oz) cream cheese
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In a small bowl stir together the flour, salt, and pepper. Add the shallot rings, toss to coat. Remove the shallots from the flour (a small strainer or slotted spoon works well).
Heat 1 inch of oil in a skillet over medium high heat.
Add the shallots to the oil, cooking on both sides until golden. Remove from oil, allow to drain, and dry on paper towels.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped shallot and mushrooms, cook until the mushrooms have softened, and let off their water and the shallots have browned. If the pan dries too much, add additional oil a teaspoon at a time.
Add the asparagus, cook until slightly softened (it will soften further in the oven).
Stir in the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Sprinkle with flour, stir until the flour has turned brown. Stir in the beer, simmer until thickened.
Add the cream cheese, stirring until it has melted and is well combined.
Stir in ½ cup gruyere cheese.
Spray an 8x8 baking dish cooking spray. Add the mushroom mixture in an even layer.
In a small bowl stir together the panko, ¼ cup gruyere cheese, and melted butter.
Add the panko mixture to the top of the pan in an even layer.
Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until the panko has browned and the casserole is bubbly.
Top with fried shallots, serve warm.
Notes
I used golden chanterelle mushrooms, but feel free to use what's available near you, including a mix of different types of mushrooms.
It’s that time of the year again when we need to put beer in our soup. It’s getting darker and colder and I’m not even talking about the political news, I mean it more literally. Since you’re home all day, making a big pot of soup to keep you warm makes sense, especially when it necessitates opening a beer to do so.
No, honey, I’m opening a beer because cooking! I’m cooking for YOU! I’m opening a beer for your wellbeing and so you don’t have to make dinner!
See, you look like a thoughtful and loving partner and you can do so while holding an open beer! See the things I bring to your life? A beer soup recipe, and a far-off enabler encouraging your day drinking!
6cleaned and trimmed leekswhite and light green parts only, sliced
1/3cuppilsnerpale ale, or wheat beer
4cupslow-sodium chicken broth
1teaspoonsalt
1teaspoonpepper
1teaspoongarlic powder
½teaspoonsmoked paprika
½teaspoonchili powder
1largeabout ¾ of a lbs russet potato, peeled and cubed
1/3cupheavy cream
1cupfire roasted corndivided
2tablespoonschopped chives
Instructions
Add the bacon to a large pot over medium heat. Cook until the bacon has crisped, remove with a slotted spoon, set aside (cooking at medium heat rather than high heat will allow the bacon to crisp better and render more fat, high heat will burn the meat before the fat has rendered).
Add the olive oil and leeks, cooking over medium heat until starting to caramelize, about 15 minutes.
Add the beer, scraping to deglaze the pan.
Add the broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, chili powder, and potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are cooked through, about 15 minutes.
Remove from heat, stir in the cream and allow to cool slightly.
Add to a blender (or use and immersion blender) along with half the bacon, and ½ cup corn. Blend until smooth.
Return to the pan along with the remaining corn, simmer until warmed. Ladle into bowls, top with remaining bacon and chopped chives.
Miniature Dutch Baby Oven Beer Pancakes with Nutella Whipped Cream
I’m not sure what I miss more, travel, or alone time. Both of these have been scarce this year, and I miss both fiercely. This is what I miss: airplanes. Being on a plane, headphones in, looking out the window from somewhere in the middle of coach. I think I might be the only person in the world that actually misses the airplane and airport portion of travel. Don’t hate me, I love it. I love the energy, the people watching, the fury of it all.
And I see people traveling, the social distance and masks version, and I’m jealous. I’m a little too skittish is take it on and actually enjoy it. Sure, I’ve road tripped and vacayed close to home, but it’s not the same. I want a non-pandemic-no-masks-no-deadly-virus plane flight to anywhere.
In the meantime, I’m baking. A lot. SO much in fact, that I bought a treadmill to compensate. This is an actual fact. If you need me, I’ll be eating things with Nutella whipped cream at 5 miles per hour in my garage.
Miniature Dutch Baby Oven Beer Pancakes with Nutella Whipped Cream
Beer Brined Lamb Chops with Herb Sauce over Fried Goat Cheese
Let’s say you made a playlist, but for food. Except I’m going to call it a mixed tape because it makes me happy. On my Mixed Tape of Food I would have to include goat cheese. You can’t have complete dishes on your Mixed Tape, because I make the rules and I said so, just ingredients. It’s a list of foods that make you happy and you always seem to get just a little more excited about a meal when it includes said food. Those hit words you read on a menu that makes you realize that you don’t just want to order the dish, you need to.
I’d add in some fresh English shelling peas, Bing cherries, yellowtail, and potatoes because Papas Rellenas and gnocchi, this gives us 5 tracks and I’m pretty sure we need to stop at 12. This is when it gets harder, it’s down to the last few spots. Salted caramel makes the list, and so does burrata and capicola. This leads us to short ribs and lamb.
So now, anytime you’re at a restaurant and you look at the menu, you will probably be able to guess what I’d order. Just don’t forget to order me a beer, you know I want one of those, too.
Beer Brined Lamb Chops with Herb Sauce over Fried Goat Cheese
I wish I could tell you what apples I used for this, but I can’t. And by CAN’T I don’t mean WON’T, because I’d tell you anything, especially after a few beers.
But these apples came from my backyard apple tree of unknown origin. The Apple Tree of Resentment, as I call it. It’s huge (obviously, it’s an apple tree) and it spits apples all over my backyard all day long for months creating a squirrels buffet all over the ground. I hope you’re not a squirrel enthusiast, I am not. They are rodents, they are rats with better branding, they are horrible and I hate them. Because of said tree, they love my yard and while they are here for a visit and a quick chat with their friends, they also eat all the other plats in my yard. Hence the resentment. Obviously, I needed to turn my feelings for this tree around before I went full Kill Bill on it.
It turns out, Resentment Tree has some pretty great baking apples. They are average eating apples, but they bake up really well. Baking apples need to stay firm after a long soak in a hot oven, not all apples can do this. Anything that ends in "delicious" should never be baked, they will fall apart and you will now have a Mush Apple Sauce Tart. Great for all of you who lack teeth, but not exactly what I had in mind.
If you don’t have an Apple Tree of Resentment in your yard, congrats. Pick an apple, like a Granny Smith, that has a nice tartness and will hold shape once baking. And tell the squirrels to pick up after their parties, it’s getting really annoying.
Beer Caramelized Apple Tarte Tatin with Maple Whipped Cream
Cobbler doesn’t make sense to me. It’s delicious, obviously, but it looks like a mistake. Like an upside-down pie that fell into a pan someone just pretended it was supposed to be that way and we all just went along with it because we still wanted to eat it.
Which is understandable, it’s still dessert, I’m not gonna kick it outta bed. But it feels unfinished, halfway to being really done. So I made it a bottom crust, because let’s be honest, crust is always the best part.
You can still scoop it into a bowl, heat it up, and top it with a big 'ole scoop of ice cream. It’s still great that way. But it’s also a cobbler you can eat with one hand (or no hands if you’re brave enough), and it has beer in it. So, what I’m trying to say, is that it’s not really cobbler at all. It’s a cookie bar inspired by my cobbler induced confusion that’s made with beer. Because nothing makes sense anymore and we all need more excuses to open a beer.
Overnight Yeasted Beer Waffles with Blueberry Syrup
This is really because I love you. And waffles, obviously. My favorite waffles of all time are the Sourdough Beer Waffles, they are gorgeous and amazing but do require the wild-fermented magic of a sourdough starter that takes at least a week to coax into existence.
And when you don’t have one, or you neglect it and it refuses to magic for you, you can’t have the waffles. This is FINE. Sourdough starters are not actual pets, it’s totally fine to neglect them until they stop working and then flush them down the sink. It’s also totally fine to not have them at all, it’s not everyone’s bag. But this should not impede your ability to make a batch of the best waffles in existence, and those waffles have to include yeast, this is a non-negotiable.
Yeasted waffles are just better than all other waffles and this is a fact. The crispy outside, light yet chewy insides, it’s just pure breakfast gold. You do have to be aware and functional enough the night before the waffle consumption to throw it all together, but that’s easy. You will ALWAYS want waffles in the morning so just do it, you’ll thank yourself.
And "night you" needs to do something to make amends to the "morning you". Since "night you" gets all the beer and "morning you" gets all the hangovers and the "what did I drunk buy on Amazon last night" buyer’s remorse. These waffles will go along way to make reparation for all that "night you" has done.
Overnight Yeasted Beer Waffles with Blueberry Syrup
¾cup(171g) beer, room temperaturepilsner, wheat beer, brown ale
2 ¼teaspoons(1 packet, or ¼ ounce) dry active yeast
¼cup(50g) brown sugar
3cups(380g) all-purpose flour
For the waffles (day of):
1teaspoonsalt
2large eggs
½teaspoonbaking soda
For the syrup:
1/3cuppowdered sugar
2tablespoonswateror beer
1 ½cupsblueberries
Splash vanilla extract
Instructions
Heat the butter until almost boiling*, remove from heat stir in the milk and beer. If the mixture is at room temperature or just above, continue with the rest of the recipe. If it’s too cool, heat it for a few seconds, if it’s too warm, let it cool for a few minutes. You want to trigger the yeast (if it’s too cold, this won’t happen) but not fully activate it or the rise will happen too quickly.
Stir in the yeast, brown sugar, and flour until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for about ten minutes (you will start to see just a few bubbles form).
Refrigerate for 8-18 hours.
Remove from fridge add the salt, eggs and baking soda, stir until combined.
Cook in a waffle iron according to manufactures specifications.
To make the syrup:
Add all ingredients to a pot over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently until thickened, 10-15 minutes. For a smoother sauce, puree in a blender once the sauce has cooled to room temperature.
Notes
*You can melt the butter on the stove in a pan or in the microwave. Just be aware that butter will pop in the microwave if microwaved too long. Stop and stir every 20-30 seconds if using a microwave.
So, I did the thing. That thing where I tell you about a recipe but don’t actually give it to you. Because apparently quarantine has made me into an asshole. Or at the very least, unaware of life outside my little bubble of beer and making all the things.
As a way to make amends for telling you about Pineapple Jalapeño Ice cream without actually giving you the recipe, I’m giving you the recipe.
As a side note, it makes an excellent beer milkshake if you blender a few scoops of it with a gose or an IPA. It’s like two recipes in one, and it opens new ways to enjoy a cold beer on a hot day. See, I’m not THAT big of an asshole.
Add the pineapple, jalapeno, lemon juice, and beer to a blender. Blend on high until well pulverized. Pass through a strainer to remove all the fibers, return to the blender (without straining the fibers, the ice cream can taste a little vegetal).
Add the eggs, yolks, salt and both kinds of sugar to the blender, blend on high until well combined.
Add the cream and milk to a saucepan over medium heat. Heat until it starts to bubble around the edges. While the mixer is running, add the hot cream to the mixer.
Return the mixture to the pot. Simmer until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
Add to an airtight container. Refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours.
Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufactures specifications.
Grilled Beer Butter Lobster Tails with Thai Chimichurri
Just decide right now to make this. Just trust me, especially if you don’t have a lot of lobster-cooking experience. It’s not hard and you won’t screw it up, I promise. Lobster tails have had all the hard tasks already done for you. All the scary, stare-a-beast-in-the-face-while-you-kill-it, dirty work has already been completed by the time you step into the picture. You buy just the tail, and it’s all ready for you.
This leaves you with the easy part. Just cut it in half, brush it with some beer butter, and toss it on the grill. Well, don’t literally toss it, you’re not an animal, place it there. PLACE it on the grill and drink your beer and it’ll be almost done by the time you realize what you’re doing. YOU are making yourself something fancy because it’s important to make small occasions, like a Tuesday in the summer, feel important.
It’s also important to have something to look forward to, so just decide to make this and your whole week just got better.
Grilled Beer Butter Lobster Tails with Thai Chimichurri
Elote Pilsner Creamy Polenta with Grilled Tajin Lime Shrimp and Halloumi
Sometimes it feels as if my recipes are just a long string of predictive text that I figure out how to make into a meal. Or I keep trying to one-up myself until I can’t fit anything else in a bowl, but it’s how I like to cook. Layers of things on top of layers of other things. Lots of things crammed into a bowl.
Maybe I’m a bit too much for you, this wouldn’t be an odd thing to think and you wouldn’t be the first one. But I will tell you that you should try, at least once, to be too much. Because we all need to be just a little sick of censoring ourselves for the sake of other people. You should also make some food that is a bit much, just to try it on for size. Maybe you’re like me, and you’ll actually really like a big 'ole layered bowl of too much. It’s fun, you might just want to do it again.
Elote Pilsner Creamy Polenta with Grilled Tajin Lime Shrimp and Halloumi
Add the vegetable broth and beer to a saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer.
Add the grits and salt, simmer, stirring occasionally until the grits have softened.
Stir in the half and half, salt, and garlic powder.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Brush the corn on all sides with oil, set aside.
Add the shrimp to a bowl, squeeze half of the lime over the shrimp, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon Tajin, toss to coat. Thread onto skewers.
Slice the Halloumi into ½ inch slices, sprinkle on all sides with the remaining Tajin.
Add the corn, shrimp, and Halloumi to the grill, grilling on all sides until shrimp is cooked through and grill marks appear on all.
Cut the kernels of the corn, add to a bowl along with the cilantro, and cotija, toss to combine.
Divide the polenta between 4 bowls, top with corn mixture, crema, tomatoes, shrimp skewers and Halloumi.
Notes
If you don't have Tajin, mix together 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon cumin.
Blueberry Beer Cream Cheese Cake with Basil Whipped Cream
This might be a giant blueberry muffin with an almost creamy texture, and it might be a cake that doesn’t actually need frosting. Maybe it’s a hybrid, the nexus of two similar foods, a "Cuffin", or a "Make." But don’t overthink it, it’s an easy one-bowl cake and that’s what you need right now. Easy cakes, or big muffins. Or easy big cuffin makes. This is my reality, people. This is what I think about all day!
I wish I could tell you that I’ve been easily quarantining, but instead I’m desperately missing places like this and pondering the union of cake muffins. It’s sad, but there are worse things. I’m healthy, my people are healthy, and I have big cakes in my kitchen, we focus on the good things and start drinking in the early evening (rather than just all day). It’s small wins these days.
Blueberry Beer Cream Cheese Cake with Basil Whipped Cream
Add the butter to a stand mixer, beat on high until fluffy. Add the cream cheese, beat until free of lumps and well combined with the butter.
Add the sugar, beat until well combined.
Beat in the sour cream and the vanilla.
One at a time, beat in the eggs and yolks, mixing well between additions. Stir in the beer.
Stop the mixer and remove the bowl. Sprinkle with flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add the blueberries to the top, making sure the blueberries are coated in flour (coating the blueberries in flour before they're mixed into the batter will prevent them from all sinking to the bottom of the cake while baking).
Using a rubber spatula, gently mix until well combined.
Grease and flour a 9-inch spring form pan.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 325°F for 1 hour and 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and springs back lightly when touched.
Allow to cool before removing from pan.
Add all the whipped cream ingredients to a mixing bowl, beat on high until soft peaks form. Serve the cake topped with whipped cream.
Burrata Burrito with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Beer Pesto
Let’s do something fun, something that doesn’t require a face mask and hand sanitizer. Find your quarantine person and somehow bring up that you want to do a cooking challenge, you against them. But, there are some rules of course.
Rule 1: The dish can’t take more than 15 minutes.
Rule 2: The dish can’t require any cooking.
Rule 3: You have to make at least one element of the dish from scratch.
Impossible! They will say. Ask them how scared they are to lose to you and if there should be some sort of wager involved. As in: the loser has to do all the {insert least favorite chore here} for the next week. This may get them to accept your challenge.
Then, let them go first. They will probably make a salad because it’s obvious and basic. You are NOT obvious or basic. But you’ll eat the salad and pretend as if this will be difficult to beat. But the following night, you will serve them this. This no-cooking-full-of-yum-and-happiness burrito. And they will lay the golden fiddle at your feet because they’ll know that they’ve been beat.
It’ll be fun. You should try it.
Burrata Burritos with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Beer Pesto
I know what you’re thinking. You’re looking at this thinking, "Why you say crostata when this is clearly a galette?" No? You weren’t thinking that because you’re normal and not a huge nerd like me? Sorry. But now I have to address this issue. This is what happens when I create a problem that didn’t exist.
You see, it’s like crisps and chips. Or pants and trousers. Or The Rock and Dwayne Johnson. They are the same thing, it’s just different people call them different things. Specifically French people and Italian people. The French like to say galette ("guh-let", in case you wondered and googled it so you won’t sound like an idiot at the dinner party you brought what you thought was pronounced a "gal-lay" but it isn’t and then you’re super relieved you looked it up because you were already embarrassed for yourself. Just me again? Geesh). And the Italians like to say Crostata (which is pronounced exactly how you’d think because I looked it up too because I was scared to make the same mistake twice).
So why, you ask, did I choose crostata instead of galette? Because I liked the way it sounded with "ricotta" and if you don’t believe that is a 100% true story, you clearly don’t know me well enough. Come on! Ricotta Crostata is just way more fun that Ricotta Galette. You know this to be true.
And your final question is OBVIOUSLY "what beer did you use" because you always have the best questions. The answer is Firestone Walkers Cherry Barrel Blossom, a super-rich and drinkable barrel-aged-cherry-bitters-infused beer. It’s also a great dessert beer. You can use which ever beer you want, pretty much any beer will work when you’re making beer ricotta, as long as you like it, the flavor will come through. I will advise against anything too hoppy because those hops don’t mess around once you boil them, but it’s your world. If you want a hoppy ricotta crostata, who am I to stop you?
3cups(24oz) whole milkpasteurized is fine but do not use Ultra-Pasteurized, it won’t work
½cup(4oz) heavy cream
½teaspoonsalt
¼cup(2oz) beer*Plus 2 tablespoons divided
3tablespoons(36g) lemon juice
1tablespoonsugar
½teaspoonvanilla extract
Cherries:
¾lbs(12oz) pitted fresh dark sweet cherries (such as Bing, Jubilee, Chinook)
1tablespoons(12g) lemon juice
3tablespoons(38g) granulated sugar
½teaspoonsalt
2tablespoonscornstarch
Instructions
Make the crust:
Add ¾ cup of flour (reserve the other 3/4 cup), salt and sugar to a food processor, pulse to combine. Add the butter, process until well combined.
Add the remaining flour and pulse 6-8 times or until all the flour has been combined.
Add the beer, pulse until just combined. Lay a long sheet of plastic wrap on a flat surface, add the dough to the center.
Form into a flat disk. Wrap disk tightly in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, about 3 hours, and up to three days.
Make the ricotta:
In a pot over medium-high heat (do not use an aluminum pan) add the milk, cream, salt, and 1/3 cup beer.
Clip a cooking thermometer onto the side of the pan.
Bring the liquid to 190°F degrees, stirring occasionally to prevent the bottom from scorching. Keep a close eye on it, the liquid reaches and passes 190 very quickly and you don’t want it rising above 200°F.
Remove from heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons beer and then the lemon juice, and stir gently once or twice. It should curdle immediately. Allow sit undisturbed for about 5 minutes.
Line a large strainer with 1 or 2 layers of cheesecloth; place the strainer in the sink over a large bowl.
Pour the ricotta into the strainer and allow to drain for 15 to 30 minutes and up to an hour (the longer it drains, the firmer the consistency).
Place in an air-tight container, Stir in the sugar and vanilla extract, and store in the fridge can be made up to 3 days in advance.
Prep the cherries:
Add the cherries, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and cornstarch to a large bowl, toss to coat.
Assemble to Crostata:
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
On a well-floured surface roll the crust out into a large circle. Add the crust to a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet. In the center add the ricotta, leaving about 3 inches on the edges bare. Top with cherries in a large pile. Fold the edges of the crust up over the filling.
Brush the edges with melted butter, sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving.
Notes
*Any beer will work for the ricotta, but the ricotta will take on the flavor of the beer. A more intense beer will bring a more intense flavor. If you want a more mellow beer flavor use a Hefeweizen, Pilsner, or pale lager. I used Firestone Walker's Cherry Barrel Blossom barrel-aged ale.
Grilled Stout Brined Sirloin and Corn Salad with Tahini Pale Ale Dressing
I want to tell you a story, one about myself, because it’s all I have to offer right now. Growing up, things were exactly easy. Here are the CliffsNotes: Dead dad, disjointed family, moved a lot, hardly enough money to feed us all. Because of this, I had this idea that racism wasn’t really a thing anymore and even if it was I discriminated against too, since I was poor. Then I moved to LA, and I became a social worker for gang kids, most of whom were on probation, and I realized how stupid I was. It happened slowly, realizations that came over the course of a few years, small incidents that amounted to a huge global shift in who I was and what I believed, something I’ll never stop being thankful for.
The first came as I sat on a folding chair in a rec room with a group of other social workers, I was the only white girl. One of them joked about how dangerous it was for a 20-year-old blond-haired, blue-eyed white girl to go running around Compton. Another social worker, a large black guy who had an M.A. in Psychology and had been a bit of a rowdy teenager, replied, “She’s safe. If a pretty white girl gets shot in the ghetto, everyone in the world will know about it by morning. Every kid and cop knows it. If I get shot, no one will give a shit. I’m a target for the cops and the kids. She’s safer than I am.” He was right and everyone in the room knew it. He had a gun pulled on him three times that year, twice by cops and once by a kid. I never had any problems, not one issue, not one gun.
Part of my job was to work with the older kids to help them find employment. I wrote their resumes, taught them how to fill out job applications, dressed them from a donation closet of interview clothes, and taught them how to answer interview questions. I had applications for 6 nearby businesses, mostly fast food joints, none of the business knew about the program, all they saw was a local kid interviewing for a job. Over three years I could plot on a timeline how long it would take each kid to get a job based on their skin color. At first, I figured it was a fluke, but it was such a lasting trend, not one kid was an exception. I worked with three white kids, each of them scared me, the probation sentence they had were earned several times over and they all had sociopathic tendencies. None of them had a work history. They all got jobs in the first two weeks. I wouldn’t have trusted any of them to wash my car, and they were handed over the ability to work a cash register in just one meeting. The lighter-skinned-non-white kids took about a month, and the darkest skinned kids took the longest. They all had the same clothes, the same answers on their applications (I helped fill them all out) and they all answered the questions at the interviews exactly the same. The only difference was their appearance. My favorite kid was smart, he had a solid work history, a calming spirit, and he was so kind. He was living proof that some souls are old, he just saw things in a bigger way than most people did. He also had incredibly dark skin. It took me 8 months to get him a job.
There were more, lots of constant reminders that although my life wasn’t easy, it was not made harder by the color of my skin. And even the most privileged black person would have an easier life in this country if they had been born with white skin. This is not ok, it’s not right, but it’s the truth. I had to open myself up to the idea that it was arrogant of me to ever think that just because I personally hadn’t seen or experienced racism that it didn’t exist. I had to accept that I did not know what it was like to live in this world as a black person, no matter how much I thought I knew, or what my experiences where.
The two major changes that came from that seem small, but were actually huge. First, I realized that I do have bias, racist thoughts, and prejudgments. Everyone does, it’s how our brains work, we categorize things and form instant thoughts about everything the moment we see them. We see a dog, we know it’s a dog. We see a chair, we know it’s a chair. Have you ever been surprised to touch something and realize it was much colder than it looked? Because you had already formed an opinion about it. This is normal. BUT I decided that when I had a judgmental thought, I would acknowledge it and correct it. I wanted to have a mind that didn’t prejudge people any more than it had to.
Second, I encouraged people around me to correct me if I said something that was offensive or prejudged someone, and I learned the phrase: “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. Thank you for saying something.” I decided that even if I didn’t know WHY it was offensive, it was enough for me to know THAT it was offensive, and I needed to change the way I thought or talked, even if that change was small.
I still have work to do, we all do, but the choice you have is this: do you want to make the world a little bit better, or do you want to fight to keep it harder for anyone who isn’t you. It’s not a hard choice, even if it can be a hard process.
So, here is a salad that has absolutely nothing to do with this story. Other than the fact that we all have to eat, food is a great equalizer. Let’s sit down, eat some food, and just listen to each other for a second.
Grilled Stout Brined Sirloin and Corn Salad with Tahini Pale Ale Dressing
Add the steak to a bowl or a bag, sprinkle on all sides with salt, cover with beer. Cover the bowl (or seal the bag) and refrigerate for 12 hours and up to 24. Remove from marinade, dry well, and allow to come to room temperate (about 30 minutes).
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Drizzle the bell pepper and corn with oil.
Add the pepper and the corn to the grill, turning and grilling until grill marks appear.
Add the steak to the grill, cooking on both sides until medium-rare, 4-6 minutes per side.
Remove from grill, slice the pepper, and cut the kernels off the corn.
Allow the steak to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
Add all of the dressing ingredients to a small blender, blend until smooth. Add additional beer or water to thin to desired consistency.
Add all of the remaining salad ingredients to a bowl (along with the sliced pepper and corn kernels), toss to combine. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing, top with steak.
Do you have a favorite meal? Is it breakfast? Say it’s breakfast so that we can be the same. I like it when we agree. My love for breakfast really doesn’t have as much to do with the food as it does with the Breakfast People.
These are always your favorite people, the ones you’ve made breakfast for. These are the ride-or-die-friends, the 5-am-airport-pick-up-friends, the help-them-move-a-couch -or-bury-a-body-friends. Because you can have lunch with anyone, but breakfast is special.
I don’t even think you can list someone as a favorite until you’ve had breakfast with them, I will file a formal decree on this because that’s how strongly I feel about it. All of my favorite people are ones with whom I’ve shared a pre-noon meal. And most of those are ones I would actually wake up early to cook for, and I am not a "wake up early" sort of person. But I’ll do it for my Breakfast People. I might even make breakfast for you, but you’ll have to tell me why you want me to help you bury a body. I’m not saying no, I’m just saying I need some details.
In a bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a dough hook, stir together half the flour, sugar, rosemary, garlic powder, and yeast.
Heat the beer to 120°F to 125°F degrees (check the temperature guidelines on your yeast, always default to that).
Add the beer to the stand mixer, turn the mixer to medium, mix until combined.
Add the remaining flour, ¼ cup olive oil, and 1 teaspoon salt.
Turn the mixer to medium-high, beat for 5 to 6 minutes.
Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and allow to rise in a warm room until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Lightly oil a 9x13 pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, pulling to cover the entire pan. Press your fingers into the dough making holes across the entire loaf (if the dough is sticky, oil your hands or get them wet).
Oil the bottom 6 small oven-safe round prep bowls or ramekins (you can also use balls of aluminum foil just larger than golf balls), press them into the dough to form wells (this will be where the eggs go).
Cover and allow to rise for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Bake until light brown, about 11-15 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Remove the bowls (the dough will not be cooked through, this is OK) add the eggs to the wells left by the bowls.
Sprinkle with cheese, bacon, salt, and pepper.
Put back in the oven and bake until the egg whites have set but the yolks are still soft, about another 15 minutes (if bread browns too quickly and eggs need more time, cover with foil and cook until whites are done to your likeness).
Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly before slicing and serving. Sprinkle with chives before serving (optional).
I know I told you that it would be DAYS before I posted this recipe, and in reality, it’s been like 30 hours, but that’s the nature of our existance right now, right? 30 quarantine hours seem like days. Quarantine days are like dog years, each one is equal to seven regular days, I think this is a scientific fact.
But this is a recipe that doesn’t need an overnight proof like the Sourdough Beer Waffles (but those waffles are SO worth the wait), so you don’t have to wait days to get these biscuits into your face, just minutes. And we also need to normalize biscuits at every meal because dinner needs them and breakfast shouldn’t have all the fun. It’s my pandemic mission.
Grilled Beer Chicken Legs with Caramelized Yakitori Glaze
I served this with homemade biscuits, is that weird? Yes, the answer is yes. I suppose that you should serve it with something vegetal, or salad-adjacent, but I needed a big 'ole plate o’carbs. Because biscuits are just better with dinner than with breakfast, there I said it and I’m not taking it back.
Oh, you want to know what biscuit recipe I used? Of course you do, but I’m not telling. Not yet, because they were amazing and I’m bringing them to a face near you later in the week. Stay tuned, the recipe will be up in a matter of days.
Normal people will go ahead and serve this beer chicken with something more conventional, like grilled corn, and this would be a good idea. But I can be a go-against-the-grain (pun intended, corn is a grain, GET IT?!) type of person for better or for worse.
But maybe you’re both and you will serve this with corn AND biscuits and then you will win. I’ll pour you a beer and give you a crown, it’ll be fun.
Grilled Beer Chicken Legs with Caramelized Yakitori Glaze
1teaspoon(4g) fresh ginger, grated with a Microplane
Chopped chivesor green onions
Instructions
Sprinkle the chicken legs on all sides with salt, add to a large bowl or Ziploc bag. Stir together the soy sauce, vinegar, beer, cornstarch, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger until well combined.
Pour over the chicken. Cover (or seal) and refrigerate for 3 to 24 hours.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, place the chicken on the prepared sheet pan.
Pour the marinade into a pot, boil until thickened, about 9 minutes.
Add the chicken to the grill. Once the chicken is on the grill, remove and discard the aluminum foil leaving the sheet pan to be a clean place to put your chicken once it’s cooked. Do not put cooked chicken back on a plate or pan that once held raw chicken or you will risk bacteria contamination.
Brush the chicken with glaze every time you turn the chicken. Allow the chicken to cook until the juices run clear and chicken is cooked through. If the chicken starts to burn before cooked through, lower grill temp or move chicken to the upper rack of the grill.
