Pumpkin things are upon us. Of course we have those pumpkin spice lattes that the weather is far too warm to warrant, and the overly orange plastic pumpkins that Target is trying to push on us, but it’s the beer that gets me most excited. It can be a triple digit August afternoon when a… Read More
If you’re going to make me a salad, it better be a damn good salad. After all, you’re asking me to skip carbs and satisfying fried finger foods, I might resent you if it isn’t a really good salad. Bacon is a good start, and so is beer. Scallops are a fan favorite as well.… Read More
Beer and fruit have a bit of a sordid past. From the ill-advised orange slice served on the side of a hefeweizen, to the cringe inducing Bud Light Lime. Thankfully, plenty of remarkable unions have a sordid pasts. Beer and fruit just needed a few takes to get it right. The current state of beer and… Read More
Let’s say you and I get into it over pizza. We hash it out over the best pizza we’ve ever had. We talk about Naples, and LA, and both agree that New York beats Chicago, unless you want a casserole, then Chicago pizza will do. And then I tell you that the best Ray’s… Read More
Jalapeno Cornbread Beer Bread Muffins, cooking with beer There’s a contradictory element to cornbread. It’s enough to be a meal all on it’s own, especially when you eat 4 of them, with a beer and some honey butter, but you miss the rest. You miss the ribs, and the greens, and the coleslaw and… Read More
If there was any doubt about how much I like self-torture, you can defer to this: I’m writing another cookbook. My first cookbook, The Craft Beer Cookbook took four months and most of my sanity to write. And here I am, doing it again. Maybe it’s the post publisher amnesia, maybe it’s that I… Read More
I’ve been told that a writer is no greater than the sum of their experiences. Experiences, those I’ve got, more than most. More than I’ll ever admit to. But are the ones I’ve accumulated the right inlay for the foundation of the life I want? I was never anyones high school sweetheart, but I was… Read More
For what seems like decades brewers have been involved in a bit of an ABV arms race to see who can bring to the table the IPA with highest alcohol content. The Top That ABV Game seems to be waining in favor of the Full Flavor Session IPA game, to the relief of lightweights… Read More
No matter how great beer is in meat recipes, bread will always be it’s culinary kindred spirit. Because the heart and soul of bread and beer is the same: yeast. The beast that gives us bread, also gives us beer. A few months ago I was interviewing a brewer at an LA brewery who told… Read More
When I was a kid I thought you grew up, picked a life and that’s were you sat. You stayed in this grown-up place, and that was it. You’d found your grown-up life and you were done. But my grown-up life seems to go through a comprehensive metamorphosis every few years. New city, new job, new… Read More
I was in a port town in Greece, waiting for a boat to take me back to Italy, when I decided to spend the last bit of money I had with me on Baklava. This was the moment I realized how important food had become to me. I had just spent my last year of… Read More
There is one thing I can’t stop doing every time I travel. And not just when I get to leave the country, but even when I just leave the state. I just need to wander around a market. A locals only place, stocked with whatever people who live in the neighboring streets like to eat.… Read More
When you write a cookbook, you fall in love with some of the recipe. You don’t love them all the same, you don’t even remember them all the same. Recipes aren’t like children, you’re completely allowed to have favorites. When I wrote The Craft Beer Cookbook, there were a few recipes I immediately feel love… Read More
No matter how often you move, there are things that you forget. Every time. You forget that you won’t know which drawer to put Sharpie markers and batteries in (they always end up in the same drawer), you’ll turn to grab the knife from where is “used to be,” you won’t know where the Target… Read More
Photos from my Instagram account I made it. From LA to Seattle, up Highway 1. Past fat lazy seals, miles of winding coastlines, epic Redwoods, and into an unusually sunny Seattle. Although the sun has now given way to the typical rain, it’s somehow comforting. Although figuring out how to wield a camera in low… Read More
People have irrational culinary fears, I get it. Some people avoid recipes using yeast like they are circus clowns in a dark alley. Some people can’t wrap their brains around the idea of plunging food into hot oil without a spotter. I have an irrational fear of mall Santas so I get it, there are… Read More
I need to start a petition. To change the usually paring of Milk and Cookies to Beer and Cookies. First of all, it’s just a better idea. If you want to lure friends over, “Hey I’ve got beer and cookies” will go over much better than the alternative. Second, milk is gross. Sure, you… Read More
I was a lifeguard for three years in college. Mostly at summer camps, poorly run water slide parks and a bad summer on floating dock in the middle of a dirty lake. Late one night at a summer camp in Western Canada the guys who ran the camp decided to let the pre-teen campers,… Read More