I’ve never really been the girl with the sweet tooth. I’ve had a meat tooth. A salt tooth. A beer tooth. I could eat my weight in guacamole or tater tots and it takes a small act of God to get me to stop eating sushi. But sweets don’t give me the mad rabid cravings… Read More
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… Read More
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
It’s seems a cruel twist of fate that beer-drinking-burgers-dogs-dips-eating season and bikini season line up perfectly. The same time that we load our paper plates with baked beans, slow roasted ribs, chips and creamy dips, is the same part of the year that we shed our clothes and romp in the sunshine in… 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
There is this way that I make food that I can only really see in retrospect as a mirror to how I’m feeling. Messy food means that I’ve wandered into internal chaos. It’s OK, there are much less healthy ways of dealing with emotions than the culinary mood ring that my kitchen becomes. There are… Read More
Is Beer Vegan? From an outsiders perspective, the question might seems silly. Beer, after all, is made from plants and water. At its most basic, the ingredients to make beer are simple: water, malt, hops, yeast; all of which are clearly non-animal. And while brewmasters have a way of working everything from bacon to whole… Read More
Why beer? I’ve been asked a lot of questions about why I’ve tried so feverishly to squeeze myself into this world. After all, there are a lot of ingredients that make great culinary obsessions. So, why beer? To explain that, we’ll have to talk about collaboration. Craft beer is the only major market that does… Read More
The best thing happened on Thanksgiving. Just about 18 hours prior to Turkey Tip-Off, my small gathering of 4 people more than tripled into a 14 person party that ended in cocktails, poker, and eating pie right out of the pan. How great is that? I was happy with the idea of a small gathering,… Read More
(Chocolate Porter Strawberry Shortcakes With Beer Whipped Cream) I’m taking a huge risk here. You may have taken one look at this post and decided that I’ve lost my magic. Chocolate beer cake is as common as Nascar sweatpants in Walmart. But unlike motor sports fashion blunders in public, I loved this dessert. I’m combining… Read More
The creaminess of chocolate pairs so well with a well crafted porter. For this tart I used Firestone Walker Reserve Porter, it has the perfect balance of flavors for this recipe with notes of chocolate, coffee, caramel and a touch of a citrus taste. You also want to use a really well made chocolate, because, like beer,… Read More
This week will be full of recipes for Guinness. Although I will always favor local craft beer, I do harbor a soft spot for Ireland and their World Famous Brewery. Just out of college I scraped together enough money to put myself on a flight from LAX to Dublin. I landed in Ireland on a drizzly… Read More
There is something mysterious and alluring about Alaska. Beautiful landscapes pushing past a transcendental, white washed façade. I’ll even forgive her the birth of ignorant, poorly spoken, female politicians to glimpse the majesty of the Aurora Borealis. It just may be because of this enchanted terrain that the beer seems to have a prestigious eminence.… Read More