... in sheep's clothing

Beer-caramels with pretzel sticks (made by M). I made coffee pudding pops.

20 June 2010 • candy beer pretzels caramel awesome

Anchor Humming Ale - crazy creamy head, really drinkable, not super bitter.

29 October 2009 • beer Anchor Steam Humming Ale TAPS Petaluma drinking

i like it sloppy

Today I took advantage of Rainbow Grocery’s 20% off coupon - which can be found in the AT&T phone book in the Bay Area, if you are wondering. Rainbow is great. They have an amazing selection of cheeses, milk, and yogurt. Essentially their dairy can’t be beat. Also perfect for bulk flours, or, as I discovered today, hemp protein powder. But you can’t make a delicious burger out of protein powder (please don’t even try and prove to me that you can). On the last trip I made to Rainbow, I bought some seitan BBQ sloppy joe…. Glop. I don’t know what else to call it. It’s pretty much inedible to me. Even when I was a vegetarian, seitan was like George Hamilton’s tan - it wasn’t even pretending to be real. It is no substitute for honest to goodness animal flesh.

Down the street from Rainbow Grocery sits an unassuming supermarket. It looked mad sketchy for a while, but has recently undergone a renovation, and as I discovered once I went inside, is owned by Kroger, or at least gets a lot of it’s food merch from them. Foods Co is my kind of supermarket. Kinda like Costco, kinda like awesome. Wide aisles, cheap prices, decent selection. I am never, ever, ever going to Safeway again, unless it’s to pee at 2:30 AM after a night out drinking in the Mish.

One pound of ground beef (85% lean) was $3.18. Honestly, it’s been so long since I’ve purchased ground beef I don’t know if that’s a good price, but it worked for me. Cheaper than chicken, and only $.18 more than ground turkey. 6 large, tasty looking buns - $.98. $.98!!! I also bought a Coke Zero, which brought my total for dinner (with lots of leftovers) to less than $6. This makes me incredibly happy.

I crowdsourced my dinner options, and the Fabio family voted (not unanimously, I might add, I was on pins and needles) for sloppy joes. I knew whatever I was eating (burgers or joes) that I wanted to make it with beer. I browsed a few recipes, got a general idea of what to throw together, and then made something up by myself. Was it mind-blowing? No. Did it satisfy my craving? Yes. It actually ended up tasting almost exactly as I wanted it to - just a little spice, some tang, a hint of sweetness. And beefy. Next go-around, I’m going to pump up the red wine vinegar, because I like the tangy flavor. Suggestions are always welcomed.

Sloppy Drunk Joes

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 medium or 2 small onions, diced fine

1 lb ground beef (I prefer 80% lean)

3-4 garlic cloves, minced fine

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 cup beer (I used New Belgium Mighty Arrow Pale Ale - stick with something that has body - this beer is particularly malty. Just no Corona.)

2 generous Tablespoons Tabasco sauce (I used the green jalapeno, use what you like/have on hand)

2 - 4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (when I make this recipe again, I’ll use more, but I started out with 2 Tb - if you are a vinegar freak like me, add more, if not, 2 will do)

1 teaspoon cumin

2 Tablespoons flour

Hamburger buns of your liking

Cheddar cheese (I used Bravo Farms chipotle cheddar and found it a little too strong)

Let’s cook this shit

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, deep frying pan. When the oil is shimmery, add the onions, salt, and pepper and cook for about a minute until the onions are softened. Add the beef and garlic, making sure to bust the meat up so there are no large chunks. Also make sure you take off the paper that is usually stuck to the back of the beef. Don’t be an idiot like me. Cook the meat and the alliaceae until the beef is uniformly brown, and there is no pink showing, about 5-7 minutes more.

And the rest

Add all of the other ingredients. Stir thoroughly. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or however long it takes you to put away all of your ingredients, do some tidying up, slice and toast buns, and cut up some cheese, stirring every couple of minutes so it doesn’t stick to the pan. The mixture will have reduced and thickened to a nice sauce. Layer the cheese on the toasted bun, slop some joe on top, crown it with the other half of the bun. Put it in your belly.

Enjoy.

Comments

27 May 2009 • beef recipe shopping eating beer

not tumbly popular

Yesterday was filled with highs and lows. The day started out quite well: I woke up a bit earlier than usual, feeling remarkably refreshed. I enjoyed my usual morning coffee and cookies with Mary, and read the newspaper (before I abandoned her to read the NYT online). I browsed through the want ads on Craigslist. The internet worked. It was a beautiful day.

I saw an ad for Jonathan Adler - and in my haste I must not have read the highlighted word (which I am just discovering now): “3 years minimum furniture retail sales experience.” But seriously, who has three years of experience selling furniture?

I sent my resume in anyway, and since the JA store is a short bus ride away, I actually got dressed like a hip, professional human being and went over to talk to the manager in person. Long story short, he said no, because of the furniture selling clause. He claimed that they needed someone who would be able to expound upon the construction of coffee tables to designers. Um, hammer, nails, glue. Am I missing anything?

The experience deflated me. Not only do I not have enough retail experience, from the lack of ANY response to my resume, I don’t have enough professional experince either. I am feeling incredibly useless. I’ve apparently wasted my post-college years by not finding one niche industry to become highly proficient in. As much as I believe I have found what I’d like to do with myself, at least for a while, I can’t do it. I have to start all over, again. Is this what the rest of my life is going to be like? Nothing but a series of false starts?

When I got home, I had to beat off the urge to once again cry my eyes out because I had makeup on, and somewhere else to be. I took the bus downtown, then made an error in topographical judgment by walking up Powell St. to California. San Francisco: beautiful city, too many hills. My friend Peter and I met at the Stanford Court Hotel to take a “tour” of Nob Hill. And I use the phrase tour in the most loose sense. The tour was .2 miles. According to Google calculator, that amounts to 1056 feet. In an hour and a half. We stood in front of a half dozen buildings while the tour guide insulted my home city (Boston), the ages of some of the tour-goers, and our capacity for interest in history. And when I laughed at his poor attempt at referencing pop culture, I was snorting at him, not with him.

Peter and I took off early in search of food and something more mentally stimulating, like pigeons or plastic bags floating in the breeze. We hit up Lee’s, which wasn’t as amazing as my first experience there, though the shrimp-taro-pork egg rolls were greasily delicious. We had a yen for tea, so I suggested going to the newest Samovar in Hayes Valley. Mary and I had peeked through the window but not gone inside. The space is warm, sunny, and relaxing. The cushions on the bench in the upper seating section are surprising comfortable (then again, after walking from Nob Hill to HV, a sandpaper rock would be comfortable to curl up on). The staff is friendly and intensely knowledgeable. And thankfully forgiving of our frugality. We ordered a pot of the Scarlet Sable to share. I definitely got the smoky aspect (and I love anything smoky - I’ve had smoky meat, smoky beer [a.k.a. hot dog beer] and smoky tea). Even though it’s a black tea (caffeinated), it was soothing to drink.

We parted ways after our tea date, and I went back home to prepare for the Tonga Room. Free drinks and more grease-tacular “Pacific Rim Asian cuisine.” Thank you Howard Hughes. It’s not a party until someone jumps into the pool, at which point, everyone was kicked out. Thankfully the bar had been closed, and we were on our way out anyway. Next up, a trip to Polk Gulch to stop by Bourbon and Branch, everyone’s favorite speakeasy. I do enjoy this bar, especially because their cocktails rival Alembic’s. Flocked wallpaper + pressed tin ceiling = a pleasing interior. They could have shitty drinks and I’d still love the atmosphere. I was exhausted from hauling my ass all around the city (back and forth to Nob Hill twice in one day is twice too much). After the Next Muni website let us down multiple times, we ended up walking all the way back to HV. I could barely muster the energy to take my makeup off and put on pjs. Actually, I only accomplished one of those things before promptly falling asleep.

Comments

7 May 2009 • job search unemployment day in the city Tonga Room beer drinking tea eating Nob Hill

buying one thing when you meant to buy the other

We are out of toilet paper. Mary resorted to stealing some from school, but it won’t last very long. I thought I’d be helpful and buy some. I walked down the street, entered the corner store, grabbed a box of MultiGrain Cheerios, a bottle of Coke Zero (what we drink instead of water, along with massive amounts of coffee), and contemplated what else to buy to reach the $10 credit card minimum. What else could I buy to make it there…. Frozen or canned food, cookies, and cat food weren’t appealing. The corner store has a decent selection of beers. I decided on big bottles of Spaten Optimator and Lagunitas Hop Stoopid. I pay. I walk out the door.

Do you see anything wrong with this story?

Now I’m just going to use up more of the toilet paper Mary had to secret away. Hop Stoopid brain. The upshot? I’m drinking and blogging!

Comments

26 March 2009 • stupid beer