More Brews and Food?

No wonder I'm getting a gut. =)

The lemonade's still fermenting. On tasting it wasn't too flash. It tastes kinda... beery. I just used a couple of beer kit yeasts - not recommended. Not good in a lemonade. The bitterness isn't as strong as when I first set it up, so there's hope though. I'm going to separate it from the yeast and sit it for a while, so hopefully the 'beeryness' disappears.

Now this is a great brew! Amazing. If I can one day brew a dark approaching this quality I'll be happy. And quite possibly perpetually drunk (say that three times after a couple of Leffes).

Had it at the Belgium Beer Cafe in the city. Not really my kind of drinking haunt generally. But it was a special occasion (sorta). Very good beer, served very well, and very expensively. Though honestly if you've got the money it's well worth it. The girls and guys behind the bar are nice, and really knowledgeable about beer. I learnt heaps. They also did me up a little sampler for a reasonable price so I could work out what (besides the dark) was good.

A soup with the strong flavours to go with the dark fell into my lap the other day. I was at the Adelaide central markets the other day, and one place had tomatoes and capsicum reeeeeeeally cheap. So of course I grabbed a heap, and did a little google to see what I could find.

Roast capsicum and tomato soup? Yes please. The amounts ended up being about a biscuit tray (crammed full) of veges to 1.5-2 litres of stock. I used only roast capsicum and tomatoes. But if I'd had some zucchini I would have used a little of that too.

Oil the biscuit tray (or roasting pan/s) and cover with roughly equal numbers of tomatoes and capsicums. Either put a couple of garlic cloves in too, or, if you're lazy like me and mostly use crushed garlic in a jar you can put some of it in the oil before brushing the veges with it.

I also grabbed some turkish bread while I was at the market. Soft and fluffy and about a foot by a metre. I made it into a crispy garlic bread to serve with the soup by smearing on the butter and crushed garlic (not pictured, that's the knockoff I tried when the turkish bread was gone *cry* - nowhere near as good). Good strong tastes and went great with a dark.

Beer and Burgers

Hey all!

Sorry about the long time frame. I will try and make this more regular from now on. I love that phrase 'try to' - it's like making a promise, but without the commitment.

I have started brewing my own beer. Yes, beer. As a friend of mine says 'lesbians and beer' - I mean is there more to life? Usually at that stage I have to disillusion him - ie 'the lesbians in porn aren't real lesbians.' Then he cries. Fun times.

My first batch of beer was from a kit. It's very ordinary, like the lager you get on tap down at the RSL, but at 10 bucks for 2 slabs (cartons for the non-Aussie amoung us) I figure I'll be able to give it away to someone.

The batch I've got on the go at the moment is lemonade. Yes, alcoholic lemonade. Mmmm - probably won't turn out, but at least I used up some of the lemons. I'll let you know how it turns out, and post the recipe I used later.

Meanwhile I'm trying to learn more about beer in general. Good beer (no that doesn't include VB). I grabbed a couple of pale ales from Dan Murphys to compare. And decided to make some food to go with. Steak burger it was, and man did it turn out well (and go great with the beers).

Ingredients
Toasted Bun (dark is better kids, anyone eating white bread or buns needs spanking)
Steak, cooked how you like it (medium-rare for me)
Sweet chilli sauce
Egg (runny of course)
Bacon (crispy)
Good cheese (I used swiss)
Good greens / lettuce
Good tomatoes (leave them out if it's a choice between that and supermarket ones)

There you have it folks - was delicious. And went really well with the beers. According to folks I've spoken to Little Creatures Pale Ale is meant to be the signature Aussie brand. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I enjoyed the Wicked Elf ('the little brewery').

Steak and Beer folks. Can life get any better than this?

*Cough!! Splutter*

Just at the tail end of a (another) cold. This time though I kicked it fast, thanks, I believe to the advice of one of my workmates. You know what I think all this time I've been 'treating' my colds I've actually been making them worse.

When I get a sore throat I normally suck lozenges but he said that the sugar just feeds the bacteria making the sore throat worse. So last time I got a scratchy throat I treated it with a salt water gargle before bed, and a couple of times when I woke during the night, and it's gone now, after just a couple of days. Go dad, you were right after all!

Honey and lemon is OK though if you need something a bit tastier, especially if the honey is unpasteurised (a natural antibiotic). Add hot (not boiling) water to honey (or vica versa) - just enough to dissolve it, then mix in the same amount of lemon juice. It's very good for sore throats. Adding ginger to boiling water and then adding the honey and lemon is meant to be even better but I haven't tried this yet.

I'm interested in hearing about others' remedys. What do you use when you have a cold?

I'm a bitter lemon!

Who enjoys lemon, lime and bitters. Though they sell a pretty decent version these days with the original Angostura bitters, it's still nothing compared to home-made. Not to mention a hell of a lot cheaper.

You need some good lemonade (anything not sprite - I find that has too much of it's own taste to really work in mixed drinks), Angostura bitters (which you should be able to buy from your local bottle-o), and some Bickfords lime cordial (pictured).

Add the bitters to a chilled glass and swirl it around. Three quarters fill it with lemonade, add a splash of the lime cordial, and then more lemonade. Drink and enjoy.

If you're a bitter lemon like me, or just in a foul mood, this should sweeten you up =).

Karaoke Queens!

Damage Report:
hangover - check!
sore throat - check!
busted knee - check!

Now that I'm sufficiently recovered from Friday night...

It started at the Eldo hotel's happy hour. Cheap drinks and free food! It was a seafoody day, and I really enjoyed the food. They even had a thing I'm totally stealing which is a shot glass with a raw oyster in the bottom topped up with Guinness. The flavours go really well.

I'm careful about going on about seafood these days though. I was proclaiming my love of fish at work one day and the fellas all found it hilarious. Bah!

Sporties was all fired up and ready to go. Didn't even get a nibble on the raffles this week =(. After that it was Karaoke - and I was all over 'Faith' - god I love that song. Sue and Biker Chick and the horde (six kids - SIX!) were there.

Sue sang the song he was named for, and with style. Biker chick also got up and sang - "I wish I was a Punk-Rocker" - I love that song too. I don't care - I know it's not cool. I have no rock OR punk cred now. =(

I hope you appreciate the picture - getting to the front of the room to take this (with my phone) is how the knee got busted. It seems sliding on your knees across a slippery floor isn't as suave as my drunken self though =(. Or maybe it was suave - but just not a good idea. My knee is still hurties =(.

Not Drink Blogging

Oops. I never got around to blogging last night. That's the problem with drinking - good intentions go out the window. Or somewhere. Possibly down the drain.

I left quite early, about 10 or 11 and was only sleepy / happy drunk. Mmmm, sleep! God knows what I'm doing up so early on a Sunday. Gah! I may need to clean and do more washing. This is not good.

Gay Uncle's dinner party went off well. The food was great! I'm going to have to steal his recipe for garlic bread. It was so much better than mine. His salad, chicken and pastrami, and potatoes and bacon were all good too. Man I'm stealing his chicken recipe.

I was going to put up a recipe for a Lynchberg Lemonade and everything. Hell, I might as well. I make mine a little differently to this. I never used whatever they called 'sour' though. I'm not sure we can even get it in Australia, though I'm sure bitters would do as good a job.

I make mine with the juice of 1/2 a lime, 1 part each JD and Cointreau (or Triple Sec if you're feeling cheap), and lemonade. It's fantastical - though I might have to mess around with the recipe in future to see if I can get it just right.

Dips go very well with drinks. My favourite dip is equal parts sour cream and cream cheese drizzled with sweet chilli sauce. It's easy to make, looks great, and goes well with all kinds of chips, biscuits, and vegetable sticks (raw carrots, red pepper, brocolli, celery, etc). You can even pretend it's healthy when you serve it with veges.

I've been inspired. I will have to get myself organised and have a dinner party of my own I think. I even have a new recipe book to try out. Woohoo!