Boring Beer, Just the Way We Like It.

We just sampled our latest batch of homebrewed beer, a caramel apple dortmunder.  The dortmunder is from a kit; The Awesome Husband added apples and, um, special kinds of malts? I think? to achieve a caramel-ish effect.

It's pretty good.  There's a noticeable but not overpowering apple flavor, and  perhaps not as much caramel flavor as I'd like (but then I do love me some caramel so I might not be the best person to judge).

The best part by far is the fact that opening the bottles has been uneventful and catastrophe-free.  We thoroughly enjoyed seeing geysers in Iceland but we don't need them in our kitchen.

¡Olé!

I had the great pleasure of co-hosting a shower today to honor one of my dearest friends who'll be getting married soon. She and her soon-to-be husband will be honeymooning on a cruise to Mexico, so we went with a fiesta theme. She also happens to really like margaritas, so it worked out well.

Hey, speaking of: if you want to make really excellent margaritas without using a mix, here's whatcha do, as I learned this weekend:
- Juice a bunch of limes. Like, 8 limes to get a cup of lime juice. For this event, I needed 3 cups. Yeah. A lotta limes.
- Make a little bit of simple syrup. .25c water + .25c sugar + low heat, until dissolved.
- Mix those two together with 3c of tequila and 2c of triple sec.
- Pour into glasses that have been rimmed with salt (use a lime wedge to make the rims wet, then dip in a plate of salt).


I also made a cake with the happy couple's wedding "logo" on it -- their initials, morphed into an infinity symbol (awwww!). It got a little smushed in transit, but it was still tasty.

We didn't play shower games, but we did make a hat/bouquet out of wrapping paper and ribbons. This might be the only instance where one object can double as both a hat and a bouquet, both of which are a bit of a stretch.

A lovely afternoon was had by all. Us bridesmaids were so happy to shower the bride with love.

And see, I told you it was fiesta themed!

Our trip to Germany: cuisine

I'll do a separate post tomorrow about the places we went and the sights we saw in Germany, but first things first: we ate really well. I didn't get a picture of everything (the Chicken Gorgonzola, in particular, haunts me still), but I snapped enough food and beverage photos to do a culinary post much like I did after our honeymoon.

Hefeweizen!

Served in a hefeweizen glass!

One more hefeweizen for good measure.

The other main category of beer options was the pilsners. The Bischoff brewery wasn't far from where we stayed.

Bitburger, another maker of pilsners, also offers cola-beer (pilsner mixed with cola): definitely the most surprising beer find of the trip.

Lest you think we shunned solid food in Deutschland, here's a sampling of the confections we enjoyed:

apfelkuchen

mokkatorte

The list of cakes at this cafe was particularly impressive.

black forest cake

Miraculously, I found it within myself to choose a cup of tea to pair with my black forest cake, thus declining the highly-recommended hot chocolate with rum in it. Not sure how I managed that one. I suppose rather than questioning it, I'll just chalk it up to a win for moderation. Or something.

As they say in Germany, "prost!"

Homebrewing: now with uniforms!

Last weekend, Mr. Terrific and I brewed our third batch of beer, a black lager. It's been fermenting in the basement (at a lager-appropriate 48 degrees -- thanks, February) since then, and we'll put it in bottles tomorrow.

The best part of this most recent brewing project was the attire. One of Mr. Terrific's brothers surprised us with shirts he'd had printed up for us as Christmas gifts, and this was our first opportunity to wear them whilst actually brewing.



Yes, I have a matching shirt. Yes, I wore mine as well, because yes, we're complete dorks. No, none of the pictures of me came out well.

(Also of note in that second photo is the hideous wall paneling in our kitchen. It's eerily similar to the hideous wall paneling that was (past tense!) in the bathroom. This is what we've been up against.)

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Part Five

I'd actually been planning to tell you guys about Squirrel over at The Nuthouse in a Copycat Project post with photos from a fun outdoorsy adventure. It'll be a while before Mr. Stupendous and I go kayaking, that's for sure, and even for hiking, I prefer to wait until the trails are ice-free before venturing out (I swear, I must have some sort of inner ear issue that explains my clumsiness). It's snowshoeing season, but who am I kidding, there won't be time for that until we wrap up the bathroom renovation in 2015. (Sigh.)

So! In the meantime, go read about Squirrel's travels. And hoo boy, do you want to check this out: she lived in Alaska, now lives in Australia (I know, right?), and makes a point of getting out and enjoying all the cool stuff there is to do in her area.

Another fun thing Squirrel blogs about -- and I'm looping back to the point of my post, so stick with me here -- is home brewing. She and her husband started brewing beer in part to avoid having to buy it in Australia (apparently it's pretty spendy) and have found that they quite enjoy it. A few days ago she talked about some of the beers they've concocted recently, and that reminded me that I never blogged about our sophomore brewing effort. Ta-dah:




It looks pretty much the same as our first beer, the Dark Horse Porter, but you'll have to take my word for it: that there is Christmas Cookie Ale. And it was good. (Yes, it's gone. Single tear.) We took a kit for a nut brown ale and added a hint of cinnamon and vanilla.* The flavors were more subtle than I expected, but I think that was for the best, and it might be one of my favorite beers ever. We've decided to make a double batch next year and make it our annual holiday brew.

Have I mentioned I'm disappointed it's gone?




* When I say "we," of course, I mean that Mr. Stupendous did all the actual brewing. I came up with the idea to add the cinnamon and vanilla, and the name. That counts as helping, right?

Hopping on the Home Brew Bandwagon

We're many things, Best Ever Husband and I, but cutting-edge isn't one of them. It seems like everyone and their brother's been brewing beer lately -- or perhaps we just surround ourselves with especially awesome peeps
? -- and we jumped into the fray only recently.

The pints you see above are our inaugural brew, a porter. We brought a few bottles to a gathering at a friend's house, where it was given the name Dark Horse Porter (much better than its default moniker: From-a-Kit Porter). Dark Horse suits it nicely, actually; it's quite good, and I had set my expectations, shall we say, not decidedly high.

Our sophomore effort is brewing as we speak, and this time around we've got the name ready in advance: Christmas Cookie Ale. Take a kit for nut brown ale, add some vanilla and cinnamon, and (hopefully) you've got a tasty beverage that'll be ready just in time for the holidays.

a really stellar day

Got up this morning and had cereal with fresh strawberries for breakfast, with french vanilla coffee.

Ran a 5k with Mr. Terrific. Well, we started together -- about a quarter mile in I started listening to music and he ran ahead. Just how terrific is he? He stopped to help an elderly gentleman who'd been overcome by the exertion of the race and today's humidity, rather than power through the last stretch before the finish line to have the fastest possible time. That's how terrific. I was several minutes behind him and ended up clocking in about two minutes faster than the race we ran on Mother's Day. I was pretty unprepared for that one though, so "two minutes faster" is still pretty slow.

Had the best sandwich ever for lunch. Avocado, lettuce, and tomato on wheat. It haunts me still. A bottle of Coal Porter along with it rounded out a possibly perfect lunch. (Not bad for a beer I initially tried years ago almost exclusively because of the name. Thankfully it's not only punny, but also delicious.)

Spent the afternoon with Mr. Terrific's dad to celebrate Father's Day, and we'll be having dinner with my dad.

Thunderstorms are supposed to roll in this evening.

The pea plants finally have flowers on them.

I like today.