12/8/13

Crock Pot Tomato Soup with Pizza Beer

Is it cold where you live? If so, I hate to say this, but I’m a little envious. It’s still in the 80’s here. It’s just really hard to get in the holiday spirit when you’re shopping for your Christmas tree in a sundress and flip flops, right? We’re going to Georgia in 2 weeks, though. I’m sure it will be super cold, and I’ll be running home to the warm temps.

There are not many things I miss about cold weather. Layers, heavy jackets, waiting for your car to warm up, freezing after getting out of the shower, frosted windshields, etc. I do miss reading by the fireplace, enjoying a hot bowl of soup on a cold day, drinking hot chocolate while looking at lights, and the possibility of a snow day. The fact that it’s still hot as hell outside doesn’t keep me from enjoying a bowl of warm soup, though. I made this recipe a few weeks ago. It was actually a little chilly that day. By chilly, I’m talking mid 70’s. I’m a sissy when it comes to the cold!

Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer was the star of this yummy Crockpot Tomato Soup. You may remember my recipe for Beer Bread a few weeks ago using this same beer. It really tastes just like Pizza. You can go to their website to see if this beer is available in your area. I’m sure if we get it in South Florida, everyone else should find it fairly easy.

This recipe makes enough soup for an army! I used some of the leftovers for stuffed shells {recipe to come soon} and had a quart leftover in the freezer.

I recommend serving this soup with my Beer Bread hot out of the oven.

In Other News

I’ve been a little MIA lately. This weeks been a little crazy.

Wednesday, we went to TBC for their Movember contest.

I had the pleasure of looking at this every day last month… Thanks TBC! Luckily, it was gone shortly after we arrived home. I love Huck’s beard… not a fan of the handlebar look!

Karl and Holly joined us at TBC for the event. Like Karl’s new haircut? Huck didn’t win this year, but did come in 2nd, and passed the crown on to the winner.

Thursday, I had the Barley Doll’s meet-up.

We started at Das Biergarten in Abacoa. Das has a good craft beer menu and the turn out was really good. We had a few newbies but most everyone was repeats. As people started leaving, some of the ladies decided to headed to Jumby Bay for wine. The Barley Dolls do not discriminate against alcohol. We do drink responsibly, though!

Friday was my company Christmas party.

We met at the owner of my companies house for drinks and our secret Santa exchange before heading to Morton’s Steakhouse in West Palm.

Doesn’t Huck look fancy with his sweater vest and red wine?

And Saturday, I worked on Christmas Crafts and watched Football.

For the ornament frame, I bought an 8×10 frame and ornaments from the Dollar Store and hot glued them together. Now, I just need a picture of us.

My other project was a tree skirt for our Christmas tree. Last year, I found directions for a DIY ruffle Tree Skirt on Pinterest {Are you following me on Pinterest?? You should!}. I had a box of leftover fabric from our wedding reception and thought this would be a perfect way to reuse the fabric and have a tree skirt with more meaning. It took me about 4 hours total from cutting the fabric into 2” pieces to hot gluing everything together. The other lady used an old tree skirt, but I just used my old skirt as a template and made one with plain white muslin fabric. I didn’t want to waste my original skirt if my project didn’t work out. I wish it was just a little bigger. I may go in and add one more layer to the end… Maybe. Hot gluing burlap SUCKS!

It doesn’t really match the tree, but it’s special and I like it! I still have a bunch of fabric left and plan to make matching stockings for us and the yahoos. That may tie everything together a little more.

Crock Pot Tomato Soup with Pizza Beer

Serves 6+
Prep time 15 minutes
This is a thick tomato, pasta sauce, soup. Crusty bread or Beer Bread is a must with with soup.

Ingredients

  • 4 cloves Garlic (Minced)
  • 1/2 Red Onion (Small Diced)
  • 2 large Carrots (Grated)
  • 28oz cans Tomatoes (Crusted)
  • 4 cups Chicken Stock
  • 1 cup Pizza Beer (or a light lager)
  • 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dried Oregano
  • 1 large Bay Leaf
  • 1 Parmesan Rind (Optional but I recommend it!)
  • teaspoon Salt and Pepper to Taste
  • Extras (Parmesan, Parsley, Crusty Bread)

Directions

Add all ingredient into a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Serve with extra Parmesan and crusty bread for dipping.
Powered by GetMeCooking
12/1/13

Thanksgiving Vacation

Huck’s Birthday

My four day weekend started Wednesday at 2PM. I practically ran out of the office screaming “I’m free!!”.

Wednesday was Huck’s birthday, and I was happy to be off early to celebrate. We started the birthday celebration at TBC, of course!

Our celebration continued to downtown Abacoa for Food Trucks and drinks at Das Biergarten with some friends. We were home fairly early. 

Turkey Day

For Thanksgiving, we went to our friends Nate and Sue’s house for dinner. Nate smoked a turkey while Sue whipped up so amazing sides.

 

I brought Butter Corn Casserole, Beer Bread Rolls, and Cranberry Cheesecake. The Cranberry Cheesecake turned out really good. I followed SkinnyTaste’s recipe for Strawberry Cheesecake, but substituted strawberries for leftover cranberry sauce. 

EG and Laura’s visit- Friday and Saturday

Friday, EG and Laura drove over from Tampa to spend the night. We went to Square Grouper and Dive Bar for dinner. Saturday, we took them to Berry Fresh for breakfast and Loggerhead Marine Life Center to check out the sea turtles.

Did you know Juno Beach has one of the most active nesting beaches in the world? I didn’t either.

The turtle below was going for his weekly weigh-in.

Each turtle has a little information posted about his condition, treatment, size, and age. The turtle below was found floating on his left side, and he was very anemic and hypoglycemic. He had a large, old, scare on his back from a boat propeller. He’s doing better since he arrived at the center.

He also went to the Juno Beach Pier.

The wind and waves were crazy.

While walking on the pier, some “kids” caught a 5 foot shark.

And people wonder why I don’t go swimming in the ocean…

It made me very sad to see the way the people treated the shark. They were taking pictures holding it and flipping it off. While holding it, they keep dropping it, and the shark was trying his best to get away. I secretly wanted the shark to whip around and bite everyone of them. Nothing serious. Just an F U from the poor defenseless shark.

EG and Laura left around 2PM, and Huck and I left for his homebrew competition at Roxy’s in West Palm.

Huck entered two beers into the competition and came in 2nd and 3rd. He was beat by a Blueberry Porter. He wasn’t very happy about “being the first and second loser”. I’m super proud of him for placing, twice!

There were large TV’s setup outside Roxy’s playing the UF vs FSU. We were watching the end of the UGA vs Tech and Bama vs Auburn game at a local restaurant/bar. The place went crazy when Auburn scored at the very end of the game. It was AMAZING!!! Oh and UGA won too. It was a great day!

08/31/13

Barley Dolls First Meet Up

Thursday was the first meet up for my new female beer group, the Barley Dolls.

2013-08-29 17.31.45

I told everyone, as long as I wasn’t sitting at the bar, drinking beer by myself, I’d be happy. I had no idea how many people would come. Everyone I’ve talked to loved the idea, so I figured I’d have a few people come.

I was so surprised how many people showed up. I counted a total of 26 chics. The most girls in TBC at one time, I’m sure. Four of my friends came to support me :)

Barley Dolls (8)

This picture was taken at the end of the night after a few ladies left. I didn’t have a beer for the first picture and Kenny came running over with one. The leader of the Barley Dolls needs a beer after all.

Fran, a brewer at TBC, gave us a tour of the brewery.

Barley Dolls (4)

Barley Dolls (5)

Barley Dolls (6)

Barley Dolls (7)

Everyone enjoyed the tour.

I tried to introduce myself to everyone, but I know I missed a couple that came in later. Some of the ladies had really great ideas for future events. I may need to start planning biweekly meetings.

All in all I would say it was a complete success! I had a great time and met new, like minded, people.

I can’t wait to announce next months event! It’s going to be amazing!

Barley Dolls (3)

I’d like to thank Deb for all her help and TBC for the brewery tour and just always being a great place to hangout.

I would also like to thank Holly for the coasters she made.

Barley Dolls

I saved one for myself and let the other girls have one. A souvenir from the first event. I need to create a logo this weekend. Or find someone to create a logo. Everyone there said they want shirts :)

Stay tuned for next months event… I promise some of you are going to be jealous you’re not a woman!

08/22/13

Hoptimism

Last night, we drank beer to support a good cause. No, really we did!

Hoptimism Tequesta Brewing (6)

Last night was the second annual Hoptimism event benefiting Alzheimer sponsored by TBC and Alzheimer’s Community Care

Alzheimer’s Community Care is a Florida-based 501(c)(3), not-for-profit organization. Alzheimer’s Community Care provides specialized care to Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders patients, and also supports the needs of caregivers. The organization proudly serves Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie counties.

Hoptimism Tequesta Brewing (5)

Our neighbor works for Alzheimer’s Community and we’ve talked about his job a few times. Check out their History and Mission page to learn more.

For $25 each we received one beer, hors d’oeurves, meet and greet with the brewmasters, and a tour of the brewery. We also received awesome name tags!

Hoptimism Tequesta Brewing (7)

The food was well worth $25! ChefCorp provided all the food for the night. You may remember them. We were paired up for the Els for Autism event a few months ago. Chef Carlino provided all the food for the event last night. ChefCorp provides all the food for Alzheimer’s Community Care. We learned last night, Alzheimer’s patients can stop eating and Chef Carlino works to provided healthy delicious meals.

Hoptimism Tequesta Brewing (3)

Cooking in the Brewery!

Hoptimism Tequesta Brewing (2)

The Shrimp and Crab Roll were hands down the best thing I’ve had all week. Huck agreed.

Matt and Fran provided tours of the brewery and talked about the brewing process.

Hoptimism Tequesta Brewing (1)

Next Thursday, the guys are taking the Barley Dolls on a brewery tour, too. {Have I mentioned how nervous/excided I am for our meeting one week from today? I think we are going to have a great turnout!}

I did make a new friend last night. I would like to introduce you to Chris…

Hoptimism Tequesta Brewing 10

He looks a lot like Huck doesn’t he? I posted this picture on Facebook with a caption “Speed Date with Chris. Don’t tell Huck!” Huck’s family is the only ones that call him ‘Chris’. I’m not sure if I shared this story, but for some reason, I wrote Christopher on our wedding invitations. I have no idea why, but my Grandmother called my Mom and asked who Chris was and what happen to Huck! Oh and Huck introduced himself to my other Grandmother when we first started dating and he said his name was ‘Chris’. She leaned over to me and said “I thought you’re boyfriend was Huck. Who is this?”

We mingled for a little while before calling it a night.

It was a great night for a great cause. TBC provided the Beer, ChefCorp donated the food, and all the money raised went to ACC. Thank you, Rob, for inviting us. We will be back next year for sure!

08/10/13

Shark Week

I only worked two days this week, but it felt like a full week. Working in an office is SO different than working from home. I enjoyed my first two days, though. I felt more productive, and it’s nice knowing I have a nice paycheck coming in every two weeks.

Check out my trash can at work…

Is anyone else excited College Football season starts in 3 weeks?? I can’t wait. My favorite time of year: college game day, snacks, football, and beer.

Thursday, I worked all day and even went to the gym. Yesterday, Huck dropped me off and picked me up from work. Instead of going to the gym, we decided to stop at TBC of happy hour.

 

At the time, TBC sounded like a better idea than the gym. Now, I’m regarding that idea. After TBC, we went downtown for the Abacoa Food Truck Invasion, and I ate some really greasy food and had a few heavy beers.

 

The lines at the Food Truck Invasion are long and move really slow. We waited over 30 minutes for Tacos and an hour for a couple empanadas. The food is good, and it’s fun, but I do not recommend going hungry. With all the screaming kids, lines, and heat, you’ll quickly go from hungry to hangery!!

My bad eating continued this morning with breakfast. We went to Berry Fresh.

Fried Green Tomatoes and Pimento Cheese… Why not?

It was really good, too. The Fried Green Tomatoes were perfect. I ate all the Tomatoes, Eggs, and Pimento Cheese, but left over half the potatoes behind. I left satisfied without feeling miserable.

 

Huck ordered a Chicken BLT with a really good homemade Potato Salad.

My plan for the day included cleaning, working on a few blog post for next week, working on our Oktoberfest plan :) , work on the Barley Dolls stuff, and getting my new business page up and ready.

Instead of doing any of that, I’m stuck watching Shark Week. Luckily, I can, kind of, work of some of my projects during commercials but It took me over an hour to get this far on my blog post.  

Damn you Shark Week!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. If you’re bored, I recommend Shark Week. I’m definitely not going into the water anytime soon.

07/22/13

Did You Drop My Beer?!?!?!

This weekend we went to the Palm Beach Summer Beer Bash. After the Beer and Burger Bash last month, I was not up for another beer fest. It is WAY to hot for outdoor beer festivals. When Huck told me this event was inside, in the A/C, I was all for it.

The festival was at the South Florida Fairgrounds. Did I mention it was inside. SO NICE!

The event also had a Homebrewing competition. Huck and I both entered beers for the event. He entered a Pale Ale. I had a Pomegranate Wheat. Our friend Karl entered a beer, too. I think his was a stout.

Huck was worried the bottom would break in our 6 packs, so he had a death grip on them. 

We made it inside and walked straight to the Homebrew check in. I checked my beer in first and started walking to a booth to get a beer. Huck and Karl were checking in their beers when I heard a crash. I turned and looked at Huck, he was looking right at me.

I asked if that was our beer. I could tell from his face, it was, and it was mine. I walked up to the counter, seen all my beers busted on the floor and screamed at the guy “Did you drop my beer? How did you drop my beer?”

You could tell he felt horrible. I, of course, apologized for screaming at him. I was just really mad. That beer was really good and first prize was $750, and I wanted to win.

My poor beer:(

I had a few people tell me it smelled really good.  I guess I won best in smell category.

Alex was nice enough to take a pick of the broken bottles. Deena told him not to, but Alex said I would want to blog about it. I looked at both of them and shuck my head. He was right.

RIP Forbidden Wheat…

 

The guy was nice enough to get us VIP passes to make up for the beer. I apologized to him a few times throughout the event. I really felt bad.

As part of the VIP, we received bigger mugs. People keep asking me what I did to get a bigger mug. “I’m just really lucky!” Ha. 

 

Deena and I got our picture in front of the Shiner booth.

The big mug was a bad idea. People didn’t know how much to pour, so we got a few beer pours like this…

Really, this was Huck’s beer. After the first guy poured me half a glass, I started asking for just a taste.

{I was sporting my Hopvine Shirt from Brewer Shirts, too.}

I also got a tattoo from Matt, one of the owners at TBC.  Super great brewery by the way,

It was a fun day. Beer Festivals in the A/C are the way to go.

There is one day left to enter for a chance to win a T-Shirt from Brewer Shirts.

04/26/13

Els for autism

A few weeks ago, Fran from TBC called Huck and asked if we would like to help with an upcoming event. Considering most of our days are spent just the two of us in our home working, we jumped at the opportunity.

The event was hosted by TBC and Els for Autism. I learned that Ernie Els is a famous golfer and started Els for Autism after his son was diagnosed with Autism. The Ernie Els Foundation raises money for research to better understand and treat autism. They are also raising money to open a facility, The Els Center of Excellence (you can read more about the center on the website. It’s very interesting.) The Els’ have donated $6 million of their own money to the project.

Last night’s event was held at the Old Palm Golf Club.

(Source)

Continue reading

04/25/13

Cut off

Yep. I’m cut off. I’m sure you’re probably thinking I’m giving my poor liver a break. And you would be wrong. Actually, I get the most blog hits for my drinking related post, so I’ve been trying to come up with ways to drink more to increase my traffic. I’m completely joking by the way.

Nope, I’m cut off from the grocery store. My kitchen is full of food and I can’t justify buying anymore when the pantry is so over stocked. I’m avoiding the grocery store for 10 whole days! Really, we have enough food to avoid the grocery store for 2 weeks, but that seemed too long. I need fresh veggies!

I started my challenge with a recipe Huck’s sister made while we were home for Christmas. I’m not sure you can call this a recipe, though. It’s so EASY and makes so much food!

Continue reading

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...