11/24/13

Sweet Potato Casserole and Friendsgiving

Growing up, Sweet Potato Casserole wasn’t a part of our Thanksgiving Day spread. Well, maybe it was, but it never made it on my plate. Two years ago, I decided to make a Sweet Potato Casserole for Friendsgiving, and it’s become a staple ever since.

Last year, Sue brought a casserole to Friendsgiving with just a sugar and pecan topping. It was so much better without the marshmallows, and I decided to make it like that again this year.

I added a special ingredient to my recipe this year, of course.

When I picked up Lazy Magnolia’s Sweet Potato Beer, I wasn’t sure about buying it. Sweet Potatoes in a Cream Stout? Weird! I bought it though, and it was surprising really good. I’m a huge fan of Sweet Stouts and Sweet Potatoes, and the two are great together. Huck said this was the best beer Lazy Magnolia has, and we fought over the leftover beer.

Friendsgiving

I made my Sweet Potato Casserole for Friendsgiving at our good friends Ty and Morgan’s house last night. These two did a great job preparing an awesome meal.

Everyone did a great good with the food.

We had Ham, Turkey, Stuffing, Broccoli Salad, Green Bean Casserole, Scallop Potatoes, 2 Sweet Potato Casseroles, Mashed Potatoes, Spinach Casserole, Mac and Cheese, Corn Casserole, Gravy, Rolls, Cranberry Sauce, and Deviled Eggs. I’m full just thinking about all of it!

I tried a scoop of everything, and I couldn’t tell you what was my favorite or least favorite. Everything was equally good.

Isabelle was the first one at the table!

Another couple, at the party, moved to South Florida a year ago from Georgia. They actually lived in the same area we did. During dinner we shared stories about horrible Atlanta traffic, and the snow storm that shut down the whole city. Eww, I don’t miss cold or traffic!

After dinner, we watched football, played Jenga, and complained about being full.

You know you’re in South Florida when people are wishing they brought sweaters when it’s in the low 70’s.

We left around midnight with lots of leftovers and bellies still full of food.

Being so far from my family sucks, but it’s nice to have friends here to spend the holidays with. On the way home, we talked about how lucky we are to have such great friends. It’s crazy to think when we first moved here, we didn’t know anyone.

Thank you Ty and Morgan for a great night.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Cream Stout

Ingredients

  • POTATOES
  • 4 large Sweet Potatoes
  • 3/4 cups Sugar
  • 1/4 cup Sweet Stout
  • 3 tablespoons Butter (Melted)
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 2 large Eggs
  • TOPPING
  • 1/3 cup AP Flour
  • 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Butter (Melted)
  • 3/4 cups Pecans (Chopped)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
POTATOES:

Pierce Potatoes with fork and Microwave for 10 minutes or until tender. Once Potatoes are tender, cut in half and scoop all inside of Sweet Potatoes.
Combined Sugar, Beer, Butter, Salt, Vanilla, and Eggs. Add Potatoes and mix until smooth. Spray a pie dish with cooking spray and add Sweet Potato mixture.
TOPPING:

Combined Flour, Brown Sugar, Melted Butter, and Pecans in a separate bowl.
Sprinkle potatoes with Pecan mixture. Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and serve.
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11/20/13

Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer Bread

I love making Beer Bread. I’m not a fan of complicated or labor intensive recipes, and beer bread is the easiest bread recipes I’ve ever made and it only had 5 ingredients.

I first made Beer Bread 3 or 4 years ago. We had a get together at our house in Georgia, and we’d been hanging out by the pool all. I was a little tipsy when I went inside to start dinner. I threw together the ingredients (I honestly don’t remember measuring anything), put it in the oven, and went back to the pool. Some how, I remembered the bread baking in the oven and pulled it out just in time. How many beer recipes can you make after a day drinking all day?

I used Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer for this recipe. Pizza Beer is exactly what is sounds like. It has all the flavors of pizza in beer form. It has Oregano, Basil, Tomatoes, and Garlic. Weird combo for a beer, but it’s OK. It was perfect for my bread though.

If you can’t find Pizza Beer, try a Lager, Pale Ale, Pilsner, Wheat, or IPA for this recipe. I highly recommend enjoying this beer warm out of the oven.

Ginny gave the beer two paws up too. Huck left the leftover bread on the stove and Ginny decided to help himself to my Beer Bread. He almost went to the pound for that one. I was really looking forward to leftovers. Luckily for him, this recipes is super easy.

I have 2 more great recipes to post with Mamma Mia’s Pizza Beer. Hopefully, it will not take me a week to post another recipe.

Beer Bread

Ingredients

  • 3 cups Self Rising Flour
  • 3 tablespoons Sugar
  • 12oz Beer
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 2 tablespoons Melted Butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients in a mixer until fully combined. Add dough to a greased loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush with butter. Continue cooking for 10 additional minutes.
Serve warm.
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11/13/13

Vanilla Porter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

The Holy Trinity.

In culinary school, we talked about the Holy Trinity a bunch. Sounds like an odd topic for culinary school, but we were not talking about religion. The Holy Trinity is pretty much the base for every good Cajun recipe. The combination of Onions, Peppers, and Celery. It’s used for everything.

Many cuisines have their form of the Holy Trinity. The French call it Mirepoix: a mixture of 50% Onions, 25% Carrots, and 25% Celery. Leave it to the French cuisine to make everything complicated.

Well, I’m starting my own “Holy Trinity”. Cupcakes, Cookies, and Beer! Oh yea! I’m calling it the Ultimate Holy Trinity!

Nothing bad can come from this combination. Well, maybe an increase waist line, but everything in moderation, right? You only live once? Whatever helps you sleep at night?

A few weeks ago, I wanted Cookies, but I also wanted Cupcakes. What’s a girl to do? Porter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes, that’s what she did!

I cheated by using store bought, mini, cookies, but oh well. They were amazing, and I had no idea how to make a cookie small enough to fit on a mini cupcake. I’ll add it to my list of things to do.

Do you know how many mini cupcakes a box of cake mix makes? 75! I know because that’s how many cupcakes I had sitting around my house. I brought a bunch to work. I took some to the Barley Dolls meet-up. I gave them to neighbors. I even ate 5 while waiting for water to boil. Not my finest moment!

Mini cupcakes are deceiving. “Oh they’re small. I’ll only have one. But wait, that was only one bite. Now, I want another one…. I’ll have one more.” This continues until your laying on the couch, in a chocolate coma, hating yourself for eating a whole cake… “But they were mini, dammit!”

My advice, proceed with caution. Don’t make this recipe when you’re home alone, depressed, lonely, or in any mood that would encourage the consummation of large amounts of sweets. I do not want anyone mad at me because they ate a whole cake.

The girls in my Barley Dolls group loved these. Girls loving something made of chocolate? Who would have thought?

Huck also requested these for his birthday in 2 weeks. He wants full size cupcakes, so a full size cookie fits on top. Hey, it’s his birthday. Who am I to complain?

I used Breckenridge Brewery’s Vanilla Porter for this recipe. The beer has a very strong Vanilla favor. Maybe too much vanilla, for my liking, but perfect for desserts. I recently used this beer for Vanilla Porter Chocolate Dipped Waffle Cones, and I have a few more ideas. I’m going Vanilla Porter crazy! I cheated with this recipe and used a box cake mix. I used the Vanilla Porter instead of Water in my recipe. If you’re worried the beer flavor will be to strong, you can use a mixture of half beer and half water.

What is your Holy Trinity?

Vanilla Porter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1 box Chocolate Cake Mix
  • Stout or Porter
  • 1/2 cup Mini Chocolate Chips
  • 1 jar Cream Cheese Icing
  • 1/8 cup Stout or Porter Beer
  • Mini Cookies (I used Mini Chips Ahoy)
  • 1/8 cup Chocolate Chips (Chopped)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Follow directions on back of cake mix box for combining ingredients. Substitute the Water for Beer. (All Boxed Cake mixes are different. The box mix I used, called for Eggs, Oil, and Water. The Vanilla Beer I used did not have a strong beer flavor. If you're worried the beer will be to strong, try using 1/2 water 1/2 beer.)
Add Chocolate Chips and fully combined.
Fill cupcake liners with batter 3/4 of the way full.
Bake for 10 minutes (for mini cupcakes) or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted to the center.
Allow cupcakes to completely cool.
Combined Beer and Icing. Add to pipping bag and cover each cupcake as desired.
Sprinkle each cupcake with chocolate and add mini cookie. Crush extra cookies and sprinkle over the top if desired.
ENJOY!
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11/10/13

Maduro Homebrew Competition

Sunday, Huck and I attended the Maduro Homebrew Competition at Bx Beer Depot. Maduro is a popular Brown Ale brewed by Cigar City. The requirements for the competition: submit one traditional brown and one altered brown ale.

A few weeks ago, Huck brewed a basic Brown Ale. Once fermentation was complete, he bottled half the brown. I wanted to make a Cinnabon beer. I mixed together Cinnamon, Vanilla, and almond extract. We had no idea how much to add to each bottle, and we winged it. I used 1CC (I used a kitchen syringe) in each bottle. We did half of the leftover beer as the Cinnabon and the other half as Vanilla Coffee.

Huck tried the beers a couple of nights ago and didn’t like them. He actually poured them out. I personally thought they were fine. He gave them to a few of his beer buddies who all agreed it was to style.

When we woke up this morning, he still wasn’t sure if he wanted to enter the beer. He packed them up but told me he still wasn’t sure he’d enter them.

See, this competition was a little different than other beer competition we’ve attended. This was judged by actually brewers. Local Florida Brewers. People Huck idealizes.

The judges included Fran from Tequesta Brewing Company (I’ve known Fran for a while from our regular trips to TBC), Mike from Due South (I met Mike a few weeks ago at our Barley Doll meet-up.)

And Wayne, the head brewer at Cigar City Brewery in Tampa. Cigar City is highly regarded in the craft beer world.

I can understand why he was nervous. We arrived to Bx Beer Depot around 11:30 and Huck turned in his beer. Still thinking it sucked. We entered the Brown Ale and Coffee Vanilla Brown.

The guys judged the beers while we handed out Huck’s AMAZING IPA for the open, peoples choice, category.

Greg and Karl were there today with a Black IPA and a Pumpkin Porter, too.

Holly and I spent most of the day handing out beer while the boys socialized. They like making us do all the work ;)

And then it was time to reveal the winner of the Maduro Brown Competition. Huck had walked next door to grab a sandwich. I called him to hurry back. They called the first place winner right when he was walking in…

My husband won first place!

I think he was in shock. His “crappy beer” won. Wayne from Cigar City told him it was spot on and the best one to style.

We had to make more room around our station for his head!

I was so proud of him. He had the biggest smile on his face the rest of the day.

He won some cash, a Cigar City t-shirt, and a bottle Honey Boo Boo. Now we have two, and we didn’t have to travel across the state to get it!

We hung out until 4PM, and headed home. I had a mountain of laundry to do. I didn’t actually do any of that laundry through. I sat on the couch and didn’t move until it was time for bed. Entertaining a 3 year old all week was hard work.

I’ll be back this week with a recipe. I PROMISE!!

11/6/13

Mack’s First Beer Event Hosted By Greg

Tuesday night, Huck and I attended a Beer and Food pairing at 3rd & 3rd hosted by our good friend, Greg. Greg provided 3 of his signature homebrews, and the chefs at 3rd & 3rd used the beer to make 3 different small plates.

Since Mary and Mackenzie are in town, we checked with Greg to see if it was OK to bring them along. Once we arrived, we decided it was probably a bad idea. She quickly made a new friend, though. And the hostess was great and found us paper and pens for them to use.

Shortly after we arrived, Greg introduced his first beer, an IPA. The beer was used to steam mussels and everything was served over fries. I’ve actually tried steaming mussels in beer before, but the beer flavor was too overpowering. These were perfect!

The fries at the bottom were my favorite. They were soaking in the broth and delicious.

{Please excuse the shitty pictures!!}

Next up was Greg’s famous Black IPA. It was paired with Porchetta.

This one was GOOD. The pork was tender and the Black IPA gravy was interesting. The only problem, it was too small!!!

The last plate was dessert. It was a Chocolate Bread Pudding made with Greg’s Stout. I forgot to take a picture. It didn’t look very pretty but tasted great. Very rich but perfect for sharing.

Greg introduced each beer, talked about the style, and gave a little history behind the name. I’m so proud of Greg.

I’ll be back later with more adventures with Mack and Mary.

11/4/13

One Year Anniversary

Sunday was our one year anniversary. I can’t believe its been one whole year since our wedding. I can’t believe we’ve been together for almost 6 years either! 6 years!? It’s crazy.

Our weekend started bright and early Saturday with a bike ride at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. I only managed to do one full lap. Riding my bike reminds me how out of shape I am. I get very frustrated with myself and then I start doing worse. I just need to keep working at it, and maybe one day, I can complete 3 laps without dying!

After riding our bikes, we hurried home and and got ready for the Florida Brewers Guild Beer Festival. We were asked to help serve beer for Bx Beer Depot.

This was the first year for the Beer Festival, and the turn out was small. For the people that attended the event, it was perfect. You didn’t have to wait in long lines for beer. I enjoyed it because we were able to interact with people longer, and I was able to promote The Barley Dolls more!

It also allowed us to sample more beer. Funky Buddha’s No Crusts was AMAZING! It tasted just like peanut butter and jelly!

This festival was only Florida Brewers. About 30 brewers attended the event. I was really surprised with how many brewers we have in Florida. We’re moving up in the craft beer world.

After the Brewers Guild, we went to the Improv. The comedians had me in tears multiple times!

It was definitely an action packed day.

One Year Wedding Anniversary

Sunday, we were up bright and early. I was getting ready when Huck handed me a box wrapped in magazine pages. I thought our mountain bikes were our anniversary gift to each other. I did NOTHING for him. I felt so bad.

When I opened it, I felt a million times worse.

Huck bought me a new lens for my camera. I didn’t even make him a card, and after I seen my new camera lens, a card seemed to fail in comparison. I usually make Huck something for special days, and I feel like I really dropped the ball this time.

After we finished getting ready, we had breakfast at Berry Fresh. We split a giant Cinnamon Roll and the MexiCali Hash. Their serving are HUGE!

Yes! This is a half order!!

After breakfast, and did some shopping. Huck’s mom and niece came into town Sunday. They’re staying with us all week.

We walked around the toy section for a long time trying to find Mack some toys. We don’t get to spoil her very often. We bought a small doll house, Playdough, Bubbles, Coloring Books and Crayons, beach stuff and a kite. That should be enough to keep a 3 year old entertain for the week, right?

They arrived around 3PM, and we headed to the beach.

Mackenzie and Huck had a great time!

She wasn’t happy when it was time to go.

After they went to bed Sunday night, Huck and I enjoyed a beer from our wedding. Huck and his buddies brewed a Pumpkin Porter a few weeks before the wedding and we handed them out as wedding favors. Most people eat one year old cake, we enjoyed year old beer… Much better!

We tried the beer against this years Pumpkin Porter. We drank our beers out of the glasses Gump gave us as a wedding gift. It’s the Mr. and Mrs. Hucklebuck Brewing goats his buddy drew for him.

We enjoyed our beers on the balcony while looking at our wedding album. We reminisced about our wedding day and the crazy year we’ve had.

It was an interesting first year of marriage. We’ve traveled more this year than any year we’ve been together. We worked together without killing each other, and we realized that not working together sucks. We’re reminded how much we mean to each other. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this man is my world.

I’ll leave you with my Facebook status from Sunday:

Happy 1 year anniversary to the man that makes me laugh, loves me almost as much as I love him , and spoils me way more than I deserve. He’s my partner in crime, my best friend for life, and the one that makes my life complete. You are my whole world, and meeting you was the best thing that’s ever happen to me! Packaged deal for life!

11/1/13

Can you Save Me Money On My Car Insurance?

Zombie Pub Crawl

Huck and I attended the Second Annual Zombie Pub Crawl on Friday night. If you remember last year we had an hours’ notice to figure out what to wear and get Downtown. It was also the week before our wedding, and I was not about to put anything crazy on my face. Huck, on the other hand, rubbed red food coloring all over his. Not the smartest move. As you may know, red food coloring stains, and takes about 4 days to wash off.

This year we had more time to get ready. Thanks to Pinterest and YouTube, I learned how to do some awesome wounds. I practiced earlier in the week, so when I got off work Friday, I’d know what to do and what I needed.

This method was super easy. I coated my skin with Elmer’s glue, added layers of torn toilet paper, and covered with more glue. I let it dry for 15-20 minutes and applied liquid foundation and powder to cover the white and blend with my skin color. I was actually going to buy a lighter/paler shade of makeup, but was very upset to learn, that’s what I was already had.

I peeled a few pieces of the TP up for texture, added some black and brown eye shadow and added fake blood GEL! The gel worked better than any other fake blood I purchased.

For the claw marks on my left arm, I rolled up pieces of TP and glued them to my arm. Then, I followed the same steps.

The whole process was super easy and cheap!

And I think the end product turned out pretty darn good. From a distance and in pictures, they look real. My Grandmother commented, on a Facebook picture saying, my bike was dangerous, and I should pick a new hobby. She’s so funny!

Tony’s costume, again, was awesome!

This girl was in full character all night! She was creepy!!

We ended the night on the roof top at Roxy. Little Carlos had a blast :)

Halloween

Huck and I picked out our costumes for Halloween weeks ago. I found a picture of a couple dressed as Flo and Mayhem and thought it was the perfect for us. We’re both insurance adjusters and work for competing companies. I actually wore part of my costume to work on Halloween.

Halloween night, we dressed up in our full costumes and helped hand out candy at our friend’s house. We bought Huck’s suit at Goodwill for less than $10. I think he looked great and we looked really good together.

I couldn’t believe how many little kids came up and said “Hi Flo!”, “You’re Flo from the commercial”, and “Can you save me money on my car insurance?” KIDS were asking me this!

Someone told me it’s because I have the same skin tone as Flo and I was wearing the bright red lip stick. Maybe I can get a job as a Flo prodigy…

I thought Huck looked great as Mayhem!

Karl and Holly were nice enough to have us over, cooked us a great meal, and let us help hand out candy at their house.  

Does anyone else dress up for Halloween. We’ve dressed up every year since we met. This was the first year we didn’t dress the yahoo’s up. Ginny makes the cutest Fat Pumpkin. He doesn’t enjoy it that much, though.

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