Alligator & Alligash

I'm a little disappointed in myself for not posting this sooner.

Jami and I met my Dad in Blue Island at the Maple Tree Inn where my friend Katie Orr planned an incredible lineup of three Alligator dishes paired with three awesome Allagash beers!

This Alligator & Allagash Beer Dinner was one of the most delicious meals I've ever had!

Katie started us off with their famous "Swamp" Alligator Soup along with an Allagash White

Next was a fried alligator po' boy with cajun fries paired with an Allagash Tripel

I know this isn't how you eat a po' boy, but I wanted it to last. I was savoring every bite.

Finishing off we had an Alligator & Andouille Sauce Piquante paired with Allagash Black

I finished up the night with some blueprints for a new house at the lake paired with an Allagash Interlude.

There's nothing coincidental about that now, is there?

interlude: Noun (plural: interludes)

1. An intervening episode, etc.
2. An entertainment between the acts of a play.

Museum Day! (Part 2)

Always a favorite at the museum is the U-505 exhibit. While I was growing up, you could walk through the submarine, but the boat itself was outside the building. You could only see parts of the exterior from hallway windows inside the museum.

Thanks to the renovations started in 1998, visitors have been able to get up close and personal with the entire vessel since 2005.

Being that it was November, we took advantage of the museum gift shop to pick up some Christmas gifts for my niece and nephew, Lily and Ben. These two shirts were fun, but didn't actually make the cut. They got noisy toys instead!

Museum Day! (Part 1)

Back in late November, Jami and I took advantage of a rare day off at the same time and set off to see the neighborhood! I hadn't been to the museum in a very long time; certainly not with Jami.

This place looks awesome since they decided to bring their larger collection pieces inside the museum. to be a bit more accurate, they built new exhibit rooms around the larger collection pieces.

What? Who's quirky?

Part of the inspiration for heading over to the museum was for the navy exhibit. Jami is pursuing a commission as a Naval Emergency Medicine Physician, and I had exchanged several messages with some buddies from the USS VINCENNES. I wanted to add this photo to the collection on the facebook page that one of my Vinny buddies started for veterans of that ship.

You know you're an engineer when...

It's a habit of engineer ratings in the navy; the yellow boxes mounted on overheads and bulkheads in ships are called: battle lanterns. They're like the emergency lights in fire escape stairwells: they're supposed to light up when the power goes out. There's a little button on the top to make sure that the battery works.

I know... it was only an exhibit; I didn't really expect it to work.

Forbidden fruit .....juice?

Having caught the homebrew fever, it's only natural that I'd try making a hard cider, even if it's only because of my fondness for cider from Wick's.

Wick's Apple House is a staple of my childhood and summers at the lake. Just a few miles from Round Lake, we headed over for doughnuts after church in the summer or for fresh, 100% apple 'squeezin's.'

This fall, I picked up five gallons of cider and brought it home to experiment with in my 'big-kids chemistry set.' A.K.A: Homebrew Equipment.

I don't plan to go into my recipe, largely because I haven't bottled/conditioned/tasted the final product yet, and because I want to keep it to myself for awhile.

After just two weeks, the alcohol content measured 11.8% by volume! Here it is all cloudy and brown, on the left, when the experiment was just getting started:

About eight weeks after initially pitching the yeast, the cider has already begun to clear out nicely:

Naturally, I collected another sample and saved it for tasting. Sean, Jami, and I were all pleasantly surprised (especially Sean) with this taste:
.

...and for those of you who are curoius, the ABV is just under 12%. Most of the fermentation did take place in those first two weeks.

Fallen off the Blaggon

So it's been two months since I've posted to my blog; so what? That should mean I have a wealth of material, right? Certainly so!

This is the photo from the invitation for"A brew or two, a brew or two, a brew or two, or three, or four!"

Back in October I had brewed up two batches of beer in two weeks. Jami decided that if I was going to be brewing on such a rapid schedule that I had to make room for more on a similar schedule. Since she and I really couldn't drink five gallons of beer a week and still keep our jobs, we decided that our own "Beer Tasting" was in order.

I brewed up an American Brown Ale from Perfect Brewing Supply in Libertyville and bottled that. Then I brewed up an IPA and used a Corny Keg as the secondary fermenter and served that straight from the keg. I suspect that racking to the keg was the key factor in why my IPA tasted more like a Belgian Ale. It wasn't bad, it was very interesting and well received. I'm just upset because it didn't turn out like i expected and I'm not sure I could, or would want to, re-create the brew.

If there could be a bad side to a beer party, it was having so much beer left over! This is my own fault too; in the invite for the party I gave those who might be afraid of homebrewed beer the option to bring a sample of their own favorite beer to drink and share. Of course everyone exercised this option and my home brewing pals brought samples of their beer as well as their favorites from other breweries.

Needless to say, we had plenty of tasty options.

So many options in fact, that we didn't have room in the fridge for leftover food - we filled it with leftover beers!

Also, I'd hate to forget mentioning the cider that Jeff brought over; he and I had very similar ideas for samples of Wick's Apple Cider. He brought over a nice spiced hard cider in a growler ...that I need to return soon!

Jami and I couldn't bring ourselves to dump the Belgian IPA, but once that was gone I was able to put the fridge back into some kind of order; it still took us a while to clear out these leftovers!

Pandora for my belly!!

WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!

Do yourself a favor and head over to: www.beerchooser.com and create yourself an account! I spent roughly two minutes searching for and rating just a few of my favorite brews. I then checked the recommendations page and there they were! More of my favorite beers! ...I have since gone through and rated more beers and am now left with things to try on the recommendations page.

They've also set up a mobile page too, so you can geek out AT THE PUB as well!

Brewer's Festival!

So last weekend we headed up to Bridgman Michigan for the Weko Beach Brewer's Festival. The breweries that showcased their beers were:

ARCADIA (Battle Creek, MI)
JOLLYPUMPKIN(Ann Arbor[whore!], MI)
The ROUND BARN (Baroda, MI)
BELLS (Kalamazoo, MI)
FOUNDERS (Grand Rapids, MI)
The LIVERY (Benton Harbor, MI)
NORTH PEAK (Traverse City, MI)
NEW HOLLAND (New Holland, MI)
OLD HAT (Lawton, MI)
SAUGATUCK(Saugatuck, MI)
SHORTS (Bellaire, MI)

Needless to say, it was a good day for beer!!

As evidenced in the picture on the left:
A great many local beer "connoisseurs" came out to try all the great beer. Unfortunately, few of the breweries had much faith in the success of the event because most of them ran out of beer before the headlining band ever got on stage. Well, either they had little faith, or they're just too small to have afforded enough beer to support a crowd like this. I do know for sure, though, that Founders did not bring their Breakfast Stout like they said they would.

My quick review of a few beers [my reviews aren't traditional beer reviews - most of my readers are casual beer drinkers - follow the hyperlinks if you want to read a real review]:
ARCADIA's SKY HIGH RYE - It was well presented and had an excellent aroma but tasted sour and thick - like it hadn't finished aging. If it was supposed to taste that way, they may want to call it an Imperial, but it didn't quite have the alcohol content.

FOUNDERS DRY-HOPPED PALE ALE - I was fairly impressed with this dry-hopped bevy. Of course when a brewery touts a dry-hopped beer I expect it to peel the enamel off my teeth; I was surprisingly disappointed that this beer didn't. It was hoppy enough, but not enough to make a big deal about it being dry-hopped.

Luckily for me, with so many breweries packing up early, I was left with several tickets to try many-a-mug of Saugatuck's Singapore IPA (on the right)

The Singapore IPA is named after the legendary Lake Michigan ghost town, not the island nation. This India Pale Ale is a hop-forward American IPA with a refreshing citrus aroma and finish. Ok, so I used the website description for the Singapore IPA, but it was right! and it was delicious!

Another nice thing about the Suagatuck Brewery, they offer an opportunity to BREW YOUR OWN BEER! Sure, the Homebrewers reading this will ask: "Why pay these guys when I can do it in my own kitchen?" - and that's a great point... but the non-homebrewers reading this can get a hands-on opportunity to make their own beer without a mess to clean up or a cabinet of equipment to get rid of if they decide brewing is not for them. Click on the link to learn more about brewing your own at Saugatuck.

What a glorious evening!

Ok, so put aside the chest freezer I picked up for $40 - there will be enough posts about that in the near future. While driving back from St. Charles IL - the boonies - with the $40 chest freezer (more than 2x as valuable than a $20 jean skirt) Sean and I spotted a large stainless-steel drum in the front window of a building on State St. in Geneva. The place was called Stockholm's and offered a decent selection of beer. Their Oktoberfest left a bit to be desired - it wasn't very easy drinking, despite having little flavor. Their porter, on the other hand, was a different story. That went great with a bacon cheeseburger w/ mushrooms, Swiss, and grilled onions."MmmmmmmMMh! That IS a tasty burger!"

Look at that spread!

Who doesn't like bacon?

In their mac-n-cheese!?

Being completely obsessed with beer lately, I went down to Munster, IN a few weeks ago and took the Three Floyd's brewery tour. After the tour, I stayed for some tasty beverages and treated myself to their awesome macaroni and cheese. ...and I've been plotting my own attempt ever since.

Seeing as this was my first attempt at making this iconic dish "outside the box" I first took a look at Allrecipes.com and started with their basic instructions and ran off on my own.(I'll definitely use different cheeses next time) I started with:

12oz uncooked egg noodles
2 cups finely shredded, fresh parmesan
1/2 cup finely shredded pepper jack
1/2 cup finely shredded sharp cheddar
3 cups of milk
3/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
oregano
allspice
parsley flakes
1lb of extra thick sliced, hickory smoked bacon

Prepare the noodles as recommended on the package; you can set them aside until everything else is ready.

First, I got the bacon started in one pan. I keep the heat low, and cook the entire pound all at once (use a large enough pan). Cooking bacon like this lets you control the heat for the whole batch, you simply rotate the strips as they start to sizzle. This way, when bacon reaches it's critical cooking point, it goes from uncooked to cooked; instead of uncooked to burnt. For this dish you want the bacon to be firm, but not crispy so that it crumbles.

Next I started by making a roux in a saucepan by melting the butter, and stirring in the flour. I stirred that for a while over low heat to make sure the flour-y taste cooked away. Then I added some spices (no real measurement here) to give some color and aroma to the roux. As the roux thickened, I chopped up the bacon and added it to the saucepan:Add the milk slowly, stirring it as it thickens. Here, I added some more spices because I didn't put in enough the first time (just don't over do it). Finally, add the cheeses and stir until they're melted and the sauce thickens a bit.

Now, I wouldn't be me if I didn't just decide to pour some of my beer into the cheese sauce, would I? (I've been brewing several brown ales, so I'm drink other brown ales to compare them against) Today I've got some Dirty Helen brown ale from Barley Island brewery; Noblesville, IN.

Finally, combine the noodles and cheese sauce in a casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees F for thirty minutes. Serve.

I have to say, I'm impressed that it came out as well as it did. Admittedly, I used three fairly bland cheeses, and the cheese flavor could use some extra kick. The parmesan made the sauce dry out pretty quickly. All in all, it was a tasty dish. I'll thank the bacon for that.

Now that's what I call recycling!

Bottling Day!! ...ok, so really, it's not exciting. It's a pain in the butt.

I'm a bit neurotic when it comes to cleaning my bottles; but that's necessary if you don't want your beer to spoil; that's one of many good habits I learned from Happy Mike when I brewed with him in Yokosuka, many years ago. If that's any sort of sign, I'm gonna be producing some great beer with a little more practice.

To help ensure that I get everything out of the bottle, I fill them with water and put them into my brew kettle to warm them up. I don't usually put much soap in the bottle because I brush them, and then rinse using a sterilizing solution. If the bottles weren't rinsed well once they became empty they develop a crusty film inside. Warming them up really gets any gunk loose from the bottom of the bottle.

My kitchen sometimes gets a little overwhelmed with bottles on days like this.

Now I transfer the un-carbonated beer from the secondary fermenter into the bottling bucket to mix with priming sugar. Priming sugar doesn't generate any more alcohol but it does activate the yeast again to produce carbon dioxide which, once trapped in the bottle when capped, will pressurize and carbonate the beer.


I neglected to take any pictures while I was bottling, I was a bit busy filling and capping.
Nonetheless, I have a cabinet full of bottles that will be ready to drink somewhere between one and two weeks!

Preaching to the choir

I couldn't be satisfied with just being obsessed with beer myself, I have to build a following. Not that it was hard to do; Sean was already a beerfan.

So to prod him into the hobby, I brought my kit over to his house last week and brewed a batch of beer with him. ...I managed to do most of the work, but that's not a complaint. I made the beer, he made the stew. I'd call that a fair trade (especially since the beer won't be ready to drink for a few weeks).

To satisfy our thirst for beer, I picked up a few bottles for us to ease our impatience while we transferred our batch from primary to secondary fermentation.

There's BEER a brewin'!

There's BEER a brewin'!

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I'm a big fan of beer. Making (and enjoying) your own beer at home requires a great deal of patience, but it is immensely gratifying.
This is an American Brown Ale that will finish primary fermentation in ten days, after which it will sit for two more weeks while the remainder of the sediment clears. Then, I'll leave it condition in bottles for another two weeks. I did say that it takes a great deal of patience.

More ships...

If you would have told me, 18 months ago, that I'd be making wedding preparations now I would have pointed and laughed at you. ...now you'd be laughing at me.

Jami and I have chosen as the venue for our wedding ceremony (and reception) the Savannah Georgia Ships of the Sea Museum.



I may only be a Yankee, but that doesn't stop me from being fascinated with history.

Tall Ships

I can't think of a better way to satisfy one of my greatest curiosities: The Chicago Tall Ships Festival. My brother and I met our Dad down at Navy Pier and spent the afternoon wandering amongst the rigging.

Tall Ships Chicago 2010