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Okbrewer

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Everything posted by Okbrewer

  1. I did alright even after telling everyone I didn't need anything! Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating Microplane grater (fine) OXO potato (vegetable) masher an assortment of bags for my Foodsaver a few bottles of wine and AH Hirsch Reserve 16 year bourbon!
  2. Okbrewer

    Good Keg Beer

    I see from your member ID info that you are most active in Pacific NW and Alaska forums. From where exactly will the keg be purchased? If you are indeed in the NW, you have a wealth of options available from area microbreweries and brewpubs. Let us know your location and we will be able to make better suggestions.
  3. OOOH! I almost forgot! I like to dunk buttered toast into hot chocolate! Makes the toast taste so good and the butter leaves a little oil slick on the hot chocolate!
  4. LOL!! Just finished with our office Holiday pot luck! First off, we had a lot of food! With only a few exceptions, most offerings were store bought! Pies and cheesecakes from Sam's, dinner rolls from Albertson's, and veggie trays from Homeland. Even our manager and assistant, who both make big bucks, and who were supposed to be bringing a turkey and fixin's, brought a large box (50 pieces?) of fried chicken! And plopped the box on the nicely decorated serving table, price tag and all! There were some who spent some time in the home kitchen. Home made chicken and dumplings and a red velvet cake were good. The ubiquitous cool whip fruit salad with marshmellows made it's annual appearance, as well as the popular green bean casserole with canned fried onions. A healthy portion of fresh black eyed peas with ham was made by a co-worker who has a sizable garden. The person responsible for bringing drinks brought 3 liter bottles of soft drinks, but no cups to pour into! And what did I take, you ask!? Well, because of all the interest here, (and because I was too busy last night to make much more!) I decided to go with the smoked weenies! I found a store with a shelf-full of the Chili sauce, and blended that not with grape jelly or black currant jelly, but with my home made jalapeno jelly! Sauted some onions first, then added the jelly and chili sauce, simmered a bit and then added the li'l weenies! Served up a crock pot full of the things and there are none that remain! Even got several compliments on them! LOL! Just goes to show ya... Anyway, too much food, and store bought or not it was all pretty good.
  5. My daughter (13) has always loved mushrooms! She especially likes them on pizza and sauteed as a side to a medium rare steak! She has enjoyed mushrooms since she was very young, I can't remember her not liking them. She also has a strong affinity for mussels! She'll eat steamed clams but prefers mussels. I like the fact that she will try just about anything, and if she doesn't like it, she attempts to explain why it isn't to her taste.
  6. I'm in the same situation right now, in fact the "sign-up" sheet has been on my desk for two days! Our pot luck is next week. I usually try to bring something that people recognize and can relate to, familiar fare. But then we often end up with 5 versions of green bean or hash brown casseroles! I'm leaning toward desserts, like a pecan pie or sweet potato pie or maybe individual tarts. People always appreciate dessert!
  7. Hi, I'm Bob, and I'm a dunker. I dunk or dip many things into other things. I'm even teaching my daughter the proper ways to dunk various food items. Like: all kinds of cookies (especially Oreos and chocolate chips) have to be dunked either in milk or coffee pretzel sticks in vanilla ice cream, or better yet Teaberry ice cream! my mom's buttermilk chocolate cake is always, always consumed by dunking a fork full into a cup of milk TastyKakes have to be dunked sandwiches in soup, especially grilled cheese in tomato Fritos Scoops are made to be dipped! Do it! Dip em in tuna salad, cottage cheese, and chili especially, who needs a spoon!? cornbread in beans or chili fries in cream gravy and the list goes on! There, I feel so much better now that my secret has been revealed.
  8. Okbrewer

    Magic Hat - VT

    How eloquently put. Such a descriptive vocabulary.
  9. If you mention Dogfish Head, then you have to suggest Liquor de Malt!
  10. I like fries with salt only, most of the time, but it depends on what else I am eating. I like ketchup OK, but when having fries with BBQ I dip them in the BBQ sauce or mix the sauce and ketchup together. I like mayo too, for a change of pace. I really like to dip fries in white, cream gravy, the kind you get with chicken fried steak! That's my favorite. With fish and chips I like malt vinegar. The absolute best fries I remember having are the ones you used to get at a fire station carnival, in the paper cone, and drenched in malt vinegar! MMM, good! When in Philly, I always have to get a fix of the crab fries at Chickies and Petes, hot fries with Old Bay seasoning, and a white cheese-like dipping sauce, of course the moules with white or red sauce also help to make it an enjoyable dining experience.
  11. Crisply fried pork strips Grease splattering in the pan My sandwich awaits
  12. Chrisser. One of my most favorite Belgian breweries is De Dolle, and just about anything they make I like! But to satisfy your sweet tooth, and to kinda get in the holiday spirit, you might want to try Stille Nacht. It is caramelly sweet with a subtle, soothing alcohol burn. Or if you fancy something with a bit more of an alcohol bite, their Tripel, Dulle Teve (Mad Bitch) is good. You could also go with the biers from Rochefort. Try the 6, 8, and 10 and do a side-by-side comparison. You will probably like the 10 pretty well! Let us know what you try and how you liked it.
  13. My wife is exactly the same way. She does not like beer, or so she thought, until I introduced her to a Belgian Framboise! Then a Kriek! Then the Peche! Then we moved away from the fruity stuff into more malty sweet beers, and she realized that it was HOPS she didn't much care for (in fact she may even be a bit allergic to hops) and not 'beer' in general. You just have to explore, find something you like and then that may lead to other explorations! Ain't beer grand!? Chrisser! Don't go away mad! You have much to contribute and this is a great place to also learn about beers. Even though we may be beer snobs, we're FUN beer snobs!
  14. Most "non-beer drinkers" or those who think they don't like beer, use as their frame of reference beers like Corona, Bud, Miller, Coors, etal, fizzy light lager beers that have no real taste. With that being the case, introducing them to something that doesn't taste like they expect a beer to taste like, usually is an eye opener. Belgian beers aren't all 'heavy' beers! But, Belgian beers are typically full of flavor and aroma that one doesn't get from a mainstream beer. Many Belgian beers even taste more like wine, and non-beer drinkers often will drink wine when they think they don't like beer. Point is, we all, all of us beer snobs, have to do our part to educate the poor as yet unenlightened masses. Identifiying and introducing them to a 'transitional' beer is the first step. That obviously depends on the individual's personal preferences and on what is available. So get out there and do your part to initiate folks to the wonders of beer, and enough of this in-fighting!
  15. Okbrewer

    I spy...

    It's not even Halloween yet and the winter seasonals are out!? It's the same with Christmas lights and wrapping paper and decorations! We try to rush and hurry through the holidays and get things going earlier each year. The wrapping paper and the lights and stuff infuriates me, the beer, however, now that's a good thing! I'll be on the lookout for some around here!
  16. Favorites: Bread baking, onions sauteeing (especially if fried potatoes are also involved), garlic sweating, bacon frying, roast beef simmering, fresh chocolate chip cookies hot out of the oven, coffee brewing, the aroma of grains mashing to make beer (kinda like malto-meal), cilantro, coriander sizzling in a skillet, curry... and the list goes on! Dislikes: the fake butter in microwave popcorn, burnt microwave popcorn, hard cooked eggs being peeled and chopped to make egg salad, the smell of the automatic oven cleaner, kim chi, an abundance of black pepper, and more I'm sure.
  17. If the house is new, just tell the builder you want the house but not until they replace the cooktop. If it is an older home that has new appliances, in this case the stove, perhaps the owner can go back to where it was purchased and have them replace it with something more to your liking. You could always make that a condition of purchase, put it into the contract that the stove will be replaced, and see how badly they want to sell!
  18. Just as I would never decide to buy a house based solely on the state of the appliances, I would never attempt to gauge one's culinary skills or adeptness in the kitchen based only on the equipment they choose to use. A cooktop can easily be changed out. I would look at the big picture, can I comfortably live in this house, even if it might require making some changes. If it is the kitchen you are most concerned with, does it have good space and layout for the way you cook. I have a fairly large kitchen and I like the layout of the appliances, I have plenty of cabinet space and a good sized prep area. But, the kitchen is all electric. The cooktop is in an island in the middle of the kitchen and running gas to it would be quite expensive. The original cooktop was a JennAir electric coil, vent in the middle thing that I hated. I looked for something to replace it without having to do a major remodel and decided on the Jennair ceramic top. I have had no problems with the ceramic top, I keep it clean by immediately wiping up spills, and harder messes are cleaned up using the cream designed for this purpose. I use a variety of pots and pans, from aluminum to SS to cast iron to enamel, and have not had a problem. One of the burners doesn't seem to come up to temperature as quickly as the others, but I can work around that. Sure, I would like to have a professional, commercial-grade gas cook top, but I don't have one so I make do with what I have. And BTW, I consider myself quite 'handy' in the kitchen.
  19. The best suggestion I can make if you don't particularly like the bitter aspects of beer is to...Go to Belgium! Belgian or Belgian-style beers offer a wide range of flavors and aromas not usually associated with mainstream beers. People who say they don't like beer are apt to be awestruck while enjoying a Belgian Framboise or Kriek or Peche, even more so when introduced to a true lambic or geueze. The fruitiness and tartness of these beers is refreshing and likely to make converts of people who think they don't like beer. Likewise, Belgian Trappist or Abbey ales, especially dubbels and tripels, will have you questioning your reluctance to try beer. Whether you opt for Belgian or Belgian-style beers or English or Scottish or whatever, the key is educating yourself about the flavors, aromas, components and ingredients that you like or dislike. That way you can seek out the flavors and aromas you enjoy and then perhaps learn to appreciate the others along the way. As you suggest, beer and food go great together, and it is fun pairing and exploring beers with foods. Look for Garrett Oliver's "The Brewmaster's Table" for his suggestions on pairing beer and food. Have fun!
  20. Me too: "You are Fabulous Feasts. You don't know much about medieval and Renaissance cooking, but you probably don't care. You'd rather make up a recipe than do research."
  21. I was recently in Salt Lake City, and Squatter's Brewpub offers these things. Kinda Gimmicky to say the least! I believe they come apart for cleaning. They are filled from the tap just like a pint, just takes longer and ya get a lot of foam.
  22. I check everything, not just the eggs. I check the foil lids on yogurt to make sure they aren't punctured, I also look under the plastic lid at the inner seal on things like sour cream, riccotta cheese and cottage cheese, to make sure they haven't been opened. I always check 'best by' dates on milk, eggs, butter, etc. I also closely peruse any produce I buy. My wife hates to shop with me because I take so long!
  23. The Wichita Chapter of The American Institute of Wine & Food is presenting a beer festival October 8-9. See the website for details: www.midwestbeerfest.com
  24. The "James" is what I got. Where did you buy yours? My thinking exactly on the sizing, since I wear a 10.5 I went with the 11, but it seems a bit big. Lemme know how yours fit!
  25. The first meal I cooked for my wife was a week after we met in August of '85. Wanting to show off both my softer, romantic side and my manly-man side, I cooked a nice meal, but on the GRILLL! I grilled steaks and lobster tails, with new potatoes, and a salad. We've been together ever since so I musta done somethin' right! Of course I still fix the majority of our meals, so she got a good deal (and I remind her quite frequently of how lucky she is !)
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