Baking soda can expire.

I’m torn. 

As a rule, warm beer is a no brainer in terms of what I will and will not go out of my way to drink.   Enter Buttered Beere.   It looks festive, could it be warm and seasonal?  Eggnogal?

Via 12 Bottle Bar:

Adapted from ‘The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin’ (1588)

3 pint (16.9 oz) Bottles of real Ale
0.5 tsp ground Cloves
0.5 tsp ground Cinnamon
0.25 tsp ground Ginger
5 Egg Yolks
1 Cup Brown Sugar (Demerara)
12 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

Add ale and spices to a saucepan
Bring to a boil, then immediately turn to lowest setting
Beat together eggs and sugar until light and creamy
Remove ale from heat, whisk in egg mixture, returning to low heat
Whisk constantly over low until mixture begins to thicken slightly (about 5 minutes)
Remove from heat and whisk in butter quickly until a nice foam forms
Serve warm

Notes: If you’re concerned about the alcohol level, here are some notes:  We used Fuller’s London Pride, which is 4.7% ABV.  Before adding the egg mixture, letting the beer simmer longer (20 minutes or so) should boil off all the alcohol, if that’s what you’re after.  Use your discretion.

This past month I stumbled upon a group of girls who, like me, are new to Kentucky and, also like me, have few to no friends.  So by default we’ve started hanging out together and, I think to make things feel more official, someone decided it would be a good idea to start a Book* Club.  (We don’t really read books…usually just drink.  And sometimes read an article.)

For last week’s Book* Club meeting I decided it would be a great idea to make these Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies that I found on Orangette (thanks to Vanessa), adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce.    Changes I made included:

• All white sugar (we didn’t have any brown sugar…I was told that if there was vanilla in the recipe, it shouldn’t make that much of a difference.)

That’s pretty much it.  I used cold butter and chilled the dough before baking.  According to the reviews, these cookies are AH-MAY-ZING.   The first batch came out…eh.  OK.  Really crunchy.  Not awesome.   The second batch I burned (Paul ate all of them anyway.)  So, in a nutshell…fail.

I don’t know why they weren’t as delicious as everyone else seemed to think they were…but I’m pretty sure it was my fault.   Plus, I forgot to bring them to Book* Club, so odds are I’ll be giving them another chance soon.

I got this recipe from an old coworker, who got it from another coworker, who got it from his mother.  It came out gooey and heavy and good.  (Let it sit for a few hours before you cut it.)  I feel bad posting the whole recipe online for the world to see (the world being the one…yes, literally, I have one…subscriber to this blog), but I’m going to.  Because things this good should be shared with the world.  Just be sure to credit Mama G when you make it.

INGREDIENTS:

1&3/4 cups of flour                                                     GLAZE

1 tsp baking soda                                                 ½  cup powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon                                                     1 tablespoon milk

½ tsp salt                                                               1/8 tsp nutmeg

½ tsp nutmeg                                                         1/8 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ginger

¼ tsp ground cloves

½ cup margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup pumpkin  (approx. ½ of a 15 oz. can)

¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease & flour 9×5 loaf pan.  Combine dry ingredients.  Cream margarine and sugar; blend in eggs.  Add dry ingredients alternately with pumpkin, beginning & ending with dry ingredients.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Bake 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool 5 minutes.  Remove from pan.  After cooled, drizzle on glaze.  Let stand 6 hrs. before slicing.

Last night in our fridge we had: turkey bacon, cheese, and 2 eggs.  We also had some garlic and a bag of tortellini in the cupboard.  Paul is a master at finding or creating recipes using whatever we have around.  And this night he came up with  Tyler Florence’s Spaghetti alla Carbonara (or some variation of it…Tyler Florence is Paul’s go-to online chef.)   Changes to the recipe include:

• Turkey bacon torn into pieces (unfortunately it doesn’t really crumble) instead of pancetta
• One egg instead of 2
• Tortellini instead of spaghetti
• No parsley
• A little less cheese
• Add a side of cauliflower and broccoli

Voila.  It was actually really, really good.  Quick, easy to make, and delicious.  Nice work Paul.

Monday

• BBQ sandwiches

I can’t take credit for this one really, Paul came up with a recipe and it rocked. Instructions (straight from Paul):

1. get crock pot
2. get pork tenderloin
3. put pork tenderloin, some onion, garlic and bbq sauce in crock pot
4. cook for 6-8 hours on low

Scrumptious.

Tuesday

I had a meeting that ran until 7:30pm, so left over barbque sandwiches it was.

Wednesday

• Arroz con pollo

I stole this recipe from my friend Vanessa (and her friend Samantha’s) blog (located on my blogroll).  Paul was kind enough to go pick up some ingredients for me, which resulted in a few changes to the recipe:

• Brown instant rice instead of white regular rice
• Linenkugel’s Oktoberfest beer instead of Stone Pale Ale (I asked him to get KentuckyAle, but that somehow got lost in translation)
• 1 cup chicken stock, 2 cups beef broth (instead of chicken broth…misunderstanding, these were all left over from previous recipes, Paul thought we had a lot of chicken broth, but we didn’t)
• Chicken breasts instead of chicken legs
• Low sodium tomato sauce (didn’t matter at all, there were so many other spices in there)

Turned out pretty good, as Paul will attest to.  Lots of leftovers.

Thursday

A pretty good, apparently French salad

Changes included using turkey bacon, no croutons, and a little less swiss cheese than recommended.   Also a delicious chicken noodle soup…from the can.  And some fresh potato rosemary bread from the bakery.

Heading out of town to Michigan again this weekend for a football game with an old coworker from California, so…

Friday

…will probably be Taco Bell on the road.  Yum.

We’ll fire up the stove again on Monday.

Go Blue.