Big Brew Beer Fest

Went to the Big Brew Beer Fest at the Morristown Armory yesterday.  Actually took public transport!!  (the Angie would be proud) Took a train and then a shuttle bus!!

Forgot all about the pretzel necklace thing - but fortunately there was a table with Food Bloggers that was giving away pretzel necklaces if you liked them on Twitter or Facebook.

I got my picture taken with the Horny Goat!

There was a guy there with a Revolution Brewing t-shirt like mine so yes, I gave a high-five!  We chatted with Chris, the ciccerone from Hot Rods, bought some meat sticks and Jerky to send to the Angie from Mr & Mrs Jerky (also walked around with their stickers on!  The chocolate covered bacon guy wasn't there (sadness) but there was a lady selling

bacon jam (win!) Had a great Guiness cake treat from A Cake and  A Jar - they build on 2 mini cupcakes in a jar. Very Cute. Shared a pork mac n cheese from Morris Tap and Grill with Curt- so yummy!



Discovered some really interesting cherry ciders one was way too sweet, but it's been forever since I've had soda so it might have been me.  There was a competition BBQ booth, and I decided to split an order of bacon wrapped meatballs with Curt.  There was a choice of regular and spicy.  Now, in my defense usually "spicy" really isn't.  Also in my defense, Curt didn't say no, get regular. 

I thought they were really good, actually had a nice kick, good flavours underneath, bacon not overcooked. I ate mine in 3 bites.  Curt popped the whole thing in his mouth  Curt's head just about exploded!  (and there is no milk at a beer fest, I don't think milk stout would work - alcohol usually just spreads the burn) I gave him my two pack of raspberry fig bars- it was a close to bread as I could figure.  I bought some fried cheese curds, but apparently temperature hot is not good when your head is on fire.  He even used his inhaler. It was scary, but now that it's over it's funny. 



I've decided that this guy had the funniest shirt at the fest.

 I also bought a cool license plate plaque, I'll post another day- don't know where Curt has it.

Dessert for my Valentine

I had to work the three days before Valentine's Day, and the day itself, but I still wanted to make Curt a yummy decadent dessert.  So, I cheated a little and combined some stuff from Rachael Ray and Michael Symon.  Symon had made a chocolate cheesecake covered with dark chocolate ganache and topped with bourbon cherries.  Curt however, doesn't like cheesecake ( I know!!! wtf??) Ray had a long time ago, made a cake where she substituted beer for water and added cinnamon and nutmeg.  SO here's what I used:

Duncan Hines Perfect size chocolate cake mix (comes with it's own easy release pan) 
butter (amount from box)
1 tbsp cinnamon
about 1 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
6 tbsp Yards Chocolate Love Stout
1 egg

I followed the directions on the box and cooled overnight. For the ganache I heated the cream and sugar, then added the chopped chocolate and stirred until it started to get thick, poured it over the cake and "pushed" some over the edges to get the sides.


 
1/2 cup heavy cream
bar of 86% and one of 72% dark chocolate rough chopped to one cup
1 tbsp coconut sugar






After dinner I put all this in a heavy sauce pot and stirred occasionally until thick and saucy:
2 cup frozen dark cherries
1 tbsp coconut sugar
1 cinnamon stick
juice of 1/2 and peel of 1 lemon (pulled the peels out  once done)
1 tbsp cornstarch
1tsp real vanilla extract
2 tbsp water
1/4 cup Knob Creek bourbon 

Poured sauce still warm over slice of cake.... cannot even begin to describe how good this was!

 
 

Mardi Gras Menu at Hot Rods.

Was enough to draw the Angie home on Friday night...

Crawfish.... (Curt had catfish.. which I love, but crawfish..)  and mac n cheese, bit spicy, with sausage and shrimp.

I had a flight with dinner - one of the more interesting beers I've had was Death by Coconut Porter.. very, very coconut.

I mixed some with Yard's Love Stout... OMG like drinking a Mounds Bar!!  Who needs dessert??

 

Two books I can't say I read cover to cover

Colorful Crochet Lace.  I got the book from the new arrivals list from the library. There are a lot of gorgeous garments in this book.  I don't have the crochet skills to pull them off, it would take me forever to crochet 100yds of yarn, and reading lace charts is confusing to me.  I liked one of the bags, but I seem to have gone to making a new felted bag every year to not really using handbags in general, so that won't happen either.




I got this book from the library also, for Curt and I to flip through to see potential stops in our travels.  I wrote some of them down - didn't know River Horse had moved.. good to look at before a road trip!

Three guesses where Curt and I went the other night...

and the first two don't count!

Did ya guess??? 

Anyway- after what has seemed like FOREVER on the coming soon menu - burnt end pizza is finally on the menu!!  Guess what this girl is having for lunch on her birthday????