This time last year we were experiencing serious foodie blogger meltdown. I won’t get into it, but we decided to step away for a while. For our sanity and for YOUR safety.

But lately we found our passion again. Ironically it was in a bottle marked BEER. So we decided now would be the perfect time to re-inflict our loquacious banter on you. And cook with beer. Lots and lots of beer. Lucky YOU!

Speaking of February, are you aware that this is American Heart Month? More people die of heart disease then all forms of cancers COMBINED. Heart problems run in my family. I have a heart murmur. My father has (had?) a congenital heart defect. He now has a COW valve attached to his heart which literally changed / saved his life. Have you hugged a cow today to say thank you? Where family medical history plays a part in your own heart health, you can make steps to stave off heart problems. Get active. Stop smoking. Lose weight. Manage stress. EAT BETTER. Now I can’t make you work out or stress less. But I can force you to eat better. Thru the power of tempting photographs like this:

Blackened Salmon with a Light Lemongrass Beer Butter Sauce.

Not a single other fish offers as much omega-3 fatty acids as the over achieving salmon. Omega-3 fatty acids help keep your heart strong and your arteries clear. They also improve your eye sight, strengthen your immune system, may reduce anxiety and has been found helpful in cases of depression. Plus it is damn tasty.

First things first.Gather your ingredients.

For the Salmon:
2 6-8 oz portions wild salmon
blackening seasoning mix (store bought or recipe follows)
2-3 T olive oil

For the Sauce:
1 shallot finely diced
1 T olive oil
1/2 cup American Pale Wheat Beer (drink the rest…)
1 T salt-free butter
2 T fresh parsley – chopped
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt & pepper to taste
optional: splash of cream

Buy yourself some top notch salmon. Wild caught – not farm raised if you can swing it. And coat one side or the fleshy side (not the skin side if your portion came with skin) with your favorite blackening mix.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add 2-3 T olive oil. When the oil has begun to shimmy & dance in the pan,  add your salmon, seasoned side down. Cook for 2-4 minutes – depending on the thickness of your salmon – or pretty much till 1/2 the salmon (from the bottom up) is opaque. Then with the help of your trusty spatula, gently flip the salmon and continue to cook for an additional 4-6 minutes, or until salmon is completely opaque, and when gently flaked a white milky substance runs from it. Remove from pan and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium/low and add in the shallot with a splash of olive oil. Saute’ till loose and translucent.

Add in the beer. (I used a home brew lemon grass wheat beer, but any American Pale Wheat Ale, such as Gumball Head by 3Floyds will work fine). Cook till reduced by 1/3. Add the butter, parsley and the lemon juice. Whisk till butter is melted and the sauce is creamy. You can add the optional splash of cream at this point if you like. Cook for 3-5 minutes till slightly thickened. (Will thicken more as it cools). Salt & pepper to taste.

Spoon sauce over salmon and serve with your choice of fresh roasted vegetables.

Feel good that you are helping your heart stay healthy.

Bonus Blackening Mix Recipe!

Mix together the following:

So I am not going to waste your time rambling about nothing so cutting to the chase and getting to the recipe.

• 3 lb chuck roast
• 2 onions
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• Bottle of good beer. We used a black lager.
• 4 cups of beef stock
• Tablespoon of fresh thyme
• Tablespoon of fresh rosemary
• teaspoon of cayenne (if you are a sissy use less)
• 3-4 bay leaves
• Couple carrots
• Couple really good handfuls of red and yellow potatoes quartered
• 8 ounce package of mushrooms quartered
• Cup of frozen peas
• Bacon

Fire up your dutch oven and throw in the bacon. Remove and set aside once cooked.

Salt and pepper the daylights out of the chuck roast and throw it in the bacon grease to get browned.

While you wait eat the bacon.

Remove the chuck roast and set aside. Add in the onions and cooked until brown over (about 5 minutes)

Add in the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another minute.

Add in the beer, beef stock, bay leaves, cayenne, thyme, and rosemary. Throw the pot roast back in, bring to a boil, reduce, and let it simmer for a couple hours covered.

After two hours, taste, and adjust (let me guess you need more salt and since you were a sissy and choked back on the cayenne you realized it needs more heat). Now chop up all the veggies and throw them in a cast iron skillet with some more bacon grease (cook more bacon if you have to) and let them get brown over.

Dump them into with the pot roast and let this cook for another 20 minutes.

Remove the chuck roast and shred it. Dump in the peas. If it is to really liquidy then mix in a couple tablespoons of flour with water and dump in to thicken it up.

Serve and enjoy.

Slainte’!

Which is Gaelic for “sure has been a long time since I have posted anything at all because even tho I have a plethora of back-logged goodies to share with you the burn out was pretty bad but hope you are well!” Or something to that effect.

I already explained my lack of desire and general malaise in posting as of late. And there have been a few times I thought Hell YEAH! I am ready – I am back. But every time I would start, I would stop, frustrated and pissed off at food and foodies in general. I feel no further explanation is necessary. I know that most of you are probably nodding your heads in agreement. It happens. We didn’t stop cooking, or eating, or drinking, partying, enjoying, laughing and living. Honestly, I think that was what I needed. What we needed.

I can’t come back however, without something special and sinful and crazy and full of awesome and CHOCOLATE and BOOOOOOZZE!

So an Irish blessing for you. (No I am NOT Irish, but I am a Chicago girl, and in some mystical way, that means I am Irish by association.) “May those who love us, love us; & those who don’t, may God turn their hearts; & if He can’t turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we’ll know them by their limping.”

And with out further ado:

New Holland Dragon’s Milk Milk Stout Cupcakes with Frangelico & Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting.

Let’s start with the secret cupcake ingredients:

3/4 c of butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 bottle milk stout
1 1/4 c 60% bitter sweet cacao chocolate chips ( I used Ghirardelli because I could…)
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
3/4 c cake flour
1 c sugar
2/3 brown sugar
1/2 t salt
2 t baking soda
1 c yogurt
2 eggs

The difficult steps to awesomeness…

Preheat oven to 350°

Melt butter over low heat, taking care not to burn. Pour in the bottle of milk stout, blend well. Add in the chocolate chips, stir till melted. Remove from heat and let cool.

In the bowl of your kitchen aid or mixing bowl, combine flours, sugars, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl combine the yogurt and eggs.

With your kitchen aid on low, add the yogurt and eggs to the flour until blended. Pour in the cooled chocolate stout syrup and mix till well incorporated.

Pour into prepared cupcake pan (cupcake papers work rather well with these, no spraying needed) and bake for 18-22 minutes. Let cool for a couple of minutes, then remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Let cupcakes cool completely before you frost with:

Super Incredible Awesome Frangelico Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting of INSANITY!

8 oz cream cheese, softened
2/3 c powdered sugar
3 T Frangelico
3 T Nutella
1/4 c heavy whipping cream

Blend everything together super well. I mean whip the shit out of it. It will get all fluffy and airy and perfect.

Refrigerate for 1 hr.

Pipe onto cupcakes.

Hide in spare bedroom and eat every last effin’ one.

Leave comments of gratitude and homage that I am BACK and rocking your taste-buds.

Also, I would like to point out that this recipe does not contain beer.  This is shocking because our last runs contained nothing but beer.  Fear not you hobos slamming your 40s discretely wrapped in paper bags we will be providing more beer soaked food in the coming weeks. 

Well work summons so off to do what allows us to afford web space so we can ramble about nothing and everything all at the same time.  Yeah we are that good…

For this recipe you first need to make the meatballs.  If you do not have a super secret family recipe here is a pretty idiot proof one:

1. 2 # Ground Beef
2. 1 # Ground Pork
3. 1 c breadcrumbs
4. 3 T minced parsley
5. 2 T minced garlic
6. 1/2 onion, minced
7. 2 eggs
8. Blue cheese

To make the meatballs:

1. Combine all ingredients except blue cheese.
2. Form into balls and shove a piece of blue in the middle because let us face it everything is better with more cheese.
3. Put in fridge for a couple of hours to harden up.

For the rest of the recipe you will need:

1. 2 cups of Frank’s hot sauce (used the extra hot)
2. 1 onion diced
3. Couple stalks of celery diced
4. Carrot diced

Steps for glory:

1. 8 TB of butter
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the meatballs in batches and brown all over. Remove and set aside.
4. Add in the celery, carrot, and onion and sauté until softened.
5. Add the meatballs back in and pour the hot sauce over top of them
6. Put in the oven for 20 minutes or until they are done. Serve with more blue cheese

Serve and enjoy!

We had planned on making this just for lunch and then dragging leftovers over to parent’s house for dinner.  However; the big problem was the parents were sick so no thanksgiving meal for us (which is ok in my book since i am ehh on turkey anyways).

We were originally hoping to throw some crawfish into the mixture but finding that proved to be a pain in the butt so crab worked better (notice that is crab with a c not a k).

I really wish I could ramble on about something cool and pointless but I am still a little freezing cold from having to scrape my freaking windows this morning and deal with every freaking moron who apparently has forgot how to drive in snow (notice how everyone who drives slower than you is a moron and those who drive faster than you are idiots?)

Anyways enough rambling more recipe and more work………

For this recipe you will need:

• 1 onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 9 TB of butter (relax it is winter you have until winter to burn it off.
• 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 cup of beer (we used Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale)
• 1 cup of cream
• 1.5 cups of whole milk
• 3 cups of cheese (we used 2 cups of sharp cheddar and 1 cup of fontina)
• 2 TB of dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper
• Cup or so of shredded crab (really can you have to much crab?)
• 1 cup of breadcrumbs
• 8 ounces (1 box) of cooked macaroni

Steps for success:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• In a separate skillet melt a TB of butter and add in the onion and cook until softened.  Add in the garlic and cook until fragrant.  Remove from heat and set aside.
• In a medium sauce pan add in the remaining 8 TB of butter and when it is liquidy add in the 1/2 cup of flour.  Whisk until it is golden brown (about 3-5 minutes).
• Add in the cup of beer and bring to a boil for a couple of minutes.
• Lower the heat to medium and add in the cream/milk and heat until barely boiling.
• Add in the cheese a handful at a time and stir until melted.  Do not add more cheese until the previous handful has been melted.
• Add in the Dijon, crab, and onion/garlic mixture.
• Taste and adjust with salt and pepper (I am betting you need about a teaspoon of pepper).  Bonus points would also be awarded if you decide you need some heat and add in a pinch of cayenne.
• Stir in the macaroni.
• Butter up a 9×9 dish and pour the mixture in that.
• Top with the breadcrumbs and throw in the 450 degree for 10-12 minutes.
• Lower the heat to 350 and loosely cover the mixture with foil.  Continue to cook until heated through (about 25-30 minutes).

Serve and enjoy!