Off-Centered Beer, Cheese, and Celebs

What does Dogfish Head brews, comedians, films, and food all have in common? Well, in Austin, it turns into the Off-Centered Film Fest!

For the past five years, Dogfish Head has teamed up with the Alamo Drafthouse for this fest (I really think it's because founder of Dogfish Head, Sam Calagione, really likes any excuse to be in Austin!).

While the festival is mainly about the short films and competition, beer and food plays big parts as well.

When an e-mail came into my inbox to attend a beer and cheese event, it took me 2.5 seconds to forward it to Micah with the following text "Don't you want to meet him up close and personal!?"

 {cheese, it's not just friends with wine}

On a balmy Saturday afternoon, Micah and I got a chance to go to a beer and cheese tasting at the Highball. Dogfish Head brews were paired with some delicious cheese from Antonelli's Cheese Shop (this biz is everywhere! Anytime you see a beer/cheese pairing event in ATX, it's with Antonelli Cheese).

{blurry picture of the Highball, I'm the worst at taking pics}

While Sam (the brewer) was still doing interviews, we got started with the first beer/cheese pairing: Namaste (witbier with tons of citrus notes) + Cana de Oveja cheese (soft-ripened sheep's milk cheese). I really love wit beers so this one was my favorite. Micah thinks the Namaste beer is priced too high in the stores, so we don't actually buy it very often. I really liked the lemongrass notes in the beer and it paired beautifully with the soft cheese.

{first pairing}

The second pairing: Aprihop + Pantaleo cheese (hard, goat's milk). This cheese was the one that everybody loves! It went fast. If you don't like apricots, you probably won't like Aprihop, thankfully, I like apricots. The sweetness combined with the hoppiness was nice to cut the fatty cheese.

{second pairing}

Third pairing: 75 Minute IPA + Appalachian (semi-soft cow's milk cheese from Virginia). I'm not a huge fan of IPA's but I can drink a lot more of it when it's paired with delicious cheese! While the cheese was good, I think an even bigger more pungent cheese would have been even tastier!

{third pairing}

While we were enjoying our third tasting, Sam Calagione showed up to hep serve his goods and mingle around the room. We've seen Sam before at GABF, but those events are huge and it's hard to get to talk to him when he's surrounded by hundreds... thousands of beer NERDS! Since this was a much more intimate setting (max 60 people), we got to take a pic with him and talked to him about the now defunct show, Brew Masters. He said he really enjoyed filming the show, but a BIG beer advertiser on Discovery was not happy about the show so they decided to cancel it. That's his account of what happened anyway.

{Us with Dogfish Head Founder/Brewer Sam Calagione}

I also asked him what his favorite Austin breweries are. He said he was friends with the (512) guys, so he liked their beers as well as Live Oak -- he has good taste!

Me: Sam is so nice.

Micah: Yeah, he sure likes to hug. I wonder if he works out? He was kind of buff.

Me: Um. Yeah? Also, he doesn't have a beard like most brewers.

*or something along those lines*

While we were enjoying the beer, Micah pointed to a guy he thought was one of the guys from Stella. Since I knew it wasn't Michael Ian Black, I wasn't interested. Kidding. It was actually the non-Michael of the group, David Wain. He was sitting with a group of folks from Alamo Drafthouse -- I'm sure talking about movie thangs.

{Ken Marino, me, David Wain, and Micah}

Anywho, we grabbed him and mentioned how much Micah loves Stella, he said "thanks," we got a picture and moved on. Oh yeah! We also took the picture with Ken Marino. He looks familiar, yes? He's been in Role Models, Reno 911, and tons of other movies here and there. IMDB that shiz, I can't type it all here.

When we left the party, we both commented on how much fun it was and how random it is that Sam Calagione is friends with these actors? How did those friendships come to be? Was he a fan of their stuff or were they a fan of his beers? Who can say?! But I appreciate that they were all in one room this Saturday afternoon. Too bad Michael Ian Black wasn't there.

I only ate Spam once!

I went into my Hawaii vacation thinking I would eat Spam at least twice... maybe even more!! But alas, I only ended up eating spam musubi once. ONCE! Unbelievable.

{Don't hate! Spam Musubi from the grocery store}

Apparently I was too busying ingesting other delicious goodies that I pushed Spam to the side -- especially since I can get that here.

This was my first trip to Hawaii and we spent the 6 nights in Oahu (3 nights in Waikiki and 3 nights in the North Shore area.

 

{View of Waikiki Beach from our condo}

I knew going in there was a large Japanese influence in Hawaii, but I didn't realize that some places take Yen.

{Amazing, fresh, and delicious udon at Marukame Udon}

The first three nights were spent in Waikiki. I never got to swim. The weather was confused and thought it was in Texas, spawning hail, tornadoes and floods. The last three nights in the Turtle Bay was better, but still windy and fairly cold. Thankfully, it didn't pour the entire time, so we were still able to check out some sites: Pacific National Monument, Kapiolani Park, shopping area, Chinatown, Punchbowl Cemetery, Waimea Valley, and the Polynesian Cultural Center.

I did finally don a swimsuit, but I literally only spent a total of 3 hours in the water and I only got 1/2 a shade darker (unacceptable!).

As usual, my main mission on any trip is to find out the best places to eat! I ate so.much.poke. Such deliciousness! Living in Austin, I don't get my hands on FRESH seafood that often so it was nice to be able to enjoy all the ahi tuna I can stuff into my face.

{Our favorite poke was the spicy one with rice!}

 

{Everywhere you turn there is poke. Poke is basically raw ahi tuna cut into chunks and various seasonings are added.}

We ate several plates lunches. Some of our faves were from Nico's Pier 38 (we ate there twice!) and Yama's Fish Market. 

{From Nico's Pier: Beef stew with chicken katsu and mac salad. Had to have it with a local brewski}

 

{From Nico's Pier: Grilled tuna steak with brown rice and mac salad} 

 

{From Yama's Fish Market: laulau plate with a side of poke}

{From Yama's Fish Market: grilled ahi tuna steak}

On the North Shore side, we visited a couple of the ubiquitous shrimp trucks and made sure we got some shaved ice!

 

{L: Garlic shrimp from Blue Water Shrimp Company; R: Spicy shrimp from Macky's Shrimp Truck}

 

{Wailoa Shave Ice in Honolulu. We got the Obama flavor!}

 

{Aoki's Shaved Ice in Haleiwa. So awesome!} 

Other items I loved! 

1. Mochi Ice Cream from Bubbie's Ice Cream! Micah hates the texture but I love it! 

2. Fresh fruit! Check out these avocadoes the size of your head! We ate a lot of pineapple and delicious mango. Hawaii reminds me of Vietnam.

3. Local brews! We made it a point to drink local when we could. We found that the Yard House in Waikiki had the best local beer selection (Maui, Hawaii, Kona Brewing Comapnies).

{Sampler flight at Kona Brewpub}

4. Macadamia nut EVERYTHING. Cookies, cakes, you name it. This breakfast sammy had macadamian nut pesto. Yum!

{Egg sammy from Kono's in Haleiwa}

5. Hawaiian Coffee. We picked up several pounds from Whole Foods and at Coffee Gallery in Haleiwa. The Coffee Gallery has some great roasts and blends plus they make great coffee drinks! 

Besides all the rain and lack of beach time, I had a great time visiting and eating Hawaii! 

I'm not a romantic...

But I sure like foods that are in heart form! Micah and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. Granted, we did exchange gifts the first few years we were together, but after more than a dozen years together, we've pretty much abandoned V-day.

Although we don't do gifts, I do like to cook us a nice little dinner just for kicks -- besides, I really wanted to use my new cast iron heart pan!

For dinner, I made risotto with caramelized onions and chicken. I used the recipe from my Food & Wine cookbook.

I won't re-post the recipe, since you can find it here. I did omit the bacon and added chicken (had some rotisserie chicken leftover in the fridge) and cremini mushrooms.

1. Caramelize the onions (this takes the longest time). When the onions were almost done, I added the diced cremini mushrooms.

2. Starting the risotto part. I added a 1/4 c. of white wine after the first batch of stock was soaked into the rice.

3. Have to get the cheese ready!

4. The risotto is almost there. It takes a good 20 minutes to cook the risotto, bit by bit.

5. Finished product. I made a side of roasted brussels sprouts for some necessary greens. I just trimmed and halved the brussel sprouts. Coated them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt/pepper and roasted them cut side down in a 375°F oven for 15-20 minutes.

For dessert, I knew I wanted to make a cake with beer, so I found this Chocolate Stout Cake from King Arthur Flour. While the recipe on the site makes for a large cake, I decided to use my mini heart pan and turn the rest into cupcakes.

Cake:

• 2 cups stout or dark beer, such as Guinness
• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
• 4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream

Frosting:

• 1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. For the cake: Place the stout and butter in a large, heavy saucepan, and heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the cocoa powder.

{Micah had this robust porter in the fridge, which was perfect since it had tons of roasted malts and was very rich. I debated between this porter and the Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, but ended up with the porter.}


{Butter and porter}


{addition of cocoa powder}

3. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
4. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

{dry ingredients}

5. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and sour cream.

6. Add the stout-cocoa mixture, mixing to combine.

7. Add the flour mixture and mix together at slow speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and mix again for 1 minute. [I did this by hand instead of getting my mixer dirty]

8. Fill heart cake pan (or muffin tin) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Once done, let cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan.

{Seriously, how adorable is this?!?! Hearts for everyone! I even got the pan on clearance from QVC and they're still available!}

For the frosting:
1.Place the chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan.

2. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until the mixture is completely smooth.

You can use it as a smooth ganache glaze or let it cool completely and whip it to make a lighter frosting.

{Finished product. I also made a quick raspberry sauce to complement the chocolate. Tres romantique!}

My Top 5 Essential Asian Condiments

Asians are very brand loyal.

A lot of the Asian condiments I have in my cupboards and pantry are items that my mom have been using since I was a wee-little kid. I'm sure I can try other fish sauces and soy sauces, but I like what I like and it's kind of hard to change what you've known for so long. I'll pick up some new brands here and there, but my mainstays are usually the same ones I end up throwing into my cart at the Asian market.

Here are a list of some of the Asian condiments I always have on hand and I will usually have an extra bottle of it in my pantry! At least I'm not like my mom, who buys fish sauce by the box! I'm not there...yet.

1. Nuoc Mam (Fish Sauce): I like to have two different kinds of fish sauce on hand. The Squid Brand for making diluted dipping sauces and the Viet Huong brand for last touches (like adding it to a bowl of pho or for eating straight with pigs feet). It's basically like an everday olive oil and a special olive oil for dipping. Same thing for fish sauce. The Viet Huong brand is smooth and pungent, but really well balanced.

L: Squid Brand, R: Viet Huong Three Crabs

2. Soy Seasoning Sauce: I think there are two camps when it comes to soy seasoning sauce. I think a lot of Viet families like Maggi and its ubiquitous yellow label, but everyone in my family uses the Golden Mountain brand with the man on the label. Best way to use this stuff? I love splattering this stuff on a fried egg with hot sauce and eating it with french bread. YUM! It's also a go to soy sauce to mix with chili sauce as a dipping sauce for veggies, etc. Warning: DO NOT EAT THIS STUFF WITH SUSHI. Not the same.

3. Regular Soy Sauce: There are tons of brands, so pick the one you like, but I like the low sodium soy. The Kikkoman brand works just fine and I just buy in the big bottle and then I pour it into the smaller containers for ease of use.

4. Hoisin Sauce: This is basically my ketchup. I use it to make dipping sauces for spring rolls and to marinade meat in. I have to two types of hoisin sauce on hand. The glass jar one is for making dipping sauces since it's a pure form of the hoisin sauce. The plastic bottle is for eating with pho - it has a slightly different flavor than the glass container (tad bit sweeter).

L: Koon Chun hoisin, R: Lee Kum Kee hoisin for pho

5. Chili garlic sauce & Sriracha (tuong ot pho): In the past 5 years, Sriracha has popped up everywhere! I still mainly use sriracha for pho, but I sometimes squirt into a stir fry. The chili garlic sauce is the one I use the most of in my kitchen. Both items are made by Huy Fong Foods. I use the chili sauce mainly with soy sauce as a dipping sauce and I also add it to all nuoc mam dipping sauces. I also like to put it on my sunny-side up eggs with the soy sauce from (above). I've even made the sauce with leftover chilis from this blog. Any time I feel a dish needs a little spice, I reach for that stubby guy.

L: Chili Garlic Sauce, R: Sriracha

Notable mentions that I always have around, but don't use as often:

1. Rice Vinegar: great for sauces (mix with soy sauce for a dumpling dipping sauce)

2. Sesame Oil: I just love the smell of this stuff! I like to dress up my noodle dishes with some oil as well as add it to certain stirfry dishes.

3. Oyster Sauce: Great in meat marinades and in stirfry dishes! Great umami flavor.

What is your favorite go-to condiment (besides ketchup or mayo!)? Are you brand loyal?

Kitchen Wars

Ok, so I'm not at war with my kitchen, but it seems like it, ever since we've moved into the new house. I feel like I haven't been able to really settle into the kitchen space since we've been doing so many projects and then in early August, we had a huge setback due to a "flood" issue.

Anywho, we are close to completing the kitchen, all we have left is that darn glass backsplash. Micah and I will be installing that ourselves (we're gangsta, yo) and hopefully it'll come out looking ah-mazing!

So this is what the kitchen looked like when we moved in:

{not awful but definitely needed a little pick-me-up}

Large but no upgrades (which might explain why we got the house for a good price!). We knew we wanted to redo the kitchen countertops and we knew we had to tackle those wretched cabinets.

First up, was the countertops. I know a lot of people LOVE granite, but I'm not one of those people. We didn't want to deal with having to reseal and all those news stories about radon in granite scared the bejeezus out of me (not really). Besides, I really like the look and durability of quartz, did you know some quartz is actually more expensive than granite nowadays?

After looking at a lot of samples, we decided to go with Cambria Collection in Edinburough, through a local vendor. We were really debating between the white and black, but decided to go with the black since if fits the house and cabinets a bit better. White is gorgeous in the right kitchen, though.

Since I've been using the countertops for 6 months now, I can say that I really enjoy them. They clean up nicely and I don't have to freak out if I accidentally put a hot pot on the counter, although I still use trivets and mats, just in case.

{who needs granite? look at that shiny quartz! Disregard the non-existent backsplash.}

Next up were the cabinets. We looked around on the interwebz and found some blogs about the following product Cabot Polystain - walnut color. So for the next month, my project was to stain all the kitchen cabinets! I'm just glad I had Pandora to get me through this tedious task. We liked how the cabinets turned out, but one shade darker might have been even better.

{L: original cabinet, R: with one coat of stain}

Tips on using this stain:

• Use a foam brush
• Be careful about the corners of the cabinets, they tend to collect the stain and get darker than the rest of the cabinet, so I had to break out a small craft paint brush to get those nook and crannies
• Let the stain dry completely between coats - allows for better coverage
• Make sure your cabinets are clean - you know cabinets get all that goop on it, especially the ones near the stove.
  
• We did three coats in the walnut color
• It is a lot of work, so get your time and patience ready before taking on this project

Since we were making this our (my) dream kitchen, I knew I wanted better shelving/storage for the cabinets. We looked at getting Ikea pull out drawers, but Ikea has different specs for their cabinets, so nothing was going to fit in our standard size cabinets.

We trekked to Lowe's and found these Rev-A-Shelf pull outs and they fit our lower cabinets perfectly. We outfitted four cabinets with the different shelving (3 of the two tier shelves and 1 cookware organizer).

They were fairly easy to install and they have made my kitchen life an organizing dream! I can actually pull out one Lock N Lock without jumbling up the rest of my enormous LNL collection (it's out of control, I need therapy). Quick Tip: QVC has a great collection of LNL's. Just sayin'.

{now my LnL's have a home}

My cookware organizer is a great asset as well, since I don't have to stack all my pots and pans on top of each other and I don't have to on a safari hunt to look for the pot's matching lid.

{no more loud clanging when I try to get a pot out}

So those are the biggest things we've done in the kitchen. We also got new appliances, but I'll get into that when I can show you pictures of the new backsplash... once we actually get to installing in. This is the tile we'll be installing!

I do love that I can keep my KitchenAid mixer on the counter at all times now. Who knew extra counter space can make a girl so stinkin' happy?