Blueberry Salsa

My morning starts with oatmeal, peanut butter, and blueberries all mixed into the same bowl. However, I could see my day ending with this. Blueberries are so good for you, why not?

Enjoy!

Serious Eats: What is Superman Ice Cream?

Top three things that are gross but I haven't yet given a Thumbs Down Baby to because they haven't unassumingly slipped into my life/mouth (anchovies, smoked flavoring, etc) and knocked me down flat:

1. Superman Ice cream
2. Artificial banana anything
3. Mint Oreos

This list is open to being amended.

That said, Serious Eats recently spent the time to figure out what one of these gross food products is really all about, and I found it rather interesting. Although it also made me itch a little bit as my MI heritage started making me uncomfortable in my own skin.

Enjoy!

Cambridge Commons, Sunset Cantina, and Cranberry Cafe

I have a lot to do tonight, including sleep, so the recap of the weekend will be very much a recap indeed.

Friday night the new nutrition interns and myself ventured to Cambridge Commons with the goal of getting fried pickles because I've been craving them. Upon arrival we did some beer sampling: Magic Hat Odd Notion and Rogue Somer Organic Honey Ale for me. The Magic Hat honestly wasn't my favorite, but I still love the brewery. The Rogue Somer Organic Honey Ale was decidedly not vegan, but we all know alcohol is where my morals and my interests don't align, and by far one of the more interesting beers I've tried lately spare for the CBC Benevolence. I'm still stuck on that.

Anywho...

It was interesting because we got fried pickles spears instead of pickle chips AND because this is what everyone expected which I am still baffled by. How do they compare? Both are delicious but the chip wins. Why?

1. Fried pickle spear makes for a less than desirably crispy factor, I'm that girl that lets the stir fry sit on the bottom of the pan to get the burnt stuff. Awesome. Also, when you bite in because of the amount of pickle you're biting through you get a big blast of coolness, which makes for a nice contrast, but I'm still going for the pickle chip because...

2. It gets crispier on the outside and when you bite in it seems like more juice is retained. It's not as refreshing per se, but I like the crispy outside and awesome warm pickly mess inside.

Hopefully that makes sense.

But, like I said, they were still good. And by not being a chip they have extended our hunt to at least one more location.

My sampler. Because I've become a sucker for them. Who knew what Christmas break would do to me. From right to left: Uinta Angler's Pale Ale, Blue Hills Wamputuk Wheat, Pennichuck Schwarzbier, and Long Trail Double Bag. I honestly enjoyed them all, despite making our server concerned at my intense drinking face. Game on. However, I wasn't falling head over heels for any and the Pennichuck had an even more coffee effect than expected. Verdict still falls at the sampler being a success.


We then split this Middle East Platter. I really enjoyed it and splitting it when no one is really hungry is a great option, but if you were in the mood for dinner this would be a steal as an entree.

At some point I also tried a Berkshire Lost Sailor IPA at our servers recommendation. I enjoyed it as much as I enjoy most IPAs. That's one thing I can say about Cambridge Commons, on this day at least, is that their beer list was stocked with the ol' Indian Pale Ale..so if that's your thing...

Oh, and our server was absolutely lovely-which while I don't feel like elaborating on too much, let's just say the weekend was full of the Mass-hole, I miss Southern hospitality, and I should have got that server's name so I could try to become a regular.


My weekly trip to Sunset Cantina. I'm going to get that shirt, maybe two. I had, as you can see, Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde. Two things of note here:

1. When you bring it to your mouth it smells like pop and is confusing but I still really liked it.

2. I had two beers and made them both Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blondes...I think I'm going to start doing that more...trying at least a new beer a night, but maybe making it my drink of the night not just the moment so I can form a really strong opinion on it.




We also tried the Sam Adams Long Shot notable for

1. Encouraging home brewers everywhere and

2. That awesome picture right above this text



This morning I ate at Cranberry Cafe in South Boston. Lovely joint, very popular, great food, but a little pricey for some hummus and roasted peppers on a wrap so maybe not a frequent thing. Like I said, I'm getting at least one beer shirt...

Enjoy!

Wachusett Summer

Bleh. My first Summer failure. So is life. I heard the words "Miller" and "Lite" used as adjectives. Never a good sign.

Sigh.

Magic Hat Wacko

My Magic Hat Wacko. Didn't let me down. Magic Hat never has.

The color and the bottle are fantastic.

Summer's treating me well: Sam Adams, Brooklyn Brewery, Sierra Nevada, Magic Hat...

July 4th Weekend

My Dad and an old family friend came up to Boston this weekend. I loved having them and doing all the tourist things that we could squeeze in. Of course one of the first orders of business was to introduce them to the Sunset franchise: my weekly hang out where I'm drinking my way towards shirts and food for those of you who haven't been following my move.

Look at how we started the night! Two New England Tours for the boys, I've already done that one, and a West Coast Tour for myself. A Weinenstephaner was also ordered at the egging on of the table. You know, for a banana bread beer as I like to call them, it wasn't as bad as I expected.

As for the New England Tours, not much as far as surprises go. It's official, everyone dislikes Allagash White and everyone loves Sam Adams. Obvious outcome. Also noteworthy is that Magic Hat did well, I love Magic Hat so I was glad everyone else got on board. My Dad was also into the Brooklyn Summer, Brooklyn Brewery being another one of my favorite breweries (wind power!). The Ipswich Blueberry fell to the wayside, another outcome that I expected. It looks beautiful with the blueberries tumbling through the beer, but the taste...you either love it or you don't, and once I realized the boys were right with me as far as taste preferences I knew the Ipswich was going to be a flop.

I had a great time with my sampler. I started off with the Arrogant Bastard which is a triple. I found it palatable to a certain extent, but rather hoppy. Up next was Anchor Steam. My Dad was all about this red, as for myself I didn't think it had much flavor. Then there was the Racer 5. This one took me by surprise. The color is so light you're almost fooled, but a sip later and BAM! it's got a little bite to it. I dug it though. Then there was the Moylan's Hopsickle, most notable for smelling like peaches.

You know how I am about this Tortilla Basket with the guacamole. Verdict? Everyone was just as blown away as I am. Every time I get it. Never let down. Love it. The boys also got this coconut chicken tender appetizer, they were all drooling and prattling on an on about it.

Out came the main courses...

This was the first time I had gotten an actual entree and I was not let down in the slightest. I got the vegetable and bean taco and some steamed broccoli to try to spare the ol' belt notches. So, so good. And more guacamole.



Here is all the other food. All dead on in the awesome department. The main thing we learned was fry seasoning is necessary. Also, keep me away from the fries once they are seasoned.

At some point I decided I would actually opt for a fruit beer and tried Sam Adams Blackberry Wit. You know what? Not bad...

...although I thought the color should have been better.


Like the Smutty Nose. I mean look at that shade! Unfortunately I don't remember what I thought of the actual beer. So is life.

Anyways, July 4th found us at the Cheers bar downing some Sam Brick Red, only available in Boston, and being merry...

...with weather like this for fireworks we had no other option.

Enjoy!

Beer Podcasts

So there's this sports writer. With a podcast. That apparently lots of people listen to. Thinking about this sports writer brought to mind a conversation I was listening in on recently while at a bar in Nashville. The bartender was all about beer, no surprise there, and discussing with a patron beer podcasts. He didn't seem thrilled about them, but with this new 70-80 minute round trip commute I've acquired upon my move north, I'm about ready to try anything. It's not a bad commute, I just don't want to waste the time and without service I can't read my cell phone.

Options:

1. Stand-I'm not a fan of this because simply standing screams "not a real Bostonian!" or so I think

2. iPod-I'm kind of a fan of this, but my music collection is lagging

3. Read a book/magazine-Really a fan of this until I finished my book, easy reading only folks and the other two books I'm in the middle of don't fit that description

4. Study-no

5. Other-This is where I put podcast and I think it's going to be good, really good

I'm always interested in health and food and then usually one other pursuit. Examples of other pursuits include:

1. Mastering medium or whatever on Guitar Hero-my bench mark for social acceptability. I don't care I defined this benchmark prior to playing the game, and I don't care that I excluded everyone else's thoughts on the topic.

2. Mastering the lingo of politics-maybe I don't keep up with every Senator to walk through the door (I'm sure there's a common door somewhere they all walk through) but Obama frenzy drew me in enough that I can now hold me own in political conversations.

3. Nuclear Engineering-I know why fusion is laughable...or not

4. Current-sports

I'm not inept at sports, but there's vast, vast plains of space for improvement. And so reading about sports occupies a large part of my day. But I need my food/health compliment to that time spent reading and neither the internship nor guacamole fills that need, so beer podcasts it is.

I'll be interested if anyone knows anything about beer podcasts that I do not...I'm currently watching two guys talk about $19 bottle of beer called Avery Memphistopheles. Over 400kcal/bottle. The pause and faces after the tasting priceless. I think I'm watching Beer Safari Chapter 1 or CBR Video Episode 7 if anyone's interested. I'm going to start throwing out the term "tan head" until I learn further.

Here's some information on hops I've had in my inbox for awhile...