Flying Dog Tire Bite Golden Ale.

This was the first Flying Dog variety I ever had. I was going to say a bunch of stuff about how it doesn't have a super distinctive taste but it's curiously fulfilling. But I have to say it's much better out of the bottle.

Yogurt Curry Chicken.

So I actually mangled the recipe for this. It's basically supposed to be sitting in yogurt all the time. Marinade, glaze, and dip. I forgot to set it in the morning, so I ended up pan frying it while I mixed up a yogurt sauce and then baked it all. All the yogurt-based dressings were unnecessarily different and complex. I used yogurt, lemon juice, salt, pepper, ginger, curry, and honey for the marinade/glaze. For a dip, I used yogurt, curry, cumin, cayenne, paprika (which was unneeded), salt, and lemon juice.

The chicken came out well but definitely could have used more heat. The dip was so-so. Also, black rice is awesome but I'm too lazy to make the minor additional effort most of the time.

Sandwiches, Part 2.

Actually, these are all wraps.

Turkey Spinach Wrap

Turkey, spinach, onions, provolone, sun-dried tomato wrap. Also, incredibly flat and reminiscent of the turkey phillies my mom used to make all the time.

Chicken hummus wrap

Chicken, hummus, tomato, tzatziki.

Cheesesteak wrap

Roast beef, onions, peppers, mushrooms, tomato, shredded cheese blend because I didn't have Swiss or provolone.

Flying Dog Old Skratch Amber Lager.

It's my opinion that lagers, on average, are quite unremarkable.

Black Bean Quesadillas.

Refried black beans are awesome. Or maybe it's just that I bought a can of black beans that weren't GV fat-free. In any case, variety is nice.

German Pancakes.

I think I ran across this recipe on Cooks.com while looking at something else. Curiously simple: 1:1 flour (preferable bread flour which makes it go crazy, but all-purpose works fine) and milk (1 cup) and anywhere from 2 to 6 eggs, whipped, which takes a damn long time by hand. Salt and sugar maybe, cinnamon and vanilla maybe. Baked for ~15 minutes at 400. Served with lemon juice and powdered sugar.

Meatballs.

It's surprising that I haven't made meatballs. Actually, I don't think I've had spaghetti and meatballs since I moved out of the dorms. I looked at a few recipes to see if anyone did anything particularly interesting. The surprising addition was milk. I though it would just make things watery, but it turned out awesome.

Minced onions, mushrooms, garlic; breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, salt, pepper, parmesan.

Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence.

Hm. So this is brewed with cocoa. As a result, it's rather bitter. I was anticipating a heavier mouthfeel, but it's an ale. Weird. All things considered, I'd rather have a Black Chocolate or a Choklat.

Split Pea Soup.

Sourced from another new food blog. All pretty explanatory, but I fiddled with the meat. You're supposed to use ham hocks, but the source used Canadian bacon and bacon (wat.). I actually bought what I thought was a ham, which it was, but it was a picnic pork shoulder. That's apparently a pork shoulder with the skin still on. And I think already cooked. Pretty sure of that. Anyway, I had to boil this thing, I wish I had just used the ham broth instead of chicken broth (as source indicated), but I guess it was leaner this way. Garlic, onion, yeah.

I froze some and refrigerated the rest which congealed into a sweet green brick.

Shit's fucking awesome. Here's the thing about split pea soup. It's super easy, you can make it taste however you want, and it can be an accompaniment or a main course. I need to make more soups.

I also made some red mashed potatoes, but I mixed in some boiled cabbage which is also awesome.

Also, refried black beans are awesome.

Sugar Doughnut Muffins.

From a new source I found, Baking Bites, which looks interesting. Anyway, I wanted to try something other than cookies. 1:1:2 of milk, sugar, flour (but in 3/4 cup base), egg, oil, baking POWDER, vanilla, nutmeg, salt. I cut the post-bake butter brushing and hoped the sugar would stick on its own, which it did a bit. I did cinnamon and ginger as well on half of them.

Ok, I guess? It's been awhile since I've had any donuts that weren't crullers or cake donuts. They don't have the same texture as their deep-fried counterparts, but they are healthier. We'll see how they handle in the morning. And they really are that pale.

Also, strawberries in vodka tonic, not as interesting as I thought it'd be. Also, I'm starting a new quest to produce a complete, somewhat healthy and nutritious, freezable breakfast in a single container.

Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale.

Hm, at this point, I realize I haven't had many non-Indian pales. However, I can also say that this is not as good as Flying Dog's IPA. Also, fucking prawn snacks: FUCK YEAH.

Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat Hefeweizen.

This is probably the best hefeweizen, despite being filtered, I've had next to the Hefeweizen (which, now that I think about it, might have been one of my first import beers, and consequently, one of the first where I said, "Damn, this is good." Thanks, Sister, for starting my love affair with beer.) Seriously, though, Flying Dog, on average, makes good brews. I'm glad there's still a domestic that suits me.

Southern Tier Choklat.

OMG. This like drinking chocolate syrup. But less viscous. So that it would be drinkable. Fuck yeah.

Flying Dog Road Dog Porter.

Nice try.

Spinach and Artichoke Pizza.

It's surprising that I haven't made a white pizza yet, but then again, I haven't made a lot of pizzas. I used to eat a lot of pizza in high school and college. I guess I don't have as convenient access to pizza these days.

Alfredo sauce, sliced garlic, mushrooms, spinach, artichokes, mozz.

Pizza is awesome. I have a curious amount of yeast. I suppose I should try making my own dough sometime.

Greek Quesadilla.

Apparently, you only need artichokes and hummus to make something Greek. lul. Spinach wraps, hummus, fried artichokes, mozz and tzatziki.

Chicken fajitas.

The great thing about buying large cuts of meat/whole animals is that there's always lots of extra stuff: leftovers from stripping a chicken. There's nothing particularly interesting about this except for the green which is a Florida avocado, not a Hass avocado. Since Hasses are 2/$4 these days and Floridas are half that, I finally gave it a try. Compared to a Hass, it doesn't have as strong of a taste and has a sweeter finish. They're also twice the size. Worth the money? Sure. But we'll see how a guacamole turns out.

Also, ice cream, vodka, and milk? Not exactly a White Russian. Maybe with some Kahlua and not-the-cheapest vodka.

Polenta Bake.

This is it's good side. Mine ended up too soggy or something. It didn't have the structural integrity to support its own weight. It's essentially a cheese lasagna using polenta instead of pasta. I thought ricotta in the inner layers (instead of fontina) would help flesh it out, but it just took up space and I forgot all the vegetables, which, in retrospect, might not have gone over well anyway. Homey, casserole-style food, which will take some tweaking. I forgot the salt again for the polenta. Also, I'm embarrassed that my cornmeal is white and not yellow. Sourced from Elise, of course.

Florentine Omelet.

Apparently, if you want to make something Florentine, all you have to do is add spinach. Whatever.

My skillet and I haven't been getting along very well lately. One of us is going to end up in the oven for awhile. Ricotta, blanched spinach, topped with mozzarella and basil. I forgot the salt again.

Stone Ruination IPA.

I've been looking forward to this one for quite some time. DAAAAAAAAAMN. Maybe it's just the hype, but this is probably one of the best IPAs I've had. While Southern Tier's has been the strongest IPA character but rather sweet, and Goose Island's finishes well but isn't strong enough for my tastes now. This Stone is really fucking good. Hoppy, persistent, smooth, nicely ale carbonated. Awesome.

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Some other randomness from the night. Zucchini weave. Magellan Gin and tonic. Firefly Fizz.

OMG FLASH PICTURE.

Chicken and Dumplings.

Oops.

Well, here's finally something non-alcoholic. There should be a lot more like this since I'm not allowed to spend anymore money on booze for a couple months.

Source from Elise. Flour is such a useful, random thing. It makes everything. I'm putting the ingredients for the dumplings here because I haven't figured out a good system for knowing when to use baking soda and when to use baking powder. All I know at the moment is that baking soda goes with chocolate and buttermilk.

• 2 cups cake flour (can sub all-purpose flour)


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• 3/4 teaspoon salt


• 2 Tbsp butter, melted


• 3/4 cup milk


• 1/4 cup minced fresh herb leaves such as parsley, chives, and tarragon (optional)

Everything is pretty simple and obvious save for making a roux to start the stew base which is foreign to me since I don't make gravy.

The dumplings turned out a little dense but fixable next time. Also, I didn't add salt when making the stock, which I should have done because the chicken ended up a bit bland. In general, I should just start using a little more salt. Chicken and dumplings are also apparently freezable, so we'll see how that turns out.

Wild Turkey American Honey.

I had the opportunity to taste this at a new liquor store that opened up back home. And was immediately taken and bought the last bottle in the store (for the next 20 minutes. It was opening night and another truck was due soon.) Having thought out that purchase poorly, I decided I didn't want to risk the hassle of trying to ship it, tried to return it and failed, and ended up selling it to a friend at my own loss of a couple dollars.

Having been all whiskey'd out in my last year of college, that was actually the first time I had had whiskey in quite some time. I will say my whiskey experience hasn't been very high tier. I've had Jim Beam, Jim Beam Black (4 bottles was enough for me), Southern Comfort (not really whiskey), Jack Daniels (not much whoop), and Old Crow (cheapest pint in a time of need).

I found American Honey to be quite good at room temperature. I imagine it would only get better on the rocks. A 71 proof liqueur, it spills on the tongue like velvet. It's more like drinking whiskey-flavored nectar rather than honey-infused whiskey.

Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka.

At my sister's opinion, I found a bottle of this. This is apparently somewhat of a new offering, Firefly's flagship product being a muscadine-infused vodka.

It looks like sweet tea. Smells like sweet tea. Tastes like sweet tea. In other words, it is awesome. At 70 proof, it is less viscous than a liqueur and a little less sweet but just as smooth. While I probably wouldn't drink it straight, it shouldn't need much.

Magellan Gin.

Well, it looks like I've finally started branching out a little here. Tanqueray has always been my gin of choice, though I've had various well gins and Bombay Sapphire. I was about to pick up another Tanqueray when I thought to look for a genever, a more traditional, Dutch-style gin. I did find one that had "genever" in the name (Boomsma, which seems to have the most favorable reviews for being traditional, so I'll pick it up at some point) but I didn't want to pick it up until I could confirm its origins . In the meantime, I thought that this was the most interesting: Magellan, iris-flavored gin from France.

Somewhat lower in alcohol (88 proof), it's remarkably mild, and, lo and behold, tastes a bit flowery. It's also legitimately blue, unlike Bombay Sapphire, also flavored with iris, which just has a blue glass bottle. I didn't care much for martinis when I had one made with Tanqueray, but this gin would make me reconsider.

Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA.

It's a got a nice, creamy head that transitions very well into a full but crisp bitterness. It feels a bit heavier than some IPAs, and there's not much nose, but it's pretty decent.