Food (Literal and for My Soul) Links

March is a very hard month for me, typically speaking. Bad enough that I am genuinely superstitious about it. I just expect, at this point, things to suck in March. Not everything, for sure. One of my delightful nieces was born in March. My father was born in March. Angelique was born in March. I made some cool-ass friends two days ago (which was already March!).

But, generally, I dream of skipping to the end of March. Maybe to just a couple of days before all those birthdays I mentioned (because, seriously, they’re all at the end of March; I think their mothers were trying to spare them March birthdays, but just couldn’t quite do it). It never happens, but I dream of it. I hate March enough that I really could have sworn I had a “fucking March” tag on this blog, but I do not.… Continue reading →

SheBrew! I Judge!

Is it required that one drink a homebrew the night before they get to go judge a homebrew competition for the first time? I hope not, because I don’t think I have one in the house as I type this up.

That’s right, I got invited recently to be a judge (under the helm/wing of at least one BJCP judge) tomorrow at SheBrew! This appears to be a relatively new competition in Portland, Oregon, and I know the organizers have worked hard to make it big and awesome. When I last logged into my judge page, there were 92 entries processed for tomorrow.

Thank goodness there’s no world in which I’ll be expected to try all of them!

Two snapped in half hop cones positioned in front of a small notebook with a red pen inside it.

I will be there tomorrow judging beers within a few categories, but I don’t yet know where they’ll put me.… Continue reading →

Recipe for the Best Shower

I love showering, but I very rarely take a long shower. The water waste is just too much for this New Mexican’s heart. Yes, even though I live in the Pacific Northwest now (and I don’t know if I will ever be dry again). Clean, fresh, temperature-controlled water on demand is a hell of a luxury on its own. I can enjoy it in under five minutes and feel delighted.

But I won’t deny, there’s something glorious about a long, hot shower. So, on rare occasion, I take one. And today? Today I finally figured out what might be the best shower ever. Better than that? It’s repeatable. A must for any good scientifically-trained person trying to find “the best.”

Ingredients

Music from Tegan and Sara
Music from Enslaved

Almost blisteringly hot water

An appropriate plastic glass.… Continue reading →

Beer and Are There Four Kinds of Peppercorns?

Or, at least, that is what I told the nice folks over on the Brew Happy Podcast. Black, green, white, and the not-really-a-peppercorn-but-tastes-similarly pink. Also, it looks like I was wrong and there’s other kinds of peppercorns out there! I shall have to investigate further!

I got a last-minute invite to be on the show, so I’m glad it came together. It was a lot of fun, but you can probably tell I was very nervous (especially at the beginning) when you listen to it. Also SPOILER ALERT we never did quite get to it, but if I just had one “pizza beer” (which is INCONCEIVABLE to me) in Portland, Oregon it would likely be Occidental Kölsch.

Anyway, go check it out.… Continue reading →

The Rude Thing About Life

I paid a bunch of bills this morning. That’s not the rude thing about life, though it is a rude thing about life. Bills, they have to be paid.

I put a butternut squash in the oven just now, because I don’t want to subsist on fast food and eating out, but I’ve long been too brain-dead to focus on cooking. Another thing that is rude, but not THE rude thing about life.

Except, really? They both are part of the rude thing about life. The rude thing about life is that it goes on. I haven’t heard For My Broken Heart in years, possibly as much as a decade, but a tiny piece of it has lodged in my head and reminded me “the world ain’t gonna stop for my broken heart.”… Continue reading →