Preparing to Host Brunch

Well, it’s almost time for people to show up for my second, ever, homebrew and home-cooking event.

Ha. “Event” makes it sound so much bigger than it is. What I’ve done is invite a handful of people over for brunch. But it feels like an “event” because at least one person is someone I’ve never met before. Which means a lot more cleaning than if it were just Rob or Nicky or Jason showing up.

Luckily, the beverage plan is easy. I’ll ask Bill to pick up some coffee beans and make some coffee for folks who are arriving. Then, I have the coffee beer I made with Nancy, a coffee beer Jason (Beer Husband) made, and a coffee beer Matt made. This isn’t actually a TON of beer for six people, as Jason & Matt’s beers are in 12 oz bottles.… Continue reading →

Quick question

A very quick question for everyone, please feel free to answer here, on Twitter, on Facebook, where- or however.

Would anyone be interested in a link list of books that Bill and I find interesting and/or useful? I’m thinking an Amazon widget on the homepage, mostly with books that are related to one of the four categories on the blog (though, let’s be honest, “blather” is a pretty broad category). They’d be affiliate links, unless Amazon tosses me out of the program (which is looking likely, at this point).

For example, I’d probably suggest a book or three on lions. Any book I’m currently reading and like. Beer basics books.

Regularly scheduled posting again tomorrow!… Continue reading →

Beer and My Favorite Museum

Wow. It’s been almost a year since my first beer event at the Field Museum. I didn’t realize. I’ve gone to write about about it a few times and always found myself at a loss. This is not the fault of the beer, which was tasty, or the museum, that put on an awesome event. This was about me being at my favorite museum, the reasons why it’s my favorite museum, my old life, and my new life. So, I set it aside for awhile. Someday, I may even write it.

Going for another beer event last November was much more interesting, because it was all very centered on my “new” life. I was invited by Matt Tanka of Lakeshore Beverage (then River North Beer) to the “media preview” of the museum’s new bistro-style restaurant.… Continue reading →

#CookiesAndBeer

It started innocently enough. I was sitting down to assess some of the cookie recipes I’d recently been entrusted with, and I’d cracked a cold, low ABV beer to help me in my analyses. I figured I’d tweet about it too, with a jokey hashtag, #CookiesAndBeerWithTasha.

Well, some of my delightful twitter friends saw it and started tweeting back at me. It was a blast. Goofing around. Discussing cookies. And beer. It was so much fun we decided we should schedule it again.

That’s how I came to be attempting to host a Twitter chat, #CookiesAndBeer, last Tuesday.

My original plan was to bake “Italian Filled Cookies” during #CookiesAndBeer, as it was the recipe I most tweeted about during the jokey chat. It seemed complex, fun, and nothing I’d ever made before.… Continue reading →

More Garden Photos

On Sunday, I called my father and he accused me of only calling out of “an overdeveloped sense of obligation.” This was a load of crap, of course. I called him out of a perfectly tuned sense of obligation. Eventually, we both agreed we could maybe call one another more often.

Then he asked for garden photos and I said he clearly wasn’t reading my blog. To which he admitted, but then pointed out I could be more aggressive about sharing. So, I’ll do that. And I’ll put up a few more photos, because I love him and I think he’d enjoy them. Also, because I enjoy sharing them.

This isn’t my usual view walking in, as I tend to enter from the southwest, not the east.… Continue reading →