Category Archives: Food

Coffee Beer. French Toast. Quiche. Wins.

Spent grain might be magic, guys.

I know. I know. I’m SUPPOSED to be talking about homebrew. Since, you know, that was the basis of the giveaway. And, frankly, the homebrew was delicious. Our coffee amber was well-received (and I’m told it’s been entered in its first contest!), though the two bombers we shared were fascinatingly different. Both quite tasty, but one was more deeply akin to coffee than the other. We speculated that the coffee wasn’t properly mixed in at bottling time, but we’ll never know for sure.

On top of that, we tried a couple of bottles of homebrew from my friends Jason and Matt. Jason’s “Nightmare Stout” was delicious and deep. Matt’s “Damn Fine Cup of Coffee” was exceptional. It hit all the right notes of coffee and stout, without being huge and heavy.… Continue reading →

Bill’s Bitter

He so rarely gets a good non-alcoholic drink when we go out places. In restaurants, there’s usually mediocre iced tea, maybe some sodas. At drinking friend’s homes, there’s water. Maybe a soda, maybe not. Indeed, he’s always very grateful to our friend Theresa, because she makes an active effort to have interesting beverages beyond water for him.

Me? I just have gotten so used to cocktails, beer, and wine that I tend to want fairly complex drinks, even when I don’t want booze. Tea, when it’s good, often fills this niche. It’s how Bill finally got me into coffee.

But, sometimes, we want something even more. Or maybe we want cool drinks. Let me tell you what, iced coffee and iced tea only occasionally provide the fun we’re looking for in cool drinks.… Continue reading →

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 →

#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 →