Springing

The Lake has thawed. The Devils are about to begin their playoff run at the Stanley Cup, St. Patrick's day and Easter both came and went. Things are moving quickly folks.

For some reason that is surely related to John Jameson's life's work, I failed to take any pictures of the food that I made on St. Patrick's Day. That was really weak, I know. But, if you were there, you know that there was nothing weak about my Colcannon, which contained a 1/2 lb. of butter, and 1 lb. of bacon. Purely awesome, my friend.

Once spring gives way to summer, you'll probably notice that a lot of cooking expeditions mentioned on the site will change too. I do about as serious a BBQ as someone from New Jersey can do. I smoke ribs. I smoke shoulder. I've been smoking chicken since last year, and this year I'm thinking about smoking some fish.



In the mean time, I'm still pretty focused on perfecting my Chinese food. I could eat Chinese food just about everyday; there are over a billion people on earth who do! Ok, that was a lame joke. I admit it.



Anyway, I've got pictures. There is no guiding theme other than the fact that this is what I've cooked recently. I would give you the recipes, but frankly it's been so long since I made them that I barely remember what was in it.

The first picture at the top is of a tofu and vegetable stir-fry that came out really well. Tofu can be hard to make well, but I've found that using a REALLY hot pan, and getting a good crisp going on the outside does wonders. Also, pat the tofu dry before cooking, knucklehead!

The second picture is of a curry sole stew with sweet potatoes. I had a hell of a time getting the sweet potatoes to fully cook without murdering the fish into a mush, but I found a balance somewhat and it was pretty good.

The third picture is of zucchini mac and cheese with salted chopped chilies. In case you haven't heard, you need salted chopped chilies in your life. Here's how.



The picture immediately above this paragraph was of some noodles with ginger, garlic, and chopped leaks.

Ok, now to other big news. The beer is FINALLY done! Yes, you heard right, I tasted the beer today.



I have to say that it smelled absolutely wonderful. This is some of the toastiest, delicious smelling beer I've ever had. It's also a pretty good looking beer. My wife and son are both redheads, and it seems that my beer is a redhead too now. I don't mind that one bit. The taste is something else though. I made this beer with the intention of producing a hoppy batch of beer with a VERY high alcohol content. I wanted this beer to knock you on your ass. And it does. The beer is at least 10% alcohol. And it tastes like it too. It's a somewhat bitter, very intense flavored beer. The jury is still out on how well it'll age. It might mellow out a bit in the next few weeks and taste like the complex thing that it is.