Christmas Beer Tasting

Like many folks our age, Whitney and I are craft beer enthusiasts. We enjoy visiting the multiple local breweries, brewpubs, and craft beer stores that have popped up around us in the last several years, and we keep a good rotating selection of old favorites and new beers to try in the fridge. However, all of this craft beer enthusiasm hasn't quite reached every small town in North Carolina, so Whitney decided to bring it to her parents herself with a fun Christmas beer tasting!

Whitney went to The Glass Jug, a wonderful local beer store owned by some of her fellow Carolina alumni, and picked out an eclectic selection of six beers. We then prepared some tasting notes, mostly copied from brewery websites and beer style guidelines. The day after Christmas we had a lot of fun tasting and discussing the different varieties and what breweries they came from. Some (all?) of the beers weren't necessarily hits with the parents, but hopefully there was some educational and entertainment value nonetheless.

The tasting lineup. Check out the notes to learn more!

Christmas Eve Dinner

You may recall from our Christmas week meal plan that we had a brief two day respite at home between family visits. As you can imagine that is not conducive for a trip to the grocery store. We put our best effort into a "throw together" holiday meal and we were pleasantly surprised with the results. We were able to have scallops gratin, wild rice, and green beans. Our Christmas Eve meal was completed by a Biltmore Merlot wine. We've had a bottle of the Biltmore Merlot for the past three years now (first in 2012 and then in 2013) to celebrate the holidays.

Inspiration from Scallops Gratin from the Mod Meals on Mendenhall blog
   Serves 2
Ingredients
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
dash of garlic powder and onion powder
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper
2-4 tbsp good olive oil
1/4 c breadcrumbs
6 sea scallops
Lemon, for garnish

Directions
   Preheat the oven to 425F. Pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and remove the muscle. Set aside.
To make the topping, use a processor to mix all ingredients except olive oil, breadcrumbs, scallops. After a few pulses begin to add in the olive oil until a spreadable consistency is reached. Finally fold in the breadcrumbs.
   Place scallops in a broiler-safe dish. Spread the butter mixture evenly over the scallops. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the topping is golden. The scallops should just be barely done as they will continue to cook. Serve immediately.

Since we were getting up early Christmas morning to begin our travels to see family we decided to open our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve. And Dupree helped get the bows off the presents...

Do you have a bow stealer in your house??

Ricotta Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Work has been especially busy this holiday season, so after working the day before Christmas Eve, it was nice to settle down again and relax for a day before traveling again on Christmas Day. Whitney and I made the morning extra-special with some ricotta chocolate chip pancakes! Like you, the first time we had these I figured they would be crazy weird disgusting, but instead they tasted like normal moist delicious pancakes. I think I prefer them to the buttermilk recipe we tried here. We were out of maple syrup, so the chocolate chips added in some sweetness, and all together they were very good.

Ricotta Chocolate Chip Pancakes
   Serves 2
Ingredients
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
6 tbsp flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch salt
6 tbsp milk
2 eggs, divided
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions
   Set ricotta in a fine mesh strainer about 30 minutes before you start cooking, to drain off excess liquid.
   Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Combine ricotta, milk, egg yolks, and vanilla in a separate bowl.
   Beat the egg whites in an electric mixer until stiff. Add the dry ingredients to the ricotta and milk mixture, stirring gently until just combined. Whisk in a small amount of the egg whites to lighten the batter, then fold in the remaining whites and chocolate chips.
   Heat a griddle over medium-high heat, and brush the surface with butter. Use a ladle or measuring scoop (we used a 1/3 cup measure) to pour batter onto the griddle. Cook pancakes for about 3 or 4 minutes, then flip, cooking until both sides are golden brown.

Progressive desserts

In the middle of December Patrick and I got together with our neighbors for some holiday merriment. We all decided that it would be fun to plan a progressive dinner (I'm on a secret mission to bring back progressives and make them cool again). Since there were three couples it worked out perfectly to have appetizers at one house, dinner at another, and then dessert at the last house. We volunteered for dessert and served a rum cake with eggnog ice cream and chocolate pie. Patrick and I feel extremely lucky to have moved into such a great neighborhood with amazing neighbors! This progressive was a great way to celebrate that!

Here's our dessert spread

Angus Barn's Chocolate Chess Pie

Ingredients

1 unbaked pie shell (we used this recipe)

1/2 cup butter
2 (1 ounce) bakers semi-sweet chocolate baking squares
    (we substituted unsweetened chocolate baking squares since there was 1 cup sugar)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 dash salt

Directions
   Melt butter and chocolate. Mix with other ingredients which have been blended together. Pour into pie crust. Bake 35 minutes, at 350F.

Adding glaze to the rum cake

Granny's Rum Cake - original Bacardi rum recipe
Ingredients
  For the Cake
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 18-1/2 oz. pkg. yellow cake mix
1 3-3/4 oz. pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup Wesson oil
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum
  Glaze
1/4 lb. butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum

Directions
   Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour 10 inch tube or 12 cup bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter over nuts in pan. Bake one hour. Set on rack to cool. Invert on serving plate. Prick top. Drizzle and brush glaze evenly over top and sides.
   For glaze, melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in rum.
   Optional: Decorate with border of sugar frosting or whipped cream. Serve with seedless green grapes dusted with powdered sugar and whole maraschino cherries.

Eggnog Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cups eggnog 

2 cups heavy cream 

1 10oz can sweetened condensed milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Directions

   Mix eggnog, heavy cream, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions until it reaches "soft-serve" consistency. Transfer ice cream to a one- or two-quart lidded plastic container; cover surface with plastic wrap and seal. For best results, ice cream should ripen in the freezer for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Couldn't resist taking a selfie before we left to start the progressive! Each house was wonderfully decorated and the food we ate that night was delicious. We capped off the night with a "Yankee Elephant" gift swap. This was such a nice evening to share with neighbors and we look forward to making it an annual event!

Meal Plan Monday Post

Wow! Our crazy holiday schedule did not let up last week. When we returned from family Christmas visits we went into party planning mode. One of Patrick's friends from college got married on Friday! Even though they are located in Chicago now, Jake and Natalie decided to tie the knot in Chapel Hill. We co-hosted a New Year's Eve party in their honor. It was an exciting week!

Meal Plan for Monday December 29 - Sunday January 4

   Monday - inspiration from Chicken pasta florentine
   Tuesday - Crockpot beef and broccoli with rice
   Wednesday - Host New Year's Eve Party
   Thursday thru Saturday - Wedding activities; Jake & Natalie get married!
   Sunday - Sweet potato lentil chili

No Hoppin' Johns this year for us - hope we'll still have good luck throughout 2015!

Nacho pointing out Jake & Natalie's "Save the Date"
to make sure we didn't forget the wedding!

This week we'll be doing our best to wrap up Christmas themed posts!

Frittata ... with kale and red peppers

Not a fan of green smoothies?? Well this is a great way to start your day [and New Year] with kale without putting it in the blender. This frittata is packed with kale and red peppers; the eggs are a great source of protein as well. This is also a nice option to change up your egg preparation.

Inspiration from Martha Stewart's Roasted Red Pepper & Kale Frittata
Ingredients
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 cup chopped kale
1 red pepper, diced
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 whisked large eggs
1/4 cup cream

Directions
   Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small ovenproof skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and pepper and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add kale and cook until wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile whisk eggs and cream together.
   Pour eggs over vegetables and transfer skillet to oven. Bake until eggs are cooked through and set, about 10 minutes. Flip it over onto a cutting board to slice and serve.

Serves 4; we split the frittata into quarters and two leftover for breakfast the following morning.

It's always Caturday!

... and it's always naptime

Happy 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Cheers to 2015.

May your New Year be filled with peace, love, and happiness.

We brought in the New Year by co-hosting a celebratory party in honor of one of Patrick's best college friends and his fiance who are getting married this week! It meant a lot to us that we could throw them a party and kick off their wedding fun!

We look forward to sharing more recipes (and cat pictures) with you this year!

Dupree and Nacho starting 2015 with a cat nap.