Author Archives: thebakeandbrew

Monday Link Love

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You are not Banksy

Have you heard of Denmark’s bicycle superhighway?

If you haven’t seen this list of Indiana Breweries You May Not Have Known Existed, give it a quick read, and add a few more breweries to your “to visit” list

I need to make sure you’ve seen this tumblr: Strunk & White Will Fight You (English. Motherfucker! Do you speak it?)

Why I love Paris reason #347 : a rainbow elementary school

How to keep beer from going bad

Oscar Niemeyer in 3D.

I’ve been talking about this a lot, but I’m still really unhappy about James Bond drinking Heineken now. So is Daniel Craig (plus, here’s the Skyfall trailer in case you haven’t seen it)

You know you want this for the squirrels in your yard

For your summer walks, a street covered with umbrellas

What should I drink? (Dogfish Head Festina Pèche)

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Have you noticed that anytime anyone mentions a “fruit,” beer people around you fall all over themselves to be the first one to say “Ugh, I really do not like fruit beers. It’s just not what beer is supposed to taste like.” Like it’s an embarrassing thing to enjoy, and they need to make sure it’s clear they don’t approve.

How is it that we decide an entire style is bad based on one sub-par, syrupy beer we tried? Where is the line of what beer is “supposed” to taste like? Since when is liking fruit beer a bad thing?

My challenge for you, that if this is still your opinion and you’ve only tried one or two fruit beers, keep trying. Fruit beer is really hard to get right, but when it’s done well, heaven help you.

This Festina Pèche is my Summer 2012 beer, and definitively in my top 5 favorite beers now. It’s the closest thing I can get to a juicy, tart, and ripe Georgia peach without making a road trip to go pick one, and since we can’t get Dogfish Head in Indiana anymore (insert sad face), you can bet I’m willing to make the trip to Ohio for these.


Dogfish Head Festina Pèche

Dogfish Head – Maryland
Berliner Weisse (I still can’t help but think of this as a fruit beer…let’s not get into the style debate, it’s Friday, just enjoy the weekend and go try this beer)
4.5% ABV YES YES YES
Happy Times Liquor, Decatur, Georgia (yep, that’s the package store name)

Dish 2: Avocado Orange Salad and The Best Weekend

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I’m never going to let the summer end. Especially this one. There have been a couple road bumps, a few missteps, but overall it’s been one of the best ever – I’ve made new friends, and reconnected with old ones. I’ve spent my weekends outside by pools, lakes, at the bars, at houses, instead of inside on the computer. Baking has been replaced by happy adventures with friends, and for the first time in a year, I’m totally confident in telling anyone who will listen about how happy I am. I obviously missed last weekend’s Monday Link Love post, but I just had such a great weekend, that I honestly forgot. I’m not letting this summer end. It just isn’t going to happen. Nuh uh.

There were bike races

Playing at the pool

And The Forest Feast’s Avocado Orange Salad. Dish #2, done!

Aren’t my girlfriends the cutest?

Monday Link Love

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Remember Choose Your Own Adventure?

A happy, jump around song to kick off your week

Good conversation asking Who’s to blame when your beer is bad?

I want to run away with this ice cream cake

Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style. Oh how I wish I could go see this.

A data analysis of the elements of Danish rye bread

American craft beer exports!

I don’t normally link to articles like this, but this except at the end about the French really rang true “In the end, I must admit that my curiosity about old-world philandering is probably just a distortion of our abiding national obsession with the French capacity to get away with anything: Eat triple crème cheese without getting fat, have children without turning into insipid mommies, turn 50 without losing sexiness, cheat without feeling the pain.”

I’m surprised this hadn’t been done before now: a human Pantone series

Have you seen this blog, Dinner, a Love Story?

P.S. Want to know more about that awesome lamp and where you can get one? 

Dish 1: Grilled Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint

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This watermelon is brought to you by a front porch, thunderstorms, a new dress, veal ravioli (thank you Ricardo’s in Chicago), Moonrise Kingdom, and several nice martinis. Then by a Mad Men themed dinner party with good friends, dressing up for each other, gorgonzola and fig bruschetta (yes, please), and dancing on the patio next to candlelight.

It’s been a good week.

If “dessert salads” are a thing, then this watermelon salad fits squarely in that category. Watermelon salad with feta and mint is splashed all over food blogs now, so why not see what all the fuss is about? Why not try grilling fruit? And if you have a pineapple handy, why not throw a couple pieces of that on the grill too?

I think my new mantra for the summer is “why not?”

Grilled Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint

1 watermelon (seedless or not)
Feta cheese
Two sprigs mint

1. Grab your easiest ingredients in the world (see above)
2. Slice watermelon into 1 inch thick pieces leaving the rind on (it’s easier to handle large pieces on the grill, and you can cut the pieces more after grilling if you wish) and spray each side lightly with some olive oil Pam or brush a thin layer of oil on.
3. With grill heated to about 550 F, grill watermelon 1-2 minutes on each side.
4. Let drain on a drying rack, serve with feta and mint sprinkled on top!

Good Reads

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GiustoGusto
You know when a dish looks so delectable that you almost start tearing up? Say hello to my newest blog crush and Muzzi in Caruzzi. On top of insanely delicious food, he features a Booze of the Month and he homebrews. Is this real life?

The Forest Feast
My buddy Christopher introduced me to the Forest Feast, and I’m in total blog love. I’m also completely envious over her (1) location: right next to tall, beautiful trees in California (2) her simple and savory recipes (3) her originality in combining the directions with her photographs in her handwriting and fonts. This blog is in the “everything they do is wonderful” stage, for sure.

Stouts and Stilettos
These ladies are awesome, and I love seeing a new post pop up in my Reader, because of the range of subjects related to beer they write about. That’s one of the best way to engage, and keep your readers coming back in my opinion. For example, you can find anything from “The Quest for the Holy Grail of Beer,” a recommendation on a beer and cake pairing, to a re-blog like “Some Thoughts on Beer Glasses.”

The Beeroness
This lady has it going on. If you Google search “baking with beer,” you are most likely going to come across a lot of chocolate stout cupcakes and cakes. Well this lady has my utmost admiration right now, because she keeps coming out with fantastic recipes using beer that are well beyond that traditional use. For example, Strawberry Beer Sorbet and IPA Marinated Citrus Porch Chops with Peach Poblano Salsa.

How Sweet It Is
I’ve been “starring” every single post from the last several weeks she has published, and I’ve re-read her Triple Berry Kale Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette at least seven times since yesterday. At the very least.

I hope you get to check some of these out soon, as they’re all staples in my morning routine these days. Spend some time with them, get inspired, get smitten.

Monday Link Love

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A psychedelically transformed Grand Palais makes me miss Paris like woah

50 Ways to Afford Craft Beer… “Get a real job.  Wait, no, don’t do that.  That’s a terrible idea.”

I feel like I always include a post from the Times, but please check out this piece on a new documentary Herd in Iceland

As if I couldn’t love Hemingway more (thanks Rai!)

A book composed of the first Google image for every word in the dictionary. This book jacket is super cool.

“Ever walk into a pub, bottle shop, or brewery and have a similar thought? A thought that we beer fans, connoisseurs, and snobs will never experience all of it?” From a guest post on Beertography by Joel McClosky of the new Four Saints Brewing Company

Ohmygee! BEERsimple has a new post!

Roasted tomato caprese panzanella? Oh hush.

Craft beer turns down Nickelback *snicker*

Designers! Awesome people! Duvel is looking for a new glass design!

25 Dishes Before 25

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The word “and” as well as ampersands mean a lot to me. I’ve never been able to identify myself as just one thing or from just one place: I’m a reader, a writer, a baker, a golfer, a beer-lover, so on and so forth. I’m from Muncie, Georgia, Italy, and Paris. I’m composed of pieces from each place I’ve lived, different identities…I’m quite a few long sentences filled with lists. This leaves me open to a lot of different experiences in life, and I’m constantly looking around the corner for something new to learn. Right now I’m extremely happy to call myself a baker, but recently I’ve closed myself off to the possibility of being better at cooking, and I want to change that. I want to keep learning and growing in as many directions as possible.

My friend Ashley created a list of 25 things to do in her 25th year, which inspired this idea. My goal is to make 25 different dishes using ingredients I have never cooked or baked with, before I turn 25 (next May). I have started this small list (some are simple and inexpensive, some are pricier), I may remove or add ingredients/dishes, and I’d really love your ideas on what to make with these! My plan is to list the next ingredient with each of these posts so I can get some input and recommendations on how to use them.

I can’t wait to share this with you. And for my friends who live in the area – let’s do some of these together, yeah?

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Infused With Founders Cerise

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How is your sumer to-do list coming? Have you played in a sprinkler yet? Made popsicles? Had a summer fling? Have you found any beer infused recipes to tackle? Was that even on your list? Well it should be.

My weekend was spent crossing things off that list, and we’re going to consider Thursday night as the beginning of the weekend. Thursday I went bowling for the first time since high school, and sang karaoke for the very first time (TLC “No Scrubs,” in case you were wondering). Then Sunday I spent the day with great people out at our local reservoir, playing in the water, laying under the sun, jumping off docks. There were sunny times had by all. And then there was chocolate covered fruit.

We’re going to soak almost ripe strawberries in Founders Cerise, a beer brewed with cherries, and dip them in melted semi-sweet chocolate. The beer is going to take your still-crisp strawberries, deepen and fill out a full, rich flavor. That richness is also then going to balance out the semi-sweet chocolate so that you have the perfect semi-sweet strawberry. And then we’re going to eat them all.

Before the recipe, though, I have to tip my hat to the Beeroness, whose Beer Soaked Chocolate Covered Cherries inspired this experiment. This girl knows her stuff.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries infused with Founders Cerise

1 pint fresh strawberries, just barely ripe
1 bottle Founders Cerise*
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

1. Use a fork to poke holes two – three times in each strawberry.

2. Layer the strawberries in a small bundt pan and cover with Cerise. I used a bundt pan because the strawberries fit perfectly in the roundness of the pan. *If you have to use another pan that is more level, you’ll need another bottle of Cerise to cover the fruit.

3. Let soak for twenty minutes, rotate the strawberries, then soak for another twenty minutes.

4. Drain the beer, and pat dry on paper towels. Let air dry for one hour, or until the strawberries are just a little sticky to the touch. You may need to pat dry every so often to help the process along.

5. Melt and preferably temper your chocolate over a double boiler, dip strawberries and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. If you have not tempered the chocolate, store in the refrigerator for up to one day.

If you can manage, share these with others…you’ll get a lot of smiles.

Monday Link Love

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Drunk texts from famous authors. Yes.

And I thought the peach cobbler I was making was kick-ass…

Is this real life? Westvleteren is finally coming?

Have you ever heard about the history of Chartreuse?

Everyone has a first time

Ladies, five really awesome bike-friendly hairstyles

The Beeroness’s beer soaked and chocolate covered cherries inspired some strawberries I’ll be posting about this week

Which craft beer personality are you?

Have you seen life in a tiny apartment? A really really tiny apartment?

I’m not very skilled at DIY jewelry, but I think I could rock this