So sometimes I have no clue what to make for dinner and will end up just throwing random things in a dish and calling it food. Here's one I made earlier this week that the family enjoyed:
OMG WTF Dinner
half a bag of frozen cubed hash browns (not the shredded ones)
half a bag of frozen IKEA meatballs
about a cup and a half of frozen mixed veggies
two cans of cream of mushroom soup (straight outta the can, do not dilute)
Throw all the stuff in a 8x8 cassarole dish, mix, cover and bake at 450 for about 45 min
Add a bit of salt, pepper, or whatever floats your boat to spice things up a bit
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
April Fools?
From the West Coaster event calendar: Pliny the Younger CASK @ O'Brien's
Sunday, April 1st we will tap the only cask of Pliny the Younger that has ever been made at noon. Russian River loves making cask beer and they have made this very special cask just for this special day. If it is ready in time, we will also be serving Russian River Procrastination as soon as the cask blows.
So, real or fake? A bit of Googling has shown me that PtY has been on cask before, back in 2006 or so. I'm finding contradictory info as to whether or not Procrastination is a real beer - I found a couple of ratings for it, but the Russian River website just lists it as "coming soon" and it looks like Procratioation is RR's little inside joke. O'Brien's website doesn't mention this event at all, so maybe West Coaster is pulling a fast one on O'Brien's? At this point I'm really not sure...
I am so hoping this is a prank - I have made it pretty well known that I am not hip on the whole ultra-limited release and crazy beer hype that surrounds PtY (and other beers that fall into this category). Part of me wants to show up at O'Brien's on the 1st and just sit back and watch... of course I used to get my kicks working at the Mann movie theatre box office the Sunday after a time change (back in the '80s when people didn't have cell phones that updated the time via satellite). Now if it's real, well, let's just say I'd rather be at any other beer bar.
Sunday, April 1st we will tap the only cask of Pliny the Younger that has ever been made at noon. Russian River loves making cask beer and they have made this very special cask just for this special day. If it is ready in time, we will also be serving Russian River Procrastination as soon as the cask blows.
So, real or fake? A bit of Googling has shown me that PtY has been on cask before, back in 2006 or so. I'm finding contradictory info as to whether or not Procrastination is a real beer - I found a couple of ratings for it, but the Russian River website just lists it as "coming soon" and it looks like Procratioation is RR's little inside joke. O'Brien's website doesn't mention this event at all, so maybe West Coaster is pulling a fast one on O'Brien's? At this point I'm really not sure...
I am so hoping this is a prank - I have made it pretty well known that I am not hip on the whole ultra-limited release and crazy beer hype that surrounds PtY (and other beers that fall into this category). Part of me wants to show up at O'Brien's on the 1st and just sit back and watch... of course I used to get my kicks working at the Mann movie theatre box office the Sunday after a time change (back in the '80s when people didn't have cell phones that updated the time via satellite). Now if it's real, well, let's just say I'd rather be at any other beer bar.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Growling About Growlers, Part Deux
Change California Growler Laws is trying to tackle the current CA laws so we won't need to have growlers from each individual brewery. If you want to show support then you can sign the petition here. Now that San Diego has over 40 breweries this law change would really come in handy - I don't have room for that many growlers in my garage!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Exponential Insanity
I now mourn the limited availability of a beer I have never had: Exponential Hoppiness by Alpine Beer Company. Brewer Pat McIlhenney has stated in an e-mail that he will never sell this beer in growlers or bottles again because of the eBay secondary market for it. I have some mixed feelings about this as it will make it harder, if not impossible, to get to taste this beer since it is a fairly long drive for me to get out to Alpine just to have a glass on tap. If I'm gonna drive out there I want to make it worth the trip and be able to pick up some bottles or a growler for myself & ny beer family (Greg and Warren). I do see Pat's point, that all this crazy hype has got to stop with folks waiting in line for hours to buy beer that they are just going to turn around and sell for a profit.
Excerpt from ABC's e-mail on the subject: “Since I previously stated if I ever saw a growler of “Exponential Hoppiness” for sale on ebay there would never be another growler sold again. Don’t blame me, but you can see who to blame on the above link. As for bottles of “Expo” on ebay, I’m seriously considering never bottling it again. This is not just a personal issue, it’s illegal. The fact that people drove down from LA to make a quick buck and denying the locals the chance to buy some is also just plain wrong.”
Now, Pat sounds a bit extreme in his "locals only" vibe, but I think a lot of people are forgetting that he has always been this way. I can't remember the exact year Greg and I got introduced to ABC's beer, but it was probably about 2004 or so and we only heard of it because Greg's son was living out in Alpine. At that time you had only a few ways to get their beer - either at one the few San Diego beer bars that was getting it (Liar's Club in Mission Beach was one) or you could drive out to Alpine and get bottles from the local liquor stores or growlers direct from the brewery. Hell, half the time you couldn't buy bottles at the brewery as Pat wanted to support the stores selling his beer and refused to sell some stuff direct. At that time it seemed he didn't give a damn if anyone outside of Alpine was drinking his beer - forget about LA and OC! Thankfully I can now find Alpine beers in shops like Bottlecraft, and at many of my local haunts such as Ritual Tavern, Toronado, and Small Bar as we don't drive out to Alpine on a weekly basis anymore.
I do see how this sort of limiting can make demand go up and will freely admit that we got the royal treatment at the San Francisco branch of the Rogue Public House by giving the bartender a bottle of Pure Hoppiness - this was back in 2007 and we just happened to strike up a conversation with a patron who had been to San Diego and had some Alpine beer. He started telling the bartender what great beer it was and we had some in our car so we went and grabbed a bottle and gave it to the bartender (who had never had it before). But, in my defense, I'm not selling it on eBay or even trading with other beer collectors online.
Bottom line: Pat brews the beer and can sell it however he wants to (within the confines of the law). And if you think you are having a hard time getting Alpine Beer now, well, it could be a LOT worse.
More info at: West Coaster, San Diego Beer Blog, Brewery Rowe
Edited to add - check out Charlie Blevins' comment on Alpine's Facebook page as he sums it up pretty well for the Alpine residents who have supported Pat from the beginning.
Excerpt from ABC's e-mail on the subject: “Since I previously stated if I ever saw a growler of “Exponential Hoppiness” for sale on ebay there would never be another growler sold again. Don’t blame me, but you can see who to blame on the above link. As for bottles of “Expo” on ebay, I’m seriously considering never bottling it again. This is not just a personal issue, it’s illegal. The fact that people drove down from LA to make a quick buck and denying the locals the chance to buy some is also just plain wrong.”
Now, Pat sounds a bit extreme in his "locals only" vibe, but I think a lot of people are forgetting that he has always been this way. I can't remember the exact year Greg and I got introduced to ABC's beer, but it was probably about 2004 or so and we only heard of it because Greg's son was living out in Alpine. At that time you had only a few ways to get their beer - either at one the few San Diego beer bars that was getting it (Liar's Club in Mission Beach was one) or you could drive out to Alpine and get bottles from the local liquor stores or growlers direct from the brewery. Hell, half the time you couldn't buy bottles at the brewery as Pat wanted to support the stores selling his beer and refused to sell some stuff direct. At that time it seemed he didn't give a damn if anyone outside of Alpine was drinking his beer - forget about LA and OC! Thankfully I can now find Alpine beers in shops like Bottlecraft, and at many of my local haunts such as Ritual Tavern, Toronado, and Small Bar as we don't drive out to Alpine on a weekly basis anymore.
I do see how this sort of limiting can make demand go up and will freely admit that we got the royal treatment at the San Francisco branch of the Rogue Public House by giving the bartender a bottle of Pure Hoppiness - this was back in 2007 and we just happened to strike up a conversation with a patron who had been to San Diego and had some Alpine beer. He started telling the bartender what great beer it was and we had some in our car so we went and grabbed a bottle and gave it to the bartender (who had never had it before). But, in my defense, I'm not selling it on eBay or even trading with other beer collectors online.
Bottom line: Pat brews the beer and can sell it however he wants to (within the confines of the law). And if you think you are having a hard time getting Alpine Beer now, well, it could be a LOT worse.
More info at: West Coaster, San Diego Beer Blog, Brewery Rowe
Edited to add - check out Charlie Blevins' comment on Alpine's Facebook page as he sums it up pretty well for the Alpine residents who have supported Pat from the beginning.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Hooray for Brewbies!
On Saturday February 11th the Epic Hijinks crew* went to the Pizza Port Brewbies festival in Carlsbad. Overall it was a positive experience, but I am learning that I have some sort of mild agoraphobia and can't stand being in overly crowded places which made the festival an uncomfortable place for me to be.
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We rode the Coaster up from Old Town to Carlsbad instead of driving which was great as we could just relax and talk instead of being stuck in the car. We got to check out some great scenery and had a nice short walk over to Pizza Port from the station.
There were a lot of friendly people at the event, we ended up talking with a couple who were at the same table as us and passed around our glasses to share samples of the different beers. It was great to get beer recommendations and discuss tasting notes with them.
Great beer selection with quite a few special beers, including Pliny the Younger which I probably wouldn't have gotten to taste if it wasn't for this festival.
I was lucky enough to win a "goodie bag" in the raffle and got some cool swag from the Blair bars (Hamilton's, Eleven, Small Bar) along with other assorted stuff.
Inside the bottle shop there were free chocolates that were quite delicious, and Alecakes that were frosted to look like boobs.
Bad: as the festival got crowded I started feeling ill, but when I left and walked around the block I felt OK. Guess I just couldn't deal with the crowds - at times it felt like being in a polite mosh pit.
Since it was so hard to move around we missed out on the food which made me extra sad when I realized it was Nate from Toronado doing the cooking.
Motorboat was the ugliest beer I have ever drank, my pour was cloudy brownish-pink and looked like stomach bile. It tasted just fine, but I had to wrap my hand around the glass to avoid looking at the beer.
I had gone to the NCTD site to get Coaster times but there was no mention of the fact that they were having a special "Love Train" promotion for folks to ride 2 for 1 so we ended up all buying tickets for the train when we could've just bought two.
Coaster times sort of suck on Saturday, we had to leave Old Town before 10am to make sure we were at Pizza Port before noon. We ended up there about 11, so we had an hour wait to get into the festival - but then we turned it into a good thing by having pizza for lunch. We also didn't have a lot of choices for return times, we just lucked out that about the time we were ready to leave there was a train coming soon.
Pizza Port's bottle shop wasn't selling beer so we couldn't grab something to drink on our train ride back to San Diego - because being able to drink on the train is just too cool!
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*Epic Hijinks is the name of our drinking "guild" that currently has 3 members - me, Greg and Warren. We are actively recruiting more members as we could always use more fun people to go on drinking runs with us. We run DrinkAbout every third Wednesday of the month and generally start at Ritual Tavern and end at Toronado. We also regularly attend Friday Afternoon Club at Hess Brewing, and any Beer for Breakfast events at Small Bar. Oh, and keep the glass events - your cabinets will end up full of glassware if you raid with us.
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