Saturday, January 31, 2009

Beer Jello: Experiment One

For a week now, I've been ranting about beer jello. Last night I finally got off my ass and made some.

I decided to go with Goose Island 312 "Urban Wheat Ale" and apricot jello, since apricot wheat beer tends to be good.

I began by boiling the beer (I used all beer, no water for maximum flavor and alcohol content), though I'm not sure if the boiling cooked off any of the alcohol content. I dissolved the jello into the hot beer:



Then I stirred in cold beer, and poured the mix into mini pilsner glasses (I have a lot from attending beer fests):



and chilled until firm. There was no problem getting the beer to gel properly.

Verdict on the final product? Tasty!



My guinea pigs were Amanda (who said she'd eaten the legendary Japanese beer jello) and Bob, my bartender at the Cardinal Tap Room who would probably eat anything I gave him. The apricot flavor overshadowed the beer taste for the most part, but there was distinct hoppiness that made the whole dessert suprisingly pleasant.

I have many more experiments in mind, especially using unflavored gelatin so I can control the sweetness and flavors...But this was pretty darn successful for a first try!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

not kosher, not vegan, not healthy but damn does it look good

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/28bacon.html?_r=1&8dpc

Ideally I would have a slice of this accompanied by sliced raw tomatoes, my bacon bread and a nice scotch.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Vegan Mystery

Can someone please explain to me why everyone in the Chicago BD/SM scene is vegan?

They sure like those disgusting vegan cupcakes, though. Syreeta makes hers using a depression era recipe from the bad old days when people couldn't get actual animal products.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

a toast!

Thanks to all the holiday breads I made I have branched out into white bread (the homemade kind has so much more "ooomph" and flavor to it), bacon bread, herb bread and french bread. I am thinking of only having homemade bread in my home from now on-time will tell.
I found a recipe for making butter. Yes, butter. I am going to make my own butter and spread it on my own homemade bread and have the best frickin' toast the world has ever seen.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Beer jello shots!


So, I misunderstood a text from my friend Jamal today and thought he said Piece, the bar where he works is now serving beer jello shots. Apparently he meant to say that tonight they're serving beer AND jello shots. But now I have a bee in my bonnet to make beer jello shots!

I think the key would be to use a cheap pilsner with raspberry jello, ala framboise lambic, or the polish tradition of lacing beer with raspberry syrup. But everyone who I've proposed this idea to has thought this is a really bad idea. But there are recipes online!

People have no sense of adventure! Except for the Japanese, who apparently sell a beer gelatin dessert pictured above (that I somehow missed when I was living there, but they also make beer soft serve, so this doesn't shock me one bit).

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

My friend is Syreeta is a genius


Ok, Kirstin was afraid she killed the blog with the ham dick (she didn't, it's fierce), so I decided it's time for the first post of '09....with cake dick!

I have gained a bazillion pounds since moving to Chicago (and am attempting for the umpteenth time to get back down to my California weight), and I blame this on the fact that two of my best friends (Vally Val being one of them) are bakers. The other is Syreeta, who is a pro decorator who runs a cake biz called sugar and vice. I heart Syreeta a whole lot. Check out the cake she made for Samantha's birthday above.

Anyway, she hosted a Liberace party last saturday and made LIBERACE COOKIES!!!! They were far more perfect before I brought them home in a baggie, so use your imagination:



She works at a bakery all day then comes home and bakes these for us! There were also piano cookies (which I ate, oops!) Mmmm, black frosting.

Syreeta gets props for having MAD SUGAR SKILLZ.