I picked Lindsay up from work the other day and we decided to stop to eat at a bar nearby: Lord Hobo. We went here at a recommendation from her colleague, who referred to it as “Hipster fancy”, too fancy for him. Obviously we had to check it out…

First impression of Lord Hobo: Around 5 o’clock, with the sun still shinning, the interior was dimly lit, dark red walls, and only a handful of people around the bar. Its labeled as a Beer Bar Bistro. I look around at the awaiting empty tables and they are covered with mason and ball jars.

I LOVED IT

So we sit down and of course both grab for the beer menu. They have a really decent selection of beers, both draft and bottled. To someone who isn’t very beer knowledgeable (or myself 5 years ago), the beer menu could be a little intimidating. Thankfully we have experienced a good amount of craft beer places, so I felt pretty comfortable with and excited by the menu. Good variety of ales, a few amber’s, lagers, wheat beers. They also had some smoked German beers, which always makes me happy to see. Several larger oz Belgium bottled beers, which are more pricey, but I’d say are worth it to split with someone.

They also have a lot of IPAs.

(THIS SCARES ME BUT I DONT WANT IT TO. I need someone to hold my hand and take me through the world of IPAs so I don’t hate them anymore.)

Anyways. Normally I would have jumped on a dark smoked beer or one of the wine influenced Dogfish Head bottles they had, but I randomly picked a lighter beer, something I hadn’t had before: High and Mighty’s Fumata Bianca which is a smoked white rye lager.

I was pleasantly surprised with this beer, first because of the stout dimpled glass mug (pictured above) with the High and Mighty fist logo on it. Although dimpled mugs make viewing the beer harder, they are just great to hold on to and drink out of.

The Fumata Bianca poured a hazy light yellow color, which I usually stay away from just because it reminds me of pilsners and I tend to lean towards more complex beers. But despite a slight taste of hoppy bitterness (which I know is not a bad thing!), the Fumata is very much not a pilsner. The smokiness starts out slow and increases as you drink it. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get such a smokey taste from such a light beer. It also had a light citrus taste, as well as some mix of spices, which was probably the rye. It was an interesting beer that I would drink again, but I wouldn’t choose it over a smokey German beer.

Beers and Cheeses

The other night we decided to have an impromptu beer tasting. With an impressive selection of cheeses and spreads of course..

We went to Whole Foods and came back with an assortment of cheeses: goat cheese, brie, gouda, and a sharp cheddar. On the left of the photo is stuff I made:  a mushroom almond pate, pistachio butter, and pesto. Apples and pear slices in the middle, and a basket of french bread. We also had raspberry jam and a quince preserve (never had/heard of quince before but its pretty awesome).

I feel like I need to mention that this was not a prepared tasting of beers and cheeses that would compliment each other. I would love to do something like that/go to beer/cheese tastings but this was not that. We are not that good. The food we chose was based on random findings and what we had in the fridge. :)

Our assortment of beers was somewhat guided by Lindsay and my beer knowledge, but also by what Stony Brook had available..

Crispin’s Honey Crisp Natural Hard Cider (Alice’s contribution), is of course not a beer but a hard cider, or so it claims to be. Its not that it tasted bad or anything.. It was a very refreshing light drink but it was also completely unsubstantial and tasted more like a cold glass of apple juice and seltzer water mixed together rather than an alcoholic cider. I would recommend it to someone who doesn’t really like to drink but wants to pretend they are drinking alcohol..

*SideNote*: I just went to search for the percentage of the Honey Crisp and I am very surprised to find that it has a 6.5% alcohol content! Who knew. But I also found out that they don’t actually use Honeycrisp apples in the Honey Crisp cider… If they lied about the apples who knows what else they are lying about??

Bakalar Original Czech Amber Beer was good I think. (I should have written this sooner after drinking these beers..) It says “Dark Beer” on the label but I’d have to disagree with that, especially since it also says Amber on the label…..(?) It was also in a green bottle so was slightly skunky when opened, but despite these factors I would still like to try other Bakalar beers. Preferably a lager or something “darker”.

Interesting beers of the night were the two X Ale’s from Pretty Things’ Beer and Ale Project. These two beers are brewed from recipes for the same beer using historically accurate conditions, 107 years apart. The first one, released in 1838, is very hoppy and bitter, similar to an IPA. The recipe is from the time when they were making stronger beers that would keep longer in the conditions (no refrigeration…).

I am not a big fan of really hoppy beers (IPAs) but I think that the 1838 is a flavor that you don’t find around very much. And it is extremely cool to know that this is what they were tasting over 150 years ago.

The 1945 version of X Ale is very different than the 1838. Its not hoppy, its a brown, and it is also a much lower alcohol %. Why? Because it was made during WWII and the hops being imported from London were in short supply. The 1945 X Ale did not suffer from the shortages in my opinion though. I thought it was an enjoyably mild beer and I would definitely buy it again.

Get both and try them, its a cool experience. 

Baked Brie en Croute with Apple Compote

This makes it sound a lot fancier than it actually was, but that is what the website I found the recipe on calls it…AND its a Williams-Sonoma recipe so of course its FANCY. Here’s the link that I sorta followed: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/baked-brie-en-croute-with-apple-compote.html

(Mine does not look like that.)

Lindsay and I went shopping the other day so we would actually have food in our fridge and of course I have to stop at the cheese section because well, I’m obsessed with cheese. I really need to find better places to get food, because it’s sad that I get excited about the island of cheese at Stop n Shop down the street.. ANYWAYS I saw the brie section and I always avoid buying brie because even though I love it, it’s way expensive and I never know what to do with it on an everyday basis because I think brie should be in beautiful FANCY dishes (like this one!), which I don’t normally make. BUT I bought a whole circle of brie this time and was determined to make something amazing with it!

I have this very vague memory of going to this woman’s house, who I THINK was a teacher friend of my mom’s. We went to her house because she had just moved in…or she had just had a baby…or two? I dont remember the reason. All I remember for sure was she had a GIGANTIC kitchen with ceilings that were probably like 20 feet high, but to my 10 year-old self seemed infinitely taller. The other thing I distinctly remember is the food (of course). It was here that I first experienced baked brie and apples and it basically blew my mind. I remember sitting at the kitchen counter trying to hide from the 20 or so “teacher ladies” while I hoarded the baked brie and apples to myself. I don’t even remember what it looked like really, all I remember was the brie, the dough, and the apples melded together to make wonderfulness in my mouth. So when I bought the brie the other day I knew I wanted to recreate this elusively fantastic baked cheese wheel from a fuzzy, possibly fake (?) memory into real food that could be in my mouth STAT.

This recipe was wickkked easy. I made the “compote”, which I’m not even sure I am pronouncing right, but it basically means “mixture” or cut fruit in sugar syrup. WHO wouldn’t like that?? So then the apple compote becomes layers in the brie wheel I cut in half and placed in the center of the dough.

OH the dough, I almost forgot. So the real recipe and other recipes call for pastry dough or phyllo dough BUT since I shop at Stop n Shop, my dough options were limited. It was kind of funny but I ended up using the Pillsbury crescent roll dough….you know the ones that are cut into long triangles that people roll up into crescents on Thanksgiving or with mini hot dogs in them? Well, I just didn’t rip the dough apart and sorta made a full piece from it to wrap the brie in. I thought it was creative and it worked pretty well so THERE Williams-Sonoma!

The end result was a beautifully browned doughy blob with melted brie and warm apple compote in the middle. I even FANCIED it up more by using an “actual” cheese plate that my grandma gave me to serve it on, with raspberry jam and some (fanned) apple slices around the edges. FANCY! :)

Annnd Lindsay, her sister Rebbecca, and I consumed the entire thing in one sitting.

SO GOOD.  (Sorry for not saving you any Ashley)

So I made more almond butter…

I wanted to experiment with it more this time so I added different ingredients and varied the lengths of time in the food processor. Of the batches I made I think this one was the most successful. It contains brown sugar, cinnamon, and orange zest, as well as being creamier and smoother from a longer processing time. Basically its amazing.

So as I am temporarily unemployed (AGAIN) and we obviously have no food, I was really struggling to make lunch today. I almost went the route of stealing one of Lindsay’s frozen dinners but decided against it at the last minute. Thankfully we still have our staple items, (which just happen to be three favorite ingredients of mine): onions, sweet potatoes, and apples.

Using these three items, plus some olive oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes, I made the dish above. I really dont have a name for it since its just something I make sometimes, but its sweet and spicy and pretty awesome. If you like all the ingredients of course.

Bonus of the day: I didn’t eat all of the craisins like I thought I did and was able to add the rest to this meal!

Whole almonds + food processor + salt = ALMOND BUTTER!

Pumpkin Bread with Maple Cream Cheese filling

I would suggest using real bread loaf tins for these because I believe the cheap aluminum ones I bought caused the loaves to take longer to bake all the way through. It was a messy process but the flavor in the end was worth it.

Recipe from: http://www.justapinch.com/recipe/dana-ramsey/pumpkin-bread-with-maple-cream-cheese-filling/other-bread?source=fork_fb_pumpkin_bread

More vegetarian meals..

Zucchini, red onions, cherry tomatoes, and asiago/parmesan cheese pizza &

a white pizza with mushrooms, shallots, green apples, with parmesan cheese

So since my sister Shannon is staying with me in Boston for a while, I have been attacking the vegetarian recipe book she brought with her:

Cook Without a Book: Meatless Meals by Pam Anderson

So these are vegetarian Potato feta gyros with an awesome Greek yogurt/cucumber sauce.

(Sorry for the bad pictures, we just wanted to eat them right away)

Apple, brie, and arugula quesadillas with a honey mustard sauce.