a story of food and the evil temptation that is calico beans

So lent is over. My abstinence from meat was a complete success. I had but one close slipup, one major test and one item to end my run on Easter Sunday.

The near slipup came less than a week ago. We were over at a friends last thursday for drinks and this nice guy was going around offering up a platter of shrimp fresh off the grill. I wasn't going to eat any, but Noel assured me that shrimp were just bugs and didn't count. Standing in the darkness I grabbed one off the tray and almost had it in my mouth when I realized it was no common shrimp. Rather it was the lesser known, but just as tasty, bacon wrapped shrimp. Darkness went from foe to ally and in one swift motion I was able to discretely slip the bacon off as I popped it in my mouth. I then deposited the bacon in the grass as I grabbed for another beer. Hopefully their dog found it later on.

My major test came at DJ's Dugout in Bellevue last saturday with just one day left to go. It's safe to say that DJ's is not veggie friendly. I was simply looking for some lunch to sustain me while watching basketball. While I was hoping for a bean patty option amongst the long list of burgers and chicken sandwiches on the menu, I wasn't terribly surprised by the lack of one. I was, however, disappointed there were no fried mushrooms, jalapeno poppers or a bean alternative to beef/chicken for the nachos. My only options were onion rings, mozzarella sticks, and spinach dip (salad doesn't count) - of which we ordered all three (i was hungry). The onion rings were bland and had mushy onions, the mozza sticks were good but there were too few of them and the spinach dip was boring and not at all worth the inflated price tag. All in all I was rather disappointed in old Darwin and Joy. When surveying just outside the tiny town of DuBois Nebraska I was at least able to get some breakfast for lunch (and they don't take plastic).

It all came to an end sunday. At Noel's folks there was a bevy of veggie friendly foods. Noel and I took squash and our hearty bean dip. There was a corn/noodle dish, asparagus, homemade mac n' cheese, and a ton of deviled eggs. The ham sat there looking as good ham ought to. I like ham, I do. I just didn't have the urge to eat any to the point where it was almost unappetizing. So I didn't have any. Then there were the calico beans. This was a dish I could always eat as a child despite my finicky palate. It's been a while since I've had them, and I forgot all about the secret ingredient - bacon. Three spoonfuls in I saw the bacon, considered it briefly, continued eating and went back for seconds.

From hear out who knows. I don't plan on preparing any meat dishes at home. With Noel being a vegetarian it just doesn't make sense. I don't know if I'll be going back to DJ's so that won't be an issue, but in similar situations I'll probably order the wings.

St. Patty's Beer

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So my Irish Red turned out a little more red than I thought (that's it on the left). It also tasted a little different from what I thought it would as well. Don't get me wrong - it tastes great just different. It was rather light but smooth with an almost sweet flavor. As I haven't made this style before it's hard to assess how my little additions affected the recipe, but here's a go:

1) The toasted malt. This beer had a little something extra to it. The flavor was nice and round so I'm going to say the added specialty grains helped out.
2) The added hops. I'm not sure about this one. I think the extra hops might have pushed it slightly out of balance. I noticed this more on the fresher beer, so maybe it's ok now. Still it's no copper ale so further thought is needed.

3) The food coloring. Total success! The beer had a nice dark green color with green foam (middle picture). Next time it might be worth trying 1 drop of blue food coloring to get it a little lighter.

We had a fun St. Patty's party! Saturday we had people down for green beer, kegged stout, faux ruebens, shots of whiskey (thanks to tito) and irish cream, and other snacks and what not that Noel put together. Plus we finally got to break in our new bar stools and outdoor fireplace.

Last night we were pretty low key. Had ruebens again and watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I tried mixing the irish red and stout to make a black and tan (top right pic), which didn't look great but tasted awesome. Noel cracked into the wine Jason and Corrie brought over saturday that we, as crappy hosts, forgot to open.

Sunday Riding

Went for a spontaneous bike ride yesterday. Not sure where the inspiration came from exactly. Maybe it was wonderbike's promotional video or maybe it was the sun on my back and the urge to stay outside. Maybe I just wanted to check how my future commute will go. All I know is that my planned spin around the block turned into a 12mile jaunt.

It was nice. I started in Antelope Park near my house and headed south on the rock island trail. The trail runs relatively flat between south and old cheney streets with moderate alternating inclines and declines. After a sharp descent from old cheney to 14th I was off the trail. 14th street was hilly. It has decent sidewalks until you get past pine lake road, then it's crap. In the future I think I'll take the back roads south of pine lake. After a short detour and a minute to catch my breath I headed back. It wasn't pretty, but I made it.

All in all I was encouraged. Water was flowing, birds were chirping, trees were doing what trees do - for lincoln's standards it was a fairly scenic ride. Despite a chaffed ass and sore legs I feel pretty good today. It took me less than 30min each way despite riding my 1-geared / knobby tired cruiser bike. I think I can do it - I think I can commute.

Promotional Video

Team Wonderbike is looking for new recruits (according to the email I dug out of my spam-box). After an extended hiatus, I actually did break out the cruiser bike yesterday. Man am I out of shape! I need to get my commuter bike up and running, as my work commute is going to be doubling soon. My office is moving where everything is moving in this town - down south. That means my daily commute will go up from ~5miles to ~11miles.

With my commuter bike I should have no problems, and hope to make the trip on a daily basis. It's a hybrid road/mountain bike with fenders and I have a pair of saddle bags for it. The new route will still be mostly trails and there's only a couple big inclines. Unfortunately the back rim on my commuter bike is totally f-ed up and needs to be replaced. I could make the journey on my cruiser bike - but it wouldn't be fun.

When Will Winter End? At Least There's Stout

I took this pic as a response to brunoswims post a week ago tuesday. That day I promptly went home from work and poured a pitcher of creamy stout from the keg. After forgetting to post the pic the next day, I opted against it. After the snow we got last night I rethought it appropriate.