Foodie Fun

Milltown & Great Divide Brewing’s Hercules Double IPA

/ foodsweatandbeers / 8 Comments

Good evening friends.  Hope you made it through Monday.  I’ll admit, after a lovely weekend of loafing (with a hearty amount of cleaning yesterday) I expected to jump into the exercise sea with arms wide open. But alas, the world (and my anxiety levels) had other plans. So after a long day at work, I rushed home, got the mail, paid the rent, got a toilet repaired, and started organizing what I’m going to need when the beau leaves at the end of the month for Philly (i.e. what he’s going to take with him.) On the list:

  • TV
  • Knife set
  • More body pillows to cuddle with and cope with my loneliness

Those are the big three, I guess.

But body pillows aside, I will truly miss having him around and given my glum thoughts about the future sans beau, it only made sense to nix cooking and have a date night!  We decided to finally make good on a LivingSocial deal that I got FOREVER ago for Milltown, a “gastropub” in Carrboro, a town that I feel like could be described as “Chapel Hill’s artsy hippy little sister.”  The last time I was at Milltown was during Lent, when I had given up eating red meat, so my dreams had been thwarted.  However, this time, I knew they could come true. “What was my dream?” you may be asking…

Bahn Mi ::$9
Miso Marinated Grilled Steak with Radish, Baby Carrot, Pepper, Red Cabbage, and Bok Choy Slaw Tossed in Asian Vinaigrette on a French Roll

Doesn’t that just sound sexy?

Patience, my friends.

Appe-teaser!

Noting the beau’s craving for wings as we passed Ba Da Wings (located conveniently across the street from Milltown), I knew he needed some, and needed them fast.  I’d add a description of the wings from the menu, but they seem to have mistakenly put the description of the nachos, because I know these chicken wings weren’t offered as “topped with chicken”.  They had a sort of spicy Asian-inspired sauce, with a (maybe?!) blue cheese, whipped kind of dipping sauce. I had two, and left the rest to the cravings of the beau.  He was pleased as punch.

In the meantime, we split an appetizer beer (what? You don’t have those?)

Founder's Brewing Centennial IPA

This Founder’s Brewing Centennial IPA was a great kickstart beer, with a fruity smell but not overly floral, which I liked. It had a nice maltiness which counteracted the slight sweet fruitiness. Ryan said he probably could not have had more than one of these. I think I could’ve…. But I didn’t.

Because all of the sudden, guess who was coming to dinner?

Bahn mi?! FOR ME?!

On the menu was the Bahn Mi: Miso Marinated Grilled Steak with Radish, Baby Carrot, Pepper, Red Cabbage, and Bok Choy Slaw Tossed in Asian Vinaigrette on a French Roll.  All this for $9.   I’d seen a friend of mine eat it before…. the image didn’t do it justice. The steak was juicy, slightly chewy but accented so well with the slaw that the crunch was present enough for me.  The fries, skinny and lightly seasoned, were delicious and had just the right about of softness to fold into two. Which I love to do. Just in case you were curious….

The other star of the show?

Great Divide Brewing Company's Hercules Double IPA

From the brewer:

Hercules Double IPA is not for the faint of heart. It is, however, fit for the gods.  HERCULES delivers a huge amount of hops from start to finish. Its hefty backbone of nutty, malty sweetness balances its aggressive hop profile.  10% ABV

Considering the high ABV, I thought this was surprisingly smooth.  The color was orange-golden color, with very little froth/head to it (which was important considering it was only a 12 oz pour). Initially, it smelled like apple juice to me.  I really couldn’t even taste the alcohol, I tasted malt and I tasted a sneaky little fruit (the sneakiness of the taste was more like…. I could smell it through my mouth. If this doesn’t make sense to you, I apologize, but if you’ve ever had this happen, you know what I mean.)

Both beers were great. Ryan had the Smoked Cheddar Mac and Cheese with Smoked Ham, and it tasted like a warm, gooey hug in the most delicious way possible.

This night filled my belly with great food and beers, and my heart with great feelings. Though soon, we’ll be living far away, (SAP ALERT BEWARE!) I absolutely love and cherish every date night we have together. He’s just the best dining and drinking buddy, and the most fun to talk to, and too many gushy things to put in public.  I’ll get over the whole not living together thing soon enough, but I’ll never get over what a pleasure it is to date your best friend.  That’s something that just won’t go away.

Blogspiration and Some No-Bake Cake Bites!

/ foodsweatandbeers / 13 Comments

Hey there all, and happy Monday!  It’s lunchtime around these parts and, after a weekend of wine by the pool and BBQ with old friends, that means salad!

Chicken Salad, sounds peachy!

Today’s salad included:

  • Grilled chicken
  • Bed of spinach
  • Low fat Mexican cheese blend
  • Salsa
  • Roasted red pepper and banana pepper
  • Fresh orange pepper!
  • White Chia Seeds

It was fantastic.  I’ll be honest, when I first reached out to Anthony at Swanson Health Products, I was just interested in trying some new things.  These chia seeds, though only used as a topper so far, are quite tasty and great for adding a little crunch.  I haven’t the foggiest idea of whether or not there have been any health benefits to me yet, but soon I’d like to use them in something more creative than “sprinkle liberally on top of your food, no matter what it is.”  So keep an eye out for that.

There was one thing I was looking for, though, that I was BEYOND excited to try!

Candles, a food processor... Looks like a hot date ahead.

Swanson sent along some Fancy Whole Medjool dates.  Even though I knew I wanted them, I had no experience with them.  So I turned to the blogger who I see use dates in the most fun and creative ways: Averie at Love, Veggies, and Yoga!  And her recipes using dates were numerous. What to do, what to do…

Luckily for me, I was also using some Blogspiration from Meghann at Meals and Miles and pre-cutting my own carrots for the week ahead (much cheaper than pre-cut or baby carrots).

Chop chop

How could I merge these two into the perfect treat?

ENTER: Averie’s No-Bake Oatmeal Raisin  Carrot Cake Bites!!

Though I’m not about re-writing folks recipes when I literally didn’t change them at all, I did document each step with excitement.

All my ingredients in the blender!

I was lucky enough to have every ingredient on hand, so I followed the instructions to a T.

Vroom vroom: tastiness being blended!

I used the mini version of my Ninja Food Processor which is actually the most efficient food processor I’ve ever tried for how affordable it was.  If you’re in the market for something small, portable, and affordable to make some smoothies, grind your own breadcrumbs, make these little cake bites, or blend some sexy daquiris. truly check this out.  I got mine at Target for something like $49 and it doesn’t owe me a penny.

Cake bites fit for a jellyfish!!

These turned out perfect. Delicious, really showcased the taste and versatility of the dates, and really resembled the flavors of a carrot cake without making me feel like they were syrupy sweet!!  I will absolutely be making more, and have a newfound appreciation for these dates!  I’ll have to find new ways to use them.

In fact, I think I’ll have one or two for dessert.

  • Are you interested in getting some free Swanson Health Products goodies to review on your own blog? Then check out the Swanson Health Blog for all the details.

Have you ever used dates?  If so, any suggestions for a date newb like myself?

Back to work!!

Mez in Durham and a BEER REVIEW!

/ foodsweatandbeers / 10 Comments

Yesterday, thanks to a SaveMore deal (of the century!!) I finally went to get my hair done (done = cut and partial highlights) in Raleigh. For $49, I was able to get both done.  WELL worth the 30 minute drive to randomsville Raleigh when it normally costs me $110 at best (part of the reason I’ve been putting it off…)  I’d say it was a great success, going from this:

Lucky you, not able to see my 5 inch roots.

To this:

And you wonder why they call me "The Golden Child"...

Not the best pictures, as both were taken from within my car, but you get the idea.  With my fancy new hair, I only had one option. SEMI-FANCY DINNER DATE WITH THE BEAU AND FAM!  While I tend to eat at home or make my foods to eat elsewhere like, 75% of the time, every now and then, I pretend to be a fancy pants and head out on the town.  When my hair is polished to a high sheen, that is definitely one of those times.  On the Monday Menu was Mez, a “Contemporary Mexican” joint in Durham.  The table started with some shared guacamole and salsa.

GAUC-ATTAUC!

Salsas de la Casa

The Guacamole was described as “Made fresh daily with avocados, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, cilantro, lime juice. Served with crispy tortilla chips” and the Salsas de la Casa as “A trio of fresh salsas served with tortilla chips. Salsa Mexicana, roasted tomato-chipotle and tomatillo-avocado.” My thoughts?

The guacamole was off the chain.  There was the right amount of spice and a perfect smoothness, and I felt like I could taste each of the ingredients listed, especially the jalapenos! The salsas, on the other hand, truly didn’t taste worth the $6 price tag.  The “Salsa Mexicana”  which is what I assume was the Pico de Gallo bowl, was almost flavorless, other than mostly just tomato. The tomatillo-avocado was pretty quality, but I felt like the dark red one on the left was a glorified mexican “sauce”. That being said, the beau inhaled it, so clearly it couldn’t have been too bad.

For my meal, I was feeling adventurous so, due to the recommendation of our server, I ordered the Roasted Tamarind Pecan Crusted Salmon Served with chipotle sweet potato gratin and sauteed Spinach. My plate looked like this:

Delicioso!

The piece of salmon was ENORMOUS and this plate could’ve EASILY been two meals.  As I was a Ravenous Rachel (not to be confused with a Negative Nancy), though, I wolfed down nearly every bite on the plate (duh, I’m the queen of the Clean Plate Club).  The salmon was cooked medium, and had a wonderful pink color all the way through. The spinach was fresh and the chipotle sweet potato gratin, while not tasting like chipotle, was AMAZING!  It was like a mille-feuille made entirely out of sweet potato layers (the literal translation of that French term is thousand-leaf, and I knew that without looking it up, and that proves that my education at Garnet Valley High School was entirely worthwhile.) My only complaint about the entire meal was that the pecans that crusted my salmon were a little overcooked (read: burnt).  I pushed a few off the salmon, and focused on the ones that weren’t burnt, which added a wonderful crunch to the fish.

I’d like to say I chose my beer to best pair with my meal but honestly, I just love this next beer.

Bell's Two Hearted Ale

When I used to work at some crummy Ameri-Mexican place while I was finishing out my senior year at UNC that served sub-par burritos and orgasmic sweet potato fries with a habanero mayo dipping sauce that I need to recreat, my favorite beer we served was Bell’s Two Hearted Ale.  When I’d serve it to a customer, I couldn’t help but sniff the bottle (yup, I’m a creep) because the aroma of this beer is heady, hoppy, and floral. This IPA poured a light amber color, and since I was already intensely familiar with the aroma, I dove right into the taste. The carbonation is delightfully bubbly and the taste hits the mouth with so many fruit flavors that I can’t make them out one by one, all I know is it’s a flavor explosion of AWESOME!  It’s pretty damn hoppy (just how I like it) and, at 7% ABV, not so boozy you’ll feel drunk after 1 or 2, but packs a reasonable punch if you’re throwing them back.

This beer is widely available and, if you’re a newbie to the beer world (or for some reason, haven’t tried it, and feel like you should redeem yourself for your foolish ways) GO GET A SIX PACK! Or even just try one in a pick-6, but bring it to a party and people will want to be your friend.  It normally costs around $10-11 at my grocery store in Durham, NC, so it’s definitely a step up from a sixer of PBR, without being a snobby craft beer.

Now I’m off to figure out what to eat TONIGHT! My prediction: Wanchai Ferry Kung Pao Chicken.

EDIT: CONFIRMED! KP CHICKEN IT IS!!

I’ll take my wine German and my cheese French…

/ foodsweatandbeers / 6 Comments

TGIF, bloggers and bloggettes! Hope everyone’s weekend started off with a BANG. Mine is currently starting off with more of a low rumbling as the thunder is finally catching up to the lightning that I’ve been seeing all night.

Even though I’m a MUCH bigger fan of beer than I am of wine, when opportunity rears its grape-squeezing head for a wine tasting of German wines with two German girls, who am I to not heed the call?  Knowing that I had to meet my resident fraulein friend at 5:45 and I got off work at 4:45, I decided that was plenty of time to squeeze in the second level of Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. I haven’t completed the program, as I won the DVD in a giveaway long ago, but it’s always there for me if I need an intense workout in 20 minutes.  Considering I hadn’t done the Level 2 circuit before, and I hadn’t done heavy working out recently, it only made sense to dive right into it. The result?

Oh, hey sweaty crazy face. missed you!

I also decided that I could wear the workout clothes that got me through my 16 minutes of exercise on Monday because “they couldn’t have gotten that sweaty/smelly in 16 minutes, right?” Wrong. I was very happy that there was no one else in my “gym” aka “the space in between my tv and my couch in my one bedroom apartment” to enjoy the refreshing beads of sweat I flung left and right.

After a speed shower and a drive-by makeup application, I deemed myself ready to face the world.  Veronika and her pal from Germany, Jessica, were off to A Southern Season (my second time in less than a week: a new record!) in Chapel Hill for their fridays uncorked, special wine tastings on Friday nights always based around a theme (a country of origin, a type of wine, etc). Tonight’s featured wine style was “Rieslings from the Mosel River area in Germany.”  Translation: Riesling, and five pours of it.  Riesling would have to be my favorite type of wine, courtesy of an all-too-long fall break 2008 during which we drank only Riesling all the time. Since then, I’ve been hooked.  For $12 a person, this night seemed like a perfect deal.

Bottoms up, ladies! (Veronika, Jessica, Me!)

We grabbed our classes at the front and were ready to go.

#1 Peter Lauer Ayler Kupp "Senior" 2009

Our first and second wines were the dry type of Riesling.  #1 was a nice way to start the night, with a bit of a bite to the wine. We were supposed to be aware of the aromas of apricot and honey with a taste of pear and peach. While I definitely got the pear, the peach eluded me. I’m definitely not a sommelier by any means.

 

#2 Spaeter-Veit Piersporter Domherr Kabinett Trocken 2009

#2 , another dry Riesling, was a little smoother than the first, though we were all aware of a sort of acidic hint in there. Again, apricot was supposed to be in there, but I’m just not familiar enough with apricot to even know what that tastes like. The one cool part about this wine was that it came from the Veits, one of the Mosel’s oldest wine growing families. Even though it was a 2009, I felt like a very legit wine drinker sipping on it.

Prefere de Nos Motagnes - HELLA GOOD CHEESE!

With these wines, we were also supposed to pair them with the softer, spreadable cheese. It didn’t have a strong taste, but it was smooth and delicious.  We may or may not have taken enough of these little cheese samples to harvest the napkins and start our own cocktail bar.  (I’m going with we may’ve…)

 

 

Next on the agenda were the sweet wines.

 

 

#5 St. Urbans-Hof Piesporter Goldtropfchen Auslese 2007

 

#3 Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett 2009

Numbers 3 and 5 were both definitely sweet, with 3 smelling a lot like apple and tasting sort of peachy. It was delicious, and I’d love to have a bottle with me right now.  5 I’ll admit was a little… gosh, I want to say salty because the pourer mentioned salt, but salty’s not the word.

Allow me to show my classlessness for a moment by saying what I really mean.  You know that feeling you get when you get a REALLY cheap box of wine. I’m talking Fran-zia, a juice box of wine, something like that. And even if it’s not touching the cardboard, you think to yourself “maybe this wine tastes a little like there’s some cardboard in it.” THAT is the feeling I got with number 5 (which, ironically enough, was the most expensive wine of the night, normally sold for nearly $50 a bottle.)

And then we have the crown jewel of the party.

#4 Meulenhof Erdener Treppchen Spatlese 2009

This wine was everything I could ask for in a Riesling. It was sweet, but not like… pouring honey down your throat. It totally had the taste of a baked apple in there, and was smooth and paired perfectly with the harsher cheese of the night, a Sharfe Maxx. If this bottle of wine was not 25 dollars but, instead, 3 for 25 dollars… I would’ve bought one (ok, yeah. I’m cheap. Such is life.)

It was glorious to live like a rich gal for a little evening, and I even picked up a tasty 4 pack of beers for future reviews.

BEER HEAVEN!!

We finished the night off at City Beverage with some tasty foods and beers and friends.  And now I’m in my cozy bed, getting ready to nuzzle off for the night.

Do you ever like to do anything that makes you feel wealthier than you are?  If so, what is it?!