Tasty in July

We still have a giant list of wine to catch up with, but we've had a few interesting other new tastes as well.  We're going to try to get the wine tastes up before long as well.

1389. Snapea Crisps - These are baked snap peas.  We had the lightly salted version, but they have other flavors as well (we bought the Caesar, but haven't tried that yet).
1390. Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues Taco shells - Apparently they don't make these anymore (must have been limited time since we bought them only a couple weeks ago and they're not on their website).  They do have regular blue corn taco shells though.  The Red Hot Blue ones were delicious and a little spicy.  
1391. Spinach noodles - Megan made this recipe and the noodles were excellent!  
      
1392. Archer Farms Dark Chocolate Himalayan Salted Almonds - These are really really delicious.  
1393. Kale pesto - We got a huge bunch of kale with our farm share so we made some pesto with it. It's a sharper taste than basil pesto, but it was still quite good.

Now for a few beer tastes.

1394. Verhaeghe - Duchesse De Bourgogne - This was nice, but was a bit thinner and sweeter than expected.  
1395. Gueuzerie Tilquin - Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l’Ancienne - This is a blend of old and new lambic. Megan didn't like this as much as Brett.
1396. AleWerks Brewing Company - Tavern Ale - This is an okay brown ale - went well with food.  
1397. AleWerks Brewing Company - Colonial Wheat Ale - This is a pretty nice wheat ale.  
1398. AleWerks Brewing Company - Bitter Valentine - Neither of us is a huge fan of DIPA beers, but this was pretty good - hoppy, but still well-balanced by malt.
1399. AleWerks Brewing Company - Twenty Knots - This is supposed to be a tripel, but it's awfully thin and lacking the traditional tripel flavors.  We really think this doesn't match the characteristics of a tripel and needs some modifications by the brewers to match style.
1400. Bells Brewery - Oberon Ale - a great spicy wheat beer.  
1401. Boulevard Brewing Company - Boulevard Smokestack Series - Saison Brett - Obviously good - I mean look at the name!  Brett loves saisons anyway - add in the earthiness and funk from Brettanomyces and this was awesome.
1402. Brasserie Rochefort - Rochefort Trappistes 10 - Classic quad from Belgium.  
1403. Lagunitas Brewing Company - Brown Shugga - Barleywine is a bit big for summer, but this is still good and it was a cool evening.
1404. Foggy Ridge Cider - Handmade - Crisp and fresh like a champagne, with obvious yeasty/bread notes, but obviously apple flavors too - nice.
1405. Shmaltz Brewing Company - He’Brew / Cathedral Square St. Lenny’s - A rye IPA brewed with Belgian yeast - a little bit torn on this.
1406. Hauser Estate Winery - Jack’s Hard Cider Conewago Orchard - Definitely not a sweet cider, this is crisp and refreshing and comes in cans!
1407. Sweetwater Brewing Company - Sweetwater Blue - Blueberry notes on the nose, but not a lot on the palate (which is fine in our opinion).  Okay, but not super.
1408. Humboldt Brewing Company - Humboldt Red Nectar - Dominated by malt notes, this would be better with food than drank alone.
1409. Anchor Brewing - Liberty Ale - One of the first Cascade hop IPAs (brewed in 1975), classic and still tasty.
1410. New Holland Brewing Company - Blue Sunday Sour (2014) - Really really good (and reasonably priced) sour ale from New Holland.  So happy we have another bottle of this in the cellar!
1411. Brouwerij De Troch - Chapeau Faro - Faro is a lambic-style beer, but with added sugar (post fermentation).  This was really sweet and not our cup of tea at all.  
1412. New Belgium Hop Kitchen #6 / Odell FOCOllaboration Pale Ale - This is only available on tap on this side of the country and that's disappointing.  We're a bit tired of the IPA trend and a pale ale, with its softer hop levels and better balance with the malt, is much more our taste right now. If you live near Colorado and can get this in bottles, we highly recommend stocking up!  
1413. New Belgium / Three Floyds Lips Of Faith - Grätzer Ale - This is a traditional Polish style ale made with oak-smoked wheat.  This is smoky, spicy, and great with grilled food.   
1414. Birra del Borgo - Rubus - Italian sour with raspberries.  Just say yes!  Crisp and bright without being overly fruity.
1415. Fiddlehead - Second Fiddle - The name represents their secondary status to Heady Topper. Honestly, this is better than Heady Topper in our opinion.
1416. Green Flash Brewing - Palate Wrecker - Not as much as a palate wrecker as the name might suggest.  We've certainly had far hoppier, far more ridiculously hopped beers that weren't nearly as polished or tasty as this.  While certainly very hoppy, it's still nicely balanced and not just an overwhelming sense of chewing on hop flowers.

Blueberry Hill!

Tis the season for berries.  So far it's mostly been blueberries at our local u-pick-em place, Three Birds Berry Farm, so we spent the Fourth of July gathering a gallon in the unseasonably reasonable temperatures.  So here are two recipes we've tried and they both seem to have turned out really well.

Brett picking berries

1387.  Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake

This is adapted pretty closely from Chef-in-training.com  The biggest difference was that we subbed the buttermilk for sour cream and 2% milk mixed to roughly the right consistency.  I also added in a few frozen berries from last summer that we hadn't eaten yet, but this seems like it would work well with all frozen (but not thawed) berries.  We froze several cups of berries with our vacuum sealer so this is an option for a nice winter dessert.

A delicious and moist pound cake that is bursting with refreshing and amazing flavor!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter
• 1¾ cups sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 3 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 3 cups fresh blueberries
• 2½ cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Lemon Glaze

• 1½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon milk
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest together for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat an addition minute per egg.
4. In a separate large bowl, mix and combine dry ingredients together.
5. Add dry ingredients alternatively with the buttermilk to the butter/sugar/lemon zest/egg mixture. Fold in blueberries.
6. Grease and flour either 2 large bread pans or 3 small bread pans.
7. Pour batter and bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 min.
8. Let loaves cool and pour glaze over them.

Lemon Glaze

1. Whisk glaze ingredients together until smooth

1388.  Canned Blueberry Pie Filling

We wanted to make sure we can save some of these delicious berries for enjoying later in the year, so we made 4 quarts of pie filling and canned them to be shelf stable.  Now when the cool days of Fall have us hankering for berries, we can open two jars and fill a pie crust.  This is taken from The Nap Time Chef, which has an easy-to-follow directions for anyone new to canning.

Ingredients

makes 2 quarts

10c.	blueberries, washed and dried
½ c.	water
1    ½c.	sugar
6 T.	cornstarch
5 T.	bottled lemon juice

Instructions

1. Wash and dry the blueberries and set aside. Sterilize 2 quart jars along with the lids in boiling water or in a dishwasher run without soap.

2. In a large stockpot bring the water, sugar, corn starch and lemon juice and to a boil.

3. Pour in the blueberries very carefully and bring the mixture back to a boil, stirring continuously with a long spoon. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes while the berries release their juices and the mixture thickens, becoming blue and glossy.

4. Set a funnel over a quart jar and ladle in the blueberry mixture, leaving about 1″ of room at the top. Repeat with second quart jar.

5. Placed the sterilized lids on the jar and seal them with the rims, only tightening the ring as much as you can with your own hand. Do not force it.

6. Place the jars in a pot of boiling water standing on end. Make sure the water covers the tops of the jars. Boil for 30 minutes, starting the timing when the mixture has returned to a boil after the jars have been added.