I love running and I love craft beer. I love them both even more when I have the opportunity to combine them at a brewery run club. Sometimes I even hit the trifecta of beer, running and Skirt Sports... As I mentioned in the article I wrote for Skirt Sports, I'm not alone in that love. In fact, I'm super excited that it's popular enough that many of the local breweries have a running event during the week. Here are 5 brewery run clubs you can try out if you live in (or are visiting) the Northern Virginia area. Port City - Every Monday night at 7pm, Port City Brewing and Pacers Running host a fun run called Joggers and Lagers. Choose to run 1, 3, or 5 miles and finish at the Tasting Room. If you are feeling hungry, check out … [Read more...]
DuClaw El Kabong Lamb Tagine
Welcome to the March edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Once again, I am featuring a beer that DuClaw Brewing sent me. This month DuClaw sent me a lovely beer called El Kabong. El Kabong is an apricot chili beer clocking in at 6% ABV. I know you are thinking "Chili beer???" (I know I was), but it was actually quite tasty. The chili flavor was not overly strong and paired nicely with the sweetness that came from the apricot flavor. In the past, I haven't been a fan of chili beers, but every once in a while I find one I like. This beer was tasty with a little chili kick but it did not slap you in the face with the chile flavor. I did find this beer a little more challenging to cook with, but I think the tagine recipe came out great. I'm … [Read more...]
DuClaw Quick Start My Heart Balsamic Vinaigrette
Welcome to the February edition of "Cooking with Beer"! Once again, I am featuring a beer that DuClaw Brewing sent me. Since February is National Heart Month, it's appropriate that the beer I'm featuring is called Quick Start My Heart. DuClaw Quick Start My Heart is a strawberry milk stout with 6.8% ABV and a medium body. It has flavors and aromas of chocolate and strawberry with a hint of coffee. You all know I love my dark beers and this is a tasty beer that answers the question of "beer or dessert" with a resounding yes! As you might imagine, this is another beer that could easily work well with in the recipe I created for beer cupcakes. I think it would be great combined with a strawberry glaze on top. I had a lot of fun with … [Read more...]
ZOOMA Run Love Challenge, Hardywood Brewing, and Snow
This weekend was crazy busy. I crammed in two separate virtual races, a soccer game, an overnight visit to Richmond, and now it's snowing. I'm actually enjoying the snow because we had plans this morning, but canceled them when we saw the snow coming. This meant I slept in until 10 am (hence this late post) and the boys are still sleeping. I think we all needed the sleep more than the event we were going to attend. One of the big things on my calendar was the ZOOMA Run Love Challenge. I planned to run a 10K and I wanted to beat the time I ran my last 10k training run in: 1:02 and change. Spoiler: I did not run a 10k and my 5k was one of my slowest. It was a balmy 25 degrees yesterday with not much wind and a fair amount of sun, so it … [Read more...]
Five Wisconsin brands I always buy
Confession: I haven't lived in Wisconsin since I was 2 years old. But I still consider myself a Wisconsin girl. Why? Because growing up as a military brat, it was the place that always felt like home. The family farms were there. All of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc were all there - many in the same small town. Somehow, I've always stayed a Wisconsin girl at heart. I mean, I can even say "Go Pack" with the right accent. LOL And part of someplace being home is the food that you associate with it. While there are plenty of things I would never look for around here (herring comes to mind LOL), there are certain brands that are made in Wisconsin that I still love. Johnsonville brats - These are still some of the best … [Read more...]
Date night, Old Ox Brewing, and Super Bowl Ads
As I mentioned in my Coffee Date post, last week was pretty rough. So, come Friday night, I was ready to not cook dinner. Beer Geek and I had a gift certificate to a local restaurant and a few restaurants had extended DC Restaurant week, so we headed out for a decadent meal. Because I'm trying to cut dairy out of my life, I had an amazing Tuna Tartare instead of our usual cheese selection to start. I followed this up with some incredible scallops and sorbet for dessert. Sadly, I have no pictures to share with you as I felt awkward taking picture. Saturday was a quiet day for the most part. I think I did 5 or 6 loads of laundry. Apparently when I get stressed, my usual less than amazing housekeeping skills get even worse. I did manage to … [Read more...]
DuClaw Naked Fish Sweet Potato “Mole”
Welcome to another installment in my "Cooking with Beer" series. I've really been enjoying this and have another awesome recipe for you. This time DuClaw Brewing sent me their Naked Fish to cook with. Naked Fish is a Chocolate Raspberry Stout that clocks in at a nice low 4.6% ABV. The chocolate raspberry flavor is accomplished by the addition of a chocolate raspberry coffee. When I first heard of it, I immediately thought it would work well in my Sweet Baby Jesus cupcake recipe with a raspberry topping instead of frosting, but I wanted to try something new. (But if you want to try it in the other recipe and report back, I'd love to hear!) When I think savory chocolate, the first thing that popped to mind was Mexican mole, … [Read more...]
Thinking out loud about winter
Winter. The season most Virginians love to hate. It's been an interesting one this year, so I'm joining up with Amanda from Running with Spoons for the Thinking Out Loud link up... This last week, Virginia has really gotten into the concept of winter. After a December filled with warm days and runs in skirts, January has included some wicked cold days and is now gearing up for what the "experts" are calling an historic storm. Estimates are all over the place (seriously, one guy said 5"-20" - way to cover your bases), but the general consensus is that we are going to get walloped. The only question is when. As a prelude to the SNOW, we got a little bit of snow on Wednesday evening. Beer Geek and I were already out for a run, so we got … [Read more...]
Favorite weekend of the year
Each year, Beer Geek and I attend the Great Taste of the Midwest. It is the best beer festival I've ever been to and each year it does not disappoint. In fact, this whole weekend was pretty amazing. Thursday we took the boys to the local festival, where they rode a bunch of rides like the tilt a whirl and bumper cars. Gotta love small town USA celebrations - rides, junk food, and live music. Fun for all. Friday, after a 7 mile run around the neighborhood, Beer Geek and I headed to Madison. We always stay at the same hotel, so we got checked in and chilled out for a bit before we headed out to dinner with friends. We decided to bike over, which was great, except I was wearing a dress. I may have provided some entertainment for the … [Read more...]
A (Summer) Day in the Life of MCM Mama
Once again, I'm joining some other bloggers to share a "Day in the Life". I've done a few of these before. I've shared a typical school day, a day near the holidays, and a Friday complete with volunteering at Shoo's school. Since there is no such thing as a typical day for us in the summer, I chose to grab pics of last Saturday. I had a feeling it was going to be crazy and I was right. 5am: Yes, I woke up at 5am on a Saturday. Why? Marathon Training. Thanks to the squirrel digging in my attic (I think it's finally gone now!), I moved to the couch in the middle of the night, which meant crickets and the cat kept me from sleeping soundly. I really was not happy to get up, but I managed to drag myself up and grabbed an almond butter … [Read more...]
Bucket List Race: Spokane to Sandpoint Relay
Every once in a while, I stumble upon a race I want to do someday. I've decided I'm going to start a series of "bucket list" races so that I don't forget about them LOL. This is not a sponsored post, just me talking about what I love: traveling, racing, and beer. And this race has them all. Here's my first one... Spokane to Sandpoint Relay We all know I love a good relay and this one looks like it would be awesome. Like many relays, it's about 200 miles, broken up into 36 legs. It's on the smaller side with fewer than 100 teams, but every leg is timed and volunteers are plentiful. Speaking of volunteers, S2S offers a "hire a volunteer" program where you can hire volunteers (each team must provide 2 volunteers) from local charities. The … [Read more...]
DC to Cape Cod or Bust
Happy Monday! I'm sitting in an inn on Nantucket Island this morning. It feels like way more than a few days since I left home! I'm doing my usual Monday linkup with Tara and Erin today to tell you about the fun I'm having. Wednesday morning, after we got the kids off to school, Beer Geek and I headed to the airport for a quick flight to Boston. Everything went smoothly (how often does THAT happen?) and we were heading to Hull by early afternoon. We checked into the Nantasket Beach Resort, which I highly recommend if you are ever in that area, as it was lovely. It's also a short walk from the start line of Ragnar Cape Cod. This was the view from our room: … [Read more...]
