Many many years ago, we met a young brewer and I fell in love with his beers. OK, one beer in particular - his Wee Heavy. The brewer, Bill Madden, moved around a few times to other breweries and Beer Geek and I followed him wherever he went. I don't know if he knew he had a fan girl, but I was totally that girl. And then about 10 years ago, we had the chance to be involved when he opened his own brewpub. Over the last 9 years, I have spent many many hours at Mad Fox and with the amazing friends that we have made through there. I got to brew Wee Heavy once... I celebrated my 40th birthday there... We celebrated our 20th anniversary there... We spent more weekend days than I can count at festivals … [Read more...]
Let’s have coffee in Ithaca!
Welcome to crabby season over here at MCM Mama. Y'all know I hate the heat of Virginia summers, so I always go north as often as possible (or run off to Australia and New Zealand where it's winter.) This weekend we visited Ithaca, NY and I was greatly disappointed by how warm it was. But there's a lot going on over here, so I'm joining Deb and Coco for a coffee date. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that we are in Ithaca to visit Cornell University. When you have a kid who loves bugs and birds, it's kind of the place to go. (I've told you about our hissing cockroaches, right?) But man, it's crazy competitive and far from cheap. But who wouldn't love to go to a school with a waterfall in the middle of campus? If we were … [Read more...]
DuClaw Devil’s Milk Chicken Cremini
Thank you DuClaw Brewing for sponsoring this post and sending me the DuClaw Devil's Milk Barleywine. All opinions and the Chicken Cremini recipe are my own. Welcome to the December edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Each month DuClaw Brewing sends me a beer and a friend and I create a recipe. It's a fun time to think outside the box and try a new beer and new food. This month's beer is "Devil's Milk Barleywine", `a hoppy barleywine that will warm you up quick with it's 10% ABV. I like barleywine's but they tend to be higher alcohol than I drink on a regular basis. This version was tasty, but had a bit more "hop bite" than I would usually choose. The hop flavor ruled out my original idea of some type of dessert. Instead, I decided to "hop … [Read more...]
DuClaw Never Tell Me The Odds Pot Roast
Thank you DuClaw Brewing for sponsoring this post and sending me the DuClaw Never Tell Me The Odds. All opinions and the brownie recipe are my own. Welcome to another edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Each month DuClaw Brewing sends me a beer and a friend and I create a recipe. It’s a fun time to think outside the box and try a new beer and new food. This month’s beer is “Never Tell Me The Odds”, a double IPA. This tasty beer comes in at 8% ABV and is a nice blend of hops and malt, resulting in a very drinkable beer. I happen to love the two hops that are used (Citra and Mosaic) and find that the higher alcohol of the double IPAs tend to add a nice sweetness to balance the bitter from the hops. Since fall is here and … [Read more...]
DuClaw Farmhouse Gypsy Philly Pork Roast Sandwich
Thank you DuClaw Brewing for sponsoring this post and sending me the DuClaw Farmhouse Gypsy. All opinions and the pork recipe are my own. Welcome to the February edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Each month DuClaw Brewing sends me a beer and a friend and I create a recipe. It's a fun time to think outside the box and try a new beer and new food. This month's beer is "Farmhouse Gypsy", a hybrid beer that combines their bestseller Neon Gypsy with a saison yeast. Each month when I get my beer from DuClaw, my friend and I brainstorm ideas for the recipe. IPAs are one of the hardest beers to cook with as it's entirely possible to end up with a super bitter recipe if you aren't careful. The saison yeast in the DuClaw Farmhouse Gypsy adds … [Read more...]
Duckpin Bowling and Love the Run 5K
It's Monday, mmmm, Monday. Hmm, that doesn't quite have the same feel as "It's Friday, frfrfr, Friday" does... We have a busy, but fun weekend this weekend. On Saturday, Beer Geek wanted to try out something new to us - duckpin bowling. What, you ask, is duckpin bowling? Well, it's bowling with small balls (3.5-5 pounds) and smaller pins. While it looks a lot like regular bowling, the different weight and sizes make the pins act differently. And I'll be the first to admit that we kept the bumpers up for the whole time we bowled. It would have been a depressing game otherwise LOL. I also found that I actually had a preference of which ball to use, even though they all looked basically the same. Certain balls just seemed to slip … [Read more...]
DuClaw Mysterium Grains of Paradise Bread
Thank you DuClaw Brewing for sponsoring this post and sending me the DuClaw Mysterium. All opinions and the bread recipe are my own. Welcome to the January edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Each month DuClaw Brewing sends me a beer and a friend and I create a recipe. It's a fun time to think outside the box and try a new beer and new food. This month's beer is "Mysterium", a Belgian Spiced Ale. Each month when I get my beer from DuClaw, my friend and I brainstorm ideas for the recipe. This beer sounded a little challenging since it's spiced with chamomile, cardamom, and grains of paradise. Confession: before I had this beer, I didn't even know what grains of paradise were. Turns out that they are a seed that you can grind like you … [Read more...]
DuClaw 865cc Coffee Stout Sweet Potatoes with Candied Walnuts
Thank you DuClaw Brewing for sponsoring this post and sending me the DuClaw 865cc Coffee Stout. All opinions and the sweet potato recipe are my own. Welcome to the November edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Each month DuClaw Brewing sends me a beer and a friend and I create a recipe. It's a fun time to think outside the box and try a new beer and new food. This month's beer is "865cc Coffee Stout", an stout with an intense coffee flavor from the addition of cold steeped, Cafe Racer XXX 865cc coffee which is roasted in Baltimore, MD. I have to confess that this is one of my favorite beers that I've had from DuClaw. I kind of didn't want to cook with it or share it. If you love coffee, you want to try this beer. Since Thanksgiving is … [Read more...]
Five things I’m loving this fall
Happy Friday! This week has been, umm, interesting. This was the first Presidential election where one of my kids was old enough to really be interested and invested, even if he isn't quite old enough to vote. This led to some great conversations and bonding time, but it sure cut into my sleep time. And we all know I'm sleep deprived normally, so you can only imagine how much sense I'm making these days. So, for Friday Five today, I'm going light and easy: 5 things that I'm loving right now as fall arrives. Before that, I want to say thank you to all of our Veterans for all that you do and all that you have done. It's because of you that we even have the opportunity to experience election night. And check out this awesome picture of … [Read more...]
DuClaw Mad Bishop Spicy Beer Cheese Soup
Thank you DuClaw Brewing for sponsoring this post and sending me the DuClaw Mad Bishop. All opinions and the Spicy Beer Cheese Soup recipe are my own. Welcome to the August edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Each month DuClaw Brewing sends me a beer and a friend and I create a recipe. It's a fun time to think outside the box and try a new beer and new food. This month's beer is the DuClaw Mad Bishop, a German Style Oktoberfest. I'm always excited to see Oktoberfest beers start coming out. It means that summer heat is coming to an end and soon it will be my favorite time of year. I love cooler weather, the colors of the leaves, and the darker beers that start gracing the shelves. The DuClaw Mad Bishop nicely fills the niche between … [Read more...]
30th Annual Great Taste of the Midwest for the win!
Every August for the last 7 years, Beer Geek and I have had the opportunity to enjoy the Great Taste of the Midwest. This beer festival is hands down one of the top beer festivals in the country. (I'd say THE best, but I haven't been to every festival out there. Yet.) Before picking up Beer Geek from the airport on Friday, I got in a slow, easy 4 mile run. It hasn't been as hot in Wisconsin as the crazy heat in Virginia, but the humidity was all kinds of gross. I've been struggling with some achilles issues, so I was happy that it didn't bother me much. Once I picked him up at the airport, we headed to Madison. I love Madison. It tops my list of places besides DC that I'd love to live. Ah, well, someday. We started out our fun … [Read more...]
In Pursuit of the Perfect Race
Happy Tuesday, y'all. Hope your Independence Day was a fun! Mine was awesome as I completed my 21st half marathon in 21 states in 365 days. Only two more races to go! Today on Tuesdays on the Run, we are talking about how you choose the races you run. What is your thought process? Mine is pretty straight forward: Run.All.The.Races! No? OK, really my first thought is "does it get me a new state?" If the answer is yes, run it. If no... Create Your Own Visited States Map Is it near a new brewpub? (Map is FAR from comprehensive.) If the answer is yes, run it. If no... Does Shoo have a soccer game or tournament? Yeah, I don't check his schedule first. I'm sure that makes me a bad mom, but soccer season and race … [Read more...]
