No. Not with that processed “cheese food” crap. “Easy” as in “not difficult”.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour. I prefer King Arthur White Whole Wheat
• 2 cups shredded firm cheese – sharp cheddar is a good choice
• 1 stick softened butter
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Dash salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp rosemary

Process

Preheat your oven to 375. Mix everything together in a mixing bowl. Knead together until dough is smooth. It’ll be similar to sugar cookie dough.

Form into bite-sized pieces and place on an ungreased cookie sheet – forming the dough by pressing an amount about the size of a cherry tomato between your palms works well. Optionally – make an X in the flattened balls with a pastry cutter.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes until just starting to brown at the edges. Transfer to a rack to cool. Makes 2 to 3 dozen.

Notes

If you get the timing right, these’ll be slightly chewy and crispy. Incredible.

Do whatever you want with the herbs – this is just a combo I happen to like. I think cayenne and mustard powder are an excellent complement to sharp cheeses. There’s no rule about the cheese, either. Any strong-flavored cheese that can be grated would work fine.

These crackers are an excellent way to use up the odds-and-ends that seem to collect in the cheese drawer.

This is an easy, quick and spicy entree I devised when the fridge was looking sparse.

• 1 can undrained black beans,
• 1 medium onion diced,
• 4 cloves garlic,
• 1 tsp oregano,
• 1/2 tsp basil,
• 1 bay leaf,
• 1/2 tsp cumin,
• 1/4 to 1/3 of a 7 oz. can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce,
• 1 bullion cube – I prefer chicken,
• Smidge of tomato paste,
• Olive Oil,
• Pepper to taste.

Saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent. Throw in the garlic for a couple minutes, then follow with the undrained beans and everything else.

Simmer over medium heat for around 30 minutes or to desired consistency, stirring frequently. Serve over rice.

Notes

This is relatively spicy – increase or decrease the chipotle peppers to taste. It doesn’t really matter how large of a can of beans you use (not a #10 can, obviously) – the other stuff will stretch out pretty well.

On September 29th, I got some time away during a wedding weekend in Denver to do a tour of the Wynkoop Brewery, “Denver’s first brewpub.”

Craig and Waldo (two junior brewers) were kind enough to give my daughter Arden and myself a look around the inner workings of the brewery. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera with me. . . so no pictures.

First impressions – the food is excellent – as is the beer. I had an IPA, a pilsner and and amber, I believe. All of them impressed me greatly. Unfortunately I had these libations right before the tour – so perhaps I didn’t pick up all the details I could’ve. Hey – sometimes you have a choice between documenting or enjoying an experience.

They have a 30 barrel system – with very little automation. As Craig said “we’re basically homebrewing on a 30 barrel scale.” A system tipped towards manual management didn’t hurt the quality of their beers a bit.

They use old milk tanks for their mash tuns, boiling kettles and fermenters. Their boiling kettles are in the same room as their fermenters – so they have real problems with heat control. Apparently all the relevant tanks have glycol systems installed.

Craig and Waldo both started as homebrewers. The tour was more of a conversation than a one-way “this is how we do it” kinda thing. The quality and openness of the tour reflected very nicely on the laid-back atmosphere of the brewpub.

I don’t have much else to say except that the beer is excellent, the atmosphere inviting and the food a couple steps above typical brewpub fare. Absolutely worth a side trip when in the Denver area.

• 11 lbs. dry amber malt extract
• 1/2 lb. chocolate malt
• 1/2 lb. roasted barley
• 5 oz. Northern Brewer – boiling
• 2 oz. Cascade – finishing
• 1/4 tsp. Irish Moss
• 1 quart double-strength french press dark-roasted coffee in the secondary fermenter.

Bring two gallons of water up to 150 degrees. Steep grains a half hour. Remove. Add malt extract and boiling hops – boil vigorously for an hour. Be careful! This wort is very likely to boil over when you’re not looking.

Add finishing hops and Irish Moss, boil 15 more minutes. Sparge into 3 gallons of cold water, top up to 5 gallons if necessary. Primary ferment and rack to the secondary, adding the hot double-strength coffee. The temperature shouldn’t rise appreciably from the quart of coffee you add. Give it a few days in the secondary and bottle as usual. This beer can stand up to age – and I wouldn’t touch it until at least a month in the bottle.

If you don’t use hop bags, now is the time to start. Nobody wants to scoop and sparge 7 ounces of hops.

Notes

Coffee Imperial Stout. This beer was one of my entries (along with Maple Brown Ale) in the Sam Adams “LongShot” contest. I didn’t win. Sob. But both beers are well worth the effort, especially this one. Malty, smooth, a bit of a residual bitterness from the coffee and a bunch of interesting flavors. Nice. This one leaves a taste on your lips.

I used Ethiopian coffee from my client Dean’s Beans at a full city+ roast. You could probably get away with any darker-roast coffee, but do use the good stuff. You’re already spending $45+ on the malt and hops, don’t skimp on the finisher – good coffee.

I think it’s important to add the coffee to the secondary fermenter, as boiling coffee is a great way to lose a lot of the flavor notes it contains. The coffee oils probably interfere with head retention. . . but no worries. The head looked fine to me.

This is an excellent beer – I know I’ll be brewing it again.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (28 oz.) can Italian plum tomatoes, drained, seeded, chopped
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1/4 c. vodka
• 1/4 tsp. dried crushed red pepper
• Oregano to taste
• 1 or 2 lbs penne, bowtie, or other pasta
• Freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• Minced fresh chives
• 1/2 to 1 lb meat – or not. I suggest shrimp, lobster or scallops.

Process

Very easy, very good quick sauce that only requires two ingredients you might not always have on hand – vodka and heavy cream.

Melt butter and oil together in a heavy saucepan. Add onions, cover (to “sweat” them) and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and cook uncovered to reduce until little liquid remains – about a half hour. Fresh tomatoes are excellent – of course – just cook a little longer to reduce.

Add cream, vodka, red pepper and lightly steamed (pre-cooked) seafood. Cook only a minute or so to thicken. Salt and pepper to taste.

Put it over the pasta and garnish with chives and cheese. This makes a surprising amount of sauce. Serves 4 generously, 6 at normal portions.

Tips

• Don’t cook it longer than a minute or two after you add the cream – otherwise the cream with react with the tomatoes and “curdle.” It’ll taste fine, but it won’t look right.

• Steam your seafood so you’ve got it hot as you’re adding it to the sauce with the cream.

Dirt simple – but very tasty – pizza sauce. The trick to pizza sauce is it needs to be a bit saltier and a bit spicier than you might make normal tomato sauce. Cook it down a bit to thicken and let it cool before you put it on the crust – otherwise it’ll half-cook the crust and make it soggy/slimy.

• 22oz can crushed tomatoes,
• 1.5 tsp each basil and oregano,
• A bit of red pepper or cayenne,
• Salt and pepper to taste,
• 2 bay leaves,
• 2 cloves crushed garlic,
• 1/2 finely chopped onion,
• 1 tbsp olive oil.

1. Saute onion in olive oil until tender. Throw in garlic and saute another 30 seconds.
2. Dump everything else in.
3. Simmer 30 to 45 minutes.
4. Cool. Makes enough for 2 large pizzas.

Fresh tomatoes are great too, but tend to be a bit more watery – so thicken by cooking longer and/or using a bit of tomato paste.

My second beer – a brown ale with a twist, based loosely on Charles Papazian’s “Dithrambic Brown Ale” from “The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing”.

The twist? Maple syrup and some tweaking of the hops.

Vermont Maple Brown Ale

Ingredients for 5 gallons.

• 3.3 lbs Munton & Fison unhopped dark malt
• 3.3 lbs Munton & Fison unhopped light malt
• .5 lb roasted barley
• .25 lb black patent
• 1.75 oz Progress hops – boiling
• 1 oz Cascade – finishing
• .5 gal Maple Syrup – I used grade A Amber.

Throw the cracked grains in 1.5 gallons cold water. Bring to a boil, removing the grains after a couple minutes.

Stir in the maple syrup, both cans of malt and the boiling hops. Boil for 45 minutes. Add the Cascade in the last couple minutes of the boil.

Put 2 to 3 gallons of cold water into a clean fermenter, sparge off the wort and top up to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when cool enough.

My goal for this beer is to make a smooth malty brown with a light hoppiness and complexity hopefully improved upon by the maple syrup and roasted barley.

So – I’ve decided to start brewing again. I’ve got all the equipment sitting fallow in the basement and – as I recall from the early 90’s – it made me very happy to brew beer.

Then I graduated college, moved around a lot and ran out of free time. Now I’ve got a house, a bit more free time and a need to brew. So, back again!

My first batch after nearly 10 years away from the hobby:

Strong-like-bull IPA

Ingredients for 4 gallons of beer.

• 6.6lbs Munton & Fison Amber Unhopped Malt
• 1lb Crystal malt
• 1oz Chinook hops – boiling
• 1oz Cascade hops – finishing
• 2oz Oak chips
• .5oz Cascade – dry hop

Bring 1.5 gallons to a boil and remove from heat. Throw in the cracked grains, steep for a half hour and discard.

Dump in the malt, boiling hops and boil for 45 minutes. Toss in the Cascade for the last couple minutes.

Sanitize the oak chips by steaming for a few minutes.

Put two gallons of cold water in a sanitized fermenter, along with the sanitized oak chips. Sparge in the wort and top off to 4 gallons total. Prep and pitch your yeast at the right temp per the usual.

When the primary fermentation has died down, siphon carefully off to a clean secondary fermenter containing the .5 oz Cascade for dry hopping. Let the brew sit for a week or two in the secondary – there should be no fermentation evident.

Bottle. Enjoy!

It’s still early in this beer’s life, but the preliminary results are very promising – malty, hoppy with nary an off flavor. Probably should’ve taken some gravity readings. . . But heck. I didn’t.

I wanted to make a stronger version of an IPA because I’ve been drinking Otter Creek’s 15th Anniversary IPA and it’s just about the best beer ever. Buy it with impunity.

Kusmi-Tea
Earl Grey Smoky Tea

Yup. That’s what the label says. “Smoky Tea”. It’s smoky. It’s black tea. It’s got bergamot oil.

Not your normal Earl Grey, and certainly not for those that don’t like the flavor of smoke. The smoke aroma is quite strong, equally as strong as the bergamot.

Brewed the “proper” way – preheated pot, boiling water over the leaves, 4 – 5 minutes or so for a steep – it’s quite good. It’d be nice if it had a bit more bergamot, but it still balances out rather nicely.

Two thumbs up! This would make a real interesting ice cream. . .