fakery

As some of you may recall, I've been trying out a variety of non-alcoholic beer since I quit drinking. I never really cared for O'doul's, although it's drinkable in a pinch, and most of the others are just pretty awful. I'm quite fond of Kaliber, but for some reason I can't get it in this part of the state, and so I've been mostly drinking St. Pauli NA, which is ... not my favorite. However, I discovered last night that Labatt - which previously offered only Nordic, which I did not like - now has a non-alcoholic Blue. I am pleased to note that this tastes exactly like I remember Blue tasting, although at this point God only knows how accurate that memory is. If any of you drinkers out there want to do a taste-test and let me know, I'd appreciate it, but until then, I've got something that'll get me through my time here in the frozen north, until I can move back to the civilized world (for values of the civilized world equal to "places where I can get Guinness products").

In other news, this article about making cheap steak taste really good is both extremely funny and something I need to try in the near future.

cooking with beer

I was inspired yesterday to attempt some beer cookery. I've been meaning to do this but my girlfriend has been resistant to the idea, not being a fan of beer, and I've generally been loathe to buy a six pack since I would then have several bottles mouldering in my fridge. Fortunately I found a beer store with a wide selection of singles, and Erin was out of town for the weekend, so I decided to see what I could come up with for a planned evening of video games with a friend.

I've wanted to try beer in a crock pot for a while, and I opted to go the ubersimple route - two chicken breasts cubed, in the pot with the beer, on high for two hours, after which I added teriyaki sauce and let it sit until the chicken fell apart. I used a Yuengling lager for this, and was quite pleased with the result. (Though next time I'm going to use a little less teriyaki.) I considered adding some flour to the end result to turn the liquid into more of a sauce, perhaps to put in something taco-esque, but I wound up just serving it over rice and broccoli, which worked out quite well.

To keep up the theme, I pulled out the old beer bread recipe, using a bottle of Lagunitas' Brown Shugga'. I was hoping that the overall effect would be both sweet and dark, but I was kind of disappointed. The overall effect was just a little odd, and a little too sweet - I had forgotten that the recipe called for sugar. I think I would have been better served switching the bottles, because I know from experience the Yuengling makes a good bread. Next time, I guess.

As a side note, I'm a taster. I check the flavor of my food every single step of the way. It is incredibly odd to not do so until the food is towards the final stages (i.e. cooked until non-alcoholic). It was disconcerting enough that I think I'm fairly unlikely to make a habit of this, although I do intend to keep it in mind for special occasions.