Winter Storm, cold beer and Pot Pie!

It doesn't get much better than this.  We are expecting a winter storm today/tonight and I went to to the store this morning to fortify out pantry.  You can never tell when the weather is going to lock you in and keep you from wanting to go out and do the basics of the basics like grocery shopping.

After talking it over with the wife, we decided that we would make chicken pot pie today.  It's Sunday, neither one of us have to work, and we had most of the ingredients here at home.  Pot pie is one of those dishes that you don't get too often, but when you do, you want it done the right way.  I mean, I could buy the Banquet pot pies at the store for 75cents, doesn't necessarily make it good eats, just cheap eats.  Even though I do have a fond memory of the Banquet beef pot pie baking in the oven to fill a void, this recipe is some serious eats.

Another thing I like to do before a storm is stock up on my beer supply.  Beer is a staple with me.  I enjoy beer for the taste, the simple mixing of grain and other nutrients, the warming eat creates in my soul and my stomach.  Beer, my good friends, is just as much as food to me as the pot pie that I am going to be enjoying tonight.  Today I decided to go simple.  Just a staple of beer that will keep me going through the storm.  I chose Corona.  We'll get to that later.  For now, let's concentrate on the pot pie.

  Start with a hearty bunch of chicken breasts.  The bone in kind.  DO NOT BUY THE BONELESS SKINLESS BREASTS!  They are good for a very few things and they will rob your pot pie of flavor.  Plus, the bone in kind are much cheaper and easy to butcher when you get them to the point you want.  This recipe takes 3 breasts but I had a package of 5 in the freezer.  I can always make chicken salad.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and roast the breasts for 40 minutes if thawed.  If frozen, roast for up to 80 minutes!  Before you roast them, rub the breasts with olive oil and dust heavily with salt and pepper.  You can't go wrong with this.  They will come out so soft and tender and smelling so good that you will want to eat them up before putting them in to your pot pie.

 Ummm, roasted chicken!  Peel it and cut it up!

Cut yourself up about 2.5 cups of onions and 2 cups of carrots.

Take your 12 TB of butter and your onions and heat them till transcluent.

Add 3/4 cup of all purpose flour.  Stir like crazy!

Stir it up like you would a roux.

After you add your 5 cups of stock with the 2 bouillon cubes, this is what is should look like.

Add your tsp pf tarragon.

Add your tsp of dill.

1/2 cup of cream

All your chicken

Add the carrots

Now the peas...

Here it is.  Stir is up under low heat.

Add three scoops to a gratin dish.

Roll out your puff pastry.  Just about enough to cover your dish plus a little more.

Cover the dish.  You should get about 5 dishes out of this pot.  Throw it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

The result.

Corona!  Not a cheap beer, but a decent beer.

Cerveza es muy bueno!

The beer is Corona.  We see it in the stores, in the bars, on the T.V.  Is it any good?  Weeeeelllllllll?  Here is my thought on Corona.  It is just a step above the Miller and Bud world that we hear too frequently on the television.  It has a bit of taste that is Corona.  It is a skunk.  Corona has continued to brew their beer in clear glass that allows for the light to get in.  One of the worst things that you can do for beer is give it sunlight.  Much like a vampire, Corona needs the dark to be truly decent.  However, when you think of all the time the beer is taken out of the coolers and into the store, there is a lot of time that the beer is subjected to sunlight.  A lot of time the beer can go skunky.  Whenever you have a Corona, does it not taste a little skunky?  Maybe that is the taste that Corona is going for, or maybe it is just the taste that the beer builds from being in those clear glass bottles.  For $8+, this beer is only truly well bought in case there is nothing else left to buy.  Corona has a great marketing theme, a great packaging, but the product is a little less than desired.  If you have $8 and want a good 6pack, throw in the extra buck and buy a micro brew.  

Going to California with an Aching in my Heart

Okay, it's winter, there is snow on the ground, the vegetable garden has long since been put to bed.  It's time for comfort food folks and this next post is about the most comforting thing I can imagine.  Think potatoes, butter and cheese.  The good things in life!  Add these all together and combine with sour cream and onions and you are now sitting in high cotton.

My wife and I were married in the spring of 2000 but had dated for a few years before we got hitched.  The first time I went to meet her parents, sometime in the spring of 1998, my mother in law made this scrumptious side dish that has been a staple on the dinner table ever since.  The recipe is simply called- Cheesy Potatoes.  With a name like that you really can't miss.

**** WARNING****  This side dish is no where near healthy.  It is laced with a lb of cheese, multiple sticks of butter, carb riddled taters, and cups of sour cream.  This recipe will not make you lose weight nor will it make your abs more profound.  If you eat this dish more than 3 times a year you may want to consult your cardiologist.

Now, with the disclaimer out of the way, let's move on to the cheesy potatoes.  Like I said, I have never added up the calories and fat content of this spud diddly dumptious of a treat, but I am sure that it would rival the likes of the Triple Whopper, the Quad Stack and quite possibly the entire greasy buffet at the local Golden Corral.  Starte with 2 sticks of butter.  Not margarine, not oleo, not I Can't Believe it's Not Butter!  Real honest to goodness butter.  The stuff that comes from a cow you know!?  That's 2 sticks.  Put it in your pan and get it melty.  There are the taters.  You need 8.  Boil em but not too much.  You don't want mashed taters here.  Think hashbrowns and you have got it down.  Boil em and throw them in the firdge to cool off.  You can do this overnight and let them sit in the fridge all night if need be.  They need to be cold.  Then skin those smokewagons! 

Once you get them skinned you need ol grandma's knuckleduster.  I hate this piece of kitchen equipment.  It's dangerous and it's time consuming but it works well.  Unless I want to drag out the Cuisinart and get that dirty, I have to use this.  Be careful you don't lose your knuckles.  Shred your taters like you would hash browns.  The taters should be semi hard to shred.  Almost 3/4 cooked.  If you shred them and they turn to mashed taters, you cooked them too long.  They should be shreds like above.

Get an onion.  Chop the hell out of it.  I love onions!

Throw the onion in the butter and cook till transparent.  About 5 minutes or so.

Don't do this to your thumb.  Ouch!  I love sharp knives, but I hate it when they cut my flesh.  Time for a cleanup!

Much better.  Most people don't enjoy human blood in their food.  Latex gloves are always a great thing to have in the kitchen in case you need to chop jalapenos or if you slice the hell out of your fingers.  I always keep a few pair in the pantry.

Sour cream.  It's a good friend of mine.  I like it on taters, dips, umm well, everything.  Don't skimp, buy the full strength stuff.  Also, from someone who worked at a dairy, there is no difference between the "off brand" and the cool stuff.   We used to make the same stuff but just put a different label on it.  Buy sour cream that is off brand and you are buying the name brand stuff but for a dollar less.  Trust me on this folks.  I'm an expert:)

Here is the mixture so far.  1 lb of butter, 1 lb of sour cream, onions.  Here comes the cheese.  1 lb of taco shredded.  Ummmmm, yeah, this is pretty good stuff.

Cheese.  Wow, I love it.  This is what it should look like when you melt it with the butter, onions, and sour cream.

Add your taters.  Stir it up and make sure you get all the butter and cheese all over the taters.

Stir it up!

Pour into a casserole and ....

If there wasn't enough butter.... dot with butter.  Cover and bake for 45-60 minutes at 350.  Make sure it is warmed through.  This goes well with any sort of meat dish.  Like I said, be careful, you might want to have these every night but know that they are completely full of fat and cholesterol.  Enjoy them in moderation.

So I went west coast for this post.  I left the great state of Michigan to head to California.  So I picked up a 6 pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale the other day and it has been sitting out in the back of my truck getting chilled.  I'm glad I remembered about this.  You don't get much better of a Pale Ale than this brew.  It's totally commercialized, it's available in your local supermarket, it's $9/6 pack, and it is worth every bit of it.  SNPA

My name is Stew! How do you do?!

When I walked outside this morning I was greeted with a white blanket of snow covering the ground.  Instead of shedding a tear while missing the warm temps and sunshine I decided to make stew.  I can't think of too many things that make a person smile than hot bowl of homemade beef stew on a cold day.  My stew is less beef than vegetables but I still throw a big ol hunk of beef in there to flavor everything up nice.  If you are a vegetarian, you could easily make this stew sans the beef and still come out on top.

Why are we talking about stew on a blog entitled The Beer Dude?  If you thought beer was just for drinking you are missing out.  Many stews call for a cup or two of wine for added flavor.  And while wine is a great addition to any stew, beer has many complex flavors that add to the taste just as wine.  So, next time you are throwing together a big pot of stew for your family, remember, don't forget the beer. 

Start with a whole mess of veggies.  I use carrots, celery, onion, garlic, shallots, potatoes, and mushrooms.  Use as many veggies as you want.  They add most of the flavor to your stew so don't skimp.  If you want to use something else in your stew go right ahead.  If you like okra in your stew, add it!  Corn?  No problem!  Add whatever you think you might like.  There is no wrong recipe when it comes to your own stew. 

Here's the big piece of meat.  This is a about 1.25lbs of round steak.  For Christ sake DO NOT buy pre cut up stew meat!  Most grocery stores will charge up to $1/lb for simply pretting the meat for you.  Round steak IS stew meat so buy a piece of round steak and cut it up yourself.  It takes about 30 seconds and you will save a couple of bucks.  If you are in an area that has a butcher shop, buy the round steak and have your butcher cut it up for you free of charge.  Also in this pic you will see a jug of beef stock and 1 cold beer.

Dust your meat with about 4 TBS of AP flour as well as ome celery salt, black pepper, salt, onion powder, and garlic powder.  You can buy a seasoning packet for beef stew at the store, but it is basically a lot of salt and the other inggredients listed above.  Plus, they charge you $2 for the seasoning packet and if you have all the stuff to home there is no reason to buy it.  Cover the steak in the mixture and set aside.

In a cast iron pan, add your beef with about 3 TBS of olive oil.  Brown the beef.  Do not cook the beef!  You are just browning the meat and searing it to add the flavor of the spices.  Cook on high heat and let cook for about 8 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Pot is coated with some beefy goodness that looks a little like this.  Don't fret, you did not ruin the pot.  You are now going to get all this scrumptious stuck on stuff into your stew.  This is how you do it.  Take a beer, use a good beer.  Something that you would drink normally.  Don't think you can add garbage beer into your recipes and it will work.  Worng!  Wrong!  For this stew I used an IPA from Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville, MI.  It is pretty hoppy and bitter but will hold up with all the ingredients. 

Boil this down and make sure to scrape all the beefy goodness off the sides of the pot.  Should take you about 5 minutes of boil time.  Add the stock to a large bowl and then add the beef.  Let it sit in the solution and soak it up.  You can soak this overnight if you want.  It won't do you any harm.

Onions!  Lots and lots of em.  Chop em thick.  I like texture in my food.  I can eat puree when I'm an old man with no teeth.  For now, I like big chumks of food that I have to tear with my mandibles.  Arrrghh!  In the pot I have all the veggies with about 3 TBS of olive oil.  Sweat these muthas!  Turn the heat up and stir.  Watch as how your vegetables will turn start to turn transparent.  When they get to this point, they are done.  Turn your heat down.  Dice up the taters.  I bought yukon gold B size.  I quarter them.  Lastly, cut up your mushrooms.  I use 3 different types.  Wood, button and portabella.  Slice and dice and add them to the mix.

Put this into a large stew pot, turn on medium heat, cover and walk away.  This should take about 3 hours on med heat.  Stir every once in awhile to make sure you aren't sticking to the bottom of the pot.  While this is cooking, enjoy a beer.  This feeds a HUGE crowd so if you are making it for just a few, be prepared to freeze some or eat leftovers for a week.

After my hard work was done for the day, I chose to reach for a Whitsun Ale from Arcadia Brewing Co. located in Battle Creek, MI.  When I was working in BC, I used to stop in to the pub after work for a few pops before going home.  It's a great little place right in downtown Battle Creek.  Good food, even better beer and usually you can just sit on a stool and be left alone no matter how crowded.  Whitsun is the Arcadia summer beer.  Fortunately, it doesn't go after the taste of Oberon.  It is different, darker and more complex.  Whitsun has tones of citrus and pine as well as some other things that I just like to call summer.  I don't know, it's like a beach day every time you open a bottle.  I am stocking up for the winter so I can have that scent and taste all winter.  I have a lot of good memories from Arcadia Brewing.  My friend John Archer and I used to stop in after work and polish off a few pints.  While we talked about work the conversation always went back to how good the beer was.  I miss those days with John.  He is a good friend that I miss and I hope is doing well.

This Whitsun is for you John.  Hope you are doing well no matter where you are.