Find the Beer - Use the Beer

My mother came home one day with a beer bread recipe. The only problem is that my parents currently live in a dry county. This means no alcohol of any kind - wine, beer and certainly not liquer. We even went to a restaurant and tried to order an unopened beer, but no luck.

So my poor father had to go on a 42 mile round trip to the county line to come home with a 6-pack of Shiner Bock. www.shiner.com After a wonderful chili and beer bread dinner, I searched for Bon Appetit recipes that would use up some of the beer. I came across three that sounded great together.

- Barbecued Texas Beef Brisket pg 277
- Hot and Smoky Baked Beans pg 243
- and Santa Fe Potato Salad pg 156 (no beer here, but a good side dish)

Brisket is a tough portion of beef that must be cooked for a long period of time and comes with a whole side covered in fat if you get it untrimmed. It was easy to find in this state so finally I had no problem finding all these southwestern ingredients.

I cooked the brisket for over nine hours and it came out very well. The baked beans were very good - so good in fact my mother is trading in her "superbean" recipe she has used for 36 years. The Santa Fe potato salad was also good, but was not the taste of a normal potato salad. It had no mayonaise and had olive oil and cumin - so probably healthier. The whole dinner went together well and since most could be made ahead or in the case of the meat, cut at the last minute, I think I'll use the whole meal for a party or other get together sometime.