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.

Dinner for the Boss

My mother and I were planning a dinner for her boss and his girlfriend. She had already told him I am a wonderful cook - so the pressure was on. I thought about doing a regular menu I've made before - soup, Caesar salad, lasagna, dessert - but those were not Bon Appetit recipes.

So I perused Bon Appetit and found similar recipes that would let me knock off three more recipes. I made, with help,

- Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Soup (pg 103
- Caesar Salad from Barefoot Contessa
- Sausage, Cheese and Basil Lasagna pg 213
- Green Beans with Roasted Onions pg 440
- Vanilla Pudding courtesy of Martha Stewart

On the whole, dinner was very good and I made almost all the dishes ahead of time which allowed us to enjoy the dinner conversation. The soup was a bit bland one day one, but has slowly improved. I think next time I need to more carefully measure and also use less eggplant, which is basically tasteless. Also, I think it was amazing how much soup was made since the recipe claimed it only made 8 first course servings - more like 20 I think.

The only other comment I have is that finding basil in the winter is like pulling teeth. I can hardly find any, though when I did find some plants, I bought several and have been growing them in the kitchen window. I should know better, but the rest of the menu was so ideal for a cold day.

As a centerpiece for dinner, I used a bowl full of lemons. Scott thought lemon bars would be a great way to use them up, so he made Double Lemon Bars on pg 700

Back to Cooking

It has been a long time since I've done any cooking. Between school and work and all the commutting it involved, I've hardly felt like going to the grocery store. But now school is over (woo-hoo, MBA) and we've moved to Texas. I have time to get back in the game. The Bon Appetit cookbook has called my name, especially the Black Bean Tostadas on pg 354. They were easy to make and were surprisingly filling. All the ingredients were easy to find as we have moved to Texas, a.k.a tortilla heaven. Frying them up was a snap and the whole recipe could be made in advance.

The next recipe was Baked Potato Wedges with Seasoned Salt pg 428. I replaced regular potatoes with sweet potatoes and they were excellent! I've made several other recipes, but they were not in the book as I've been tempted by my cook's illustrated and the Barefoot Contessa.

It's nice to be cooking again.