Hello friends,

Let me take you on a journey through the mind, heart, and mouth of the consumate beer enthusiast. This tale will be in many parts as it is part instructional and part reflection. A memoir to what may be a new frontier in my life as a brewer, of the home variety. Make no mistake, this was a first attempt, at what I am now lovingly referring to the Bitches Brew. Now I did not take on this path to thirst quenching on my own, I was joined by friend, colleague and fellow brew lover Ben Jeavons.

We set out to make a Pale Ale that could actually be consumed by our friends without them having to pretend to like it to save our feelings. We had some tools, a book and some patience and through it all we had fun. We dreamed of a delicious concoction all our own and we were over all pleasantly surprised with our creation. Remember that you can do this. People have been brewing beer almost as long as they have been baking leavened bread.

Patience is really your key ingredient. Fermentation, Carbonation, Bottling and Boiling all take time. A lot of time. Some secrets to our success may have been our ability to neglect things. But in some places it did create minor havoc. Forgetting that you are brewing Beer and that the fermentation could take a few weeks to complete is the biggest point I can stress. So relax and have a cold one.

What we used:
1. Car Boy – 5gallon glass bottle
2. Boiling Pot – can be a stock pot, needs to hold over 2galons of liquid
3. 2stage Filter – removal of particulates before entering fermentor
4. Funnels
5. Homebrew starter kit – included wert, yeast, grain and hops (and some instructions)
6. Towels
7. Kitchen
8. Home Brewer’s Guide
9. Patience

First, Boil the grain in an athletic soc basically, for a certain amount of time so that the natural flavors of barley into the water. A sort of barely tea if you will that needs to be slightly boiled. Make sure that the grain doesn’t sit on the bottom or it will taste burned which is bad. To get around this obstacle we tied some string to the top of the bag and then suspended it from a spoon that went across the top of the kettle.

Afterwords you will have a lovely smelling bag that looks like this:

From this point on its boil boil boil, starting with the wert and ending with the hops, which are added at 2 different times. The wert is the sweet honey syrup and is as thick as such. Once that wonderful roll starts after a few moments you add your first portion of hops into the drink.

After the first hops you wait a while (about 20min) and through in the last portion and wait about 15min. Then its time to move it to the car boy which is the last stop for the brewing. This is a single staged fermentation. 2 stage fermentation essentially uses 2 carboys. You move the contents from one to the other during the fermentation process. It being our first time we decided that single stage would have to suffice.

As we poured the very warm elements into the carboy for cooling and eventual fermentation, we used 2 stage filtering to try to limit the impurities going into the bottle, which, in retrospect, may have been an error. As it got close to the end we could only pour a couple of pints at a time before having to stop and scrape all the goo out of the 2 filters.

Super badass right?

Next you have to add water to fill the carboy to the appropriate level which is the last line before the neck (approx 5gal mark). As you add your cool water to the warm brew, you will want to watch the temperature drop to the desired area for your yeast to be added. To warm you risk killing the little monsters and too cold they won’t activate quickly.

Our last step in this post is the topping off and hiding. You want to cap your newly minted batch quickly and feed a long tube out of the top into a spill catching bucket. Why? Well within the first few days, if all was successful, your yeasts will go to town eating all the sure they can find in the bottle and foaming like crazy. This foam, combined with the low ceiling in your bottle will need to displace itself somewhere. A little bucket nearby should be good enough.

Store your masterpiece in a dark (seriously lightless, a closet would be great), cool, dry place and allow at least a week and a half so that all the heavy foaming is over before you put the secondary (fermentation) cap on that has a water valve to allow the bag gas to escape and the good environment to promote the fermentation process.

Now, have yourself a beer and relax. You did some good work.

Thanks for reading.

Zach (brewmaster in training)

Direction
1. Heat the over 375F. Grease 9×13 Casserole Dish.
2. Combine 2 cans Cream of Chicken, 1/2 pint Sour Cream, 1 Can Rotel, Cayenne Pepper, Taco Seasonings, and Dried Cilantro and mix well. (If your mixture looks heavy then you can add up to 1/2 Chicken Broth… I skipped Chicken Broth this time)

2. Start Layer the Ingredients.
a. 1st Layer: 1/2 Shredded Chicken

b. 2nd Layer: 1/2 Soup Mixture

c. 3rd Layer: Shredded Tortillas

d. 4th Layer: 1/2 of Shredded Cheese

e. Mix 3/4 Cup Shredded Cheese to the Soup Mixture
f. 5th Layer: Rest of Shredded Chicken
g. 6th Layer: Shredded Tortillas
h. Rest of Soup & Cheese Mixture (e)
i. Sprinkle 1/4 of Shredded Cheese

3. Now into the oven for 40 minutes!

Here is the Mexican Casserole!!

You can eat this casserole with Tortilla chips or as it is!! Thank you Mrs. A!!

Happy Cooking!
Mrs. H

Ingredients
1. 1/4 Cup Coco Powder
2. 1 Tablespoon Espresso Powder
3. 1 Stick Melted Butter

4. 2 Large Eggs
5. 1/2 Cups Sugar
6. 1/2 Cup Flower
7. 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
7. 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

Direction
1. Preheat the oven to 375F
2. Add Coco Powder and Espresso Powder to the Melted Butter and mix well

3. Add Sugar to this mixture and mix well
4. Add Eggs to this mixture and mix well

5. Add Flour and Baking Powder to this mixture and mix well

6. Pour this mixture to the greased 8×6 baking pan and bake for 30 minutes

Seriously, this is it. As you can tell from the pictures, I just kept adding the ingredients to the one bowl and mixing it, and going to the oven. How easy it can be!!

Here is the final product.

I whipped some heavy cream and put on top of the slice of brownie. Yes!! This completed my day!

Happy Baking!
Mrs H

Japanese Potato Croquettes are not difficult to make but definitely tedious process. So I remember when my mother made ones for dinner, it was special to me. And usually she made comments like “I hate making Potato Croquettes, the frying oil makes me sick…” and so on… ahahahahahaha…..

Well, it is worth making one, the home made Potato Croquettes are juicy, soft, and creamy. I bet every family has a different recipe, but I am making one that I remember from my childhood.

Ingredients
1. 10 Small Yellow Potatos
2. 1/2 lb Ground Pork
3. 1 Medium Yellow Onion Diced

4. 1 Cup Frozen Green Peas

5. 2 Tablespoon Salt (I use Sea Salt)
6. 1 Tablespoon White Pepper
7. 1 Egg beaten

8. 1 Cup Flour

9. 2 cups Panko Bread Crumbs

10. Canola Oil, enough to fill pan 1/2-inch and plus 1 Tablespoon

Directions
1. Peel the Potato and boil it till it becomes tender, and mash.

2. In the medium size skillet, add 1 Tablespoon of canola oil and saute e Ground Pork and Onion. This is a side note but I just wanna say I love my Global Knife. Check out the Global Website for the product line.

3. Add Salt and Pepper for the taste.
4. Add Frozen Green Peas to the Pork Mixture and mix well. (Careful not mash the Green Peas)

5. Add the Pork Mixture to the Mashed Potato and mix well.

6. Using an ice cream scoop to shape the Potato Mixture.
7. Roll through flour, dip in the beaten egg, and roll through Panko Bread Crumbs.

8. Fry each Croquette in Shallow Canola Oil until brown on all sides.

The Potato Croquettes, this is what I remember from my childhood.

My mother served the Potato Croquettes with Worcester sauce and small side salad. Next day, you can make the Potato Croquettes Sandwich… Yummy…

It takes less than one hour to make this my childhood memory Potato Croquettes but the process was definitely tedious. Though when you bite into the just fried Potato Croquettes, you’ll be glad that you made it and you’ll forget about all the process you went through!

Happy Cooking!!
Mrs. H

Anyways, as I stated above, I was craving for a Coconut Cupcake. Convenience enough, I usually have majority of the ingredients in my pantry, I found the sweetened shredded coconut so I decided to make one myself.

The recipes that I found online produces 12 to 18 cupcakes, which I did not want to bake that much. So as usual, I tweeted one of the recipes that I found online with addition of a Tablespoon of oil. The oil will help the cupcake to be moist. Also, I usually use Salted Butter instead of Unsalted Butter but do not add any salt that instructed on the recipes online. This is the lazy way of baking but the final products usually come out fabulous so why not right?

The following recipe produces 6 fabulous Coconut Cupcakes!

Ingredients
1. 1.5 sticks salted Butter, room temperature
2. 3/4 cups sugar
3. 3 Large Eggs at room temperature
4. 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

5. 1 Tablesppn Oil (I used Olive Oil just because it was on the Kichen Counter)
6. 1.5 cups flour
7. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
8. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
9. 1/2 cup milk
10. 5 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the Butter and Sugar on high speed until light and fluffy.
2. About after 5 to 7 minutes with the mixer on low speed, add the Eggs, 1 at a time.
3. Scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the Vanilla and mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda.
5. In 4 parts, add the dry ingredients and the Milk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry.
6. Fold in 5 ounces of coconut.
7. Spray Pam to a muffin pan. Fill each cup to the top with batter.

8. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

9. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely.

The online recipes recommended to have Cream Cheese Frosting. This is just my opinion but the great moist Coconut Cupcakes do not require frosting. It is just good as is. Well, if you still think that the frosting is necessary, uuuuuum, I guess you can make one with mixing butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar together… Sorry I don’t have a recipe for it. I actually whipped some heavy cream with some sugar and mixed with about 1 tablespoon of sour cream, added on the side of the cupcake.

This Coconut Cupcake is super moist. Really 1 Tablespoon of oil makes a BIG difference. Just with butter is not enough to produce this moistness. I could cut the sugar by 1/4 more… 1/2 sugar may be enough for this recipe. I’ll try that next time!

Overall, this is a success recipe and hope you can enjoy the 6 Fabulous Coconut Cupcakes!

Happy Baking!!
Mrs. H

Ingredients
1. 2 1/2 pounds Beef Stew Meat or beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
2. 2 1/2 pounds Pork Shoulder, cut into 1- inch cubes

3. 1 tablespoon Salt (I use Sea Salt)
4. Freshly ground Black Pepper
5. 1/3 to 1/2 cup Olive oil
6. 1 large Onions, chopped
7. 1 Cup Celery, chopped

8. 1/3 Cup Dried Green and Red Bell Pepper (You can use fresh Bell Pepper, chopped)

9. 8 – 10 large cloves Garlic, minced

10. 1/3 cup Chili Powder

11. 1 tablespoon Ground Cumin
12. 2 teaspoons Dried Oregano
13. A Dash of Cayenne Pepper
14. 2 (14.5-ounce) can Diced Tomatoes

15. 4 cups low-sodium Chicken Broth

16. 1 (15-ounce) can Pinto Beans, drained and rinsed
17. 1 (15-ounce) can Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed

18. Serving with White Rice, chopped Green Onion, Shredded Cheddar, and Sour Cream.

Directions
1. Season meats with the Salt and Pepper.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the Olive Oil in a medium to large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

3. Sear the Meat until well browned, and transfer meat to a bowl and reserve.

4. Saute the Onion, Celery, Garlic over medium heat until Onion and Celery become tender, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

5. Stir in the 1/3 cup Chili Powder, Cumin, and Oregano and cook for 2 minutes.
6. Add the canned Diced Tomatoes and whisk in 3 cups of the stock.
7. Add the Meats and any juices from the Meats back to the pot. Bring to a simmer.
8. Season the Chili with the Salt, Pepper, and dash of Cayenne Pepper cover, and cook for 30 minutes.

9. In a blender puree about 1 cup of beans with the remaining 1 cup of stock.

10. Add the bean mixture to the chili along with the whole beans.
11. Let simmer, uncovered, 1/2 to 1 hour more or until the meat is tender.
12. For the taste, stir in the some Chili Powder, Salt and Pepper
13. Serve with cooked White Rice, chopped Green Onion, Shredded Cheddar Cheese, and maybe Sour Cream?!

I have to say and Zach agreed also, my first Chili Con Carne was SUCCESS!! I can definitely introduce this recipe to you all! Meats were so tender that melted in my mouth! Beans texture was perfect! I could put a little more Cayenne Pepper to heat it up. But over all, Chili Con Carne H’s Way was a great dish for the day like today!!

Happy Eating and Cooking!!
Mrs. H

Ingredients
1. Japanese Instant Ramen Noodle (Any Instant Ramen Noodle is fine!)

2. 5 ~ 6 Stalks of Celery Finely Sliced
3. 1 Medium Size Carrot Finely Sliced
4. 1/4 Yellow Onion Finley Sliced
5. 3 Oyster Mushroom Sliced

6. 12 Medium Size Frozen Shrimp (Thawed)

7. 2 Tbs of Sesame Oil

8. Salt and Pepper for taste

Direction
1. In the medium size skillet with the high heat, add Sesame Oil, sliced Celery, sliced Carrot, and sliced Onion. Sauteed until Carrot becomes tender. Add some Salt and Pepper for the taste.

2. Add Oyster Mushroom till Mushroom becomes tender.

3. Add thawed Shrimps to the Veggie and Mushroom mixture and sauteed till the shrimp colored Pink. Add a pinch of Salt. Set aside this sauteed Veggie Mushroom Shrimp mixture.

4. Cook the Instant Ramen Noodle according to the direction on the package.

5. At last, plate the Ramen Noodle to the bowl, and add the sauteed Veggie Mushroom Shrimp mixture on top.

This takes only 20 minutes from start to finish including slicing all the vegetables… It is easy, cheap, and delicious! ECD!! You can make the regular boring Instant Ramen Noodle to the fancy dinner or lunch!

Happy Eating!
Mrs. H

I found my favorite COSTCO pre-grilled Chicken, Milk & Heavy Cream, Linguine Pasta, shredded Pecorino Romano cheese from the brunch, a bag of salad, English Cucumber, Red Onion, Cherry Tomato, a bag of Tuna, OJ… The ingredients are almost identical to the brunch Frittata… but I decided to cook “Creamy Spinach & Chicken Alfredo Sauce with Linguine Pasta and the garden salad with Tuna dressing”

Ingredients
Creamy Spinach & Chicken Alfredo
1. 2 Large Eggs
2. 1 Cup Milk (Any kind of Milk but Soy…)
3. 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
4. 3 Cloves Garlic Chopped

5. COSTCO Pre-Grilled Chicken 1/2 Bag Diced

6. 4 Cups of Baby Leaf Spinach Chopped

7. 1 Cup Shredded Pecorino Romano Cheese

8. 1 Tsp White Pepper (The color of sauce is white so prefer White Pepper for this Recipe)

9 A box of Linguine

10. 2 ~ 3 Tbs Olive Oil

Side Salad
1. A bag of lettuce (Any kind)
2. 1/2 English Cucumber Julienned
3. 8 ~ 10 Cherry Tomato Quartered
4. For the dressing, 1/4 finely chopped red onion

5. 2 Tbs of Tuna

6. 2 ~ 3 Tbs of OJ

7. 1/2 Cup of Olive Oil (extra virgin)

8. 1/4 Balsamic Vinegar

9. Salt & Pepper to taste

Direction
Creamy Spinach & Chicken Alfredo Sauce
1. Cook a box of Linguine per the instruction on the box and set a side. (Al Dente please!)
2. In the medium size pot with the high heat, add about 3 Tbs of Olive Oil, chopped Garlic and sauteed together till Garlic will become fragrant.
3. Add chopped Spinach and diced pre-grilled Chicken to the pot and sauteed together till Spinach become 1/2 of the volume.

4. Meanwhile, in the medium size bowl, add 2 large Eggs, Milk, Heavy Cream, shredded Pecorino Romano cheese, White Pepper and whisk together well and set aside.

5. Lower the stove temp to medium-low, and pour the Egg Cream mixture to the sauteed Spinach and Chicken. Mix well till the egg cream mixture will become the consistency of “Sauce (Coat the spoon)”

6. Add cooked Linguine to the Creamy Spinach Chicken Alfredo sauce and mix well together.

Easy Garden Salad
1. Mix diced Red Onion, Tuna, OJ, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt & Pepper in the small bowl. Drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil to this mixture and mix well. There we go, easy dressing!

2. Set the bag of lettuce to the salad bowl, place julienned English Cucumber and Quartered Cherry Tomato on top of the lettuce. Easy Garden Salad!

This Creamy Alfredo Linguine was very rich but tasty dish. You need to do some running after the meal though. Calorie is no joke. But the side Garden Salad makes me feel a little better (You know the vegetables make you feel eating well)

Our desert was a bowl of Ice Cream… No wonder we won’t lose weight lately…

Happy Eating!
Mrs. H

Ingredients
1. 3 eggs
2. About 3 Cups of baby leaf spinach

3. 1/4 Red Onion Chopped
4. 1/4 Red Pepper Chopped
5. 1/2 Shredded Pecorino Romano Cheese

6. 1/4 Cup of Milk (Any Milk, we only drink and use Whole Milk)
7. 1/4 Cup of Heavy Cream
8. Seasoned Turkey Ham (Any Lunch Meat can be substituted but we like this Turkey Lunch Meat from COSTCO)

9. Some Salt & Pepper

10. 1 tsp of Garlic Paste
11. 2 Tbs of Olive Oil

For super easy Salad
1. 6 ~ 8 Cherry Tomato Quartered (From our Garden!)
2. 1/2 English Cucumber Sliced

3. Your Favorite Dressing (We used some Greek Yogurt & Italian Dressing Mix Together)

Direction
1. Set the Oven to 350F.
2. In the medium size bowl, add 3 large eggs, 1/4 cup of Milk, 1/4 cup of Heavy Cream, and 1/4 of shredded Pecorino Romano Cheese and mixed together, set aside.

3. In the large non stick skillet, put olive oil and garlic paste in the medium heat, add diced red onion, diced red pepper, and chopped spinach sauteed together until Spinach will become almost 1/2 of the volume…

4. Added diced Seasoned Turkey Ham to the veggie mixture and sauteed together for another 2 ~ 3 minutes.

5. To this sauteed Veggie & Turkey, pour the egg & milk cream & cheese mixture and cook about 3 minutes on the stove top. And added the rest of Shredded Pecorino Romano Cheese on top. And into the oven for 10 ~ 15 minutes.

6. While the egg mixture is in the oven, make quick salad. You can use any of your favorite salad dressing. We used the left over Greek Yogurt & Italian Dressing mix together as dressing.
7. Sliced English Cucumber & quartered Cherry Tomato are added to the dressing, and mixed well. And here we go, easy salad!

8. After 10 ~ 15 minutes, check the Frittata to see the egg mixture was cooked all the way. Change the oven temperature to broiler High. Watch very carefully once you changed the oven temperature to broiler, it’ll colored the top of egg mixture golden brown but cannot be burned…
9. Carefully removed the skillet from the oven and served this frittata while it’s still warm with the easy salad!

This was a perfect brunch for us. It took about 40 minutes from start to finish, including the cleaning cutting board, bowls, and knives (you can do cleaning while the egg mixture is in the oven!) The Pecorino Romano cheese has this distinct tangy taste. If you don’t like this cheese, you can substitute with Mozzarella Cheese probably… You can substitute any of the ingredients and make your own Frittata!

Happy Cooking & Eating! (I still have 1/2 of the baby leaf spinach…)
Mrs. H

So I was checking my pantry and I saw the cans of Salmon that I bought at COSTCO… almost 6 months ago… I did not know what to do with this cans of Salmon, but now I know EXACTLY what I am going to do with this to make a Crab Cake like meal without Crab meat!

Here is my recipe for the day “H’s Seafood Cake with Creamy Mustard Sauce”

Ingredients
For the Creamy Mustard Sauce
1. 1/3 Cup of Sour Cream
2. 1 Tps of Real Mayo
3. 1 Tbs of Stone Ground Mustard
4. 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
5. About 3 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

For the Seafood Cake
1. 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
2. 1.4 cup finely chopped celery
3. 1/4 cup chopped Spinach
4. About 10 ounce peeled and deveined medium shrimp chopped
5. 1 can (6oz) of Pink Salmon
6. 1/3 Cup Grated Fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese

7. 2 Large Eggs
8. Panko (Japanese Breadcrumbs)

Instruction

Make Creamy Mustard Sauce

1. Combine sour cream, chopped parsley, stone ground mustard, mayo, ground pepper, and a pinch of salt
2. Mix well and set a side
3. This is the Creamy Mustard Sauce!

Let’s make Seafood Cake

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium to high heat and add 1 to 2 Tbs of Olive oil to the skillet.
2. When the oil looks ready, add chopped red onion, celery, and pinch of salt and cook about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
3. Combine chopped shrimp and a can of pink salmon in a large bowl.

4. Stir in cooked red onion and celery, chopped spinach, grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano, 1/2 Black Pepper, 2 Large Eggs, and 1 Tsp of Dry Rosemary. Stir gently.
5. Add Panko (Japanese Breadcrumbs) to the mixture and stir gently more.
6. Divide the mixture into 6 to 8 portion and flatten to 1/2 inch thick patties.
7. Heat the skillet over medium to high heat. Add 2 Tbs of olive oil to the pan, and once the oil is heated, add patties to the skillet.

8. Cook about 3 to 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Carefully tun over and cook another 3 to 5 minuets or until done.
9. Serve with the Creamy Mustard Sauce.

So, I have to say this was one of the most delicious things I tasted that I cooked. The mustard sauce was tangy and just right balance to the seafood cakes shrimp sweetness. Dry Rosemary helped to erase the distinct smell of the can of Pink Salmon and added the fragrance to the seafood cake. Parmigiano-Reggiano created the cheesy crispy crust to the Seafood Cake and added the just right amount of saltiness. You may already noticed, I did not put any salt to the Seafood Cake!

I will try to make this again with fresh Rosemary instead of Dry next time. And maybe added fresh thyme as well. But over all, this dish was a SUCCESS!!

Happy Wednesday~!