Cherry Almond Kugel [12/25/2010]

Cherry Almond Kugel

12oz egg noodles
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp melted butter
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2 tbsp almond paste
4 eggs
1.5 lb cottage cheese
1.5 cup fresh or dried/soaked cherries, chopped
1/2 cup evaporated milk

1. Cook and drain noodles

2. Beat sugar, mascarpone, almond paste/extract, salt, melted butter, vanilla, eggs. Incorporate other ingredients first, and then add eggs one at a time to mix well.

3. Mix with noodles, cottage cheese, and fruit

4. Put in a well-buttered casserole dish

5. Pour evaporated milk on top

6. Bake at 375 until golden brown and serve warm or cold

My Everyday Salad [10/19/2010]

My Everyday Salad

The measurements below are approximate.
2.5 oz or 5-6 handfuls baby salad greens
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 lg sliced radish
1 tin of skinless/boneless sardines 3.75 oz
2 tablespoons cheesy Caesar dressing

Mix greens, carrot, cabbage, radish and dressing in large bowl. Divide into bowls and top with sardines. Makes 2 servings.

These are the sardines I usually buy:

This is the dressing I like to use:

Easy Brussels Sprouts [10/14/2010]

Easy Brussels Sprouts

2 lbs brussels sprouts
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut each brussels sprout in half. Rinse the sprouts. Dice shallot and garlic. Add sprouts, garlic, and shallot to a 9 x 13 baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over the sprouts and stir so they are coated. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Roast for 35 minutes.

The Secret Powers of Time [10/13/2010]

I found this RSA Animate video interesting.

Broccoli & Collards Casserole [10/05/2010]

Broccoli & Collards Casserole

1 large onion chopped
3 broccoli crowns
1 can of Campbells condensed cream of broccoli soup
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
1 pkg Uncle Ben's ready made rice (I used the whole grain medley with chicken flavor)
2 bunches collard greens chopped finely
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons olive oil

Saute the collard greens and onion in the olive oil until soft. Steam the broccoli crowns. Break broccoli into smaller pieces. Combine the collards, onion, broccoli, rice, cheese, and soup in a 3 quart casserole dish. Top with the bread crumbs. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

Montana Brewers Association Brewfest [9/23/2010]

With 21 participating breweries, and 73 different selections, we had a terrific time at the 2010 Montana Brewers Festival. It was an outstanding way to end our time in Montana and end our pretty much un-planned but totally awesome Montana brewery tour.





Needless to say, we were unable to try everything (not even half of the options). Our ratings below are based on a 1-10 scale. Personally, I may have become more forgiving towards the later part of the evening, so, the marks are probably a bit biased.

Brewery	Brew	Type	Rating
Bayern	St. Wilbur	Hefeweizen	7
Bayern	Dump Truck Summer Boch	Smooth Boch	9
Bayern	Bayern Octoberfest	Dark Marzen	8
Bayern	Bayern Pilsner	Pilsner	6
Beaver Creek	Cherry Wheat	Wheat	5
Beaver Creek	Beaver Creek Pale Ale	Pale Ale	5
Blackfoot River	Blackfoot Maibock	Maibock	6
Blacksmith	Imperial Red Ale	Imperial IPA	5
Blacksmith	Cutthroat IPA	IPA	6
Bozeman	Bozone Select	Amber Ale	6
Bozeman	Plum Street Porter	Porter	6
Carter's	Saison de Carter	Belgian-French Saison	6
Flathead Lake	Rising Sun Espresso Porter	Coffee Porter	5
Glacier	Golden Grizzly Ale	Kolsch Golden Ale	7
Glacier	Glacier Select Oktoberfest	Marzen	7
Great Northern	Highlander Premium Beer	Scottish Red Ale	7
Great Northern	Wild Huckleberry Wheat Lager	Filtered Wheat w/Fruit	6
Harvest Moon	Pigs Ass Porter	Porter	6
Harvest Moon	Beltian White	Belgian style vitbier	7
Harvest Moon	Nut Brown	Brown	6
Kettlehouse	Eddy Out	Pale Ale	5
Kettlehouse	Cold Smoke Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale	5
Lewis and Clark	Miner's Gold	Hefeweisen	6
Lewis and Clark	Portage Porter	Porter	8
Lone Peak	Hippy Highway Oatmeal Stout	Oatmeal Stout	7
Lone Peak	Hellroaring ESB	English Style Extra Special Bitter	5
Montana	Whitetail Wheat	American Hefeweisen	7.5
Neptune's	Wheat	American Wheat	6
Quarry	Open Pit Porter	Porter	8
Tamarack	Rye Sally Rye PA	Rye Pale Ale	5
Tamarack	Wakeboard Wheat	Belgium Style Wit	7

We did not sample any of the Bitter Root beers because we had already had them all with a flight at their brewery. Unfortunately, we missed out on trying anything from Angry Hank's, Madison River, and Red Lodge Ales.

The musical headliner was a group called Keegan Smih & The Fam and they were a lot of fun. : )

If you are traveling to Montana and like micro-brews, you should definitely check out: www.montanabrewers.org

Jesse Schell's Visions of the Gamepocalypse [8/30/2010]

My Masoor Dal [8/16/2010]

My Masoor Dal

1 1/2 cups masoor dal (red lentils)
6 cups water
1 tomato
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin ground
3 1/2 teaspoons ras el hanout
1/2 teaspoon coriander ground
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons ginger paste
dash of cayenne

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Rinse the red lentils. In a blender puree the onion, tomato, garlic and 1 cup of water. Add the lentils, oil, puree, and 5 cups of water to a pot. Bring to a boil and then add the spices. Simmer on medium heat until the dal is soft and mushy with no dryness or crunch. On my stove this took approximately 2 hours. Soaking the lentils overnight would reduce the cooking time significantly.

Lager Sampling No. 1 [7/17/2010]

Brewery	Name	Location	Short Description	Rating
Samuel Adams	Black Lager	Boston, MA	ok, decent	91
Gorden Biersch Brewing Company	Märzen	San Jose, CA	too bitter	88
Dundee Brewing Co	Pale Bock Lager	Rochester, NY	malty, sweet	92
Samuel Adams	Imperial Double Bock	Boston, MA	molasses, 9.5%	94
Spoetzl Brewery	Shiner Bohemian Black Lager	Shiner, TX	toasty, almost charred	90
Flying Dog Brewery	Collaborator Doppelbock	Denver, CO	8.3%, full bodied, super yummy	96
Spoetzl Brewery	Shiner Bock	Shiner, TX	clean, toasty	92
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co	30th Anniversary Imperial Helles Bock	Chico, CA	malty, toasty	94

See Also:
Porter Sampling No. 7, Porter Sampling No. 6, Porter Sampling No. 5, Porter Sampling No. 4, Porter Sampling No. 3, Porter Sampling No. 2, Porter Sampling No. 1
Ale Sampling No. 1
Wheat Sampling No. 2, Wheat Sampling No. 1

Homebrewing: Rye [6/27/2010]

It's proved really difficult for me to find ryes in the store. If you've found a rye you like please let me know. For this batch we used the Brewers Connection recipe for O'Ryely's Rye. I can't wait to see how this turns out and how it ages.