Memorial Day Weekend 

Saturday evening, my husband and I decided to have our own mini brewfest along with our grilled lamb and baked sweet potato.  We like to select individual bottles of beer at the Joe Canal's Discount Liquor store even if we do not know if we will like it.  You can put together your own six packs which we love.

From left to right: Midas Touch, Summer Love, Bigfoot Ale, Three Philosophers

Midas Touch is a Dogfish Head beer.  Dogfish Head is located in Milton, Delaware.

Release date was in 1999 and the beer is available year round.  We found the beer to be sweet upon first taste.  Notes are of honey and melon.  The finish is pretty surprising because it has a little bite.  Apparently, other notes are of saffron.  ABV 9.0.  I would recommend if you prefer sweet but hoppy at the same time.

Midas Touch

Summer Love is a Victory Brewing Company beer, which is located in Philadelphia, PA. My husband hated it.  I thought it was a lot like mainstream beers so it isn't my favorite but I did like it.  ABV is 5.2. 

It has a lemon sort of note and comes from American and German hops.  I would try it again.

Summer Love Ale

Sierra Nevada makes Bigfoot Ale, which is a barleywine style beer.  The beer is bitter and hoppy.  I couldn't drink more than one bottle at a time because it is very heavy but it was perfect for our mini tasting.  Also, the ABV is 9.6!

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale

Three Philosophers by Ommegang is one of our absolute favorites.  We never want to order it when we go out because a bottle can cost over $8.00.  Our six pack was a little over $10 but Ommegang doesn't sell it in more than a four pack.  The ABV is 9.8 so take it easy if you do drink some.  It's a quadrupel ale.   I would describe the beer as having cherry and caramel and raisins notes.    If you don't like raisins, you probably won't like this.  It went really well with the lamb.

Three Philosophers

We love our little beer tasting cups too!

So far, a good start to the holiday weekend........

Monday afternoon-

Making shandy's for a couple of Memorial Day parties-

I got the recipe for this shandy at an awesome Bellagio Barbeque Epicurian Epicenter Food and Alcohol Pairing when we in were in Vegas last summer.....here is a picture of the ingredients they recommend...

We had NO idea what was in these until we got our "party favor bag" and saw this recipe.  They tasted like lemonade and went down way too easy. If you make these....be aware that they will sneak up on you!

For today, unfortunately, I did not have any Stella Artois.  Instead, I substituted the beer I had that I thought was the closest to Stella Artois and that happened to be a couple of kinds of Troegs- it turned out fine.

AND

DIRECTIONS:

In a mixing glass, muddle Kaffir lime leaves and yuzu syrup.

Add ice, Falernum, Domaine Canton, and lime juice.

Add fresh ice to a Bordeaux glass.

Shake and strain cocktail over fresh ice.

Top with beer and garnish with kaffir lime leaf.

Now, I am lazy and I did not follow the directions exactly and it still came out just as I remember- okay, maybe not as perfect but still delicious and worth sharing with others!

I had to buy the Yuzu syrup on line from Dean and Deluca Dean and Deluca

I also had to buy the Kaffir lime leaves on line from a specialty store.  I kept them in the freezer so they would not go bad.  The other ingredients were found at a local beer and wine distribution center.

I bought the other ingredients at a place called Joe Canal's but here are photos of the labels so that you can identify the products more easily.

Ginger Beer 

There are other brands but this is the one I found at either Trader Joes or at Joe Canal's.

Bombay Sapphire Gin

Pretty widely available and recognizable

Velvet Falernum

This is the kind I bought at Joe Canal's.  I could not find the "velvet" type as is called for in the recipe but I am not sure if it is different or not.  Tastes fine to me.

Domaine Canton

I have made several other ginger flavored things with this.  If you like the flavor of ginger, you will love this!

I made a couple of pitchers for the Memorial Day parties and of course, I had to pour myself a glass!

YUM

Low-fat, oatmeal, chocolate peanut butter and banana muffins

I bought some bananas and within days they were brown.  I wanted to throw them away but decided that they were stil good enough to make into some sort of bread or muffin.  My husband likes baked goods for breakfast so I threw this together.

Ingredients:

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 bananas (super ripe)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 large eggs (100% organic are preferable)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup old fashioned oatmeal

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tablespoons chocolate peanut butter

1/2 cup Original Fiber One Cereal (slightly mashed)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup agave nectar

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Spray 10 muffin cup liners (I prefer the plastic reusable kind) with Butter flavored PAM

3.  In a large bowl- mix together:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup Fiber One Cereal
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/3 agave nectar

4.  In a small bowl mash three over ripe bananas 

5.  Mix in 3 Tablespoons of chocolate peanut butter- any brand (I used Justin's from Whole Foods)

6.  Add two teaspoons vegetable oil and 2 eggs

7.  Using a spatula, mix the banana mixture into the large bowl of dry ingredients until combined

8.  Divide batter evenly between 10 muffin liners

9.  Bake on 350 for 20 minutes

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Final muffins are not intended to be sweet.

Modifications:

• If you want a sweeter muffin, you might want to consider adding some sugar to the recipe.
• Add more chocolate peanut butter or regular peanut butter for a more nutty flavor
• Add nuts for more texture
• Add chcolate chips for more chocolate flavor and texture
• Add a different cereal such as General Mills Honey Nut Clusters for more texture and sweetness