Grilled Cheese and Soup

Nothing better during the hot summer months than some delicious hot food.  Hot soup and hot sandwiches in the hot, hot heat are the most obvious pairing.  Here's a basic breakdown of how we turn up the heat on a hot summers day. 

Chop what vegetables you have the patience to and have someone else put up with the ones that make you cry.  It's like dealing with family.

Give that chicken a boiling bath, then add it to a pot of sauteed cry-vegetables (onions).

Add in the other vegetables you actually put in the effort of chopping.

For a good thyme add in some broth and boil then simmer it on down.

A song as old as time, bread and cheese.  Adding another partner in that sandwich makes it spicy.

See, they get along.  Fun between the bread sheets.

Their passion is so hot, it's like a cigarette in bed.  The kind of cigarette in bed that catches fire with potential casualties.

That looks about right.  Now shut up.  No burgers today, just grilled cheese and soup.

As you can see, putting some stuff into a boiling pot then throwing some things between bread and using a heated surface to blend the otherwise volatile ingredients creates a mouthful of love ever so familiar, but never boring.  So delicious, but never annoying.  A culinary comfort of hot, hot passion.  It is the combination of eros and unconditional love that is almost too easy it could be considered criminal.

Tunesday - Leon Bridges

In previous Tunesday posts, I covered the likes of The Alabama Shakes and Lee Fields.  Acts that have soul in both sound and delivery that seems to have been missing from modern music until recently.  Following those same lines is a newer artist named Leon Bridges.

Mr. Bridges brings an old R&B sound with such simple yet dynamic arrangement in both vocals and instrumentation.

Unfortuantely, Leon is still in the works of putting together a full length record, but there are a few videos out there on YouTube and the like.   Dude is something else and will likely be in the public eye in no time.  His recreation of a sound we've all heard before re-birthed with a new twist is refreshing and exciting.

Check out the below video, then scour the internet for his other stuff.  Then just wait until he's all over the radio as he should be.  We need more original, soulful and beautiful tunes in the forefront of popular music.  The man obviously respects true artistry.

Fallin' Off the Bone - Braised Short Ribs

Meat! Everyone loves it, except for vegetarians.  Too bad for them but plenty good for us.  More Meat!  Meat is great, but meat from the bone is so much more flavorful and when properly taken care of via slow-cooking in a beautiful broth bath post-braising, it's even better.

Look at that beautiful meat, seasoned to perfection.

This was a recipe that Alison's aunt Marci shared with us after serving it one New Year's Eve.  It's pretty damn easy when you look at it.  Vegetables, ribs, seasoning, herbs and some wine are pretty much the entirety of the ingredients you'll need.  The only other item that will help in making your culinary effort even more successful is a good cast iron Dutch or French Oven.  In our instance, we utilized our wonderful Le Creuset round French Oven.  Not only does this piece of cookware heat evenly, is oven-safe, but it is also freakishly easy to clean.  When we finished cooking, we thought we were in for a good soak and some elbow grease, but neigh!  A little soap and water and our beautiful cookware was good as new!

Braising our beautiful riblets!

After seasoning our lovely ribs we threw them in our pan with a bit of olive oil and set them to braise, locking in the moisture necessary to yield deliciously moist and tender meat.  After a little time braising in the pan, we set the ribs aside and got our veggies ready to do their magic in absorbing the leftover juices in the pan from our ribby little friends.

 

Look at those tasty little babies!

 

Vegetables are good for you if you haven't heard.

As the ribs sat aside, we dropped our vegetables into the pan with the drippings from the ribs and leftover olive oil.  For this we diced up carrots, celery and onions.  We let the vegetables cook down a bit and added a bit of stock to them, basically creating a vegetable / beef stock.  Once to a boil, we added in some wine, rosemary and thyme.

Who is a loon and why is he smoking?

 

All our beautiful ingredients combined and ready to hang out in the oven for a bit.

 

Will you look at that?  Will you?

After combining our wine, herbs, ribs and vegetable mix, we threw the French Oven in the actual oven to continue cooking in delicious harmony.

Once out of the oven, we used mashed potatoes as a bed for our ribs with a bit of our stock dripped over and around our meat and potatoes.  Since the vegetables broke down to a mush and were mainly used to impart flavor, they were discarded but that is just collateral damage for having such tender, delicious and moist ribs.

I can't remember exactly where the actual recipe from this came from, but you can find many variations on the web.   Hell, you can even wing it and do whatever the hell you please.  Kind of like this article.  Get to it!

Tasting Notes from the Underground

Lately, it seems like every time I write something for The Tasty Morsel, the first sentence has to do with how it's been forever since I last wrote something and then promise to try and be more active in writing about our wonderfully exciting lives.  The streak continues.

The pictures below were uploaded to the site and sat dormant since March 4th 2014.  Oh these lonely pictures!  No words to join them or help explain the reason for their existence!  I guess it matters very little since no one really reads anymore.  Well, people read, but only in short bursts that help enable the restless and disinterested in passing time.  Maybe a top ten list will be my next foray into writing:  'Top Ten Reasons We Eat'.  "That sounds mildly interesting" you say, "I eat and I've always wondered why, please go on!"  Maybe I should create a quiz along the lines of 'What Cheese are You?' or 'Which Dive Bar Should You Black Out In?'.  That would be interesting, right?

Oh, I digress.  You must have caught me in a cynical mood.  Maybe looking at all these pictures of beers is making the thirsty little gremlin that lives in my belly very unhappy.  Maybe I'm writing as if I were in a bad mood to deflect my chronic procrastination and inability to stay committed and active with a project.  Oh boy, look what I've done, gone and turned a good bunch of pictures of previously consumed beers into a few sentences on self-loathing!  I just realized that I began several sentences with 'Maybe'.  Isn't this the most self-aware article you've ever read?  You must be asking yourself, "Why are there so many questions being asked of me?".

These pictures were meant to be a follow-up to a previous article entitled, 'Tasting Notes - The Beginning'.  Well, here's the next installment ...

Here we have a delicious grapefruit IPA from Stone.  I believe this was a limited release which went under 'Stochasticity Project'.  You can read more about it in the link posted in the previous sentence.  From what I remember, it was delicious.  I haven't seen it again in stores, so if you'd like to try it, you're bummed.

Here's a bock from Anchor Brewing.  I bet it was pretty delicious, they always make good beer consistently.

Matt's Burning Rosids is an offering from Stone that serves as a memorial to one of their friends and co-workers who passed away.  A very delicious and unique beer.  An Imperial Saison seems to be a contradiction and an adventure, but if you read Sone's memorial to their lost brother, it seems a fitting combination.

Lagunitas is another consistently good beer and rather easy to get a hold of as far as craft beers go.  If you're into stouts that lean toward coffe, then this will work for you.

Brewery Ommegang is always on top of their game.  This is Fleur de Houblon, a delicious Belgian Pale.  Unfortunately, a limited release, so I'll tell you it was one of the most delicious beers I have ever tasted in the Belgian style.

Here's a beer from a brewery local to us, Strand Brewing Co.  They have a good line of beers and this was a limited release stout.

I can't remember where I got a hold of this Punk IPA from Brewdog.  I also can't remember how it tasted.  Sorry!!!

Pearl Necklace is an oyster stout from Flying Dog.  Besides the clever name, the beer is not as dirty as one would expect a beer brewed with oysters to be.

Here's the Dream Pils from Mikkeller.  I trust everything Mikkeller.  I've never had a bad beer from this Danish brewery and I'd love to drink their beer more often, but it's rather pricey.  Quality has a price.

Lastly another offering from Lagunitas.  Like I mentioned previously, these guys put out good tasting product that is very easy to get a hold of.  Day Time Ale not being an exception.  This is a delicious ale with a relative low ABV of %4.65 it means you can drink it and not be upside-down after 3+.


Now I'm thirsty, but in an exercise of restraint and moderation I will be taking this weekend of from imbibing and hopefully get another article together in a somewhat timely manner.  Vaya con Dios!

Adventuring in Orange

You know you're deep in Orange County when you're in the city of Orange, it's a self-explanatory statement, redundant even.  With that stupid line out of the way, Alison and I found ourselves out in Orange since she had a fitting for her wedding dress in said city.  Whenever we have to travel to an area we haven't really been before, we like to take the opportunity to check out the offerings of these places which are alien to us.  Fortunately for me, Orange and it's neighboring city, Placentia, had some great food and beer treats awaiting our visit.

Our first stop was in the downtown area of Orange near Chapman College.  Our main objective was to check out Provisions Market, known for it's multitude of awesome beers on tap, bottled beer selection and wide assortment of meats and cheeses.  As we walked from our parking spot through the rustic, old-town USA streets, we commented on how the place had a warm and welcoming vibe with a touch of the old, new and different.  Store fronts varied from antique shops, to unique toy stores, clothing shops, bars and more.  Not a single chain or big name establishment along the way.  It gave the area a charm and sense of independent identity that I liked, much like my obsession with beer that is created by individuals that have different styles and personalities brewed into their delicious beverages.

Provisions also provided this warm and independent sense with an awesome collection of artisan dishes from the delicious Cuban Sandwich to the Radishes with butter and sea salt that Alison and I shared to the delicious beers we enjoyed from their taps.

Cuban Sandwiches are delicious, this one was the form of which all Cubanos should follow.

Velocity by Kenetic Brewing Company (delicious imperial stout)

Supplication by Russian River (crisp and rich sour)

With full bellies and a wet whistle, we headed to nearby Placentia to investigate the tap room of a very cool brewery called The Bruery.  These guys know how to create flavor-packed beer that is not only delicious, but well-balanced and magical.  While there, we had a few beers fresh from their taps.  I tried the Windowsill, which is an oak-barrel aged homage to a freshly baked rhubarb and raspberry pie.  They got that one right, a very tasty treat indeed that maintained the aforementioned flavors in the most natural of ways.  Al had the Tout Mais le Coller, which was a cream ale with the flavor profile of an orange creamsicle.  To say they nailed it is an understatement.  It's exactly what it sounds like and even more sublime and heavenly than you could imagine.  We really wanted to get a growler fill of this, but unfortunately you had to have a membership to their Reserve Society, which is a paid membership that comes with a few very rare bottles of some of their top beers as well as access to growler fills of beers that the general public can't take home with them.  It would be greatly worth the fee if we weren't so far away.

The Bruery

Our treats from Orange and Placentia

Humulus Lager by the Bruery (We got a growler of this hoppy lager)

Tumescence (Check out that color and lack of transparency!)

There's no doubt that we'll be back to both of these fine establishments and next time I'll take my nice camera to capture some pictures with a little better clarity, detail and in more quantity.

Tasting Notes - The Beginning

Prisoners of Carbonation

Alison and I love beer.  We drink quite a bit of it and have been drinking it since before we were even legally allowed to.  Who hasn't?  Beer is something that can be just what it is: bubbly alcohol water, or it can be something that can reflect a myriad of flavors, textures and adventure.  We've started down the path of craft beer and I think we're far too deep in the forest to find our way out, but I'm cool with that.

We've written about our adventures to Stone Brewery before, so we've been aware of craft beer and some of the breweries that are out there.  Lately, however, we've really been seeking out different beers, becoming loyal to certain breweries and finding liquor stores and tap rooms that specialize in beer brewed with more than mass production in mind.  It's become a bit of a compulsion.

Going through the process of selecting beer based on style, tasting notes or even by brewery is like hitting the Thrify's for ice cream as a kid, except now we have a bit more of an adventurous pallate.  We've substituted mint chip waffle cones in for a delicious vanilla-infused smoked porter.  Done away with our Heineken 12-packs and are now bringing home a half dozen 22-ounce bottles that cover the spectrum of beer styles from Saison to Stout.  Nothing can be more than vanilla than drinking a 6-pack or 12-pack of the same thing weekend in and weekend out, but let's be clear that we're not above an ice-cold Budweiser either.

I understand that some people like familiarity, but it's like having the same entree every time you go to your favorite restaurant or only enjoying pepperoni pizza.  I have stopped enjoying my beer as if I were a child who refuses to eat anything that is not 'plain'.  I like food that is seasoned, covered, smothered and drenched in flavor.  Therefore, I will take my beer in similar fashion.  If I'm going to drink beer on the weekends and spend my hard earned money on a mental vacation, I might as well be sitting on the beach rather than on a cruise-ship with the masses as they pass by said beach in a homogenous floating can.

I wanted to recant and write something about not being a beer snob, but I've come to the realization that I am.  I embrace that label and I know there are many others out there as well.  I'm not the most seasoned in writing tasting notes, but I do understand the vocabulary and styles of beer.  So instead of really explaining the nuiances, I'll just try and give a surface-level explanation of what each beer has to offer.

We haven't been updating this thing too often, but maybe if we start writing about the beer we enjoy, maybe we will start writing about the food we cook and the restaurants we visit again.  So here goes our attempt at sharing our beer tasting adventures of late.

Modern Times is a brewery that we've been seeing a lot of as of late.  With their clean and appealing graphics design and clear explanation of the beer inside, we've found these guys to do a great job at making a good beer.  Pictured above is the Black House, which is a coffee stout that we found very enjoyable.  Some coffee stouts tend to lack the flavor you'd expect or wind up being over-the-top in sweetness, but we found this to be nicely balanced with a rich stout body and smooth coffee finish.

Mikkeller SpontanGooseberry is a crisp and delicious Lambic with a light sour bite.  A lot of people that haven't tried sour beer find it off-putting, but once you give it a chance it will grow on you.  Kind of like how I didn't start eating salad until I was 20.

Another Mikkeller offering we enjoyed was their Milk Stout.  Whenever I try to explain a stout to someone, the most relate-able stout they know is Guinness.  Stouts can be much more just like this Milk Stout.  The glass is dirty in the above picture and it's pissing me off.

Le Trappe Jubalaris was a tasty Belgian Ale, which is actually the only Dutch brewery that makes Trappist beer.  There are only 10 breweries on the world that are allowed to use the term 'Trappist', which means the beer was brewed in a monestary and to specific standards.  Does that make the beer tasting experience better?  You bet it does!

Stone Cali-Belgique is a fun beer.  It's an IPA, but with a Belgian spin.  Basically a nice, hoppy presence with the spices that are familiar to a Belgian beer.

 Mother Earth Brewery has a handful of great beers, but Cali-Creamin' was the first beer we tried by them and were immediately in love.  Cali-Creamin' is a cream ale that has a sweet finish akin to a cream soda such as A&W.  It's a pretty cool flavor to find in a beer, but it's not overly sweet to where the beer itself becomes a novelty.  Whenever we see this one around we try and grab it, and more often than not it's the last one on the shelf.

There were a few more beers we planned to write about, but who has time to write about beer when there's only so much time in the day where one can drink beer?

Wyoming Adventure: Denver

The last night of our Wyoming journey brought us into Denver, Colorado.  I've heard a lot about their breweries, which were abundant near our hotel.  The first thing the concierge gave us was a set of drinking coupons for a handful of the breweries when we asked about good places to eat and drink.  Not a bad start to checking out the town.

Since we were pretty much in and out of the city in less than 24 hours, we really weren't too eager to hit every brewery and all, but we did manage to eat a bit and imbibe in some local suds.

The first place we hit up was a local pizza joint called Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria.  The place was packed and Zagat-rated, which is surprising for a pizza place.  Although, after dining we could see why it earned such accolades.  With a bountiful selection of local craft beers and gourmet pizzas, we were in the right place.  We got down with a few Great Divide beers, some apps and tasty pies.

Coal-Fired Limoncello Chicken Wings

The Hell's Kitchen

The Toscana

A Beer

After our dinner we wandered down the street to see what kind of bar we could saddle up to.  We saw a few dives, a whiskey bar that looked like trouble and then found our spot: Scruffy Murphy's.  Ol's Scruffy's had the normal approach to an Irish-themed bar planted in the middle of a downtown area.  Although the decor was a little more authentic than normal as well as the whiskey and beer selection.  We found ourselves at the bottom of a few pints here and then headed off to find our beds.

The next day, Alison and I had plenty of time to kill since our flight didn't head back to LAX until about 7 PM.  It was time to use our drink coupons.  I have been guilty of sitting on writing this article for a while now, but from what I can remember, the breweries that really stood out to me were Great Divide and Breckenridge.  Breckenridge actually stood out the most due to the fact we had a pretty cool bartender that I got into talking shop about film and video with.  He also kept our glasses full with delicious beer selections.

So, from Utah to Idaho to Wyoming to Colorado, the trip was now complete and time to head back to sunny Los Angeles, which was nice since we were leaving Colorado in the middle of a heavy downpour.  Almost as if the heaven's were mourning the end of our vacation.