Beer-O-Plenty

SNOW!

 I need to befriend more local home brewers. 

Tonight my brother let me try his pumpkin spice ale and his English Bitter ale, with hops from England.... very yummy. 

And for my mother (who turns her nose up at all beers), he had an apple cider. Definitely NOT for me. But my mee-maw and mom enjoyed. 

Nose turning-upping

And now we are all sitting around playing Wii music.... My niece and nephew up way past their bedtime. 

SNOW is good.

Food is good. 

Beer is good. 

Family is good. 

Vacation is good. 

Happy Saturday!!

Ahoy from RED SOX land!

Us Texans always bring the warm weather with us...

Rhode Island...Day 1... 30 degree "heat wave".. It is actually beautiful today... No wind... I didn't need a hundred layers of clothes after all. 

Our hotel: My first snow pile sighting!

We visited my Aunty Barb (not my aunt) and ate lunch with her awesome Rhode Island lady pals. Maybe it's their accents... Maybe it's Emily's awesome fashion sense and the fact that she shovels snow (at age 80ish?)...Or maybe it's the fact that all of these ladies use the phrase "wicked cold".. Whatever it is, I love them and I love our short visit with them. My aunty Barb stuffs us with cookies, cheesecake, fruit, juice- whatever we will take. And it would be offensive not to take it!

We all ate at a restaurant we always eat at, I had some yummy stuffed scrod- stuffed with scallops and shrimps and yummy love. Afterwards, I looked at the goods on the beach of the Atlantic. 

Then it was off to my brother's abode in Connecticut. 

I tried his award-winning beer, a Berliner Weisse (a sour wheat) which took second place in the New England Regional Homebrew Competition..... not too shabby. It was quite deelish. He then took my mom on his basement brew tour and showed her an abridged version of how it is done. 

If I had space I'd like to try my hand at brewing someday. 

I'm looking forward to traveling to Boston tomorrow for our girls trip (with my niece) to the American Girl Bistro. Yee-haw!

More to come.... 

SPECled fun!

As most of Austin was watching Texas beat Oklahoma St., I was running errands all over town. Riding around with lumber hanging out of my car window, and picking up the final pieces of my halloween costume from Hobby Lobby and DSW. While in the area of DSW, I decided to pay a visit to Spec's. I was hoping I would find some vegemite, because I heard it can be found there and I've always wanted to try the stuff... but instead I found all of this!

First with the bad...

Before leaving, I glanced at some "camembert" in the cheese section- one of my favorite cheeses. I thought to myself, "that's odd, it's in a box and only 2 dollars." But I was ready to leave at that point so just added it to my pile. I came home to find out it is actually "camembert pasteurized processed cheese product," and it is terrible. 

Note to self:  Must.....Read....Labels. 

However, I did get some German whole grain mustard to add to my condiment collection. yum yum! 

And some dry cured capocollo, which apparently is pork shoulder. 

I got some danish blue cheese in herby oil that is pleasantly creamy and yummy on the next thing that I found- which was my splurge- but the box was just too beautiful to pass up. 

From The Fine Cheese Co., Fennel Crackers. "Crackers for pungent cheese."

They are really delicious with all of the above items (minus the nasty camembert). 

Lastly, because it was Spec's and all, I bought a sampler 6 pack from the Real Ale Brewing Company. I am tasting the Rio Blanco Pale Ale now and it is moy bueno to my taste buds. 

Hooray for spontaneous liquor store stops!!