It Is Complete: Pioneer Pale Ale

The first batch of home brewed beer is complete! It has been dubbed "Pioneer Pale Ale." Realistically, it may not deserve that name - it's not quite like any other pale ale I've ever had. First off, it would be a bit of a stretch to declare it pale:

Pictured: five weeks of waiting.

Autumn Vegetable Stew

I have finished my block exams! To celebrate, I'm writing a post on a dish I came up with a couple of weeks ago that I ended up really loving. I mentioned earlier that squash is one of my favorite things about fall, and I thought it would be interesting to integrate it into a soup/stew. I've had acorn squash soup before, but that's more or less pureed squash that's been heated up a bit with some salt and pepper on it. Delicious, but not what I've had in mind. Unfortunately I have no image for this one. I'll definitely be making it again, and when I do I'll post a picture.

**Edit: I've made it a second time, and it was once again awesome. Here's the picture, as promised.

It's Test Time!

I've got a big exam coming up, so I may not have time to type up any updates for a few days more. I've got some good stuff coming, though: Hearty Autumn Vegetable Stew, Braised Pork Chops (cooking right this moment!), Sausage and Sweet Potato Pasta, etc. Stay tuned!

Collaboration with The Recipe Development Engineer

I want to start out by giving a big thank you to two people: A number of weeks ago, my friend Alex introduced me to Ludwig, who runs a fantastic food blog called The Recipe Development Engineer. Ludwig has a great approach to cooking, using constant incremental improvements in order to create truly phenomenal dishes. Like any good engineer, he optimizes! He has a lot more experience with cooking than I do, and it shows in recipes like his Chicken à la Provençal.

We decided that it would be great idea to collaborate and draw some inspiration from each others. He recently wrote a great piece on the science behind braising that I would heartily recommend checking out. A properly braised piece of meat can be most precisely and concisely described as succulent. I have never braised before; it's a technique that takes a long time, and I rarely decide what I'm cooking until about two hours before dinner time. That said, I'm inspired. I'll be braising some cut of meat or another within the week, and I'll post the results when I do. I'd also like to do my own quirky twists on some of Ludwig's recipes.

So thanks, Alex! Thanks, Ludwig! My apologies for not writing a post on this sooner; the past month or so has been hectic for me. I kept telling myself that I'd write this post when I modified one of Ludwig's recipes, but I've just been busier than I expected. I give my word that there will be good things to come.

Sweet Tarragon Chicken Salad

Growing up, I always hated chicken salad. Bland meat slathered in mayonnaise? No thanks. It took a while for me to be able to be near the stuff, let alone actually eat it. Last week, I developed my own little recipe for a different take on chicken salad. It makes for a simple, tasty sandwich.

It may look like normal chicken salad, but it'll surprise you.

Cinnamon Pear Pork Loin

From what I understand, the city of Houston doesn't really have much in terms of seasons. There's summer, and then there's... not-summer. I've lived in the northeast all my life, and my favorite season has always been fall. I love the turning of the leaves, I love the crisp temperature, and I love good fall food. Even though Houston may be missing out on some of the external signs of fall, I've decided that at the very least I should bring fall into my apartment. I started out with this simple pork recipe. I have a few more good ones coming over the next few days; I just haven't typed them up yet.

We have bottled!

Last night, Abel and I bottled our lovely carboy of beer. It was a bit of a process, but we ended up with forty-six regular bottles of beer and two larger bombers. I'm pretty impressed with how easy this process has been so far - we've gone from a bunch of ingredients to legitimate beer in only three days of work, totaling about six hours. Abel, hero among men that he is, has been doing a lot of the cleanup since we've been bottling in his apartment. There honestly isn't a ton of stuff to clean, though.

But anyway, bottling! Apologies for the lack of images; none of them came out right. Next time we bottle it'll be better documented.

On Antioxidants

So, you're roaming around the grocery store. You find yourself in the juice aisle, and after you pass by the standard apple and cranberry juices you start seeing crazy things - cocktails with bits of blueberry, pomegranate, and some bizarre thing called an açaí berry. Furthermore, all these bottles tout their juices' antioxidant properties! None of them, of course, explain what an antioxidant is or why you should care.

It all starts with oxygen.

Purple Party Potato Salad

So tonight, I made my bratwurst with apple-onion-pepper topping for my girlfriend and her mother. Rather than the vinegar pasta from last time, I decided to get a bit more authentic and serve the dish with a hot German potato salad. But regular ol' potato salad isn't very exciting... so I decided to try coming up with my own recipe. I unfortunately lacked the bacon that makes German potato salad so savory, but it tasted good nevertheless.

Well, uh... this probably couldn't look less appetizing. I promise, it's nicer in person.

Herb Rubbed Seared Pork Chops

At long last, my lovely girlfriend has joined me in our apartment. This means that I won't generally be cooking for one anymore. On top of that, her tastes are a bit different from mine. To celebrate the first dinner that we would have together, I wanted to make a dish that I thought she would love. Her favorite meat is pork, and she absolutely loves herbs. I came up with a nice herbal dry rub to put onto some pork chops, and it ended up being awfully good.

It's tastier than it looks.