I <3 Brinner: The Beer Waffles Edition

Remember Scrubs Season 7, Episode 7? You know, the one with Brinner? Mmmm, breakfast for dinner.

We do brinner fairly often around here, especially since I like breakfast foods but cannot eat very much in the morning. When we have waffles, it’s most often for dinner or brunch on the weekends. I once promised some friends I’d make them beer pancakes. I much prefer the waffle to the pancake, so I’ve decided to start trying out various beer batter recipes. Tonight’s was adapted from a recipe that I’ve since lost the source for, but it was a british one and so had to be converted.

A few notes on this round:
I was out of honey so I used granulated sugar, which worked fine. All we had was PBR so I imagine it would be even better with a good beer.  I used Earth Balance margarine instead of butter, vanilla almond milk instead of milk (and also omitted the vanilla). I used Ener-G Egg Replacer instead of eggs, and I just mixed them in with the rest of the stuff. The batter was a little too doughy so I added a bit more almond milk and then some water.  Because I added those extra liquids at the end, the final texture was a bit off from being over-mixed. Next time I’ll just use less flour.
They were pretty tasty, and I think with just a bit more tweaking they’ll be pretty darned good.

Here’s the recipe as written:

• 250 g flour
• 330 ml beer
• 125 g butter
• 60 ml milk
• 2 eggs separated
• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything except the egg whites in a bowl. Whisk the egg whites separately until they form soft peaks, fold into the batter.

My version, with non-metric conversions:

• 2 1/4 c flour
• 1 1/3 c beer
• 1/2 c margarine
• 60 ml vanilla almond milk
• 2 eggs worth of Ener-G Egg Replacer
• 1 Tbs granulated sugar

Mix everything together in one big bowl.

Quebec to Maryland

It’s been a busy week:

The Killah Bees went to Montréal. We lost 84-18, alas. But the Riveters beat the Montréal all star team by 100 points, so the night ended well at least. There were fun shenanigans at the after party, and then at the after-after party. None of which shall be divulged here, to protect the not-so-innocent. The drive back to MA was long and arduous, especially considering I had only gotten 5 hours of sleep (total) all weekend. When I got home, I had a couple of hours to pack and get ready for the long trip down to Maryland. We left at 10pm, and JeT drove most of the way. We arrived in Baltimore around 6 am.

JeT and I sat on my friend’s house and cats for a week. Cats were cool, house was awesome. We spent most of our days lazing around the house, and the evenings at local bars. It was too hot and humid to think, so we rarely ventured outside in daylight hours. We did walk The Avenue in Hampden one day, but that was pretty much it. My love of Baltimore has more to do with the people who live there, rather than the place itself. And I have to say, I’ve had more Natty Boh this past week than I have my ENTIRE life. Even when at Max’s Taphouse I started with the good beer, but when my other friends joined us, they kept buying me Boh. It’s cheap and/or free, so I wasn’t complaining.

I’m spending the last week here down in The County visiting my folks. Mum’s still in Canada, but Dad’s here, and I’ll get to see one of my nieces, and hopefully my brothers and nephews. I suck at playing Cruise Director, but I’m trying to plan meet-ups with various friends in the area. I won’t be able to fit everyone in, unfortunately. Even though I have a week here, I just can’t do it all, and I’m trying to not stress out about any potential hurt feelings. Everyone just needs to be on vacation at the same time as me so we can all meet up. Is that too much to ask?

I didn’t take many photos in Baltimore, because my batteries ran out and I forgot my charger, and I kept forgetting to buy new batteries. (And because I’m lame and kept forgetting my camera when going out.) I’ll try to remedy that soon. I’ve gotten a few good ones, though. And since all I’ve been doing is hanging out, a few choice photos are good enough.

I uploaded the photos from my camera (the ones from my phone are forthcoming, as usual) of the trip thus far. (Oh, and there are some photos from Sarah’s BAP in July, too.) Summer 2009

What would you call it?

At the beginning of the year, a few librarian friends of mine hashed out an idea for a blog. It started as a brief conversation about how much we’d like to learn more about beer. We didn’t really decide the format, but might try the following variations: we’d review a different type of beer each month, each sampling a different beer within the category… or maybe we’d all try the same beer, and each provide a review, etc. I’d also like to see about adding whisk(e)y* into the mix. Being librarians, I’d also like to include a bit of history along with our reviews. History of brewing and distilling methods, history of breweries or distilleries, etc.

In January, I asked some of you to help us come up with a good name for this new endeavor. The text message brainstorming session yielded the following:

• Biblioimbibers
• Librewia
• Pints ‘n’ print
• et ale (a favorite)
• hops & bindings
• periodical pub
• liter-ale
• The Brewery Decimal System (got a good chuckle)
• Good Librations
• Barleyography
• Imbiblioteca (a favorite)

So… what do you think? Got anything to add? I really want to get this up and running soon, before my enthusiasm wanes once more. Help us out!

* American and Irish = whiskey; Canadian and Scotch = whisky

/hibernation

I have been extremely lax in my blogging these last several months. You know how it goes: Busy doing fun things. Not organized enough to put photos on Flickr. No photos = no writing about fun things. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I shall attempt to remedy that this weekend by doing a massive upload of photos. I’ll be doing them in installments, starting with last August.

It’s March. Pretty soon we will have ploughed through a quarter of the year. What have I been up to this year? What’s coming up? Hey, look! A list!

1. Coming up on Friday, I have a phone interview for a Project Archivist position at an area library. The lovely folks at MIT have offered to do a mock interview with me on Thursday to help me prep. I’ve also expanded my job search to include positions back in the DC/Baltimore area.
2. I had a whirlwind trip to Maryland and Florida last week. I left Boston for Baltimore on the 20th, caught the Riveters/CCRG bout, spent several days among friends and family in Maryland (met the BFF’s girlfriend, she’s rad), left for Florida on the 24th, spent a few days on the Gulf Coast with my seester and JeT’s dad enjoying the 80 degree weather, caught a Red Sox spring training game, then landed in Boston just as the snow began to fall Sunday morning. It was a bit of a wild week: one morning I woke up to broken glasses and raw patches on my hands and face. I try to tell people that the raw skin was due to extremely dry skin, and the glasses were on their way out anyway. There are some, however, who refuse to believe this and assert that I must have been in a bar fight.
3. I now have new glasses. They are red. And shaped rather like my pair-before-last, slightly cat-eye. Did I mention they are red? And awesome? Yes.
4. PRD is gearing up for the 2009 season. Our last batch of newbies joined in January, and there are only a couple left who haven’t yet passed their assessments to claim their name. This is really exciting! It’s going to be a fantastic season! I shall be continuing as the Rookie Wrangler, and I’ll also be taking on the job of League Archivist. I’m also going to be playing in two away games. In Canada! Also, PRD is playing host to several travel teams this year. The first Riveters home bout is against Harrisburg Area Roller Derby (HARD) on April 11 at the RICC. The Killah Bees are hosting the Skate Free or Die girls at a scrimmage next weekend, and then we play them at a NH bout in April. I’m not going to be playing in that one, though, as I’ll be playing in Ottowa the following week. It’s going to be a derby-filled summer, indeed. (Check www.providencerollerderby.com regularly for the most recent updates.)
5. I haven’t been very crafty though. I did finally finish my SIL’s hat and scarf, delivered only two months late. The BFF has a birthday coming up and I’m working on something for him. I started a hyperbolic plane in blue and white cotton, which was supposed to be a bath pouf. I ran out of the white, half way through the last round. I might just knot it off and call it done, though, since the whole reason for making it was to do a bit of stash busting. I also have to make another Jayne hat for myself, since I lost the one I made last Fall. Once I actually get going on something, I’ll feel better.
6. I have severely neglected my pen pals these last several months. The end of the derby season in September ate up all my time, and then it was fall, and then winter, and now here it is nearly spring and some of them haven’t heard from me in ages. It’s not due to lack of caring, but rather to severe lack of organization. I just need to cart around my little notebook of writing supplies, then I can write while I commute, just like old times.
7. Saw They Might Be Giants a while ago. They were super great, as usual. They played so many songs! And many many were ones I’d never heard them play before, or hadn’t heard in a long while. We made some concert friends, which was fun.
8. We have a new car: a 2008 Kia Sportage, silvery grey. It’s awesome. We can accelerate. Uphill! And it’s big enough to fit my legs! And passengers!
9. Though I have been bringing my lunch to work nearly every day (thanks to JeT who actually prepares and packs the food), I miss bringing super fun bentos. I shall endeavor to remedy this. We’ve been making some new foods, though, so we’re slowly edging out of our food rut, which I’m very happy about. More new foods to come, and of course bento photos!
10. I’ve recently discovered Wild Turkey’s American Honey. If you’re a fan of whiskey or bourbon, you need to try this. Even if you normally hate the stuff, you need to try this. It’s golden awesomeness in a bottle. Highly recommended.
11. Speaking of imbibing, my librarian friends and I came up with a blog idea to help us broaden our beer horizons. We plan to sample a different kind of beer each month, and report our findings on the blog. We’re still thinking of a name, though. I was all ready to go in January, and then I sort of just forgot about it. This should be quite fun, once we get going!
12. I would like to go bowling. And ice skating. And just go out more often. Maybe stay in town for a bit on Fridays or something. I just need to get my act together and play cruise director, I think. I’ve just been so disorganized; I haven’t felt like myself for months and months. I think I’m finally coming out of my stupor, though. I think the sunshine did me some good. I’ll work on my schedule this weekend, and will start planning some outings. I wonder where my planner is… probably under the laundry somewhere.
13. First outing: This Friday, March 6th! Watchmen! Who’s in? JeT and I are going to see it in Boston (on the Common). We’re buying our tix tonight, if anyone’s interested.
14. And then there are a couple of concerts coming up: OK Go! and The Pogues! So excited!

Merry Decemberween!

Merry Decemberween!

I know it’s almost over, but I hope everyone’s December festivities have been super wonderful. We’re down at my folk’s house in MD for the week and having a great time. Christmas was super fun. I love watching the kids open presents. Since there are only two kids in the family at the moment, everyone was putting the pressure on for JeT and I to contribute to the younger population so that there’ll be more kids to watch on Christmas morning. Yeah, probably not anytime soon. Though woo hoo for all the friends who have announced their expected little ones! (You’ve all been busy: there were two baby announcements and one engagement! Hooray!)

I’ve finally uploaded photos from the last couple of months. Geez, we were wicked busy, weren’t we? There are photos from Thanksgiving with friends, the Fancy Schmancy Dancy Birthiversary Party, the Hooray for Repeal Day Party with librarians, the Ugly Sweater Party, snow, birthday, and Christmas. It’s been crazy-fun. There are also pictures of recent crafty projects: felted bags, and a doll of The Dude (from The Big Lebowski). And cupcakes. Yum!

See you all in the New Year!

busy week

Jesse turned 30 on Saturday! Happy Birthday, old man! We went out on his dad’s boat for one and a half days. Pictures and details forthcoming.

This week was kind of meh. And ick. Stressful class stuff. Details not forthcoming. It’s over, thank goodness. Moving on.

Tonight I’m catching up on some reading for class. While watching the game (go Sox!) and drinking a bottle of wine with JeT. We have to record our thoughts on the readings in a journal that our instructor is going to read this weekend. I’m not so much behind on the reading, but the journals… um, let’s say I’ve got some catching up to do. I can never think of anything interesting to say in the journals, so hopefully the wine will help get the ideas flowing.

Right. Back to work. (We’re at the bottom of the 4th right now. I just saw Kermit the Frog in a Red Sox jersey on TV. I don’t think it was the wine. Awesome.

ETA: WOOO! 10 to 3, Sox win!!