The New Brew

Such a clever post title! We're trying an IPA this time, using this kit. IPAs, we've heard, are more difficult - so we'll see! This is a great time to brew, since we'll be able to enjoy the beer at Easter!


The carboy being sanitized, getting ready! The numbers indicate gallons - for those of you who may be a bit perceptionally challenged (like me!)

Bringing the water to a boil, and soaking the malt extract in warm water so it will come out easily. It tasted like sorghum.


Here's another picture.

Then it boiled for an hour of constant stirring, with hops for the majority of the time.

Yeah, those hops. The flavoring hops went in five minutes after the boil started, and other, aromatic hops went in with five minutes remaining.

Here's the wort brewing up.

Once the hour passes, you take it off the heat and let it cool to 85 (I think... Paul can confirm)(or not). A good way to speed this is to put it in an ice bath in your sink (the side of the sink not full of StarSan for continuous soaking of your sterile things).

I don't have any pictures of funnelling it in the carboy, nor do I have any pictures of it chilling in the big closet. But both those things happened. Imagine these pictures with a lighter, blonde-colored beer. Again, it looks like beer, but this time we are a bit worried that the yeast didn't get to where it needed to be. So we could be set up for our first failure, but let's hope not.

This seemed a lot easier than the first time - maybe because I was a lot more hands on with it. It went really quickly, too. Maybe we could do this for fun and profit... yeah, right.

Annie's Third Birthday

I only have a couple of [poor, iPhone] pictures from Annie's third birthday party in February - a Fancy Nancy theme. Rest assured it was as cute as cute could be, though!

Sarah Beth had a captive audience reading to all the guests!


The party table...


Our princesses... who didn't make it to the party but demanded to be included in the blog post.

Well, that beer did get bottled...

...and it turns out it was pretty good! We both thought it was a little watery, but everyone else found it very drinkable and a very worthy first effort! I know you were all waiting with bated breath to hear how it went, right? Well, here it is, in pictures, during Lent. Fail all around.


The master brewers and their mascot!


Of course, the sterlization theme continues - the bottle caps had to be boiled for a good long while.




The siphon really had to be sanitized quite well, as you can imagine. If you're wondering, we're using something called StarSan to ensure it's all good... because here's what happened next!





it happened REALLY quickly, and we didn't have much left in the bottom at all, maybe one extra beer - but we never really lost suction, which was something Paul was kind of worried about.


Bottling the beer - Amanda's found a new line of work!


Then capping - which took a minute to get the kinks worked out and ensure the seal was tight, but once we were set it worked like a dream!

Of course, what you don't have pictures of are the two weeks we waited before drinking it... and what you'll see later are pictures of us, emboldened, making a fresh batch last night! An IPA this time. Stay tuned!

Tagine Fever!

So, Paul's birthday was a couple weeks ago. His parents, my in-laws, brought over his gift - then we watched the Vanderbilt game and went to McCabe. I'm so sorry everyone can't have the Mother-in-Law experience I do. She's seriously one of my best friends.

After they gifted Paul, there was a large Williams-Sonoma box they said was for me - they'd found it while walking in the mall. It was a TAGINE! I don't remember if we'd registered for it or not, but it was very welcome nonetheless because I've definitely considered one over the years. Additionally, there was tagine spice and an apricot sauce, both from W-S. We were surprised - and all set :)

So last night we got around to trying it out. I bought a whole chicken (which meant we had it for dinner last night, lunch today and Joannie had it for lunch today, too) and prepared it according to the instructions on the aforementioned sauce. Sorry if the pictures are a little bright (I'm no Pioneer Woman!) but trust me, they looked and WERE delicious!

So here we are - in four pictures that you'd have to smell to believe!


brown the seasoned chicken (in batches) first...


then pour the sauce over it...



doin' it's thing... for an impossibly long hour and a half! Luckily, we had this to tide us over.



...and the finished product - serve with toasted almonds and basmati rice, and you've got dinner! Thanks again, y'all! :)

The BEST Super Bowl Ad!

Father had an awesome homily yesterday (based on, as usual, the day's Gospel reading) about how many commercials during the game will be inundating us with messages of who they think we are or should be - a discerning consumer (e.g., TV selection), too much (weight loss/working out), too little (restaurants), etc.
He exhorted us all to remember that Jesus said we ARE salt -
we ARE light - not that you will be or could be or if you only had enough x or y it'll happen - but that WE ARE. Just so wonderful.

But we watched the ads anyway, if for nothing more than we like ads. I'd like to think we're not swayed by them. Paul would disagree, but then again, he does have to corral me at the "impulse" stations in the checkout lane at any store we go to. Paul also had a great observation last night that the cost of making one ad and paying its airtime would feed the entire nation of Eritrea for a year. And he's probably right.

The ads weren't that great this year. I think the latter half of the game made up for it. The football was better then, and we made these (I'd NEVER had a sloppy joe. These were excellent!)
Thankfully, too I missed Christina Aguilera's flub earlier in the broadcast because I was at the grocery store.

But this ad was the greatest, and lo and behold there's actually a fantastic story to accompany it. It's cut off for some reason; you may have to click it to see the full screen.

Here's the story. The child, who is simply adorable under his Vader gear, is actually a heart patient at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles.

Thought(s) for the day: Sacrifice and Humility vs. Self-love

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:

and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

Matthew 16:25

"Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glorifies in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God... the one delights in its own strength... the other says to its God,

'I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.'

Psalm 18:1 and St. Augustine's City of God

"World history... is a struggle between two kinds of love - love of self that ends in hatred of God, and love of God that ends in renunciation of self. The second love is the redemption of the world and of the self."

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Co-workers of the Truth

Thursday Evening Adventures!

Last night I:

• got a haircut
• ate a hotdog
• saw incredible live music
• cleaned blood off my dog after she mutilated a rabbit

Yeah. Now you're interested.

We'd long planned to go see the Tony Rice Unit with John and Sarah Beth at the Belcourt. In fact, it was Bugs and Lana's Christmas gift to Daddy. Tony Rice is amazing. Just sample the tracks from this album (or this one) if you don't believe me - but when have I ever lead you wrong before?
(don't answer that, actually)

So after my haircut, we were getting ready to go have dinner at the awesome Dog of Nashville before the show. You can see exploits from the 'Dog over at Joannie's blog (WOW, two "hat tips" in a week, Joannie!) but it is really, really good and highly recommended. Get the onion rings!

I hear Paul yell from outside, and, sure enough, Bugs has cornered, killed and maimed what we estimate to be a 5+ pound rabbit. We can make estimations because Paul was trying to wrestle the rabbit's leg from Lana's mouth with his grill tongs. It's every bit as disgusting (and hilarious) as it sounds.
Hey, at least the Bukus was sharing.

They like to share, although they act like they don't. They're nothing but parasites, actually. She'll give her sister a rabbit leg, so long as she can lean on her when she gets lazy.
Very symbiotic (although they're the same species...)
(so whatever that word is)

Anyway, to make up for that disturbing story, here's some YouTube videos of Tony Rice. The first two are with Larry Keel, who is awesome - Paul used to see him all the time in college and we saw him when we were in Lexington for Paul's 10-year reunion last fall. They're playing Miles Davis' All Blues, which if it's not one of your favorite songs, it should be.





And here's one similar to what we heard last night:





So, on another, happier note: If you've made it this far, please say a prayer for the success of this weekend's St. Thomas Aquinas Theological and Catechetical Formation Program. Several of our friends and co-workers will be presenting and I know they would appreciate your prayers, as well as prayers for good weather, all the speakers and attendees, and that God would be glorified as we examine the writings and example of His servant Pope Benedict.