Much like Iowa’s arctic freeze, the season for high gravity beer persists through January. An ideal time to polish off the remaining supply of festive winter warmers, this month is also perfect for sipping jet black imperial stout, barley wine […]
I started with this recipe, but only because I thought it was a recipe for real, live all whole wheat french bread. Nothing wrong with that recipe, but I’m a type II diabetic, and white flour is powdered death for […]
A little (maybe closer to a long) while ago, my friend Eric demanded I send him recipes “so that he might be jolly.” I immediately thought of pies, but then I thought the likelihood of Eric preparing a pie was […]
To me, November falls in a gap between seasonal beer styles. It does not fit as well within the autumn brewing tradition as October, and it’s too early for holiday/winter ales. However, colder weather brings the craving for dark beers full of roasted chocolate and coffee malts, so my November recommendation needed to be a balance between seasonal traits. […]
Harvest is the traditional time to drink saison, a pale ale from Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. Though perfect to quench the thirsts of workers toiling in the fields (circa 1880), saison is not ideal for the October tradition I’m in the mood for. Instead, I feel like wearing my fake-blood stained mad scientist smock for Trick-or-Treating.
But here it is, completely vegetarian BBQ, even easily made vegan. Homemade BBQ sauce caramelized onto slowly oven roasted eggplant, just spicy and bone-sticking enough to take the chill off the cooling end-of-summer evenings. For the vegetarians dying for BBQ.
September, I realized, is a difficult month to recommend beer for. For three weeks it is still technically summer, so I wanted a beer that was light-bodied and refreshing. It also needed be rather cheap, as long afternoons of tailgating call for coolers packed with relatively affordable brew.
This summer I visited a Democratic meet-up in Marion, Iowa, where a new candidate for Secretary of Agriculture is looking to rebrand our state’s chief export. But not through marketing–through a new vision of sustainable agriculture, one that posits the problems presented by an over-reliance on fossil fuels as an opportunity to reevaluate the future of farming in Iowa.
Chicken of the Woods! I found a 7-10 pounder at Squire Point while hiking with my guy. My faith in the woods has been restored. Morel season left me empty handed and with writer’s block, but now my inspiration has […]
I ate peppers, I ate celery, I ate arugula… I made this dish one night after a day of ranting to myself that A) how the hell am I supposed to get the recommended 9 servings a day of fruits […]
Nine days ago, a member of my family died. It was my 18 year old cat. I knew the day would come sooner than I was ready. It always does. Memories of my feline, Yoyo, stretch all the way back […]
