Monday, July 06, 2009

Beer Snob Irritations

I've seen and experienced this before but decided to snap a photo and share. This really irriates me as I really enjoy quality beer.
This was taken in Wisconsin as some might see.
  • First, Sierra Nevada is listed under the imported bottle section. Sierra Nevada, maker of many quality craft beers, most popular of which is its declicious pale ale, is produced in California.
  • Second, look at what is listed under "Premium Bottled Beer." Mike's Hard Lemonade? It's alcoholic lemonade, might as well have Zima listed there. Landshark? Landshark is nothing more than a macro brew, brewed by Miller or AB (I can't remember which), with Buffet's name on it. And Spotted Cow? No offense to any Wisconsinites, but this is a bad beer, I tried one yesterday just to make sure.
  • And going back to Sierra Nevada, not only is Sierra Nevada not imported, it is very much a premium beer.
  • One last thing, is root beer a non-alcoholic bottled beer? I thought it was a soft drink?

Monday, June 22, 2009

My Second Chance

On the first night of Brewfest (1,2,3,4) last year, I bought a large quantity of beer tickets expecting to use up any remaining the next night. Later that night when I returned home, I put my remaining tickets in a "safe" spot. You know, the safe spot that's so safe you forget where you put them the next day?
I couldn't find them the next day. And as it usually happens, I located them a few days after Brewfest had ended. Not to sound cheap, but it must have been 12 - 15 bucks worth of useless beer tickets. I decided to keep them and thought of making a piece of artwork out of them to hang near the basement bar.
A year goes by and despite Brewfest's hosting brewpub closing, they put it on for one more year. I excitedly brought my little stack of old beer tickets thinking just maybe they'd use the same ones.
Sure enough, when I brother and I arrived, we saw the same pages of yellow perforated Brewfest beer tickets being sold. We had our first couple of beers on my once thought useless beer tickets.
I love it. Even despite the beer ticket inflation that suddenly occured over the course of 12 months. The price of a beer went up a ticket.
And good thing I never got around to making art out of them!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Turkey Leg, prt 2

You may recall my earlier post on the turkey leg I enjoyed for lunch a week back. It wasn't as good as it could have been so I wanted to give it a run through my smoker to see if I could do better.
So I located a recipe in my Smoke and Spice book and found some turkey legs at my local grocery store. By the way, I had no idea that turkey legs or turkey drumsticks were a regularly stocked item? But I suppose they would be, since they'd have to sell the other parts to the turkey I purchase as lunch meat!
In any case, they were rediculously cheap, $1.79 per pound, with a package of two ranging from $3.50 to $4.50. And for the person with little patience, smoking them only took about three and a half hours, as opposed to an all day brisket or pork shoulder.
I'm not trying to boast but wow, these turned out fantastic. Check out a few pictures...
So moist, and check out that smoke ring.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Supernaturally Bad

Here's a look at one of my tables at my garage sale yesterday. Note the CD in the upper left near the N64 above those DVD's.
It's my copy of the Santana album Supernatural recorded back in 1999 where each song featured a different popular vocalist. I no longer enjoy it, as a matter of fact, I think it's quite torturous. Honestly I have no clue why I bought it in the first place. Anyway, I didn't have the heart to sell it, so I gave it away for free.
Check it out...
Took a number of folks to walk through before someone noticed it. A man picked it up and walked over to us laughing, "Is this really free?"
The humor alone is worth the buck I could have gotten for it.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Turkey Leg

Check out the turkey leg I enjoyed for lunch yesterday.
At 6 bucks it wasn't a bad value and it sure was fun to eat a big turkey leg with your hands. But it wasn't smoked and was really dry.
What's good though is that it's got me wanting to smoke up a few turkey legs myself, and I aim to do much better!

Here it is post consumption. Note the yellow outline illustrating the original size.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Garage Sale

My friend not so subtly made me realize that I have a lot of crap that I could try to sell at a garage sale.
My first very own garage sale. This is one of those, "You know you're old when..." moments. Not to add to the fire but I find myself excited about it.
Anywho, it's still a few weeks away but I have already begun to prepare. I've made several signs, a clothes rack made from a few old 2x4's, and I've begun sorting though closests and drawers for items to sell. I have quite a bit more to do over the next two weeks but shouldn't be too difficult or costly.
I'm mostly going to enjoy ridding my home of clutter but I certainly look forward to whatever revenues I can generate from my unneeded items. I realize, however, that I must be cautious as I ponder what to do with my potential earnings.
I need avoid purchasing yet more crap.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Sping is here

Time to prep vegatable garden