Filed under: Beer, Raves & Reviews, New Products

My husband spotted crème brûlée stout by Southern Tier Brewing Company on a beer menu at at new local restaurant. Ordering it was a no brainer. We had to give it a try! The first thing we noticed as it arrived at our table was the smell. It smelled just like crème brûlée - a very unexpected scent when you stick your nose into a beer bottle.

The crème brûlée stout tasted like someone poured a ton of vanilla syrup into their beer. It was really sweet and very crème brûlée - like, but also definitely tasted like beer. Oddly enough, the combination was great! After we tried it, several other people at the table ordered their own. We drank ours with the meal, but you could just as easily have it for dessert on its own or as a beer float with some cinnamon ice cream.

I would definitely try it again. But maybe, I’ll just pour some vanilla syrup into a regular stout instead. It would be cheaper.

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Filed under: Restaurants, Trends, Local Eating, Artisan Foods

Imagine that on your lunch break you purchase gourmet food from the window of a 1962 Airstream trailer. In Seattle, the chefs from Skillet are making this possible. Skillet goes to different street corners every day concocting meals depending on what’s available locally and seasonally. They’ve become famous for their Kobe-style burger served on brioche with bacon jam, blue cheese and arugula. Besides tasting delicious, the food is also reasonably priced, between $6 and $10.

According to an article from Forbes, Skillet sells about 200 lunches daily. Chef Danny Sizemore states that he opened up Skillet, with his partner Joshua Henderson, in order to fill a void in Seattle: high-end street food. The Forbes article points out that the concept is not entirely unique. In Minneapolis, there’s Chef Shack that sells bison burgers topped with homemade condiments. And, in Marfa, Texas, Food Shark offers homemade hummus and falafel with crisp romaine lettuce from a truck.

To find out where Skillet’s Airstream trailer is going to be and what they’re going to serve visit their site.

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Filed under: Beer, Chocolate, Asia, New Products, Valentine’s Day, Winter

That’s right! This December, Beer made with chocolate will be available from the Japanese company Kirin. What can be better than the mixture of these two alluring and bewitching foods? This sounds like an idea for Valentine’s Day…

Apparently, this beer chocolate will be better than previous beer and chocolate concoctions. I’ve never tasted them before. So, I wonder if it’ll taste obnoxiously sweet or if it’ll meet that perfect balance.

Beer chocolate is just one out of the many flavored beers you can find. For example, just last month, we had a post about a blueberry ale from Maine. This makes me wonder whether or not this is a recent trend or something that has been done for ages. Either way, I look forward to tasting this Japanese beer chocolate this winter.

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Filed under: Beef, Recipes, America, Retro cookery, Soups/Salads

From The Heinz Book of Meat Cookery (1930), HJ Heinz Company

I’m interrupting the semi-regularly scheduled Midnight Sausage series to share molded food images and recipes from my personal collection of early-to-mid 20th century cookbooks. There will be aspic. There will be mousse. There will be various gelatins. All will be semi-solid and of debatable degrees of edibility.

Please feel free to shimmy and shake your way to the comments section to share your very own magical, masticable molds of yore.

Previously - Vegetable Supper Salad

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Filed under: Chocolate, America, Garden Party, Spring

Dagoba’s Rosemary Mint bar was one of Marisa’s standout picks for our Fancy Food Show Favorites, and I’ve since become slavishly devoted to their Seeds bar. It’s 68% cacao, studded throughout with pumpkin, hemp and sunflower seeds, and now I’ve got even greater impetus to dig it, because the company is giving away free seeds via their website Seed the Day.

“Whether it’s a pot on the windowsill, a patch in the backyard or a big community effort, everyone can garden. We’ll get you ready for spring and help keep your garden blooming by sending you the very herbs and flowers found in our chocolate bars. Everyone who signs up will get at least one packet of lavender, mint, rosemary, pumpkin or sunflower seeds.”

So far as I can tell, there’s not a single hitch or string — just free seeds and an extra excuse to think of chocolate. The site also notes that should your planting group be planning a late night planting romp, they just might send along some delicious provisions. And - if you live in Boston, Chicago or San Francisco, you can come on out and nab a handful for yourself. Dates are listed here.

Seed the Day

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Filed under: Spices, Health & Medical

According to canada.com, it seems that a simple typo in a Swedish magazine led to four people being poisoned. See, a recipe for apple cake was posted, and “Instead of calling for two pinches of nutmeg, it said 20 nutmeg nuts were needed.” The error was spotted after printing, letters were sent to subscribers, and inserts were added to store issues. But these warnings didn’t reach everyone. One group of people still tried out this horrifically over-nutmegged recipe, and the four suffered poisoning symptoms like dizziness and headaches.

How can anyone choose to make that recipe and not question that amount, or not be turned off by it? One sniff of nutmeg is hint enough that it’s way too strong to imagine 20 nuts in one cake. So, even if you don’t come to the conclusion that there was a typo, one would think that the recipe would just seem, well, gross. I can only imagine that those who ate it have taste buds that don’t measure sickening amounts of nutmeg.

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Filed under: Health & Medical, Food News

With so many food recalls recently, wouldn’t it be nice to have that information sent to you rather than just happening across it?

If you’re a reader of food blogs, you probably don’t have to look too hard for information on the latest out break of food borne illness. The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) has got something better for you. You can sign up to receive email alerts for any new Class I food recall, which is one where food has been determined to be the cause of human illness and is therefore unfit for consumption. According to MDA, there was a 56% rise in Class I recalls from 2006 to 2007 that affected Michigan consumers.

You can sign up for the email alerts here. I’m pretty sure the alerts will be geared toward Michigan’s citizens, but there doesn’t seem to be any restrictions on the sign-up page. Something like this could definitely be worth it. Do you think this should be offered nationally?

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Filed under: in sixty seconds

• While it might still be a challenge for the pickier kids out there, deli meat issues opens the door for other tasty ingredients like edamame.
• Chef Thomas Keller went north to the land of Quebec to cook for Quebec City’s 400th anniversary.
• Eat tongue in cheek — literally — at Niagara Street Cafe.
• Wines to indulge in as summer wraps up: Pacific Rim 2006 Dry Riesling, Flat Rock Cellars 2006 Seriously Twisted, Konrad 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, Luigi Bosca Reserva 2005 Malbec, and Bodegas Carrau Ysern Blend of Regions 2004 Tannat.
• Recipe: Penne with Asparagus, Oyster Mushrooms and Goat’s-Milk Cheese.

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Filed under: Cocktails, Cocktail Hour

After a week spent wandering the halls of Tales of the Cocktail in July 2008, sipping many finely stirred and shaken libations; I said to myself, “These special cocktails need to be shared with the world.” So I bring you Cocktail Hour, a finer way to celebrate the end of the day; with these recipes. They have either been created specifically for Tales of the Cocktail, or re-designed for a new approach on the traditional version by some of the top Mixologists in the world. Many are being presented to the public here for the first time. Enjoy!

Cabana Shrub Cocktail after the jump

Continue reading Cocktail Hour: Cabana Shrub

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Filed under: Dessert, Fruit, Fall

Over at Foodtv.ca, they’re choosing monthly recipes from Food Network chefs and cooks and sparking up a little competition. This month, I can’t help but share because, well, the recipe comes from one of my favorites — Ricardo — and uses an ingredient that is gearing up for mass picking — apples.

Ricardo Larrivee’s Mini ‘Tatin’ Apple Tarts with Caramel is the name of the game this month. These cooking clubs are a great way to get extra tips about a recipe. For one, if you see an ingredient that just doesn’t sound right to you, it’s easy to get feedback from others as to whether that nibblet is really worth it. And secondly, it’s a great way to challenge your foodie photography and try to come up with most appetizing-looking dish. And thirdly, does it need to be said that it never hurts to have a reason to make a delicious dish?

These Tatin apple tarts look darned good, and a nice alternative to apple pies. If you take a stab at making them, let us know how it turns out!

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