Food & Beer Friday :: In the persnickity tank.

Time to make a complete switch from all those stouts!  A couple of weeks ago, I had a day off and enjoyed this as my day drinking beer.  I'm a big fan of farmhouse ales, and Boulevard Brewing Company's Tank 7 did not disappoint!  Tank 7 is a Belgian-style farmhouse ale.  Farmhouse/saison beers are always drier in taste for me, which I enjoy.  It's a bit of a different take on the hops.  This beer is brewed with three types of hops and corn flakes!  I'm not sure those make much of a difference in flavor; however the hop flavor is evident.  I would definitely order this beer if I found it on draft somewhere.  I thoroughly enjoyed sipping on this brew.

While my pairing (or glassware) doesn't quite mesh with what Boulevard recommends, I drank with my left over Moo Shu tofu from one of our fav restaurants in Raleigh, Dave's Dumpling and Noodle Bar.  The dry finish and hops paired well with the sweet & spicy of the Moo Shu.

(As always, this beer was purchased from Tasty Beverage Company in Raleigh, NC)

CHEERS!

Do you have a favorite farmhouse or saison beer?

Food & Beer Friday :: A beer from the "gang."

I've had this little pretty sitting in my fridge for a bit.  Unfortunately, D was not in town to share it with me.

While I know of Ommegang Brewery, I'm not too familiar with their beers.  I honestly picked this up based on the name "harvest ale."

Ommegang has dubbed the Scythe & Sickle a harvest ale as it's their attempt to honor the harvest season.  It's brewed with all things harvested: barley, oats, wheat, and rye.  According to Ommegang,

"Farming is about precision, time, and care.  At Ommegang we place the same emphasis a farmer has for his crops into the creation of our beers.  Scythe & Sickle is a testament to the craft and care of farming, from which our farmstead-brewed beers benefit greatly."

This is one of Ommegang's limited edition beers.

Let's talk about color and taste.  The beer is amber in color, and had a very heavy head.  I assume the head indicates the high carbonation I tasted.  The smell reminded me a lot of last week's farmhouse ale.  The only way I can describe the flavor was "bready."  I imagine this is fitting considering it is brewed with so many grains.

There's not too much hops going on here. In my opinion, it's a good balance of hops and malt.  I wasn't over the moon for this beer.  While it was by no means bad, it didn't sell me on the special factor.

Cheers!

  <a href="http://www.skinnyjeanschailatte.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnflfc2abnNlHaIedc53w-T-LoKCrTTF9g5XYrXCRjsVAs8ZO7nqRtQNbFMnxom9kZs4f90LiuZ1mimfg24bV3qFE0Fa-nel5JtRTKUOHU9_tVCAGE86LqsKoAaVRsx-Obr2n9p3oXWIs/s180/Food-%2526-Beer-Friday-Button.jpg" border="0" /></a>
I'm still interested in starting this as a link-up.  You could link beer or food posts from any day of the week.  Should I move forward with a link-up?

Living out Raleigh :: Hopscotch Festival.

One of the perks of D's job is that we get to do all kinds of awesome things in Raleigh.  Once I get myself a fancy camera (oh one day...), I'll get better about documenting these events.  For now, let's check out the iPhone documentation of Raleigh's Hopscotch Festival.

We went last year, when Widespread Panic was headlining.  This year's festival was two weekends ago.  It's a three-day event full of music at different venues in downtown Raleigh.  I don't think I could say it better than this,

"Now in its third year, The Independent Weekly's Hopscotch Music Festival brings 175 bands to 15 venues in downtown Raleigh. Intended to highlight the Triangle's music scene by pairing exciting local talent with notable national and international artists, Hopscotch offers choices in just about every genre imaginable—rock, hip-hop, alt-country, metal, dance, punk, classical, noise, drone, folk, and more. It is a festival that thrives on the variety and quality of its lineup, and this year, with roughly 35% of the musicians hailing from Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and other nearby locales, it's a testament to both this region's musical diversity and its national relevance." 

I didn't participate in any of the festivities until Saturday, but oh it was one hell of a Saturday.  I had just come off of being sick and may have jumped in a little too quickly.

Since I work with little ones all day, I don't get much chance to "fancy up" and look cute.  I donned curls (which fell out way too quickly) and lipstick!  Oh and this outfit.

One of the cool things about Hopscotch is all of the day festivals.  Terrapin (see all those taps!) sponsored this show at The Hive.  We literally got there at 11:30, which means a long day of drinking ahead.  We started with bloody marys in fitting fashion.

It was totally ok for us to spend almost all day at The Hive.  And that we did.  Side note :: what the hell is up with the uber poor quality of the front camera on the iPhone.  Whoa.

In between shows, we stepped over to the street party in front of the Raleigh Times.  Here's a peek at their new awesome expansion.  I'm over the moon about how much more room they're going to have in there!

With my fringe & leopard, we hit up another street party sponsored by AC Restaurants, Videri Chocolate, & Mother Earth Brewing.

If you're real fancy, you can get a three day pass to all events or you can get one that is just for certain shows all three days.  They're real fancy with those bracelets too!  I might even want to wear it again.

After all of our day partying, we headed over to City Plaza where the "big stage" was.  New Belgium always sponsors the city plaza parties.  I didn't even know it was going to rain, but the clouds started rolling in and the rain plummeted us.

We're big time, so we hung out in the VIP tent with food and "champagne bombs" for the boys.  I just enjoyed the champagne & food (duh).  What is it about Red Bull that the smell still saturates my senses with cheap college bars...and I never even had a "bomb."

And so even in the midst of the downpour & braving the destruction of my new loafers, we trekked into the hotel bar.  I'm going to say this is where things went downhill for me.  I won't go into details, but imagine this scenario...me rolling out of bed on Sunday, frantically searching for my phone.  I'm forced to enlist the help of Find my iPhone.  Fast forward to a queasy me & D literally tracking down our cab driver and finding my phone wedged in the back seat.  Whoa.  I'll just stop there.  Suffice to say it was a rough day at the bar (yes, the effing bar) watching football.

Don't worry, I did get to watch some of the headliner, The Roots, in City Plaza after the rain ceased. Hopscotch is a must-do in Raleigh!  Check out this year's line-up & keep an eye out!  They'll be posting their 2013 dates soon! 

Life Lately :: The sickness I can't kick.

Since last weekend, I've been plagued with a sore throat & a cough that has progressively gotten worse.  This shit seems to happen to my every year.  And it always happens while I'm training for a race.  I've tried to stay off the radar, but I can't quite take any days off work unless absolutely necessary.  I've lost my voice & am pretty scared about not being ready for the half in a month.  I can't quite figure how to avoid this sickness every year.

In the meantime, I've been having some fun!

 [Raleigh Beer Week called for lots of time spent at Tasty Beverage.  The week before was their anniversary celebration.  I attended it all...and surprisingly ate no cheese in the process!]

 [A three day week with the kiddies before they moved up to the big kids class.  After only a little over a month with them...I'm really going to miss {most of} them!  Teacher work days were spent prepping the classroom...calm before the storm.  I give those wall letters a week.]

 [Awesome difference between public & private settings?  Parent appreciation.  Scored some amazing gifts and lots of gift cards.  I'm so lucky.]

 [Some fabulous purchases made with my appreciation gift cards!  I've been coveting these loafers for a month now!]

 [New running shoes finally!  Also courtesy of appreciation gift cards (and a little help from D).  I scored an awesome deal with a coupon & picked up my first pair of compression socks from Omega Sports. Sadly, I can't break them in until this sickness leaves me.  Boo.]

[In an effort to kick the sick, I spent all day Saturday inside reading.  I tried to take advantage of the beautiful weather in the best way I could...]

[The tea is just not doing the job I hoped it would...]

I'm trying to keep up around here in the best way I can!  After being cooped up all weekend, I'm going to try to meet D at the beach tomorrow as he heads back in town.  I have to have at least one day to enjoy the sunshine!  Enjoy your Memorial weekends!

How are you spending your Memorial weekend?

Linking up with these lovelies!

A sweet summer cocktail.

Way back when I had find a signature summer mixed drink on my summer bucket list.  It took me a couple months, but I succeeded!  I gave you a snippet, but here is the full recipe you've been waiting for!

The recipe was inspired by Eat Love Drink's blueberry French 75.  I had leftover champagne from my first birthday weekend, and we had grabbed blackberries at the farmers market, so I made my own adjustments!

To make 1 drink you'll need:

• A handful or two of blackberries
• Juice from half a lemon
• 1 oz (or a shot) of gin
• 3 oz champagne
• Ice

Obviously I'm very classy and used only the best champagne & gin.  But seriously, I'm a girl on a budget!

Muddle your berries in a pint glass (or shaker which I only realized later we had).  Muddle them just a bit to release some of the juices.  I muddled a little too much the first time, but I perfected it on my second round.  Add your gin, lemon juice, & ice.  Shake or stir gently.  Add your champagne & pour into your glass.

Super easy!  Hope you take time to make my summer cocktail before fall sneaks up on us!  Cheers!

Do you know the capital of Texas?

Yeah, it's Austin (and dammit, that picture I thought I snagged of the Capital Building was no where to be found)!  I popped in real quick for a weekend!  I'll give you just my weekend in pictures!

 [Boo ya.  Bumped up to economy comfort! Extra leg room for the win!]

 [I wear this dress all the time, which is perfect for traveling.  Paired with a clearance Target necklace.]

 [My hotel was right on 6th Street, so I spent Friday night exploring that crazy place.]

 [Amazingly delicious Patrón Mango Mint Margarita at Iron Cactus]

 [Picked up a 6-pack of Pearl Snap at Royal Blue Grocery before heading back to the hotel for the night]

 [Had to dress light and flowy for the heat and humidity for my first full day]

 [My walk the in the opposite direction on 6th Street]

 [Conveniently ran into a Whole Foods with a taqueria!  Most amazing and perfect discovery!]

[Sat outside Whole Foods with the best egg & vegan chorizo taco of my life]

 [Perfect hotel positioning as the farmers' market was on Guadalupe, perpendicular to 6th]

 [Red Rabbit Bakery at the Market]

 [I never order sweets...especially donuts.  When in Rome?]

 [And I chose filled?!  The local, organic peach filling was totally worth it]

 [I literally walked everywhere.  Even across the Congress Ave. bridge.  I shouldn't complain about the heat though; I'm in awe of the number of runners I saw out at 11:45!]

 [Ms. P's Electric Cock Fried Chicken...if D would have been with me, we would have stopped]

 [Because I knew D would be proud...an all Texas beer sampler at Hopdoddy's]

[Amy's] 

 [While sweets aren't the norm, I couldn't resist the "black metal stout" (with alcohol in it!) topped with Twixx!]

 [Started Sunday off in the best way with brunch at Max's]

 [Jalapeño-cheese grits topped with spicy pulled pork, fresh tomatoes, sweet corn, pickled jalapeños, & a fried egg.  Amazing.]

[Finished my day off trying to detox and settle my tummy at Halcyon]

Linking up with Hollie today!  I've found some of my fav new blogs this way!