Beautiful Brussels Sprouts

This dish combines brussels sprouts and red onions to beautiful effect. You'll have to trust me since I didn't take a picture. Its clean, bright flavors make a nice change from beer braised brussels sprouts.

• 1/2 pound brussels sprouts, halved if they're big
• a small red onion, or half a large one
• 1 tsp. whole coriander seeds, crushed (instructions below!)
• zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
• olive oil, salt, pepper

Crush the coriander seeds by putting them in a line on a cutting board, pressing the side of a knife against them, and slamming it down with your fist (it's fun!). Slice the onion very thin, making long pieces. Put a large pan over medium high heat with some oil. When it's hot, cook the onion for two minutes, stirring the whole time. Put the onions aside in a bowl and salt them. Put the pan back on the heat, turn it down to medium, and cook the brussels sprouts, coriander, and lemon zest in it, stirring occasionally and adding some salt and pepper. When the sprouts have a nice brown color, add a few tablespoons of water, turn the heat down, and cook for a few minutes until the brussels sprouts are cooked but on the crunchy side. Add the lemon juice and some extra olive oil and serve.

Dick's Danger Ale

Dick's Brewing Company, Danger Ale
Centralia, WA
4.5% Alcohol
Rating: 3/5

This is an extraordinarily unobjectionable beer. It's on the sweet side for a beer; in fact, it's one of the least bitter beers I can remember drinking. Its flavor doesn't stay in your mouth very long, but while it's there it's pleasant.

Lately the sky has been pretty as the sun sets. I've been enjoying it.

In front of Padelford Hall.

Dick's Cream Stout

Dick's Brewing Company, Cream Stout
Centralia, WA
5.5% Alcohol
Rating: 4/5

It's an excellent stout with a rich flavor that could even be described, dare I say it, as creamy.

Beet Cobbler

Beets in a pan

Here's the idea: take some of the most standard accompaniments to beets--hazelnuts, goat cheese--and put biscuits on top. The biscuits are taken from a peach cobbler recipe of my mother's, minus some sugar. I put in a leek, but an onion would work fine too. This is at least four or five portions.

• 4 beets, peeled and sliced
• 1 tbs. malt vinegar
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts
• a few ounces soft goat cheese
• 1 large leek, chopped
• olive oil, salt, pepper
• butter for greasing

For the topping:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2-3 tbs. melted butter
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, or 1/2 cup yogurt plus a bit of water

Grease an 8-inch square pan (or something of a similar size) and put in the sliced beets mixed up with the malt vinegar and some salt. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.

Meanwhile, cook the leeks in a skillet over medium-low heat in olive oil with some salt and pepper until they're soft. Make the biscuit dough by mixing up the dry ingredients and then adding the liquid ingredients and stirring with a spoon or spatula. The dough should be like a very sticky bread dough, not a batter.

When the beets have cooked for 25 minutes, uncover the pan. Give the beets a stir, and put the leeks and hazelnuts on top. Drop handfuls of the dough on top of this, and scatter some blobs of goat cheese around. (When I did this I buried the cheese under biscuits because I was worried it would burn, but I don't think it was necessary.) Put back into the oven until the biscuits are done, 25-30 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes and serve.

Iron Horse Cozy Sweater

Iron Horse Brewery, Cozy Sweater
Vanilla Milk Stout
Ellensburg, WA
4.5% Alcohol
Rating: 3/5

This is the kind of beer that I wouldn't buy if I didn't trust Iron Horse. I really didn't like it at first: the vanilla flavor was jarring, and it all seemed too sweet. By the end I appreciated the rich malty flavor and found it more tolerable, if not my favorite.

More Apartment Improvement

Since we got back from Minnesota, Lindsay and I have made two big improvements to the apartment. Here are our new bedroom curtains:

These took a few months to make. We bought fabric and curtain rods back in August or September, but then we had to wait for December so that Lindsay could use her mother's sewing machine. Off to the side, you can see Lindsay sewing a different set of curtains, which we'll put up when we get bored of these bright pink ones. I should also mention that even though I keep saying that "we" did various things, Lindsay did all the work, from hemming the curtains to putting up the rod. Really the only thing I did was choose the pattern.

The other new thing is this wire rack:

We moved our bag of rice and jug of peanut oil off the floor and onto the first rack. We emptied out a cabinet onto the second rack. The third rack got our bucket of granola and a few other containers of food, most of which had been crowded on top of our refrigerator.

Three Skulls Pilsner

Three Skulls Ales, Yellow Beard Pilsner
Seattle, WA
~5% Alcohol (just a guess)
Rating: 2/5

It tastes like grape soda. It is possibly the first domestic beer I've had that tastes like this. Is beer supposed to taste this way? I don't like it.

Some internet investigating has taught me that Three Skulls Ales is basically just Baron Brewery.