Beer Brewing - Wingback Ale

I bought Tony brewing equipment for his birthday, and he's had a blast brewing his first batch, Wingback Ale.  We have now bottled the first batch (about a month after initially starting).  Once bottled, the beer is supposed to sit for about 2 weeks to fully carbonate, but we couldn't wait so we tried one after 6 days.  It tasted pretty good, but didn't have much carbonation. 

Here are some pictures of the process:

This was on day 1 - Boiling the wort

It "lives" in one of the guest bathrooms to keep the temperature more stable and to keep the cat out!

 

 Primary Fermentation - yuck!  The green stuff is supposed to be there...eww!

 Here we are siphoning it from the first carboy to the second for it's secondary fermentation.  The green stuff stays behind :)

 After a couple of weeks in the secondary fermenter, it's time to bottle!

And finally capping!   

Honey Yeast Rolls

Tony and I love trying new bread recipes.  These honey yeast rolls were the best rolls we've ever made!  They reminded us of the yummy, soft rolls you get at steak houses.  I split the recipe in half and used an 8-inch cake pan and it worked perfectly.

Roasted Acorn Squash Soup and Harvest Salad

Acorn Squash Soup

Now that it's finally getting cooler outside, I've been in the mood for soups.  Last week, my best friend, Sara, told about an acorn squash soup from her aunt's blog that sounded amazing.  I make butternut squash soup a lot, but have never cooked anything with acorn squash.  I love that you roast the squash with garlic and shallots.  My husband said he likes the sweetness of the butternut squash a little better, so next time, I might use butternut with this same roasting method.  We served the soup with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Harvest Salad

These salads were delicious and incorporated all of the yummy fall flavors into one dish.  I used a spring mix lettuce and topped it with diced pears, macintosh apples, dried cranberries, toasted walnuts, and blue cheese crumbles (for me) and crumbled feta (for Tony).  I drizzled a basic vinaigrette over the top. 

This was a perfect fall meal!

Toffee Bar Brownie Torte

I saw this cake on Annie's Eats and knew I had to have it!  I decided Tony's birthday would be a great opportunity to make it.  Based on Annie's description (and looking at the ingredients), I knew it would be extremely rich so I planned on passing it around to my neighbors and co-workers.  Everyone I shared it with loved it.  A small sliver is all you'll want at a time, but this torte is delicious!  How could it not be good with all of these ingredients...

 

Sushi Rolls (Maki)

One of our favorite foods is sushi.  We would probably eat it several times a week if we could.  The first few times we made sushi, it seemed a little time consuming, but once you get all of the steps down, it's really simple.  We've been making it for over four years so most of the process is second nature to us now.  

We started our sushi-making when we lived in Tucson and could purchase sushi fish at several markets.  We didn't make it as often then because there were amazing sushi restaurants all over Tucson.  Then came our move to a small town in Alabama...definitely not the best for sushi so we knew if we wanted any decent sushi, we'd have to make it ourselves.  We couldn't find any sushi fish locally so we started doing some research and found Catalina Offshore Products, which is a company out of San Diego that will overnight the fish to you.  We have been very pleased with their sushi-grade fish.  We buy mostly frozen fish, and when it arrives, we split it into individual serving sizes and vacuum seal it.  We place the fish in the refrigerator to thaw the night before making sushi.  

It is hard to describe every step in the process so please let me know if you have any questions or if a step isn't clear.  


Sushi Rolls

Ingredients

• Sushi Rice (short or medium-grain rice)
• Nori (Orchid's Sushi Nori is our favorite brand)
• Sushi Fish (tuna, salmon, eel, shrimp, etc.)
• Other inside ingredients (cream cheese, avocado, cucumber, roe, etc.)
• Sauces (eel sauce, Kewpie/Japanese mayo, Sriracha) 
• Toasted Sesame Seed
• Wasabi Paste
• Pickled Ginger
• Soy Sauce

Directions

For the sushi rice, place 2 cups of rice in a rice cooker and rinse/wash until water becomes clear (probably 7-8 times).  Fill the water to the 2 cup line, and let the rice soak for 20 minutes.  After that, cook the rice, then unplug and let sit for 5 minutes.  Place the rice in a wooden bowl or on a counter top covered with plastic wrap.  Pour the seasoned rice wine vinegar over the rice and mix carefully while fanning the rice to cool quickly (we use an oven mitt to fan the rice).  Continue until rice is cool to touch.

Cover a bamboo rolling mat with plastic wrap (to make clean-up easier) and place a sheet of nori on it.  Spoon rice onto nori and spread lightly with the spoon or use your fingers after dipping them into a mixture of water and rice wine vinegar.  Sprinkle lightly with toasted sesame seed.  If you want your rice on the inside (easier), place your ingredients on one end of the nori (about half an inch from the edge) and and then roll.  For rice on the outside, gently press the rice onto the nori, flip it over on the bamboo mat, and lay your ingredients across the nori about half an inch from the edge.

After rolling, place the roll on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to cut the roll into 8-10 equal pieces.  Dip knife into a mixture of water and rice vinegar before cutting and between cuts.  Place onto a platter and serve with wasabi paste, pickled ginger, and soy sauce.

To make rolls spicy, you can mix wasabi paste with mayo or sriracha with mayo and place inside roll or place in squeeze bottle and drizzle on top

Our favorite rolls:

Playboy - shrimp tempura and Kewpie inside / rice on the outside with tuna, roe, Kewpie and eel sauce drizzled across the top

Shrimp/Eel - tempura shrimp, eel, avocado, cucumber, and Kewpie inside / eel sauce drizzled on the outside

Philly - salmon, avocado, cream cheese inside

Wasabi Tuna - tuna, shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, and wasabi mayo inside

Black Bean Salsa

We love this salsa...it is so fresh-tasting and light.  It's perfect for summer cookouts!  It can also be easily customized to your specific taste.


Black Bean Salsa

Ingredients

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained 

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 green onion, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro

1 garlic clove, pressed

½ teaspoon Creole seasoning

Directions

STIR together all ingredients  Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Lasagna Rollatini

My husband complains anytime I make eggplant, but I saw some great looking ones at Publix over the weekend and thought it would be a perfect time to try this recipe.  After his first bite, I asked him what he thought.  His response..."it's good."  If you know my husband, you know that's actually a really good response.  Most of the time I get an "it's alright" so you can imagine my shock when the word "good" was used to describe eggplant.  


The lasagna rollatini were much easier to make than I expected.  It was my first time salting eggplant to remove the bitter taste and some of the moisture.  After the 30-minute salting process, you should rinse them and pat them dry.  I definitely liked the flavor and texture better after doing this.  After breading the 1/4 inch thick slices, I broiled them on a cookie sheet with some olive oil for about 8 minutes.  I wasn't sure how easily the slices would roll up, but they ended up rolling perfectly. 

If you like eggplant parmesan, you'll really like this recipe.  I served it with some whole-wheat linguine topped with marinara sauce.