Very Easy Beer Bread

This is a lot of fun for even for kids (just watch out for the ones who liked the Seriously Baked Beans and don’t let them drink all your beer).

It is really easy recipe and mostly fool proof , (there are some fools you just can’t proof).

If you are over here scoping out 365 Days on a regular basis, it’s likely you have the ingredients on hand for this dense bread. It is very good with soups, which is why I am posting it today. Tomorrow I am posting Irish Guinness Stew and the bread is in the picture.

The weather here has regressed to wintery and stormy, which, along with 70 degrees and sunny is typical Bend, Oregon, spring weather. Perfect for some last rounds of soups and stews.

Very Easy Beer Bread

Ingredients

12 oz beer

3 cups flour

3 tablespoons white sugar

Directions

Mix together the sugar and flour in a big bowl.

Add the beer. Here’s where it gets creative. I’ve used everything from Apricot beer to really dark beer like Guinness (in which case I use brown sugar) and keep on mixing. When it gets thick enough, switch to using your hands. The batter will be sticky. Tough it out. Drink more beer.

Pour into a 9 x 5 inch greased loaf pan. (My silcone one seriously rocks.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 for 60 minutes.

The top will be hard and crunchy, and the inside will be nice and yummy.

Champagne Shrimp

There is not a lot of skill involved in making these, but not only are they really good, you get to drink the leftover champagne (because who leaves a bottle of open champagne to fend for itself?)

They are elegant and bright. Great a BBQ or a formal dinner. (Shane is thinking they will appear at the Chateau de Touffou for formal dinners.)

Shrimp and champagne how much better does it get without chocolate?

Today my score was that the bags of shrimp were not only on sale but I also had an extra $5 off coupon. I got 2 bags so you should be seeing Bakon Vodka shrimp soon as well!

Champagne Shrimp

Ingredients:
2 lb. peeled cooked shrimp
1/3 c chopped green onions
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cup champagne
¼ white balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp pickling spices (or ½ tsp each cinnamon, mace, ginger root, cardamom, allspice, dry mustard)
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or dill (depending on what you like)

In a bowl big enough to hold everything, combine champagne (I use Cooks White Zinfandel Champagne but if you really want to go up in style and price use Korbel’s Chardonay Champagne.)
, onions, olive oil, vinegar, pickling spices, (I did my own version here because pickling spices are easier but contain cloves which my sister is allergic to and I was making this for a family BBQ) salt, sugar and pepper.

Add shrimp, toss well making sure all the shrimp are well coated and covered with marinade.

Cover and chill for up to 1 day, stirring occasionally and stealing one at a time..

When I cover I put them in a bowl and put cling wrap right down to the top of them sealing them off .

Chocolate Kahlua Cupcakes

These fall under the heading of "Decadence is it's own reward". Don't let the picture deceive you. They don't photograph like the cupcakes that keep coming up on the side of my Facebook, however, they are very, very, very good.

Chocolate Kahlua Cupcakes

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix
1 sm. pkg. instant chocolate pudding
1tbs instant coffee
2 c. sour cream

4 eggs
3/4 c. oil
1/3 c. Kahlua
12 oz. chocolate chips

Pour a cup of coffee. Pour an extra 1 oz of the Kahlua in the coffee. If it’s the weekend skip the coffee. (It’s good to set limits somewhere.)
Combine all ingredients except the chocolate chips. (Pour a few in your hand and eat them.) *Do not give chocolate to the dog no matter how much he begs.

Mix well….Now fold in chips.
Bake in cupcake holders at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

WARNING this makes about 4 DOZEN cupcakes. So if you don't have a big party or a lot of coworkers waiting to test whatever you are making next on the list for 365 Day of Cooking With Alcohol...you might want to cut it down some.

OR: Pour it all into greased and floured (dusted with powdered chocolate is even better) bundt pan at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

I made 12 cupcakes and a bundt cake.

Frosting

I am not a huge sweet frosting fan. For these it was almost criminal to put frosting on them at all they were sooooooooo good.

For the sake of a nice finished photo; and frosting lovers, we compromised. Jerry chose Duncan Hines Cream Cheese Frosting. I took 4 tbs and dowsed it with a 1tbs Kahlua and 1 tsp barely moistened instant coffee. We blended it up, put it back in the fridge to re-solidify a bit and put it on some of the cupcakes. Turned out pretty dang good.

A nice sprig of mint on top and we are done! (I wanted to put Nopareils on top but couldn’t find them.)

Seriously Baked Beans

Be careful making these. Do not do a ton of taste testing or YOU will be seriously baked Trust me!

These are not for wimps and probably not kids. Kids probably won't like them and if they do you should worry.

There's not much to this. After you cook the bacon (I learned that gadget man has a handy little screen that goes on top of the frying pan and keeps me from swearing at the bacon), and onions everything goes in the pot and cooks itself into food.

Oh.. and if you accidentally use cayenne pepper instead of chili powder you'll have to rename it to:
SERIOUSLY TOO FREAKIN' HOT TO EAT BAKED BEANS.

Seriously Baked Beans

1 Can Pinto Beans
1 can Great White Beans
1 can black beans
1 c water
1/2 onion, chopped
8 slices bacon, rough chunked (optional.. Wait, no! Bacon should never be "optional".)
1/2 c BAKON vodka
½ c whisky or Yukon Jack
3 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs honey
1 tablespoon chili powder
3/4 c ketchup
2 tsp salt or bacon salt
Fry bacon until very crisp, cut up and set aside. (Unless you want just bacon flavor but veggie beans..the BAKON Vodka will provide.)

Drain drippings from bacon into whatever pot you plan on cooking the beans in. Cook the onions until they are semi transparent.

Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT THE BOOZE into the bean pan and mix them up. (Wait..if you just want the alcohol flavor now would be the time to add it in. If not…wait.)

Drain beans, add them to the mix. Put the bacon in and stir it up.
Add water cover and cook on medium heat for about 1 hour. Add more water if needed.

Stir in BAKON vodka and Whisky or Yukon Jack. Cook uncovered for another 20-30 minutes or until it gets thick.

Orange Whisky Pork

Jerry and I did this together. The really fun part was that Jerry, not a drinker, took a whiff

of the Drambuie and thought it smelled nice (which it does) and SHOT the WHOLE bit.

he said "MMMM..That's really nice" right before his eyes almost shot out of his head and

he started choking.

"Honey, that's still WHISKY" I said with a nice little smile.

OKay, so, Drambuie is the nice little reward Prince Charles (Bonnie Prince Charlie) gave the

Scottish people for pretty much getting them wiped out at Culloden trying to get his crown

back.

"Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward the sailors cry,
Carry the lad that's born to be king,
Over the sea to Skye."

During the battle Donald Livingstone rescued the blue banner of the Stuarts

"Donald Livingstone took up the banner, and tearing it from the stag, wrapped the banner round his body. " http://www.clanlivingstone.info/Donald_Livingstone.htm

So, in my humble opinion this is a gift to my clan as well so if you're ever at a loss as to what to get me, Drambuie is culturally appropriate!

Orange Whisky Pork

Ingredients
3 pounds pork tenderloin
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Drambuie (Okay chill. 1/4 cup is not THAT much and it’s worth it. If it completely undoes you, or you’re not a rebel Scot and don’t have Drambuie laying around, use ? orange juice concentrate and ? whisky.)
2 cloves garlic, rough chopped
2 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs honey
1tbs coarse kosher salt
1 tsp pepper


Directions
Whisk together soy sauce, Drambuie (or substituted lesser quality mixture…humph.), brown sugar, honey, and orange juice if you either want more orange flavor, or had to go the whisky route, pepper and garlic. Poke holes in the pork (like you are going after someone who kicked your dog.)

Put the whole roast and the marinade in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag squeezing as much of the air out as possible while closing. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, turning and squishing occasionally.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove pork from marinade, and place on rack of shallow roasting pan. Save the marinade for sauce.

Bake for 45 minutes or until meat thermometer registers 160 degrees F degrees internally.

Sauce Made from Marinade

Leftover marinade
2 tbs olive oil
3 tbs flour
1 c stock (chicken or pork) sub bouillon is okay
2 tbs whiskey (optional)

Over medium to low heat, warm up olive oil and flour whisking along the way until it gets gravy thickness with a golden brown color. (This makes a roux)


When it gets like a thick gravy add the leftover marinade and keep stirring. It will ball up like some kind of weird toffee looking candy.

Add the stock and whisky and keep whisking until all the roux is melted into the water then let it cook itself until it starts to boil then go back to stirring.

Stop when it is a consistency that you want.


If you like this a lot and live near Mexico they make an inexpensive suitable orange liquor substitute. It’s clear and comes in a jug with small orange on the neck. Remember bottle per person back across the border. They seize the rest and pour it out in front of you. It’s very very sad.

Salmon Poached in Champagne Sauce

Here we are proving that I can cook with some type of alcohol besides various forms of whisky!

This would be one of those dishes you serve for really special company, people you want to impress, or a nice romantic dinner for two! (Or yourself, a good movie or some West Wing re-runs and all the champagne to yourself....)

It was really easy to make and it helps to drink some of the champagne along the way.

We usually served this with plain white rice, which lends its self well to soaking up the delicate sauce without competing with it; and asparagus. This time we did with what we had on hand (and yes, we normally have salmon, champagne and heavy cream on hand...the parsley I lifted from my breakfast at Shari's and brought it home in a napkin..it's called "being thrifty" or "SCOTTISH".) The peas were good. The Pilaf competed a little too much.

Since generally champagne is an aperitif, it’s good to serve with a Sauvignon Blanc as the dinner wine.

Salmon Poached in Champagne Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tbs diced (tiny) onions
1 c brut Champagne (I suppose any will work. Cook's pink sounds nice)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 sprigs fresh parsley
½ tsp dill
1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
1/2 cup heavy cream
Pinch of sea salt
Pinch of pepper
1 tbs corn starch
1 tbs water

Pour two glasses of champagne (No one uses the whole bottle on the fish and once it’s open well…..it’s bad luck to leave an open bottle.) Share one or drink them both while you cook the fish…or pour one and pour off another ¼ c to make some yogurt champagne salad dressing

Start with the olive oil in a large frying pan (We used a 10” Greenpan over medium-high heat, add onions and saute until soft.

Add the Champagne, lemon juice, and parsley to pan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to barely a simmer.

Season filets with sea salt, dill and pepper. Carefully slide the fishy fillets into the liquid, cover and poach 3 to 4 minutes (or until done).

Move them to a plate and set them aside while you finish the sauce.
DO NOT EMPTY PAN!!!!!

Pour off the poaching liquid then ladle 1/2 cup of the poaching liquid back into the frying pan over medium heat. Add cream and bring to a boil.

Make a slurry from the corn starch and water.

Reduce to a simmer and whisk in slurry. Stirring constantly as it thickens, simmer 1-2 minutes. Return fish to the sauce just enough to heat it through.

Put the fish on a serving plate, spoon the sauce over it and garnish with lemon if you like. (We used some chives for garnish because we have them growing like weeds on the mantle.)

Apple Fritters With Whisky Glaze

I snuck out to the revered kitchen on a Sunday morning without a chaperone and made these fritters. While the picture does not look as appetizing as I would like, I can say they were WONDERFUL!

These were surprisingly easy to make even for someone like me who never made a donut in my life. The only thing I can say is ….don’t use a little whisk to mix the gluey stuff together because it all gets clumped up inside the little whisk and it’s hard to get out with a butter knife.

Also, make sure you use a teaspoon and not a tablespoon to dollop the things together or they will be too thick and the insides won’t cook. Then you have to nuke them for a minute and I DO NOT recommend that.

Do it all correctly and they are to die for (being a diabetic I actually was testing that theory.)

Breakfast in bed for everyone…… even Polar Bear.

Apple Fritters With Whisky Glaze

Fritter:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 cup chopped apple

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

(Or 1 c powdered and 1c brown sugar)

1 tbs milk

2 tbs whisky or scotch. (I used The Glenlivit )

Directions: Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon. Stir in milk and egg until just combined (You can add a little whisky to the dough too if you really want to go all out 2 tbs).

Fold in the apple bits. I would go with a Granny Smith, a Cameo or a Gala. Something with a little stronger flavor and not mushy.

Pour oil into skillet so that it is approximately 1 to 1 ½ deep. Heat oil on high. Oil is ready when a little piece of tester dough floats to the top.

DO NOT EAT THIS TESTER...IT'S HOT.

Carefully add dough to oil in heaping teaspoons. Do not use a tablespoon or they come out too thick and don’t cook through as well.

Cook them until they are brown then flip over CAREFULLY the oil is hot and can SPLASH. Cook them until both sides are brown. Move over to paper towels to absorb excess oil, then transfer them on to a cooling rack.

Make the glaze by stirring milk and powdered sugar and whisky together in a small bowl. If you are using the brown sugar combo heat it a little until it is creamy.

Paint onto apple fritters with a basting brush.

Wait for the glaze to harden, then turn the fritters over and baste glaze over the other side. You may have to rewarm the glaze a little.

Serve warm. (and if you think you can wait until they cool you are a pretty strong person!)