November is a big month for us. The Thanksgiving chaos is finally in full swing and we love it! A whole month to talk about recipes, experiment with new ones, taste old favorites, and feed our friends? YES PLEASE. This year we’re taking it one step further: a virtual Thanksgiving dinner all month long…on your desktop!

Hello Folks!

Halloween is here and for many of us it is a night of reliving our childhood fantasies of dressing up in crazy costumes – except now we get to drink while we do that. The results can vary, but I figured what better time of year to sit down and try and few pumpkin inspired beers to get in the spirit of things! I went to my local liquor store and asked the stock manager to offer a few suggestions that don’t fall into the normal mainstream that I usually partake in this time of year.

St. Ambroise – The Great Pumpkin Ale

This Canadian Pumpkin Ale was a pleasant surprise. When it was recommended to me I was a bit hesitant, but the stock manager assured me that it was one of his favorites. And I must say I was incredibly impressed with the recommendation.

This very complex pumpkin ale gives you all that you would want in a festive beer without the weird aftertaste and heavy viscosity that usually accompany most holiday oriented brews.

It starts with subtle undertones of pumpkin and citrus rind, and continues to be a full-bodied beer with wonderful layers of cinnamon, honey, and other fall spices. The pumpkin flavor is wonderfully displayed as the liquid makes its way towards the back of your mouth. It’s crisp, light, and very refreshing. If you’re still in a hotter part of the country or just don’t like heavier beers and want a Pumpkin Ale without the desire to sit down after a few, this may be a great one to try out.

Buffalo Bill’s Brewery – Pumpkin Ale

This Pacific Northwest Pumpkin Ale is definitely what you are looking for if you want to enjoy a good brew while you’re relaxing with your friends near a fire or just waiting for the kids to show up in their costumes on Halloween night.  Or if you are unlucky, waiting for them to stop egging your house.

It claims to be America’s Original Pumpkin Ale and I can buy into that tagline. It seems like a more classically brewed beer and doesn’t have the same lightness and zestiness of the St. Ambroise.

The first thing you will notice about this beer is the color. It has a wonderful gradient of orange and browns and looks beautiful in a chilled glass. The beer itself absolutely has a high viscosity and is almost reminiscent of a lager or even a very light stout. As you taste it you will get lovely hints of vanilla, coffee, and of course a more potent hit of the pumpkin flavor you are looking for. This beer is definitely on the creamier side of the spectrum, with a fantastic finish and glorious after taste. Be aware though after a few of them you may want to take a nap!

Shipyard Brewing Company – Smashed Pumpkin Ale

Of the three recommended this beer was my least favorite. It almost seemed to be trying to be too complex. The alcohol content is almost three percent – more than what you get in the other two beers and it definitely comes through – not in a positive way.

When you initially taste the beer you do get a strong kick of pumpkin, but that quickly dies off and is replaced by a rather bitter taste that permeates through the entire tasting.  While I won’t say that I hated the beer, it definitely fell more in the taste region of IPAs for me and I’m not the biggest fan of them. If you are looking for a more bitter and hoppy beer with pumpkin flavors this would be the one for you.  With hints of nutmeg and other fall spices, it’s a bit overwhelming for my palette and definitely on the earthier side of things.

While Halloween is an incredibly fun night, just remember to drink in moderation  – and be very careful out there readers.

Happy Halloween, and Good Spirits Folks!

There’s been a turn in the weather here in Los Angeles; although the daily highs have still been in the 80s (which to you might sound great but to us is too hot for nearly November) the daily lows are creeping to the 50 degree line, which means evenings are cool enough to pretend you’re on the east coast (or some other seasonal section of this country) and turn the stove on to making a piping hot soup.

We love fall around these parts, even if it doesn’t show its face until October (and slides away sometimes right around November, making us curse an entire day with the oven on). So when it shows up, I try to make things inaccessible from March through October, and I try to make Jeff’s favorite soup, Creamy Potato, often because making someone’s fave food is just plain fun.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe on Taste of Home.

Ingredients:

2 medium red or purple (or white) potatoes, diced
1/2 medium red onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
fresh parsley
s/p

optional:
grated cheese
green veg (I added crispy Brussels to mine one day, and spinach the next)

Directions:

1. Put your potatoes on to boil. Cook until a fork slide out of them – depending on the size of your dice, this should take about 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, dice your onion, and mince your garlic. Measure out your milk so you’re ready when the time comes to add milk.
3. In the bottom of a Dutch oven or pot, melt butter. Add garlic and onion, and allow to sweat for 3-5 minutes. Check your potatoes now, and make sure they’re not done. If they are, drain ’em.
4. After allowing your garlic/onion to sweat, add your flour, and whisk constantly about 2 minutes. Slowly add your milk at this point.
5. Allow to thicken, simmering over low heat, and after about five minutes, add your potatoes. Allow to continue to thicken for about 30 minutes, until the soup is thick and creamy.
6. Top with fresh parsley and any cheese/veggies you feel like adding. Enjoy hot with crackers!

It is sutable for soup makers.

We hope you’re enjoying some fall-friendly foods yourself – let us know what you love so we can add it to our repertoire!

Sometimes, even food bloggers commit pinterest fails, but that doesn’t make our creations any less delicious. We wanted to make something cute and seasonal to take to our annual pumpkin carving event. We spent a few hours on pinterest, in which I discovered that virtually any food shaped like a ghost will make me giggle out loud (I think it’s something about their ghostly surprised faces). Eventually, though, we decided that a bite sized caramel apple would be perfect.

Truthfully, these were easier than we expected. We used a melon baller to cut smaller rounds out of larger apples and dipped them in caramel and nuts. The whole process took about 30 minutes from start to finish. If we made these again, we’d probably use shorter sticks to make things more proportional, and we’d recommend eating these right away. The caramel starts to slide off the longer these sit.

Even better, these are so much less messy than a whole caramel apple! All in all, it’s a good reminder that food can still be fun, easy, and taste great even if they look a little droopy in photographs. Plus they’re still pretty cute, aren’t they?

I used to work at a school, and although I wasn’t a teacher, there would be these teacher appreciation lunches that all staff was welcome to attend. At every one there would be this slow cooker full of the most delicious white chicken chili that everyone would save room for – it was that good. After a couple of years of savoring this chili, I finally asked someone for the recipe, and I tucked it away in my email, excited to have this amazing chili at my fingertips at any time.

It crept back into my memory recently, as all good things do, and although I haven’t worked at the school for three years, I found the recipe in a folder (in a folder) in my email, and I promised Cor that it’d be amazing. The best white chili she’d ever had. We slow cooked it instead of making it the way it original was prepared, because slow cookers are magical and everyone should use one as often as possible.

Our adapted recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

1 lb chicken (we used skinless thighs)
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 medium red onions
2 cans Great Northern white beans
2 small cans of green chiles
2 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp thyme
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin
2 cups Monterey Jack cheese – grated
1 cup sour cream

Directions

1. Rinse and drain beans. Chop chicken, garlic, and onions.
2. Place chicken, garlic, onions, beans, chiles, broth, two cups of cheese, and spices into a slow cooker.  Add 1-2 cans of water (use the bean cans to measure).
3. Cook on high for four hours, stirring occasionally, adding liquid if needed.
4. With 30 minutes to go, add remaining cheese and sour cream, stirring well. Serve hot with tortilla chips.

This recipe was as good (or better!) than I remembered, and it was enough to feed an army – this filled our slow cooker, so you can adjust as needed if you’re feeding, in fact, an army, or just feeding a couple lucky ones.

What is your favorite chili? Let us know – we love new chili recipes for the cold days ahead!