Friday, January 30, 2009

Port Brewery

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-bom7-2009jan07,0,6548919.story

LA times beer of the month, same brewery as i had last night. i'll have to try out the "old viscosity". mmmm. (10.5% ABV, woah. that'll knock you out.)

Thursday, January 29, 2009

thursday night.

for dinner tonight, i decided to make an artichoke and feta cheese pizza.

i found the recipe on epicurious.com (where i find most of my recipes) and initially started buying ingredients as if i were to double the recipe. however, when i only got 16 oz of dough, instead of the doubled 20 oz, i figured, i'd one and a half the recipe. as it turns out, i didn't really measure anything and just kinda winged how much of everything i added.

the recipe called for me to use a tablespoon of yellow cornmeal. i didn't have any on hand, but i did have left over panko crumbs, so i decided to use those instead. it turned out just fine.

once again, the hardest part of making a pizza was getting the dough pulled just right. at first, i attempted to through the dough without flour (mistake number one) and without a rolling pin (mistake number two). upon using both flour AND a rolling pin, both my problems were relatively solved and i fit the dough to the baking pan just fine.

i topped the dough with chopped artichoke hearts, thinly sliced sugar plum tomatoes, feta cheese, maui onions and a splash of artichoke heart marinade. cooked at 425 degrees for around 16 minutes. the panko crumbs really helped the dough from sticking. there was some flour on the pan as well. i'm not sure which attributed more to the crust lifting easily from the pan.

i served the pizza with a salad with my favorite shallot vinaigrette that i use for most of my mixed green salads. the salad was very simple, but good. good balance of lemon to vinegar. my biggest problem with this dressing to date is that it gets too lemony if you're not careful. i went extra light on the lemon juice this time, and it turned out really good.

the pizza was very good, and i was impressed with the crunch of the crust without being burnt or being undercooked. i liked the balance with the onions and the artichoke. a good mix of sweet and salty.

as a beverage, i started out with the a 12 oz full sail IPA which i bought individually from TJs. it was nice, and (surprisingly for TJs) not skunked. a very solid beer, not too hoppy for an IPA, but full of flavor and intensity (although i think the full sail lager is one of the best i've had). instead of moving to wine, i stuck to the IPAs and had a 22 oz of port brewing (www.portbrewing.com) "wipe out" IPA (which was selected out of my two IPAs for it's 7.0% ABV as opposed to the other IPA's 9.1% ABV). i purchased this baby at wine exchange, my favorite "wine, beer and spirits" store. (it's amazing. www.wineex.com) this baby was amazing. at only $3.99 for a 22 oz, i was amazed at the vibrant flavor and hops, but coupled with extreme drinkability (in fact, i probably finished it a lot sooner than i should have!).

all in all, it was a great meal. it could only be enhanced by a serving of frozen yogurt. however, unfortunately, at 11:20pm, all the fro-yo places are closed. i will have to wait until tomorrow.

UNTIL NEXT TIME!
-b

ummm, yeah.

so i really wanted to record my food experiences, which led me to start this blog. basically i just want to record what i make / buy that i like / don't like. a food record, if you will. i just thought i'd throw it online in case anyone else is interested. enjoy!