Bison Chocolate Stout

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The Bison Chocolate Stout was something I picked up on a whim during a pilgrimage to the local BevMo. It came highly recommended by my cashier, who is starting to recognize me--an unsettling thought. Nonetheless, it was an intriguing prospect as it claims to be completely organic, which for a beer means ... well, actually I have no idea what forms of regulation are in place in the beer industry for such terms, so it could be completely meaningless.

The immediate taste is reminiscent of coffee; not quite to the espresso level, but certainly carrying a bit of bitterness, which I can only assume is due to the charring of the grains used in the brewing process. Not a lot of malt or hops present, leaving the grain flavors to stand on their own. The carbonation is medium-high, resulting in a slight burn on the tongue that is not due to alcohol (the alcohol burn itself is relatively low). For a stout, this is surprisingly refreshing; most stouts tend to be high-gravity thick beers that coat the mouth like cough syrup, but the Bison keeps the gravity low, which I certainly appreciate.

Pairing Suggestions
This would actually be a decent dessert beer, largely due to the coffee notes present. It would go well with vanilla ice cream or, if you're into chocolate-fruit pairings, raspberries and chocolate or something along those lines. It might work for cheesecake, but I'm not sure that it has enough acidity to cut through the richness of cream cheese.

Stone Ruination Ale

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At the risk of coming across as one of those people who sit around with fellow snobs talking about a particular drink's "mouthfeel" and "citrusy notes", this post marks a style that is new to my blog: a brief review of something I recently (or more often than not, not-so-recently) consumed. In most cases, this will involve beer or wine, but this could certainly change at my every whim. This is ostensibly in an attempt to keep track of the many varieties I end up trying, if for nothing else than to make sure I keep track of mistakes and don't end up repeating them. These posts will most likely come across as standard wine-tasting elitist jargon, but hell, it's my blog so shut up.


Stone's Ruination is a fitting first review post as it's one of my favorite beers for the time being. In my book, it is the India Pale Ale against which all other IPAs are judged, and as such, little that I end up drinking meets with its high standard. In my relatively limited home-brewing attempts, I've already tried to match its splendor twice, both times with inadequate (albeit still tasty) results. The only problem I have with this beer is that, much like most craft brews, it comes with a rather high price tag and must be enjoyed infrequently lest one's wallet protest too much.

After the inital pour, Ruination exudes a great deal of fruit in the smell alone, largely citrusy (ha! Told you!), but with some sweetness in the end. Its taste evokes a combination of pear, apple, and lemon flavors tempered with the IPA's signature high level of hops. The carbonation level is medium, balancing well with the crispness of the taste. The hops are not as bitter as one might expect, but this is probably due in part to the fruit helping to moderate the alpha acids present. As would be expected, there is little in the way of malt flavor, resulting in a low-gravity beer that is quite refreshing for a warm day.

Pairing Suggestions
Dishes designed to accentuate the beer's fruitiness (or rather, vice versa I suppose) would be best. It works well with fattier foods as the acid levels help cut through the richness present in the food itself. Fish, particularly catfish, works quite nicely. Tomatoes or cole slaw are also good ideas.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Bread (Sugar-free)

Update (April 17, 2010) and re-posting: this recipe was altered to use less oil and applesauce and I've added notes about how these changes affected the bread.

I've been trying to finish off the bag of frozen blueberries that we bought at Costco before we make our next trek there (at which point I will buy a new bag and start the process all over again). I also wanted to take my sugar-free whole wheat banana bread recipe and modify it for different fruits. What better place to start than with blueberries?

Since the basic components of the banana bread recipe like yogurt, oil, flour, and egg quantities, were sound, I mainly wanted to swap out the flavor components. That being said, bananas lend moisture and density to quick breads and blueberries do not. I decided to replace the bananas with unsweetened applesauce*. I also didn't include cinnamon or vanilla as flavorings because I didn't want to be able to taste the apple and I felt those seasonings would enhance it. I wanted the blueberries to shine through rather than for this to be an apple-berry mixture.

I don't mind being immodest and saying that this turned out fantastic. I sampled the batter and it was very "wheaty" (as raw batter can be with whole wheat flour), but very tasty. I was very keen to cut the bread and sample it right out of the oven, but waited for it to cool to just slightly warm first. I didn't want the structure to fall apart because I cut it while it was still too warm.

This is by far one of my best improvised recipes ever. One of my students made it with a 1/2 cup of brown sugar and hers turned out great as well.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Bread:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce*
• 1 medium egg
• 1/2 cup plain (unsweetened) yogurt
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 tbsp. Canola oil (or any vegetable oil)
  
• 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat bread flour)
  
• 1 cup granular Splenda (or just use 1/2 cup of white or brown sugar)
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups frozen (unsweetened) blueberries

Mix the egg, yogurt, applesauce, Splenda (or sugar), salt, and oil in a large bowl. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon and mix well. Add the whole wheat flour and stir until just moistened. Allow to rest 10-30 minutes. While the flour is resting, grease and flour a loaf pan and preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. (350 degrees F.). Stir in the baking powder until well incorporated, but do not overmix. You don't want to overwork the gluten in the flour as it will make the bread tough. Gently fold in the frozen blueberries. Pour into your prepared loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes. Note that I used a glass pan which takes longer to heat up so my cooking time (1 hour) may be longer than that needed for a metal pan.

*Unsweetened Applesauce:

You can make your own unsweetened applesauce easily in the microwave oven. Peel and core two medium apples (green or red is okay, but green apples are softer and cook faster) or one very large apple. Cut the apple roughly into bite-size pieces. Put the apple pieces into a microwave-safe dish with a lid and add about a quarter cup of water. Microwave on high power (600 W.) for between 3-6 minutes. After three minutes, check with a fork to see if they are tender and add more cooking time as necessary. The timing it takes depends on the type of apples you use. Drain the water from the cooked apple and place in a food processor with a small bowl or use your blender. Puree, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Two medium apples yielded 1.25 cups of applesauce for me.

The calories for the whole loaf are about 1220.

Notes after modifications: I reduced the applesauce and oil because the bread was so moist before. This moistness wasn't bad at all. That being said, it did tend to keep the bread from rising as well as it might and cause it to sink down further after cooling. Cutting the applesauce to 3/4 cup and the oil to 1 tbsp. had no negative impact at all, and in fact made a more "quick-bread-like" result. I think it's pretty much as close to being perfect as possible (not that it was bad at all before!).

by Shari (Orchid64)

Chickpea Salad (aka faux tuna salad)

This picture looks dark, but it is actually one of the most authentic pictures in terms of representing the true colors of the food that I've ever taken. You may applaud my honesty.

I found this recipe on the Kitchn, and I must say that the part of this which is trying to ape a tuna salad (and calling it "Chickpea of the Sea") seemed a little silly to me. I guess vegetarians may want to emulate the flavor of tuna salad, but I'm content to just eat real tuna. That being said, I do love chickpeas and this presentation of them was intriguing. Also, the case of 24 cans of chickpeas that I bought a year or so ago is still lingering. I had two or three cans left and this seemed like a good way to work on them before they rusted into disuse.

Chickpea Salad (modified from the recipe linked above):

• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 tbsp. mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp. plain (unsweetened) yogurt
• 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 1 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar (I used 1.5 as the original recipe said, but it was too much)
• 3-4 tablespoons chopped green onion
• black pepper, garlic powder, salt, and hot pepper flakes (to taste)

Pulse the chickpeas in your food processor until coarsely chopped. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until mixed. Spoon onto a layer of lettuce on your bread of choice. Top with thinly-sliced tomatoes. This made three servings for my appetite.

I liked this, but really wished I hadn't followed the original recipe's vinegar recommendations. The vinegar was so strong that it overpowered many of the other flavors. The original used umeboshi vinegar, but I can't be bothered to track down and buy a bottle of special vinegar just for a sandwich recipe. The umeboshi vinegar is supposed to add the saltiness of tuna to this, but I just added, well, salt. I also put quite a lot of pepper and hot pepper in mine, but felt more would have been better.

Next time (and there will be a next time), I'll go with 1 tbsp. of vinegar. I also may reduce the mayonnaise to 1 tbsp. and use 3 tbsp. yogurt because even diluted 50%, I thought the mayonnaise flavor was quite present.


by Shari (Orchid64)

Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

As I mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to try baked oatmeal with peanut butter instead of pumpkin. I figured this would improve the protein profile as well as possibly make this similar to an oatmeal peanut butter cookie in taste. Since peanut butter contains oil, I decided to forgo adding any oil to the batter this time around.

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granular Splenda (or use white or brown sugar)
• 5 tbsp. peanut butter
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  
• 1/2 cup low-fat milk (or use whole milk)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Put the egg, Splenda (or sugar), flour, salt, vanilla and peanut butter in a medium-size bowl. Whisk until the peanut butter is well mixed in. Add the milk and whisk until thoroughly mixed into a smooth, wet paste. Stir in the oatmeal and baking powder until evenly mixed. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes until set.

total for entire loaf: about 1100 calories
6 servings: 183 calories each

Since I'm concerned about sugar because of my husband's blood test results, and Skippy has added sugar, I looked into the nutritional information and determined that each serving of this oatmeal has only 1 gram of sugar (about 1/4 of a tsp.) of sugar from the Skippy. I can't imagine that is a dangerous amount of sugar or that it isn't offset by the amount of protein and fiber in the peanut butter. I also checked on oatmeal, and a 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal has 1 gram of sugar. That means each serving of this has around 1.5 grams of sugar and about 6 grams of protein (from the egg, oatmeal, and peanut butter).

When I tasted the batter for this, I thought it was very sweet compared to the pumpkin version. I used Skippy peanut butter, which has sugar added to it (because that was all I had), so I thought I could scale back the Splenda, but the truth is that the end product was not as sweet as the batter by a long shot.

This was okay, but I thought it came out too dry (note: my husband, who this is made for, was satisfied with the texture and didn't find it too dry). Part of the problem with sugar-free food is that the moisture-enhancing properties of sugar are lost. I think I might need to add some pureed bananas or apples to this next time to moisten it up a bit. It'd probably take about a half cup of either. When I give that a try, I'll post a modified recipe.

by Shari (Orchid64)

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

My husband got some discouraging numbers back from a blood test which compelled him to make some changes to his diet. To that end, I'm trying to prepare food that he will enjoy that is lower in calories and doesn't spike blood sugar. Oatmeal is usually considered the breakfast of choice for its relatively low glucose index and decent protein numbers for a grain, but my husband doesn't like oatmeal as it is conventionally prepared.

In order to make oatmeal more palatable (and easier to eat than cooking it up on the spot), I modified an Amish baked oatmeal bar recipe. There are tons of these recipes out there, and I lost track of the one that I changed. Mainly, I replaced the sugar, cut the amount of milk and replaced it with pumpkin, removed the raisins, reduced the oil, and added in pumpkin pie spices. Here's an example of one of the Amish baked oatmeal recipes, though this isn't the one I modified.


Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal:

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 tsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 granular Splenda (or use white sugar)
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup low-fat milk (or use whole milk)
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Lightly beat the egg in a medium-size bowl. Add the Splenda (or sugar), pumpkin puree, milk, oil, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in the oatmeal, flour and baking powder until evenly mixed. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-35 minutes until set.

I could tell by the color of the top that it was evenly cooked. When it was dark orange, it wasn't quite finished. I cooked mine for 35 minutes in a glass loaf pan, which may have been about 5 minutes too long. I'd recommend using a toothpick inserted into the center to check for doneness and using a shorter time if you have a metal pan.

This was much better than I expected. It's a little crumbly, and not exceptionally moist, but still like an oat cookie or bar. For a moister result, I think adding 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce should do the trick. Since my husband was happy with this as is, and apple would increase the carb profile of this, I am not likely to add it to mine, but I think it'd work well in general. I'm going to try some variations on this recipe soon including a peanut butter version and a blueberry version.

The total calories for the whole loaf was 840. I cut mine into 6 servings of 140 calories each.

by Shari (Orchid64)