united states of good beer

good.is (i got directed here from grubstreet) asked its readers to nominate "the most awesome, best-tasting, sustainably brewed, independently owned, community-oriented craft beer brewed in your state". these are the results.

if there's anything i'm as interested in as food it's beer. definitely since the whole turning-21-thing. i mean..my first legal drinks were beers at alinea. i think that says a lot haha

so yeah, i've been trying to increase my beer iq by ordering new brewskies on tap at restaurants and picking up fun-looking six packs at stores.

(oh, and there have been the multiple times where i've taken pictures and planned on blogging about ones i've had. totes a fail. whoops.)

but anywho this looks like a list worth going through! i'm at 10/49 so far.

HOMEMADE POPSICLES HOLLER

one of my christmas gifts this year was the zoku popsicle maker. i may have been talking about it since november when i found out i was getting it...

so eating popsicles..in the winter? yeahh usually i'd be like def no. but when they're made with a cool machine and take less than 8 minutes to make..HELL YEAH WOOO.

this machine is awesome. and i'm in lurve.

(oh heyyyy there pretty)

for its first run, becca and i decided to make popsicles of the alcoholic sort (obviously...) we tried to make cool stripes but got too impatient and didn't really know how much to fill. so they didn't turn out too pretty. after some practice i think i'll be able to make these bad boys.

(our popsicle!)

orange layer = orange juice and moscato wine

pink layer = peach/raspberry tea, strawberry puree, moscato wine, tripe sec.

they were good and not too sweet. we didn't put too much alch because we were afraid they wouldn't freeze. it'd be interesting to see how much we can actually put in. (hm...freezing point depression calculating party?!?!?)

updates on pretty designs and yummy flavors to come :)

spotted on bd's facebook page.

i mean, i might already have most of this memorized...but w/e. still awesome.

pretty food stores i wanna visit sometime

fauchon in paris

theurel & thomas in mexico

omg josh groban has an online cooking show

and of course it's hilarious. and i spent all 8+ minutes giggling.

What I Made: Roasted Brussel Sprouts

(sometimes i can make good food. and take pretty pictures of em.)

i got inspired to make these because i had gotten some roasted brussel sprouts over tgiving break from whole foods. altho very yummy...i realized i could make it at home and not have it cost me (erm..my mom) $8/pound.

soo fast forward to winter break and oh..what do they have at costco?? humongo bags of brussel sprouts of course! scorez.

using recipes i've done for roasting other vegetables (and my innate chef-ness, duhhh) this is how i made em:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients

• Salt
  
• Black Pepper
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil
  
• 2 lb brussel sprouts, cut in half
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut the brussel sprouts in half and toss them with the oil, minced garlic, and salt & pepper to taste*.
Spread the sprouts over two of the biggest baking pans you have so they have space to cook.

bake for about 15 minutes.**

* I've been having issues with over-salting recently so i kinda cut back on it and just salted at the table, ha. but pepper.... we're bffs so i kinda added more than a normal person would
** i just took em out when i could smell the garlic and don't remember exactly how long they were in there...ha

i gotta say -- they were better than WF's. i think since i wasn't making 100's of pounds of the stuff, i was able to spread em out on the pan more so they crispy at the edges. also, i used evoo (WF used canola, i believe) which gave a better flavor. aaand i had em pretty peppery, hehe. will i be making these again?? hell yes. any tweeks? MAKING MOREEE. my mom and i went through these wayy too quickly :(

Spotted at whole foods

I understand the convenience of pre-cut fruit..but already-peeled clementines?? They're so fun (read:easy) to peel!!
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ohh josh groban *heart*

here's my holiday gift to you - 30 minutes of josh groban's adorableness. if you didn't already know, josh groban is one of my not-so secret celeb loves (after mark ronson, adam brody obvs).

so why you ask?
ummm WATCH HIM HOST NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS. he's hilarious! and his comedic timing's great. and i love his ability to make fun of himself and career.

and if you're all like "psh..its just the writers" watch this, the episode from two years ago when he was a guest on the show.

he's great. oh and so is his twitter!!

Pale Moon

The bottle says its a belgian style pale ale. It has a very thick finish for a pale ale. Starts off light and ends up being very overpowering with a malty aftertaste at the back of ur throat. Yuck. Think of it as mixing woodchuck and rolling rock. Def not enjoying this :(
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dear black dog -- why are you so amazing??

Spotted at legends...

Finished a guiness. How cool is this???
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Spotted at Dominick's

I like egg nog and I like tea, egg nog flavored tea? Gross.
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coming back to school with this beauty :)

(source)

is it too early to start thinking about nye?

(shopbop)

because i really want a reason to buy this.

mac n (goat) cheese

becca and i have been planning on making homemade, lactose free, baked mac n (goat) cheese for months. we never got around to making it due to laziness and uncontrollable cheese snackage...whoopsies.

but we finally made it. and it was delish. and it only only gave us a mild tummy ache. wooo

here a pic of our final product (jk, it was actually like 1/3 of what was actually made...) --

how we made it:

Mac n (goat) cheese [modified from ina, of course]

Ingredients

• Salt
  
• 1 pound Barilla Plus elbow macaroni
  
• 1 quart soy milk
  
• 1/3 cup olive oil
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 8 ounces goat milk mozzarella
  
• 8 ounces goat milk cheddar
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

boil water and cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.

while the pasta's cooking, heat the soymilk in a small saucepan over low heat. in a large pot, heat the olive oil over low heat and whisk in the flour. cook for 3 minutes and continue stirring. Slowly ladle in the soymilk and make sure to completely mix each time. this avoid lumps!! after all of the milk is added, add the cheeses, a tablespoon of salt and 1/2 tablespoon of pepper (or more...). add the pasta, mix, and pour it all into greased baking sheets.

bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

our thoughts??
it took a long time to make! we luckily made a salad to eat while the mac n cheese was in the oven. the flavor was reaaally good and def didn't feel like we were missing out on anything. the mac n cheese did feel a little grainy and i'm not sure if that's because of how goat cheese melts or because we had 4 oz less cheese than ina's recipe. the topping was crispy and yummy but could have been better with some breadcrumbs on top.

so tips for next time:

1. have a snack available while making this.
2. use 12 ounces of both cheeses.
3. sprinkle some breadcrumbs on top. there should be enough oil in the sauce to toast it.

WOOOO POSTING ABOUT COOKING AGAIN. and i'll keep you posted bout the next time we make it with the modification :)

OH. MY. GOD. SO ADORABLE.

(from people.com)

apparently food is fashionable. the wall street journal just printed an article this so it's legit news.

in it, they mention various fashion houses opening restaurants in their stores, chefs being in fashion magazines, and barney's use of chefs for their holiday window displays.

according to the article, barney's creative director simon doonan (who i fell in love with watching i love the 80's/90's) said they chose food stars for their holiday windows because "we looked around for what's bubbling up in the culture this year and we realized that everyone's obsessed with these icons of food culture. Our customers want to eat at the new Batali place as much as they want the new Céline bag."

first off -- hollahhh my love of food is so trendy. gosh i'm so cool. and number two-- OMG CULINARY STARS AND PRETTY CLOTHES (AND CHRISTMAS). THAT'S SO AWESOME.

but um....

(from the wsj)

WTF. ina would NEVER wear a snuggy. nor look that creepy. rachael ray tho in the back?? spot on. ha.

oh, and in the chi town spot they're doing hometown chefs. oh heyyyy grant achatz.

I have cool roommates

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Spotted on undercover boss..

Wooo smoler counting money and being on national tv for 5 secondss
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swongy's take on pizza and a beer.

sometimes waiting 40+ minutes for dinner just isn't doable. even if it's for dinner at black dog. one of these times happened last friday night. instead, a certain unnamed person and i decided to pick up a 6 pack and a pizza.

but hi. i'm stephanie wong. i'm not going to do keystone and $5 papa john's for dinner. (at 2 am..that might be another story..) but this was going to take the place of a very yummy brisket sandwich (with hot georgia peach sauce and a side of twiced-baked potato casserole...)!!!!

many of you (slashh maybe 1 of you) know mirabelle as a cute bakery in downtown urbana that has delish croissants and super early closing times (3pm on saturdays?! like really). what you may not know is that they make pizzas friday and saturday nights. i only found this out from this article in smile politely over the summer.

the night we went, they had margerita pizzas but we decided to go for the veggie goat cheese pizza. mr. baker-man said it was "his most popular". so how could we not?

(sorry i couldn't get a good pic and i was too hungry to keep trying..)

the pizza had a tomato sauce and caramelized onions, green and red peppers, artichoke hearts, fresh grape tomatoes sprinkled over it. in addition to goat cheese, the pizza was covered with some hard cheese. it tasted saltier than mozzerella but it might have just been that, ha. the crust was really good. according to the smile politely article, homedude takes his breadmaking seriously. and it shows! it was chewy and crusty but still moist and buttery. but for the pizza as a whole -- i was more ehh. don't get me wrong -- it was a good pizza. but honestly, i kinda got bored with it after 1.5 slices. the toppings and everything together were just kinda mehh. and i still think the pizza with the salad on top from bread company is my fave in the c-u.

with that said, i'd be up for stopping by again. i really want to like the place after re-reading the smile politely article. i find the whole it's-kinda-a-secret thing awesomeee (ummm i'm all about knowing things other ppl don't!) aaaand i like that he only makes 20 pies per night. and that he really cares about what he's doing. so what if his most popular one was only so-so to me. there are still other combos to try...and deep dish! they have a facebook page with status updates about the pizzas available each weekend. so i'll go back when there's an interesting sounding pizza.

ok so yeah, the title says pizza AND beer.

we decided to go with two brother's bitter end. two brothers is a local brewery that we've heard about and words like "bitter" and "pale ale" sounded cool. so that's how we painstakingly chose it, lolz. i like this beer. easy to drink, decent bubble size, crisp and slightly bitter. did it go with the pizza? not really. it kind of needed to be either more hoppy or more dark to go against the pizza. it may have added to the "i'm bored with this after a slice and a half" thing. whoops. but i'd drink it again..just not with that pizza. this beer would be good with something spicy or intense with flavor. i'd do it with something like chipotle (or black dog...)

if u wanna get a pizza with me next time lemme know :)

and wooo i'm food blogging again. i have another post comin soon about lula cafe in the chi!