beer

Irish Pork Stew with Stout and Caraway Seeds

The traditional Irish Stew gets an infusion of flavor with this recipe using tender pork, earthy caraway seeds, and Irish stout in a simmering broth that thickens as it cooks thanks to a surprising method: cooking with the pork bones!

this recipe is brought to you by McCormick®

When McCormick asked me to create a recipe that celebrates the luck o’ the Irish and can be served for a crowd tinged in shamrock green, I knew there were a few essential elements to be addressed.

First, the recipe should be easy and flexible enough to be doubled or even tripled for a celebratory crowd. #checkthat

Second, while some of us are thinking of bikini season and lighter fare, comfort food and stewy goodness is what holidays like this really call for. #checkthat

Because…

To really celebrate in Irish fashion the recipe should definitely include Irish stout as one of the ingredients. #checkthat

So, that’s why this year’s St. Patrick’s Day recipe is an incredibly easy-to-make pork stew loaded with veggies and tinged with the nothing-says-Irish-like-flavors of Irish Stout and earthy caraway seeds. #cheersallaroundandcheckthattoo!

continue to the recipe… about Irish Pork Stew with Stout and Caraway Seeds

Chorizo Queso Dip with Beer and Chiles (Try It Over Fries!)

This spiced up queso cheese dip skips the fake stuff and is made with real cheese instead. Chorizo and chiles add the heat that’s then cooled down with every football lovers favorite flavoring: BEER! Serve it with chips or even better, pile it on french fries for a riff on the classic poutine.

This post is brought to you by Kroger

Football season has it’s signature trigger words ending in -ING: Passing. Scoring. Tailgating.Watching. Cheering. Drinking and eating.

But for this foodie, my favorite action word ending in -ING has been and always will be GRAZING.

At this stage in life’s game I’m miles away from being an arm-chair quarterback when it comes to tailgate snacking. Listen guys, I’m a pro. For me, it’s all about getting in the game and grazing on a little bit of this and some more of that, and bites of all of the shareable eats game days are known for.

So whether it’s a high school play-off, college rivalry, or the Super Bowl, this girl is ready to go the distance.

One of the most popular recipes to make around game day is a cheesy queso dip, and while I typically like to eat healthy, when it comes to tailgating, all bets are off, but I still want to eat real food.

Too many of the recipes I’ve seen use pasteurized cheese to achieve that creamy texture so that’s why I set out to make one that’s creamy, but still real, and loaded with flavor.

continue to the recipe… about Chorizo Queso Dip with Beer and Chiles (Try It Over Fries!)

Slow Cooker Little Smokies

This easy and addictive mini sausage appetizer is made even simpler thanks to the crock pot and is perfect for game days and parties.

Every year around this time, it’s the same thing.

The phone rings. Well, it used to ring. Now it just buzzes with texts.

And then I ~~hear~~ read, “Heidi, can you send me your Little Smokies recipe again?”

Yep, like clockwork.

As the big game day draws near I start hearing—make that seeing—the requests. And every year I send the same recipe out to friends who have had these sweet little barbecued sausages in the crock pot (or my new Instant Pot) on game days of years past.

They’re craving them again, but this time in the comfort of their own home where the game day bets are a little looser, and a whole lot more forgiving.

continue to the recipe… about Slow Cooker Little Smokies

Peel ‘n Eat Beer Steamed Shrimp

I met my husband working at a fancy, schmancy seafood restaurant.

It was a lovely setting for a beautiful romance that began with us racing from table to table, sweating it out in standard issue baby blue, long-sleeve, button down shirts that reeked of the deep fryer atop boring black pants with the wild flair of our own choice of windsor knotted ties as we stuffed our nightly wad of tips in our pockets. What individualists we were.

We both still have waiter nightmares about that place. Anxiety riddled nightmares where we can never get to our tables in time, our server trays never seem to empty, the cooks continue to yell and the customers begin to fume.

Hey wait, was that a nightmare or was it reality? Only the shadow knows…

continue to the recipe… about Peel ‘n Eat Beer Steamed Shrimp

Porter Caramelized Onion Dip and Crushing on The Beeroness

Being deemed The Beeroness—which in drink-speak is similar to bearing the title of Princess, Duchess or Queen—has plenty of responsibilities that come along with the nobility. Luckily for us commoners in the ways of ale, stouts and malt liquor, we have food blogger and author Jackie Dodd to lead us down a beer-inspired foodie path. And with recipes like her Porter Caramelized Onion Dip, you’ll be bowing down in no time.

With just two years of blogging under her belt, the lovely Jackie Dodd has made an indelible impact of bringing beer to the culinary forefront through her popular food blog, The Beeroness, where she shares recipes that infuse craft brews of hops and barley into everyday foods.

Sporting the tagline “Have your beer and eat it too,” Jackie focuses on craft beers as the flavor enhancers to recipes sweet and savory and everything in between on her blog and has newly released The Craft Beer Cookbook, 100 Artisanal Recipes for Cooking With Beer.

Jackie’s ambitions as a food blogger didn’t start in the kitchen, but rather with her drive and determination to realize her desires to be a part of the craft beer world.

“I really wanted to be a part of the craft beer community but I didn’t brew,” says Jackie. “So I started to write recipes for the beers I loved, started to take photos of them and it caught on.”

But creating a food blog wasn’t familiar territory for this beer connoisseur.continue to the recipe… about Porter Caramelized Onion Dip and Crushing on The Beeroness

Stout Chocolate Brownies Plus 20 More Great Stout Recipes

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

As you’ll find out when you ask me over for dinner sometime—which I’m hoping you certainly would consider because on a good night I can be a pretty darn entertaining dinner guest and just might clear the dishes from the table if I’m feeling generous—and you ask me to bring a little something sweet to our potluck dinner—say for instance an Irish celebration that is happening this coming weekend—my dessert of choice usually veers from the frilly and delicate sweet treat variety to something a bit more sturdy and craveable. Macarons? Not. so. much. It will be a long, long time before I try my hand at making a macaron. I’m afraid I don’t have the patience or the skill to pull them off.

Basically, macarons scare me.

No, I’m definitely more of a hearty dessert type of gal, baking up something a bit more forgiving and a tad more freeform. Chocolate Stout Brownies in all of their fudgey glory are right up my dessert alley.

So are you staring at your computer right now thinking to yourself, “What the, whhhhaaat? Why would someone waste a perfectly good beer to ruin brownies, or any other recipe by dumping it into a recipe?”

Oh honey. Hold your horses and let the heads of your brews settle down. I have a selection of 20 great recipe reasons to add beer to your favorite recipes. But first we need to get to the bottom of these brownies.

Whenever I make chocolate brownies I find myself adding that little something extra to deepen the flavor and enhance the taste of the brownies. Most of my brownie making escapades involves the addition of instant espresso powder and kosher salt to add to the chocolateness. This time it’s the stout that does the trick. You won’t taste the beer taste at all, it’s merely a richness that enhances my love of chocolateness.

continue to the recipe… about Stout Chocolate Brownies Plus 20 More Great Stout Recipes

Beer Bratwurst and Onions Recipe Plus 7 Oktoberfest Dishes

Hello, my name is Heidi. Classic German name right? I even fit the demo: blue eyes and blonde hair—thanks more to my colorist than my genes as I’ve gotten older—but I can still claim it, right? Please say yes. Please.

You might think I was named after the classic children’s book, or maybe an ancestor who traipsed about the countryside, blonde braids wrapped about her bobbing head as she delivered steins of brew to very happy citizens.

Well, that’s about half right.

Yes, it’s a pretty German name and my German immigrant grandmother was pleased with the choice, but my naming was also influenced by another Heidi, a family friend who did indeed deliver beer. Back in the day she and her husband owned the oldest bar in Utah complete with a stuffed head of a St. Bernard on one wall and dollar bills pinned to the ceiling. Heidi was gorgeous, blonde and the funnest person in the one-room joint. Let’s just say that legend has it that the top of the bar saw the bottom of her heels more than once. Am I like her? Buy me a drink sometime and maybe you’ll find out for yourself.continue to the recipe… about Beer Bratwurst and Onions Recipe Plus 7 Oktoberfest Dishes