A Nod to St. Patty's Day

I won't comment on the fact that I barely post anymore.  Really, I won't.  I also won't comment on the fact that this blog has become a holiday blog, at best.  Nobody wants to read about my regrets or my promises to do better, right?  OK, good.  I'm glad we're clear on that.

This year St. Patrick's Day is all about beer at our house.  My home-brewing hubby decided to host a home-brew day with buddies from his home-brew club. Can you tell there's a lot of home-brewing happening around here these days?

I wanted to pay a tiny tribute to St. Patrick's Day, and I figured the best way to get a bunch of home-brew guys on board was to . . . well, add some home-brew of course.  So, out popped this chocolate stout cake.

All I did was pull a chocolate cake mix from my cupboard and replace the milk with my hubby's home brewed stout.  The package called for 1 1/4 cups of liquid, so there was quite a bit of beer in my version.  It was a little frothy as it mixed up, and you could definitely smell the aroma of the stout as it cooked.

I didn't want the beer to be overpowering, so I topped it with a straight-up chocolate frosting.  I used the frosting recipe on the cake mix box, which turned out to be extra chocolate-ly.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

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Chocolate Frosting
Makes enough to ice 2 - 9" x 13" cakes or a 2-layer cake

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, softened
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 tbsp. brewed coffee
• 1 tbsp. vanilla

Mix the butter, coffee, vanilla, and cocoa until blended.  Add in sugar and milk, alternating between the two as you mix on medium speed.  Then mix on medium-high for 2 minutes.  Spread the frosting on your cake. 

The Happy Place

Do you have a "happy place" in your life? You know ~ the kind of place you can go where nobody knows your name, but that doesn't matter because everybody there is so happy and friendly anyway? My hubby and I have recently discovered what may become our "Happy Place."

A few weeks back, on a Monday of all things, my hubby and I dropped our daughter at preschool and headed to Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is a sleepy town about an hour away. We were seeking some really great beer and a fun outing, and boy did we get it. We headed to the Russian River Brewing Company, home to the famous beers Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger. My hubby loves the stuff. In fact, recently he's been loving LOTS of beers. I guess it's his new hobby ~ reading about, shopping for, writing reviews, and doing cross-country exchanges of . . . well, really great beer. Beer has become a way of life around here and you'll probably be hearing more about it.


On this particular Monday, we had no idea that great things were underway in Santa Rosa. Lance Armstrong and the Amgen Tour of California were expected to roll through town later that afternoon. So we hit traffic. LOTS of traffic. And when we finally entered the Russian River Brewery there were no empty tables. But that didn't matter because we were in The Happy Place. Before we knew what had happened, somebody directed us to some empty seats at an already occupied table and we were sharing beers and stories with a room full of people. At Russian River everyone is an instant friend. There was pizza. There was beer. And there were many, many laughs.



As it turned out, at the very next table was one of my hubby's "instant friends" that he had made the last time he was at Russian River Brewing for the Pliny the Younger release party back in February. This friend is the cousin of one of my friends, so the connections ran deep. As luck would have it, this friend had two VIP passes for the race. Within an hour we were munching on mini-cupcakes, ringing cowbells, and hoping to spot Lance Armstrong from the swanky VIP tent. What fun!



Unfortunately, this adventure also included hours of traffic, a rain storm, and a broken umbrella. But we didn't care. Afterall, we had just left The Happy Place. Soon to return, I hope!

Weekend Recap

A few of the things I did this weekend:

1. Enjoyed an icy cold Anchor Steam beer at a Davis burger joint. (Anchor Steam is my favorite local microbrew - check it out if you haven't had one!)
2. Took my toddler to her first tea party.
3. Donated two large bags of canned goods to my local food bank.
4. Ate a super-tasty home-cooked meal made by my wonderful hubby. (The recipe just might appear on here soon!)
5. And spent hours and hours studying for my last round of finals, my least favorite tradition this time of year. Ick!