Late Spring Crawfish Boil

Unfortunately, I missed out on Saturday's big crawfish boil at Dark Horse Brewing in Marshall. So on Sunday I decided to do my own out on the deck. Dark Horse had live crawfish sent up from Louisiana, while I used mudbugs from the frozen section of Meijer. I can't imagine my boil was as good as the fresh critters, but it was still quite delicious – corn, sausage, potatoes, and all. And while I also lacked the Belgian style goodness of Dark Horse Sapient Trip Ale, I made do with a sixpack of "Simpler Times" pilsner from Trader Joe's for $5. Hey, times are hard.

Add a pretty girl and a friend visiting from New Orleans and you have the makings of a nice afternoon.

Memorial Day Brewin' and Grillin'

My brother the master homebrewer threw a Memorial Day weekend party in honor of his 300th batch of homebrewed beer. With my lovely sister-in-law (head chef), he worked tirelessly to offer guests 11 different homebrews and many awesome delicacies, including seafood gumbo, grilled salmon, smoked turkey legs (pictured right), and some big old slabs of lamb, among many other things. There were no survivors.

My small photo gallery of the event is on the Book of Faces.

My brother's account of the festivities is on his blog.

Eating at the Ann Arbor Book Festival

Saturday was the annual Ann Arbor Book Festival writers' conference and street fair. I didn't attend the writers' conference this year, but it sounds like it was as jam-packed with great guests, lecturers, and practical advice as was last year's.

This year's highlight for me actually had more to do with food than books: a cooking presentation moderated by Zingerman's co-founder Ari Weinzweig and featuring delicious (and generous) samples. (Pictured at right: Laura Stec.)

Unfortunately, beyond a few ingredients like kale, nuts, chives, baby asparagus, and corn, I can't say what exactly I ate. (I'm sure if I had purchased the cookbooks on sale there, I would know!)

What really stood out, over all that nice healthy stuff, however, was Ari's fat-soaked bread topped with pimento cheese and a strip of bacon. Some version of this is served at Zingerman's Roadhouse, and man is it good, again confirming one of my main Rules of Life: "There is nothing that can't be made better by adding bacon to it."

Following our freebie meal, my fellow adventurer and I headed to Ashley's for something to wash it down with. Sometimes when I go into Ashley's, it can be hard to decide what to order, so we decided on a "beer flight" of Brooklyn Savoir Faire, Arcadia imperial stout, Dogfish Head's Aprihop ale, and Arcadia Big Dick's Bourbon Barrel Olde Ale.

There's nothing really wrong with Arcadia's stout, but it wasn't what I was in the mood for. The Big Dick was most decidedly bourbon-flavored, which pleased my not-really-into-beer lady friend, and Aprihop and the Savoir Faire (a "French farmhouse" style ale) were a lighter, refreshing counterpoint to the stout and old ale.

To wrap up the perfect afternoon, at Ashley's I ran into two more friends who I haven't seen since they left town, one for the UP and the other for Howell, where she lives, and Battle Creek, where she happens to brew for Arcadia.

All in all, it was another great Ann Arbor-centric day.

Continue reading...

Grilling Season Begins!

Well, I've officially been grilling for a couple weeks now, but last night's episode is worth mentioning because it was my first time ever grilling salmon.

The occasion? Farm-raised Norwegian salmon is on sale at Hiller's for $5 per pound through Memorial Day, offering Your Poor Correspondent a less expensive opportunity to try his culinary experiments on this sublime fish.

I am happy to say it worked out great; the three pictures below pretty much sum up the meal.


Before: A plate full of grilled salmon, beer-steamed potatoes, grilled corn on the cob, and wasabi coleslaw.


During: Mmmm, salmon.


After: Ten minutes later, nothin' but skin and cob!

Continue reading...