Brutul

There are limited GF beers (even though every time we go to the store I ask). Ciders can get old quickly because of their sweetest. A nice compromise is to make a Black Velvet, which is a combination of cider and dark GF beer. I talked about my first experiment here. Last weekend, Justin spotted this Brutul (brew tool) at Spec's.

For this combination, I chose Woodchuck Farmhouse Original Hard Cider and Green's Dubbel Dark Ale. My sister, Kristen, gave me this awesome Woodchuck glass from a dinner she went to where they paired food with ciders. For Justin, in honor of Movember, I took out this mustache glass that he received while in a wedding.

I took a picture of Justin with his glass mustache and I pulled up an old photo when he grew a mustache in 2009 to support Movember.

The brew tool worked awesome! It took a minute to figure out what position (close or far) gave the best pour. The closer to the turtle shell, the better. Plus, the turtle's mouth is also a bottle opener!

The perfect pour and mixture!

Amy's GF Pizza

It's Sunday night, and I am thankful that I don't have to work tomorrow. In fact, I have the entire week off for Thanksgiving; it couldn't have come at a better time. This school year has been nonstop! I'm looking forward to sleeping in, catching up on cleaning, going to appointments, and just relaxing. I'm hoping to be able to start blogging regularly again.

I'll start this post off with some football food that we enjoyed yesterday during the MSU game. We had an Amy's gluten free pizza that Justin and I found it at the commissary.

It was a plain cheese pizza that we cooked on our pizza stone. 

But, we decided to jazz it up with some cajun sausage that we had left over from Jambalaya.

 I sliced it up and spread it across the pizza. You could of course add veggies, other meat, or eat it plain.

The pizza cooked up nicely with the sausage and added extra flavor.

We also made a Black Velvet to drink with the pizza. Last weekend we bought a new tool that makes the process much easier. I'll share about that tomorrow! I also had some Wishbone buffalo ranch salad dressing to dip my pizza in (seen here). Overall, the pizza was decent. I think adding to the top of it made it taste better. The crust was thin and the sauce wasn't over powering. 

Hello November

It's hard to believe that it is November already! I feel like it was just yesterday when I was welcoming Justin home and now October is gone too. Last weekend we went to an '80s themed Halloween party. 

My hubby's costume was totally rad: a mullet, glasses, and a laser background! The background was inspired from Pinterest. I took a laser background that I found online and made a poster at Walgreens. We glued it to a box and connected a backpack so he could wear it. We configured the straps of the backpack to go through the back of his sweater so you wouldn't see the straps. 

We dressed Iivana up as a ladybug this year on Halloween. She wasn't a fan of the little hood with the heart antennae, but she did look adorable! (Remember last year, she was Minnie Mouse!)

She enjoyed a new rope toy that was sent from her Grannie and Uelo too. 

Whenever I think of Halloween, I think of beef stew. My mom would make it every Halloween! It was a tradition that I wanted to share with Justin this year so I called my mom up for the recipe. I made it the night before and Justin came home at lunch to put it in the oven so it would be ready for dinner.

It was actually a pretty easy recipe to make too; it just takes 5 hours to cook so you have to plan accordingly. Below, I'll share the recipe. It's my grandma's recipe and makes me think of my childhood. I made one minor adjustment to make it gluten free!

Beef Stew:

• 2 lbs. of meat (I used precut stew meat. But my mom says she has also used round steak or even sirloin.) 
• 4-5 potatoes (I like to use a crinkle cutter and cut them into about 1 in. chunks.)
• 6 large carrots (I used baby carrots and cut them in half. I used about half a 1 lb. bag.)
• 1 big white onion (cut into rings)
• 1 small can of peas (I ended up using about half a bag of frozen peas.)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• slice of bread cut into small pieces (I used the ends of 2 slices of Udi's bread that I had in my freezer. I cut them into small pieces and it worked great.)
• 1/2 tbsp. of salt
• pepper to taste
• 4 tbsp. of tapioca (sprinkle in)
• 46 oz. can of V-8 (use about 2/3 or until all the stew is covered)

Mix all the ingredients together and bake at 250 degrees for 5 hours. 

Mini Wine Tour

This school year has been jam packed with events, paperwork, lessons to plan, papers to check and meetings. I've been staying late and still bringing more work home to complete. It's almost 9:00 and I just finished my lesson plans. This past weekend was a breath of fresh air because we were able to spend the weekend in the hill country. I could leave all my stress and a dirty house to enjoy a weekend in Wimberley.

On the drive out, we always pass a sign for a winery not too far from the property. Justin and I love exploring the various wineries in the area (remember this visit, and this one too) so it was hard to believe we had never been to that one! Justin, his grandparents, aunt, and I decided to check out a few wineries on Saturday afternoon. 

Fawncrest Winery is located right near Canyon Lake. Here is the view from the back porch.

We also stopped at Driftwood Vineyards where they were set to host a wedding. It looked gorgeous!

Another view from Driftwood.

Our last stop was Wimberley Valley Winery. Did you notice the llama in the background? We were too caught up in wine tasting to take any pictures inside the wineries. At least I took pictures of the beautiful day.

The whole crew!

Gluten Free Options at Comerica Park

In honor of the Tiger's playing in the World Series tonight, I thought I'd find time to update. Plus, this post relates to my previous one about the Tiger's.

When we were at the game about a month ago there was a rain delay. With all the waiting, I didn't realize I had become hangry (hungry + angry). Luckily, I knew there were some gluten free options at Comerica Park. I had read up on their website about the Brushfire Grill.

I was a little disappointed when I did read their gluten free options because none of them were a meal. My choices were a fruit plate, hummus & veggies, or peanuts!

Although I did smile when I noticed Redbridge!

I opted to order a chicken breast (of course sans bun), a Redbridge, and hummus & veggies. The chicken was served with Lay's potato chips which I could eat. Since I was hangry, I was upset that they served me a bag of pretzel thins with the hummus. In the end, I was thankful to have some gluten free choices especially because it filled my belly and I wasn't sick.

Another FYI, under concessions on their website it also lists other GF choices:

All Sausages and Hot Dogs (without the bun), Chicken Breast, Turkey Leg, French Fries, Peanuts, Popcorn, Nachos w/o cheese (salsa only), Frozen Minute Maid, Redbridge, Beer – Beer Hall

Who's Your Tiger?

Tonight is a huge game for the Tigers; in fact it's a must win! In order to get pumped up for the game, I decided to share Justin's ball delivery from last month. We went to Michigan in September for a wedding and some friends found an awesome program to honor the military.

We flew on a Friday and Justin was to deliver the ball that night. 

Unfortunately, the game was rained out! (We should've seen it coming because there were no players out before the game.) It was a disappointment, but we still were able to go on the field with Dave and Amanda. Luckily they rescheduled the game for Sunday night. It was a little crazy for me because I had planned to fly back to SA Sunday night. I had to change my flight and check with my boss to make sure it was okay that I took another day!

Justin met his Tiger!

They are now officially BFFs! (Okay we only wish.)

But they did share a conversation.

Choosing the game ball.

Walking it out! I took some video too, but I want to try to edit it a little. So hopefully when I find a spare minute from work I can work on that. Then I can upload a link so everyone can see.

On the big screen!

I'm so proud of my husband and was so thankful to be a part of this amazing opportunity.

GF Warm Cheddar & Bean Dip

On my birthday post, I gave a sneak peak picture of our football food! We had chicken tenders marinated in Red Hot sauce and then grilled. Justin and I also made a cheddar and bean dip.

I found the recipe for the dip on the back of a Glutino box of bagel chips. <--- I linked the recipe from the website, but below the box picture I also copied and pasted it, just in case the Glutino site ever takes the recipe down.

Warm Cheddar and Bean Dip

• 2 cups canned white beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2  cup gluten-free beer (1/2 to 3/4 cup) or apple cider
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and cut into thirds
• 1/2  teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 2 green onions, tops and roots discarded, minced for garnish

In a food processor, combine beans, beer, garlic, cumin and salt.  Process until smooth.  Add 1 cup of the grated cheese along with the Tabasco Sauce and process just until combined. Place the mixture in an attractive, heatproof dish. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cheese over the top.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with green onions and serve with Glutino bagel chips.

Here are all the ingredients for the warm cheddar and bean dip, including gluten free beer.

I was also overly ecstatic to use my new Le Creuset Heritage stoneware casserole dish. (Even though in the end it was a little too big, the dip still gave me an excuse to use it.) If you read the recipe, it even said to use "an attractive, heatproof dish."

The food processor with beans, beer, garlic, cumin and salt. The hot sauce and cheese were ready to mix in.

Right out of the oven!

I ended up scooping some dip into a ramekin, which worked out because it was sort of runny. Even though it was runny, it still tasted fantastic. I will definitely make this again! If you like beans and cheese, you'll love this dip. The bagel chips are what make it truly delicious.

It was my Birthday!

I'm so thankful that my husband was home for my birthday. Saturday was my birthday, and the day always seems much better when it falls on a weekend.

I started out the morning with a wonderful breakfast made by my hubby. He made gluten free waffles with GF Bisquick. I also had a mimosa, fresh fruit with dip, and coffee.

We enjoyed football appetizers during the MSU game. For this game we ate skinless, boneless chicken tenders and gluten free bagel chips with cheddar and bean dip.  I'll post more about this dip recipe on a later post. 

For dinner we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Las Canarias. I savored the food so much that didn't document all of the food with photos! But as usual, it was decedent and delicious. We ordered a three course meal with a wine pairing. This is me with my final course, one scoop of coffee ice cream and one scoop of pistachio gelato. 

 The handsome man who made the whole day of food possible!

I love getting free birthday desserts! Even after my ice cream, they brought out chocolate covered strawberries for me. Remember last year when we celebrated my birthday in Dallas? I enjoyed some gelato then!

After dinner we went to a musical at the Cameo Theater. We saw The Marvelous Wonderettes, which was about four girls in the 50s and 60s. Following the show, we had some drinks downtown.

We were able to meet up with some friends I made while Justin was deployed where we danced the night away.

Me & Kara

Welcome Home

After greeting my hubby at the airport (almost 3 weeks ago already!), I wanted to welcome him home with some surprises.

I bought flowers at Central Market, and I made my own floral arrangement. (Red, white, & blue flowers to be exact because I was trying to be patriotic.) I had wanted to get some star balloons too, but there is a helium shortage so I had to stick with just flowers.

I figured we would want to snack on some food before we ate a full meal so I prepared some tapas! I bought fresh mozzarella marinated in pesto, Boar's Head pepperoni, cheese & prosciutto stuffed cherry peppers, jalapeno stuffed olives, Columbus salami, and Colby jack cheese.

Of course we needed dessert too! I ordered an entire gluten free cake from Little Aussie. (We still have almost half of it saved in the freezer.) Our favorite is the tiramisu flavored sponge cake so that is what I bought.