Triple D

Been watching some DIY Network and Food Channel lately.It has me really itching to buy a house. Just so I can gut the kitchen and bathroom and build them to my liking. The problem is, both are the likely the most expensive improvements one can make to a home. Luckily, I am fairly handy and can do most of the work myself. My ultimate goal is to buy a couple acres outside of Austin but still within a short drive where I can build my dream home over the course of about two to three years. At this point though, funding is limited due to student loans and credit card debt. Needless to say, the banks are not lining up to give guys like me a loan. Don't misinterpret this to say I do not pay my bills. I simply have maxed out my credit limit. This is largely due to an overpriced degree worth about as much as the paper it's printed on and an awesome wedding and honeymoon. My wife and I, like many young couples, found the world at our feet in our 20's. Now we find ourselves paying for it in our 30's. No worries though. It was full of great times and memories that I'll have for years. I try not to sweat the small stuff that I cannot immediately impact.

The Food Network's Diners, Dives, and Drive-ins has me wanting to go to New York. It seems like every place he goes to has the most amazing looking sandwiches. Everything from bologna and onion to these ridiculous prime rib french dips. Also wrote down a couple recipes I want to try. One of which was a beer cheese and potato soup. I remember having a great beer cheese coup in my late teens at a restaurant I worked at. I recall trying to recreate it once for my mother and uncle only to end in a disaster. The meal was still ok but not the soup. I plan to recreate this soup using my own beer and serve it in a bread bowl. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

On another note, I helped a good buddy with his first brew. He was the one who initially got me interested in homebrewing but it took him a year to make the leap. He brewed a Blue Moon clone that is going to be dangerously good. I brewed a Honey Wheat recipe. I brewed this several times last year, tweaking the recipe but this was my first time brewing it all-grain. I used BeerSmith to convert the ingredients so we'll see how it turns out. The Dog took a couple laps from my sweet wort as it was chilling and neither of us were paying attention. I don't give a shit, I'm still drinking it. I wound up with a higher efficiency (92%) vs. 52% I usually get and the only thing I did different was use bottled spring water over my regular tap water. City of Round Rock, your water sucks. Anyhow, I digress. My friend was really happy with how easy the process was and now he will be brewing his own beer from now on. He doesn't drink much so it should be easy. We moved some stuff around in his shed, ran power and hooked up some outlets as well as a temporary water source (i.e. water hose for chilling and washing). Now it is more conducive to brewing.

I have also come to note that I rather like my Dirty Nipple Belgian Tripel. This was my first attempt at this style. While I did not win the local brewhouse com petition, I learned that I make a pretty good Tripel, If I do say so myself. The pic below is  from  our brewfridge. I call it Skull tap (because there is a tap underneath). Cause I'm that original.

*************UPDATE************

Holy smokes. It seems some people have wizened up and listened to what I have been saying for a while.

"Many American soda brands are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, a heart-harming man-made compound derived mainly from genetically engineered corn. The problem? Genetically engineered ingredients have only been in our food chain since the 1990s, and we don't know their long-term health impacts because the corporations that developed the crops never had to test them for long-term safety. Case in point: Some recent findings suggest that genetically engineered crops are linked to digestive tract damage, accelerated aging, and even infertility!"