Thursday, February 4, 2010

A Side Order of Beer

First of all—Krista’s new book is out, y’all! It’s The Diva Paints the Town, is phenomenal, and you can buy it here.

blog23 It’s time for the big game! Everyone has their team jerseys on, a beer in one hand and a plate with assorted (preferably greasy) sundries in the other.

Super Bowl time is here, y’all. At least…I’m pretty sure it is because I saw Avery’s post on it. :) RileyAdamsFoodBlogPostpic_thumb_thumbUnfortunately, I’m usually the clueless bystander in the room—doomed to cheer at inappropriate junctures for the wrong team and forever asking about ‘downs’ before immediately forgetting what they are again!

One thing I do enjoy about Super Bowl parties? The beer. Oh believe me, I do like wine, too…but let’s face it—it just doesn’t fit the Super Bowl spirit.

I usually end up bringing my own beer since I’m no fan of the light, American varieties that are usually popular at these venues.

blog24 Interested in trying different varieties of beers? The nice thing is that many stores that stock microbrews or international beers will allow you to make your own six packs of different bottles. It’s a great way to sample something new without committing to buying six of something you’re not sure you’ll even like.

Beer (although it’s subdivided into many groups); made of yeast, starch—like malted grain, water, and hops; can be divided into two different groups: pale lagers and ales. Did you know that it’s full of history, too? It’s believed to date back to 9000 BC and is even mentioned in the ancient writings of Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Because I’m devoted to the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen readers, I have made the sacrifice to purchase different types of my most favorite kinds of beers. No thanks are necessary! Yes, I suffer for my art. :)

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Lager: I’ll admit lagers aren’t my most favorite, but I know they’re very popular with most casual beer drinkers. They’re frequently lighter-colored and mild tasting. They’re fermented at a lower temperature and with a different yeast than ales are. The Brooklyn Lager to the left is a good one.

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Ale: There are many different types of ales: Belgian, Scotch, and brown ales are among the most popular. They frequently taste sweeter than ales and can have an almost fruity taste.The Trappistes Rochefort is great…you just might want to consider halving it with a friend. It’s 9.2% alcohol.

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Stout: Variations include imperial stouts, dry stouts, oatmeal stouts, even chocolate stouts. They’re very dark beers with highly roasted malts—Guinness is probably the best known of the stouts, and my personal favorite. Is Guinness good for you, as the ads have stated? I’m not so sure about its medicinal value, but it’s wonderful tasting.

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Porter (in the stout family): Dark in color, porters are brewed with dark malts. I’m a fan of honey porters. In fact, I’m such a fan that I mistakenly thought I had one in the fridge to take a picture of. Oops! The picture to the right is Sierra Nevada’s honey porter. It’s a beer I enjoy, although I didn’t take the picture.

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Wheat: As the name suggests, wheat beers are brewed with a large wheat ingredient and usually quite a bit of malted barley, too. Witte is a tasty wheat beer.

Guinness

Enjoy the Super Bowl, and see if you can find a new drink to enjoy while you “watch” the game! :)

Now—on to Truth and Lies. :)

As y’all might remember, we were nominated by our friend, Lesa Holstine for the Bald Faced Liars award. Each of us came up with 2 big lies and 1 truth about ourselves, which posted on Saturday.

So….truth or lie?

1. Elizabeth’s grandmother was an extra in Gone with the Wind during the Lesa's Blogger AwardAtlanta fire sequence.---Lie! Although that would have been really cool.

2. Elizabeth won $100 playing Bingo at the Cloister in Sea Island, GA, when she was 4 years old. All she wanted with the money was a Donald Duck coloring book.-–True! What was I thinking? I remember being really little, winning Bingo and not wanting to say anything because there were so many grownups in the room!


3. Elizabeth’s years of experience as an assistant funeral director at the Amazing Grace Funeral Home was the inspiration for her murder mystery writing.—Oh, I lied about that, too. :) This lying can be fun!

Riley/Elizabeth
Pretty is as Pretty Dies –Elizabeth Spann Craig
Delicious and Suspicious (Summer 2010) Riley Adams

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com

GREAT CONTESTS TO ENTER:

Love cupcakes? Love mysteries? Remember to enter your suggestion for the name of a fictional cupcake and have your name and cupcake written into the mystery novel BUTTERCREAM BUMP OFF! (The

sequel to SPRINKLE WITH MURDER).

Send proof of your pre-order of SPRINKLE WITH MURDER, along with your name and cupcake name to Jenn at jennmck@yahoo.com !

LET’S GET THE PARTY STARTED!!!

Congratulations to Helen K. who suggested our next Secret Ingredient for the Mystery Kitchen’s Iron Chef contest! Helen won a $25 chocolate gift from Fannie May Chocolates. What was the secret ingredient? Find out during our next Iron Chef week in late February! And keep reading our posts to find out how to enter our next contest!

15 comments:

  1. Love finding out what's true and what's not about each of you. I never realized there were so many different types of dark beer. I knew beer had a bit of history, but didn't realize all the way back to Egypt. I've never tried the dark ales, but after this I'll have to give them a try.

    Enlightening post. Let the games begin.

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  2. BINGO! I only won $60 at BINGO. You hit the jackpot. And, I guessed wrong. It's fun learning these "truths" about all of you. And, you came up with an interesting way to give the answers, spreading them around. Thanks, Riley!

    Lesa - http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

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  3. Hey - E! Pretty exciting Bingo win! I bet you're lucky at drawings and contests all the time! That's a fun truth. I enjoyed your lies too!
    Beer - ugh. I can't make myself drink the stuff. But you and I would make a good team at Superbowl parties because I enjoy football. You can drink the beer, and I'll explain the downs, how's that?
    ;-)
    Julie

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  4. I so enjoy a nice, cold beer. Your wonderfully informative post brought back some hilarious memories for me about drinking various types in Ireland and Europe (which I will not bore anyone with here - lol). I also loved your red herrings, especially the Gone With The Wind tale. The funeral director had me ROTFL and would be a great comic mystery series in itself. I do believe you could sell it on that description alone. :)

    Cheers,
    ~Cleo

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  5. Elizabeth, I hate that you've had to suffer so for this blog. ;)

    You must have been adorable winning that money!

    ~ Krista

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  6. Mason--Honey porters have a nice taste, I think, and are a good introduction to the darks. Hope you'll enjoy one!

    Lesa--You and are are the Bingo CHAMPS! :) But, yeah, I did still beat you. It was 1975ish, so that was a good bit of money, wasn't it? We've had such a good time with lying, Lesa! You've had a very bad influence on us. ;)

    Julie--We'd make a good team! But after a while, the downs would get to me. Seems too...mathematical! But it would be fun. Beer is DEFINITELY an acquired taste. If you like wine, though, I might be able to find a fruitier tasting beer that you could tolerate.

    Cleo--Ha! That actually sounds like a not-so-bad idea. I'll have to pitch it and see if Berkley dies laughing at me. :) But you KNOW...you'd get all kinds of insights into the recently deceased. :)

    England and Europe was where I developed my beer love, too! You just HAVE to in England--the pubs are so much fun to visit and even MORE fun with some beer in hand.:)

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  7. Krista--It's rough, this blog. All the eating of fine foods. All the drinking of nice beers. The suffering! :)

    I don't know how cute I was. I think I might have been hiding behind Daddy when I had to go up to the front of the room with my card.

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  8. How cool you won $100 when you were four. I'm right with you on the beer. Someplace I read that German monks brewed it to drink when they fasted during Lent. Sounds good to me.

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  9. E-

    Great post! I'm partial to Nerwcastle. There's a British pub here in Phoenix called the George and Dragon where I like to meet the girls, drink Newcastle and enjoy a pasty. I might have to call a gathering! LOL! Excellent Bingo score!

    -J

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  10. Bingo! What fun. And look at all the beer. Got a wheat-free one to add? Love your lies, too. Very cool.

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  11. Carol--Which is the ONLY possible way to make fasting endurable! :)

    A Year on the Grill--Thought you might like it, Dave! :)

    Jenn--A Newcastle party! That sounds fun. The pastry sounds good, too!

    February 4, 2010 11:46 AM
    Avery--Greens puts out a gluten-free line of 8 different beers. It's a British brewery, but they have an American distributor now, so it's available in the States! :)

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  12. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but I have enjoyed some of the fruit Belgian ales and a chocolate porter was pretty good too! Thanks for all of the explanations and recommendations.

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  13. Janel--Belgian ales are wonderful! And a chocolate-porter combo sounds really tasty, too!

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  14. A fun and enlightening post. I learned something important today!

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