A Sandwich Haiku

Two eggs, bacon, roll
Only five minutes to make
One tasty sandwich

Sausage, Cannelloni Beans, Broccoli Rabe

This was a Jacques Pepin recipe that I had found and wanted to try out. He made his with some canned clams and broccolini (its from his "Fast Food" book).

Once again my local grocery store failed me. They had did not have broccolini (also goes by baby broccoli). The regular broccoli didn't look that great, so I bought the broccoli rabe which looked pretty decent.

I thought the rapini (easier to type than broccoli rabe) would be slightly bitter, but it really just overpowered the dish. Next time I'll probably stick to broccoli.

He also had you use the liquid from the can of beans. I used this along with some chicken stock and let it all reduce, but I think in the future I'd just use the stock.

I topped it off with some olive oil and parmesan cheese.

Highlight of making this was squeezing the hot italian sausage out of its casing. Not quite sure what it reminded me of. I'm also fairly certain this would've grossed Mandy out.


General List of Ingredients
Hot Italian Sausage
Rapini
Cannelloni Beans
Garlic
Chicken Stock
Red Pepper Flakes
Salt

Blue Moon - Full Moon Winter Ale

I have two problems with this beer.

We'll start out with the brewer - Coors. They like to do everything they can to not acknowledge that this is their beer. Now, I suppose the other large brewers do this also, but Blue Moon is consistently positioned as a micro-brew. This bothers me for some reason. I won't even mention the Coors family political leaning.

The second is that it is described as an abbey ale. It does not come close to tasting like an abbey ale. In fact, it does not come close to tasting like anything at all. Maybe I'm being too harsh. It has a slightly metallic taste with no aftertaste. It has more maltyness (is that a word?) than a Coors Light. (Mandy also pointed out that the label touts a "balanced taste" which could be accurate if "no taste" and "balanced taste" are one in the same.)

It is probably easier to drink with a meal than a Sam Adam's Winter Lager, but that's about the only positive thing I can say for this offering.

Overall, I can't recommend that anyone spend their money on this beer. Go buy yourself any other winter ale/seasonal offering that you can find (I recommend either this or this).

Official Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff Beer Rating:
Blue Moon - Full Moon Winter Ale
1/5

Sausage and Peppers

Fairly straightforward dinner here.

Sausage, onion and peppers on a roll.

Done.

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale

Ah. Now this is more like it.

I was a little afraid that I wouldn't be able to find more than one pumpkin ale in our neighborhood, but a few of the stores were actually carrying the Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale.

Now, I've definitely had this in the past, but once again, I could not remember if it was good or not.

Thankfully, this beer was not terrible. It may have been a tad sweeter than the Post Road offering, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

The balance of pumpkin and spices was good. Even though its sweeter than the other I tried, there is some nice bitterness from hops still present.

I'd recommend it for anyone who wants a pumpkin ale and can still find it in stores (or just wait until next Fall...)

Official Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff Beer Rating:
Smuttynose - Pumpkin Ale
3/5