Best Non-Alcoholic Beers

Are domestic or international non-alcoholic beers the best?  Can you tell which one is which?  Does it taste like real beer or something disgusting?

These were all the questions my father-in-law, husband and I were pondering on our drive from Baltimore to Cleveland this past month.  My father-in-law is an avid NA beer drinker and was sure that international NA beers were the best.  My husband contended that NA beers taste nothing like regular beer and I was intrigued.  What to do with all of these questions???  A taste testing of course!

Once we arrived in Cleveland, we went to all the stores we could to find as many NA beers.  My mother-in-law set up a blind taste test for the three of us and to add a little bit of intrigue we added in one alcoholic beer.  This was an absolutely fabulous activity.  We all enjoyed learning a bit about ourselves and our preconceived notions about NA beers.

Let's Get Started!!

All the beers in their own specialty glasses courtesy of my mother-in-law!

What followed was a surprise to all three of us!  My father-in-law found out that his top two favorite beers were domestic.  My husband found out that he can't tell the difference between alcoholic and NA beers.  I found my new favorite light beer!

Below are the beers ranked from best to worst.  These obviously do not cover all NA beers but these were the only ones we could find under short notice.  We summed the individual rankings for each of the beers.  The lower the score, the better the beer.  For example if I ranked it 1st, my husband 3rd and my father-in-law 5th, then the score would be 9.

1. O'Doul's Amber (9 points)

WHAT??? How can O'Doul's be the favorite?  This was a slap across the face for everyone.  In our family, O'Doul's was thought to be one of the worst beers and it came out to be great.  It was slightly sweet and had hints of caramel.  It also was pretty light.  I ranked it 4th and the guys 2nd and 3rd.

2. Labatt (10 points)

This one was also a surprise.  It was extra bubbly and very light.  This was number two on my rankings and the guys ranked it 4th.

3 Tied. Becks (11 points)

Becks is one of my father-in-law's favorite beers.  He was sure that Becks was going to win the title but it got dominated by the American made beer.  Becks was really sweet and had hints of caramel.  It was much too sweet for my taste but they guys seemed to enjoy it.

3 Tied. O'Doul's Regular (11 points)

This was my favorite beer.  It was smooth, bubbly, and honey flavored.  I have to say I actually prefer drinking this over drinking normal light beers.  It was delicious!  I ended up taking the leftover O'Doul's Regular from the taste testing back to Baltimore and had it with dinner one night.  This beer actually tastes like beer versus many of the NA beers that taste much too sweet.

After telling some of our friends about this phenomenon of us picking two O'Doul's in the top three rankings, people started coming out of the woodwork and telling us that they actually enjoy O'Doul's.  We had no idea but people do drink it when they want to have beer for the taste without the effects of alcohol.

Honorary Ranking of Modelo (12 points)

We picked a light beer that we had in the fridge for the alcoholic beer.  Surprisingly, it came in 5th place.  My husband also failed to name the only alcoholic beer in the bunch.

4. Coors (14 points)

This was slightly less sweet than Becks and had some honey flavors.  My father-in-law ranked this as his favorite beer... debunking his own thesis that international NA beers are far superior.

5. Buckler (17 points)

No one really liked this beer.  It was near the bottom of the list for everyone.  It was pretty bitter and had hints of caramel (seeing a theme with caramel and NA beers).

6. Kaliber (24 points)

Disgusting.  Here's actually a picture of my father-in-law drinking it.  

 

This normally is one of his favorite beers and he was disgusted.  We gave the benefit of the doubt to this thinking that it might be skunked.  He stated that Kaliber is a hit or miss sometimes.  Some bottles of it are really good and others are bad so we might have gotten a bad bottle.  Either way, I'm not risking drinking this again!

Our Amazon Packages Were Stolen and We Received the Best CustomerService

Last night I came home and found a package at my front door for a book I had ordered and assumed that was the only package I received for the day from Amazon.  Later in the night, I went to my neighborhood meeting and a fellow neighbor said he found a box in the middle of the street that was ripped open with my name on it so he brought it to me.  Turns out the first casualty of the night was a bottle of bug spray.  I gave a little chuckle to myself at how this robber was probably super disappointed in the contents of the package.  Then I started getting curious.  In the past week, I ordered hundreds of dollars of items from Amazon in anticipation for our upcoming trips that at this point had no idea when everything was being delivered.

After I got home, I decided to check my Amazon account to see how much damage the robber actually did versus the miniscule amount of the bug spray I initially thought.  The grand total: 3 packages with over $200 in items stolen.  I was so mad at UPS for leaving that many packages between my front door and storm door in the middle of the city and decided to give Amazon a call to let them know what happened to the packages they sent me.

I wasn't expecting much - I thought they would say it was UPS's fault and pass the blame.  What I received was completely different.  The customer service representative was extremely nice and she went through my many orders to find all the items that were stolen and said they would replace all of the items.  Not only would they replace everything but she said that they would upgrade the shipping to make sure I received everything as soon as possible.

I have always been a huge fan of Amazon and get a lot of my items from there but their customer service has made me a life long customer (even when they start charging sales tax in Maryland)!

If you ever get into a similar situation, file a police report with Baltimore City (http://www.baltimorepolice.org/our-services/file-a-police-report-online)

Use the Baltimore Police Department Online Citizen Reporting System to report the following incidents:

Theft	Illegal Dumping	Lost Property
Vandalism to Vehicle	Theft From Vehicle	Vandalism to Property

Old Baltimore Bank Vault

Blackberries Galore

A couple weekends ago, my husband and I went blackberry picking.  I personally found every excuse to eat while picking and by the time we had picked 11lbs of blackberries, my tongue had turned purple.  Not only is picking fruit right off the vine extremely fun, but it is also extremely cheap.  After our blackberry picking adventure, we had to stop and cut flowers due to my insistence.  That also was a great time and we filled 3 vases full of flowers when we got home.  We enjoyed ourselves so much that we went this past weekend to pick more blackberries and raspberries.


The challenge of picking 11lbs of blackberries is not in the picking process but thinking of what to do with 11lbs of blackberries for two people.  Therefore, I bring you our week worth of projects with blackberries.

Blackberry Jam

Due to our huge bounty of blackberries, I doubled this recipe.  However, I did not take into consideration how much more the jam had to cook if I doubled the recipe.  On the first day that I made the jam, it came out too liquidy because I only cooked it for 30 minutes.  However, after pouring it back into the pot the next day and recooking the jam for over an hour, I was able to get the correct consistency.  This recipe does not call for pectin so expect it to come out slightly softer than regular jam.

Ingredients

• 6  5-6 oz containers of blackberries


• 2 cups sugar


• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation

Combine blackberries, sugar and lemon juice in large bowl.  Slightly smash blackberries with potato masher to help absorb sugar and lemon juice.  Let stand at room temperature 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Put 2 saucers in the freezer.

Fill large stockpot with water, put jar lids and screwtops at the bottom and bring to a boil.  Place jars on a cutting board and fill with very hot water.  I used my kettle to bring the water to almost boiling and used that water for the jars.

Transfer fruit mixture to large saucepan and bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.  Mash to thick puree with potato masher.  Reduce heat to medium and boil gently until mixture begins to thicken, stirring often, about 18 minutes.  Mine ended up taking over an hour to thicken.  When the fruit started building up at the bottom, I realized that it was starting to thicken and stirred more frequently.

Remove saucepan from heat to test jam for gelling point.  Drop 1 teaspoonful jam on chilled saucer and return to freezer for 1 minute.  Remove saucer and push edge of jam with fingertip.  If jam has properly gelled, surface will gently wrinkle.  If not, return saucepan to heat and cook jam a few minutes longer, keep testing.

Drain hot water from jars and ladle hot jam into each jar leaving 3/4" space at top.  Clean rim of each jar with damp cloth.  Using tongs, lift hot lids and screwtops from saucepan, shake to dry and place atop jars.

Place a metal rack or unused screwtops at the bottom of stockpot so that jars do not touch direct heat.  I did not have either so I folded several pieces of paper towels and put those at the bottom of the stockpot.  Return filled jars to pot of hot water.

Add water to pot, if necessary, to cover jars by at least 1 inch.  Cover pot and bring to a boil; reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes.  Turn off heat.  Wait 5 minutes and then remove jars from pot.  Place upright on a towel and cool completely at room temperature.  Jam will thicken as it cools.

Check lids for seal by pressing each lightly.  Lids of sealed jars will be concave and show no movement when pressed.

Blackberry Limeade

Ingredients

• 6 cups water


• 3 cups fresh blackberries


• 1 cup sugar


• 2/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)

Preparation

Place 1 cup of water and 3 cups blackberries in a blender; process until smooth.  Press blackberry puree through a sieve into a large pitcher; discard seeds.  Add remaining 5 cups of water, sugar and lime juice to pitcher.  Stir until sugar dissolves.  Serve over a cup of ice.  Garnish with lime wedge.

Blackberry Pie

Ingredients

Pastry Dough (makes enough for two 9-inch 2 crust pies)

• 4 cups all purpose flour


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp salt


• 1 tsp sugar


• 1 3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening


• 1 egg


• 1 tsp cider vinegar


• 1/2 cup cold water

Filling

• 6 cups blackberries (1 3/4 lb)


• 1 cup granulated sugar


• 1/4 cup cornstarch


• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted


• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice


• 2 tbsp water


• 1 tbsp quick-cooking tapioca


• 1 egg white, lightly beaten


• 1 tbsp sanding (coarse) or granulated sugar

Preparation

Pastry Dough

This recipe is from my mother-in-law and it turned out fabulous.

In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Add the shortening and beat until mixture is crumbly, about 2 minutes.  In a small bowl, beat the egg and add vinegar nd water.  Pour over the flour mixture and beat until well combined, about 1 minute.  Form dough into 4 balls, wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Pie

Place a baking sheet in lower third of oven and preheat to 400°F.

Toss together blackberries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, butter, lemon juice, water and tapioca.  Let stand, tossing occasionally, 20 minutes.

Roll out 1 piece of dough into a 14-inch round and fit into a 9-inch pie plate.  Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang.  Chill shell while rolling out top.

Roll out remaining piece of dough into a roughly 16- by 11-inch rectangle.  Cut crosswise into 11 (1 1/4-inch wide) strips with a fluted pastry wheel or knife.

Stir berry mixture, then spoon evenly into shell.  Arrange strips in a tight lattice pattern on top of filling and trim strips close to edge of pan.  Roll up and crimp edge.  Brush top and edge with egg white and sprinkle all over with sugar.

Bake on hot baking sheet until crus is golden brown and filling is bubbling, 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes.  Cool completely before serving.

Must Have for a Long Townhouse: Netgear Universal WiFi Range Extender

 

When we moved into our new town house in Baltimore, we realized that some genius put the cable for the internet in the far back room.  Given that most of our WiFi time is spent towards the front of the house where the living room and office are located, we were having major connectivity issues.

After months of dropping connections and getting grainy Netflix streaming, I decided to give the Netgear Univeral WiFi Range Extender a try.  This device is amazing!  It is super easy to set up - even my husband could do it.  Essentially, it serves as another router in the home which extends the connection.  Therefore, whenever I set this one up, I just used all the settings of my other router and added _EXT to the end of the name of the network connection.  What makes it so easy is that you can put all of your security settings that you have on your main router onto this one with one click of the mouse.  From opening the box to setting up the extender, installation took me less than 5 minutes.

Ever since we have had the WiFi extender, I can remote into my work computer without having to deal with dropped connections and watch Netflix without the movies or shows stopping or getting grainy.  While on the box it says that the connection is slower than that of your main router, I have not had any problems with speed.  I'm assuming if you are gaming, it would effect the resolution but for the things I need, I have been more than satisfied!

Monday Scallops with Cilantro and Jalapeño Sauce

Sundays are for smoking meat and mondays are reserved for scallops.  We grab most of the meat and seafood for the upcoming week from the farmers market.  Therefore, we need to eat our scallops as soon as we can.




After experimenting with a few sides for scallops, I was able to find the perfect match!  We only use one brand of pasta for the scallops (which can be found at Whole Foods):



Pasta

I prefer to make my own pasta but its texture doesn't complement the scallops as much as I would like.  The Fusilli Col Buco cooks to perfection when paired with the scallops.  The pasta remains firm - even if I forget to check on it and it passes the al dente mark.  I usually have a hard time telling how much pasta is enough for two people.  There are times when I think I put too much in and it actually is just enough for the both of us.  For two people, I found the right amount to be 3/4 of the box.  This is with me eating slightly less than my husband.

After the pasta is cooked al dente and strained, I toss it back in the pot with 3 cloves of garlic, salt and olive oil that have been warmed for 1 minute to create the base of the dish.

Scallops 

Before cooking, I coat the scallops in olive oil and add salt and freshly crushed white pepper on both sides.  Then they're off to my husband to cook on top of the cast iron skillet.  It usually takes 3 minutes to cook scallops - 1.5 minutes on each side.  Once the scallops are finished cooking put them on top of the pasta and top with the cilantro and jalapeño sauce.

Cilantro and Jalapeño Sauce

Ingredients

• Bunch of cilantro


• 1 jalapeño


• 1 clove of garlic


• 1 tbsp ground cumin


• 1/4 cup of olive oil

PREPARATION

Put cilantro, jalapeño, garlic and cumin in a food processor and chop until fine.  Add the olive oil and mix with a spoon.  Top each scallop with a dollop of sauce.




Word about food processors

Living in the city makes it hard for storing large appliances.  When we moved to Baltimore, I took my mom's Cuisinart Mini Food Processor.  This is the perfect little processor that will usually satisfy all of our needs when it comes to chopping and grinding.  Best of all, it fits in a little cupboard and doesn't have to take up space on the counter.

Peaches and Berries with Orange Whipped Cream

One of the things I miss the most from living in Atlanta is the abundance of delicious peaches.  I knew peach season was coming upon us when I saw a friend’s picture with a dessert full of peaches from down south.  After several weeks of waiting for the peaches to reach us in Baltimore, I was finally able to find a few good ones at Whole Foods this past week.  They are not yet as juicy and sweet as they are at the height of the season but they worked well in this dessert.

Unlike their southern fruit friends, berries are in full swing at the Farmers Market in Baltimore.  This past Sunday, we grabbed some raspberries and blueberries to incorporate into our simple, yet delicious dessert.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 6 peaches


• Handful of raspberries and blueberries for each serving


• ¾ cup heavy whipping cream


• 1 tbsp Grand Marnier


• 1 tbsp sugar


• 1 tsp orange zest


• Honey for drizzling

PREPARATION

Whipping cream: With a hand mixer, mix the heavy whipping cream, Grand Marnier and sugar in a medium bowl until soft peaks form.  Fold in the orange zest.

Put peach slices on the bottom of plate, cover with whipped cream, add raspberries and blueberries on top.  Finish with drizzling honey on top.



There really are no rules for what fruits to use in this dessert.  It can be adapted to any fruits of your choosing.  I really like the spiked whipped cream since it added a little boost in flavor.  To make it without the alcohol, I would suggest adding a tbsp of orange juice instead of Grand Marnier.

I plan on repeating this recipe with mangoes, papaya and pineapple for a tropical twist.