Ladies at the Beach: Funky Buddha Brewery

A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend and I took a short weekend trip down to Fort Lauderdale to escape the cold and snow of Chicago.  The last two days of our trip were glorious: sunny, 80, perfect beach weather.  Sadly the first full day was full of rain.  I tried to make the best of things by looking for some indoor activities and found Funky Buddha Brewery.  After a delicious brunch at Lester's Diner, we drove over to Funky Buddha to try some of their beers.

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The taproom is very large compared to some of the smaller ones in Chicago, which was a nice change of pace.  Dave and I sat at the bar and chatted up the cast of characters that made up the bartenders.  We decided we would try all of their 8 "special" beers by ordering 2 flights (4 each), and then we ordered 1 more flight to split in order to try their "standard" beers.

The flight holder is in the shape of a Buddha, and the oyster crackers were a nice touch!

Since we had arrived early in the afternoon, there wasn't much happening in the taproom, so the bartender was able to talk to us more about the beer.  He told us that he pretty much exclusively drinks Funky Buddha's Small Axe, a 10% double IPA.  It sounded like only drinking that strong beer may have messed up his palette as he told us he couldn't taste some of the flavors in their other beers like ginger, lemongrass, blood orange, raspberry, habanero, just to name a few.  He said Small Axe was the best beer in the land, and when I asked him if he had tried Bell's Hopslam he said it was "garbage compared to Small Axe".  While I don't agree with him about that, Small Axe was a pretty good double IPA, although it wasn't as smooth as others I've had.

My favorites out of the beers we tried were a pineapple IPA (Pineapple Hop Gun) and a blood orange American IPA (More Moro).  They were both fruity without overpowering the taste of the hops.

Unfortunately it looks like Funky Buddha is only available in Florida at the moment, but if you're ever visiting, definitely look out for it on tap!

Cooking with Beer

Alyssa and I love to drink and this blog was created to celebrate our love of doing so, but we would be remiss if we also didn't sometimes write about food - specifically cooking food with alcohol.*

For the majority of my adult life I was a vegetarian...until a few months ago when I decided to start eating meat again. Not only did this open up so many more options to eat (and sandwich options at my beloved Potbelly <3), but I can now get a little more creative with my cooking.

One of my first forays in cooking meat

As a vegetarian, most of my experience cooking with alcohol was limited to risotto (very delicious). However, since starting to eat meat, I have found various ways to incorporate beer or wine into my cooking. Cooking with alcohol can add a really nice flavor and moistness to meat...and you can drink whatever you don't use! My most recent foray into mingling meat and beer was making slow cooker BBQ chicken. It was so tasty that I decided I would share the recipe.  

I cook fairly often, but I'm far from an expert, and I think this recipe would be easy for cooks of all skill levels. I also improvised this recipe (only really looking up how long to cook the chicken and getting a little input from my boyfriend), so feel free to add your own take on it:

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

-3 Chicken Breasts (you could add more, just make sure to increase the other ingredients too!)

-about 3/4 of a 16oz. bottle of BBQ sauce (I used 3/4 because that is what I had left but it seemed to work!)

-about 6-8oz of beer (I find 312 to be a perfect beer for cooking. It has a mild flavor but is still better than the light beer you drank in college)

Medley of Spices:
I used 1 tbsp Chili Powder, 1 tsp Cumin, a bit of Paprika, some cayenne, some garlic powder and salt.

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Cover the chicken in the spice mixture and then throw the rest in the pot along with the other ingredients. Put the slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours...and that's it! Once the chicken is done, it easily falls apart with just a fork. It makes about 5-6 servings, depending on how much you eat.

In my opinion, the beer adds a nice mild flavor to the chicken - without it the BBQ sauce might be too sweet or tangy. It also kept the chicken from getting too dry and the BBQ sauce from getting too thick. 

This chicken would taste great on a sandwich, but I was so prepared for this recipe that I forgot to pick up bread...I ate it with a side of homemade mac and cheese - perfect for the frigid temperatures outside!

Aside from BBQ chicken, I've also used beer/wine to make chicken tacos and cauliflower tacos, risotto, a whole roasted chicken and pork chops - other recipes that I'm sure I'll be sharing!

*One of us has also been too busy watching House of Cards to visit new bars.

Lakefront Brewing: New Grist

Beer is definitely my favorite kind of alcoholic beverage.  It comes in so many different varieties, yet the major ingredients are so simple: water, hops, wheat/barley and yeast.  Sadly, I am no longer supposed to consume beer because barley contains gluten...no, I'm lucky enough that I don't have celiac disease, but I've been trying to stay on a gluten-free (GF) diet because it seems to be helping with my chronic daily headaches.  I do still indulge in non-GF beers on the regular, but I do it with the knowledge that I will probably not feel so great later, but the trade off is worth it to me because I really love beer.

While I love bread, cookies, cake, etc. the hardest thing to forgo/find a GF version of is BEER.  Sure, I could drink hard cider instead, but most of those are VERY sweet and get old after one drink.  GF beer is getting easier to find out at bars and in your local liquor store (Omission and Two Brothers both make good ones), but there still aren't many varieties.  One of the best GF beers I've had so far comes from Lakefront Brewery (ayoo Milwaukee): New Grist.

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New Grist is so called because it is made with sorghum and rice instead of barley or wheat.  It has a slightly sweet taste but still tastes enough like beer that I wouldn't confuse it with a hard cider.  New Grist is 5% alcohol contest by volume, which makes it more similar to session beer (as opposed to most craft beers which are >5-6%).  It is very light, which makes it great and refreshing in the summer.  Most of my friends have tried it and they appreciate it even though they can have as much gluten as their little hearts desire.

When we were in Milwaukee I got to try the new version of this beer: New Grist with Ginger!  If you like ginger ale you will like this beer.  One of my friends said she didn't even think it tasted like beer at all (so if you're one of those ladies--sorry, people--who doesn't enjoy beer, you might like this!).  I hope that New Grist with Ginger will be available this summer in the Chicagoland area, because I think it would pair very well with BBQ and hanging out on patios.

Club W

At Ladies at the Bar, we love a good beer but this lady also enjoys the occasional glass (or bottle) of wine. (After our trip to Milwaukee beer has lost some of it's appeal). For my birthday, a few of my friends gifted me a subscription to Club W. Club W is a like a Birchbox for wines. For $45 a month ($39 for the wine, $6 for shipping) you receive 3 bottles of wine (or more if you choose), which they tailor to your taste preferences.

When you first sign up for Club W, they ask you a series of questions so that they can figure out what kind of wine you would like most. For me, it was mostly dry reds with a few whites thrown in. Club W will give you a list of recommendations, but you are also free to select whatever wines you want - but be warned they have many to choose from! They also have videos accompanying each wine so you can learn more about it and a helpful guide for recommended pairings. The night I signed up to redeem my present I must have spent over an hour going through the videos/website trying to decide which wines to buy!

The thing that I really love about Club W is that they don't just have a bunch of run of the mill wines, but they pride themselves on curating unique wines that you might not regularly try. The cut out the distributors which allows them to sell higher quality wines at a lower price than usual. Most of their wines are around $13, but they have "Curator's Choice" wines that are a bit more pricey. As a person who routinely buys whatever wine is cheaper than $15 at Whole Foods, this was a nice change of pace for me.

For my first Club W shipment, I chose Le Fermier Cinsault, Trestle Chardonnay and Les Bobos Carignane. I still have yet to drink the Chardonnay. However, I really, really enjoyed Les Bobos. It came in a super cute bottle and it was unlike most red wines I've had before and it tasted both jammy and dry. 

My blurry photography skills

A few things to be aware of:

As soon as you put in your payment details, you are automatically subscribed to receive new wine every month. You are able to skip months, but unless you go into your profile and select this option, your wine will still be shipped. This happened to me my second month (still hadn't gotten through the first shipment!) and I was a little peeved - but more wine is never a bad thing!

Another thing to note, you MUST have someone older than 21 to be present at the time of delivery. Because I work 9 to 5, this was a little difficult for me to figure out. Thankfully, having a doorman can get you out of this situation.

Club W makes a great gift or a treat for yourself!