Kevintheblogger's Blog

BBQ Shrimp

kevintheblogger — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:46:00 +0000

When my family goes on vacation, we have a rule about dining out. The rule is that we make sure to eat at places not available to us at home. So our latest vacation in May was no different. When passing through Gulfport, MS en route to Panama City Beach, FL, we ate at the Blow Fly Inn. This place had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network, so we thought we’d give it a try. My wife had the stuffed flounder which she said was great. I veered from the norm (steak) and went with the BBQ Shrimp. And boy am I glad I did!

This is not at all what I was expecting. The BBQ sauce was so tasty: spicy, but smooth. I raved about the dish so much, I threatened to return on our way back home! So when we returned home, I got on the restaurant’s website and e-mailed the owner letting him know how much we enjoyed our visit and asking if they had a cook book that I could purchase. To my surprise, the owner promptly replied to my e-mail with the actual recipe for the BBQ Shrimp! This recipe couldn’t be easier!

BBQ Shrimp

1 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tblspn oregano

1/2 tblspn thyme

1/2 tblspn basil

1/2 tblspn crushed red pepper

1/4 tblspn cayenne

1/2 cup BBQ Sauce

1/4 cup chopped garlic

1/4 tblspn black pepper

1/4 tblspn Creole seasoning

2 1/2 cups melted butter

2 lbs shrimp (peeled w/ the tail on)

Mix all ingredients except the shrimp and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Prepare shrimp however you’d like. I just cook them in a pan with a little oil for a few minutes on each side. Combine shrimp and sauce and serve with garlic bread. Delicious and simple!

Mr. Beer’s Blue Lightning

kevintheblogger — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:20:27 +0000

Yesterday I was sick, so I decided to go ahead and start a new brew. I found this recipe on the Mr. Beer website and since I already had the needed ingredients, I figured what the heck. This will be only my second batch of beer using the Mr. Beer kit, so I’m still fairly new to the whole process but I have found that it’s pretty easy to do (even though I know it’s not *technically* home brewing since I’m not working with grains).

Basically, this brew consists of:

1 can of High Canadian Country Draft

1/2 pouch Booster (essentially sugar)

1 packet of brewing yeast

1 can of Blueberries in light syrup

The people at Mr. Beer Fans typically suggest following the “2-2-2″ rule, but when dealing with fruits, they suggest letting the beer ferment for a little longer. So I might let it ferment for three weeks instead of the normal two. The flavor profile makes this beer sound amazing to me. It should create a beer with an alcohol volume of 4.9% and 12 IBU’s (International Bittering Units). I guess we’ll find out how good this brew is around the middle of August!

Apple Wine

kevintheblogger — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:47:02 +0000

Along with homebrewing, I’m also learning to make my own wine from home. Maybe you’d call this nothing more than “prison wine” at this point in time, but I’m sure I’ll get better at it as time goes by. My first two projects (Strawberry Wine and Grape Wine) were just ok. But I plan on taking my time with the Apple Wine and actually bottling it. The two issues that I know I’ll have to address are sweetening the wine and bottling it. These are two areas I haven’t much knowledge on, so I’ll have to consult the experts.

Making the wine sweet after it finishes fermenting is a difficult task. You can’t just add sugar and shake because if any yeast is still alive it will begin fermenting again once the sugar is added. So you have to sweeten the wine with “unfermentable sugars” such as Stevia or Splenda. I have decided to go with Splenda, but I’m not sure how much will be needed to sweeten the whole batch. So we’ll see how that goes.

Choosing a bottle opens up a whole other can of worms. Do I want to cork or cap? If I want to cork, what type of corker do I need to purchase? I if I want to cap, do I want to dress the bottle up at all with a topper? I suppose the possibilities are endless with wine making. For now, I’m just keeping it simple with small batches. The good thing is, this hobby is great fun and it’s relatively cheap!

Mr. Beer’s West Coast Pale Ale

kevintheblogger — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:25:48 +0000

Back while we were on vacation, we stopped into an As Seen On TV store and I escaped with only one purchase: a Mr. Beer kit. Inside the box there’s a fermenter, bottles with caps, a sanitizing solution and a can of “Hopped Malt Extract.” The one that came with the kit was a West Coast Pale Ale. Now I’m not much of a beer drinker, but I like the idea of making things from home and enjoying the fruits of my labor (so to speak). So on May 31, I began the process of making the West Coast Pale Ale. Before I go any further I must say, brewing your own beer from home is not for the impatient–or so I’m learning. When I got back to work after vacation, I joined a Mr. Beer fan club which has been a valuable sorce of information regarding not only the Mr. Beer kit, but homebrewing in general. The Mr. Beer fan club suggests following the golden “2-2-2″ rule. This means that two weeks should be given for each stage of the process: fermenting, carbonating and lagering. I have pretty much followed the “2-2-2″ rule, but made the following adjustments:

5-31-09 began fermentation

6-11-09 began carbonating

6-25-09 began lagering

I opened up the first bottle on 7-7-09 and enjoyed a pint of my very first West Coast Pale Ale. It was actually quite good! I was amazed at how translucent it was. Now obviously it’s a pale ale, so I figured it would have a certain level of clarity, but I even impressed myself! They say that the beer gets better the longer it stays in the fridge, but at least I know that it’s safe for consumption. I’ll have another pint tonight and try to grab some good pictures to post!