The eggplant paremesan here is one of those frozen dealies that doesn’t taste anything like a frozen dealie. My wife loves eggplant parmesan and she is of the opinion that if you served this one in a good Italian restaurant, no one would be the wiser. From Costco.
Anyway, I am increasingly of the opinion that [...]
Poor, neglected Beerlicious. In need of so much attention. My spare energy has been heavily focused on passing the Free The Hops bill (do I hear an Amen?) and Magic City Brewfest (completely sold out in advance). So little Beerlicious has sat here neglected and unloved for a few months.
At least that’s my story. I [...]
Continue reading about Trois Pistoles + Chicken Marinara Over Polenta
Give me a break. What does it take to find a good beer pairing with this dish?
This time it was a homebrewed tripel. A fine example of the style if I do say so myself. Previously I’d tried two different IPAs with a big fail. In contrast, I’ve had some success with pairing Belgian-style beers [...]
Continue reading about Homebrew Tripel + Spaghetti With Italian Sausage
Yes, round two with my world famous spaghetti with Italian sausage with creamy tomato sauce. Still top notch even as a leftover. I credit the perseverance of tastiness here to my keeping all the parts separate in the fridge. Sauce separate from noodles separate from sausage.
Serve it all up on a plate and microwave for [...]
Continue reading about Harpoon IPA + Spaghetti With Italian Sausage
I had previously done a successful pairing with Sweetwater IPA and an Italian dish, but the food was kinda crudely thrown together, and it featured a cream sauce. I wanted to give it another go with a more properly-prepared Italian dish, and one featuring a tomato-based sauce. If I keep this blog going long enough [...]
Continue reading about Sweetwater IPA + Spaghetti With Italian Sausage
The meal was another kit dealie. Passable. It really needed mushrooms, and we didn’t have any on hand (and the box didn’t suggest adding them, gasp). And the flavor needed a little more punch. It was extremely mild. But decent.
So. Chicken Marsala. That’s made with wine (yes, there’s actually a packet of marsala cooking wine [...]
Leftovers. And this stuff was appreciably better fresh. Sigh.
The beer:
Monk’s Cafe is a relatively recent entry in the Birmingham market, brought in by the local Budweiser distributor. Which is a good sign. Unfortunately, it’s a bit hard to find. I was talking to the beer buyer at Whole Foods and he informed me he had [...]
Continue reading about Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour + Clean-out The Fridge Pasta
Yes, a repeat of the beer style and food style from last night. It was such a winner, and I was in the mood for pasta.
This is the same homebrew that Doug recently paired. Highly phenolic, fruity and spicy. Close to four years old, but this is a style that ages very well.
The pasta was [...]
Continue reading about Belgian Strong Dark + Clean-out The Fridge Pasta
The last time I attempted a pairing with one of these pizzas, it was an unmitigated disaster. This time, however, I was working off the recent experiences of one “Doug,” Beerlicious contributor. Doug had a good experience pairing up a Belgian strong dark with Italian food, so I figured that was a good direction to [...]
Continue reading about Unibroue 17 + Palermo’s Hearth Italia Napoli Pizza
I wasn’t overly psyched about this pairing prior to sitting down for dinner, but when the mood hits for a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, you have to seize it. Actually, it turned out that the aged homebrew was a nice addition to the otherwise simple meal of parmesan crusted chicken breast and spinach and mushroom [...]
Continue reading about Belgian Strong Dark + Parmesan Chicken