Twilight Ale

I have to say that when it comes to beer, I am usually a self-proclaimed Widmer girl, as in Hefeweizen. In fact, today, driving through town running errands, I pulled up next to a Widmer delivery truck. As the truck turned off onto a side street, for a split second I felt the urge to follow it, but just for a split second. That is how much I like that yellow and black labeled brew! But lately in the name of education*, I have been trying to expand my beer palette. I have been venturing out to different brewpubs and when picking up a 6 pack at the store I will mix and match it, creating my very own sampler pack, instead of just buying a 6 pack of all the same brewskis. (I am pretty sure by now the beer stocking guys at Fred Meyer have me on a hit list!) Mixing up a 6 pack is lots of fun actually, and a lot more economical than say buying 6 bottles of wine when you want a little variety in life. Holding our own little beer tasting is also a favorite activity at the Markum house for a stay at home date night. This last time I mixed up a 6-er of Deschutes Brewery Beer. In the pack I had selected a bottle of their seasonal brew, Twilight Ale. I really liked it! Twilight Ale is a light, drinkable summer beer, but still has a nice malty character. I love what the website says about it " Best when served chilled and consumed outside." Doesn't that already sound like a good time? Deschutes Brewery also makes my favorite Porter: Black Butte. Try that one as well if you haven’t already. Plus, if you are in the state of Oregon, July is Oregon Craft Beer Month, so a part of the proceeds of beer sold during this month will help go to support the Oregon Food Bank. The breweries I have confirmed to be participating are Deschutes, Widmer & Bridgeport. So in celebration of Craft Beer Month and in the name of charity and education* go mix up your own 6 pack today!.

Sangria

I fell in love with sangria one hot July evening in Sevilla , Spain. I had stayed away from ordering sangria because I couldn’t quite get the concept, I mean why in the world would you serve red wine cold and with fruit? But evening after evening, regular wine, beer , or soda could not quench my thirst or cool me off. So after a few days I ordered a big glass of sangria with my dinner, just to see what all the fuss was about. After my first taste of a red wine &brandy soaked bit of apple, I knew there really was such a thing as love at first bite…..

Upon returning home, I became obsessed with sangria. No restaurants around where I lived served it, and if they had, I wasn’t 21 yet, so it wouldn’t have mattered. (Don‘t get me started on this country‘s drinking age laws….) So with Spanish cookbooks in hand, I set out perfecting my own sangria, testing it out on friends & family along the way. And in the end, I think I ended up with a pretty dang good recipe. To this day, my first batch of sangria symbolizes to me the start of summer , and all the wonderful memories it brings: pool parties, backyard bbqs, and hot Spanish nights. So whip yourself up as many batches of this you can this summer, because Christmas will be here before you know it…..

Sangria is traditionally made with a Spanish Rioja, but I find any dry red wine will do, I often use Colombia Crest Vineyard 10 or Barefoot Cabernet (the cheaper the wine, the more pitchers you can make!)

Red Wine Sangria

1 Bottle Red Wine (Medium Bodied)
2 Tablespoons Sugar
3 oz Brandy
1 Lime, Sliced
1 Orange , Sliced into ½ Circles
1 Lemon , Sliced
1 Red Apple, Cored & Chopped into Bite Size Pieces
Club Soda
Ice
In a large glass pitcher, combine all the fruit. Add brandy and sugar, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour in the wine, stir to combine. Refrigerate overnight. When ready to serve, fill glasses with ice cubes, pour in wine and top off with club soda. The club soda is traditional to top off the Sangria, but I personally don’t use the club soda because I feel that is dilutes the wine taste too much, but it is a matter of preference.

After “perfecting” my red wine sangria, I sought out different versions of sangria, using white & sparkling wines. This was a version I made last summer for my sister in law Alexandra’s baby shower. It was a big hit with the ladies!

Jude’s Cava Sangria

1 Bottle Champagne or Cava (Dry or Extra Dry, none of that sickenly sweet Spumante stuff!)
1 Pink Grapefruit (Sliced into ½ circles)
1 navel orange (Sliced into half circles)
4 oz Grand Marnier
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 oz Lemonade
Ice Cubes
In a large glass pitcher, combine the fruit, lemonade, Grand Marnier, and sugar. Using a long wooden spoon, muddle the mixture to release the fruit juices and until sugar is dissolved. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, up to overnight. When ready to serve, fill glasses with ice cubes. Slowly add the Cava to the pitcher, stirring gently to combine. Pour into glasses. Salut!

A Quarter Century Old: Widmer Bros. & Jillian!

So today I would like to give a big shout out to my sister Jillian who is turning 25 tommorrow. Coincidentally, so is Widmer Brewery. Jillian is a beer girl and I am a wine girl, (among the many differences between us..) but we both love Widmer Hefeweizen. The last time she visited we went to their brewery after a baseball game and had a big pitcher of that cold, lemony , cloudy goodness. Widmer Hefeweizen is hands down my favorite, but by no means the only good beer that Widmer makes. Some family favorites include Drop Top Amber Ale, Broken Halo IPA , and Drifter Pale Ale. Living in Portland we are lucky to be surrounded by a lot of great breweries & beer pubs, but we always end up going to the Widmer Gausthaus. (This is saying a lot because we have a brewpub 2 blocks from our house, but we'd rather drive across town.) They have great food, and they are really family friendly. The waitstaff always bring us milk and crackers for Sofia and never charge us for them. One time Sofia even knocked over and BROKE a big Weizen glass (see pic) and the staff was very nice about it even though I was quite embarrassed at her party foul. I am thinking she might have inherited my clumsiness….

Tommorrow, April 2nd the Widmer Gausthaus Brewpub is offering $1.50 pints of all their beer all day. A holla back to their original 1984 pint prices(those must have been the days….) So if you are in town, go grab yourself a pint (yeah, it might be crowded, but in a fun, Ocktoberfest kind of way.) If not, go buy yourself a 6 pack of Widmer (insert name here) and drink a prost to their successful 25 years of beer making and to my little sister’s successful 25 years on the planet!
Happy Bithday Tia!

Grandma Julie's Sweet Iced Tea

Anyone that knows my Grandma Julie knows that she makes the best iced tea around. On any given day, she goes through at least 2 pitchers of the stuff. As a little girl I think I drank more of this tea then I did water or milk. When you visit her, you can refuse all you want, but by the time you leave you will have consumed at least one large glass of sweet tea. Really though, no one is complaining. The tea is great, and I miss it dearly when I am in Oregon. I tried recreating it several times, thinking it would be easy, how hard could tea be? It wasn’t easy though…I never seemed to get the balance of sugar and tea right and some pitchers turned out just awful. I finally broke down and asked my grandma what her secret was. She sent me a letter containing her recipe, and to my surprise it involved microwaving the tea, not brewing the tea in a kettle. After a few attempts at her recipe, I think I finally got it right. Now I can enjoy that sweet tea whenever I want to at home, but somehow it always tastes better at her house.

Take a large Pyrex measuring cup or microwaveable bowl and place 4 small or 1 large family size Lipton Black tea bags in 4 Cups water. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Let sit at least one hour. (The longer it sits, the stronger it gets.) Put 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup sugar in pitcher (I start with 1/2 cup and then taste before adding more.). Pour 2 cups COLD water into pitcher and stir. Add tea mixture and ice. (Don’t add the tea mixture hot or it will crack your pitcher!) If you like your tea strong, add another tea bag to first step, if you like it weak, add more water, if you don’t like it sweet, add less sugar (you can always add more later!) Make yourself a pitcher and sit on the deck, maybe give your grandma or mom a call, she just might have that little secret that will make your recipe perfect.

Grandma Julie & Sofia