Since I’m going to be attending Beer Camp Columbus 2010 today, I decided it would be fitting to post a recipe using beer.

I am that kind of clever!

We love pork in this household.  I often talk about my love for seafood and how I like to use that as my main animal protein source.  I do enjoy the groundwalkers (said with a growly voice. Bonus points to those who get it!) as well and my favorite groundwalker is swine.

Yes you read that right, the good ole’ pig.  My heart belongs to the swine.

If you are a long-time reader then you also know that I love me a good brine.  Pork and poultry get brined, it’s house rules.  I decided to try something fun and make some beer brined pork chops.

The first time I made these, after one bite, Scott looked me straight in the eye and said,…

Scott and I love seafood.  Like LOVE it, in what probably results in something verging on ridiculous.  I try to make sure that we have seafood at least twice a week since that is our preferred “animal” protein source.  Tuesdays we have fish so that leaves another day free for whatever.

And while I don’t eat a lot of meat, one thing I love is sausage.  My love for it would be just a few levels down from seafood.  Seafood I would eat everyday if you gave it to me, sausage I have to be in the mood for.  I swear I’m not trying to make a joke with that statement.

Sometimes those two wants just happen to collide with each other.

I will tell you that because I love food so much, I am constantly thinking about it.  I would guess this is the way most foodies behave.  Wondering…

While I was hobnobbing it at the Foodbuzz Festival last year, I was one of the few who got to sample the spicy mac ‘n cheese that got passed around Friday evening.  It was creamy and spicy and I was thankful that it was a small portion because it tasted extremely decadent.

I made sure to tell Scott all about it and since then he has been saying, “Mmm spicy mac ‘n cheese” at random points.

Mac ‘n cheese isn’t something I make all that often but I have been making it since Scott and I first moved in together.  He grew up on that crazy boxed stuff and I personally think that stuff is disgusting (Gee do I want powder cheese? Or cheeze-whiz in a pouch for the “creamy” version. EW!).  We didn’t have it at my house.  We didn’t have mac ‘n cheese period,…

It’s November gang and that means that Thanksgiving is just around the corner!  Last year, OHC brought you Thanksgiving related Tuesday Tips all the way up till the week of Thanksgiving.  It was so fun that I think we should do it again!  Last year we discussed the benefits of brining your bird and if you are still not on the brining bandwagon, what are you waiting for?!  Get it!

Today’s tip is also about brining because there’s always more to learn!

The basic base for a brine is water right?  But brining liquid doesn’t have to be just water based, oh no friends, you can use anything.  A list of things I’ve used in brining include:

• Wine
• Beer (hellz yeah!)
• Apple Cider
• Unsweetened cranberry juice

All that sounds pretty tasty right?  And it totally is!  A brine consists of:

• Liquid
• Salt
• Sugar
• Seasonings and miscellaneous veggies

Some people don’t use sugar when they brine but that’s not a practice I subscribe to, so for the purposes of this post, we will…

Jalapeno poppers.  Jalapeno bites, whatever you call them they have been making the rounds at parties and gatherings for a while now.  They interested me but I also shied away from them since I tend to have a low tolerance for spicy dishes.  I’ve been slowly working to become more immune because when one has a husband who loves spicy stuff it starts getting harder to avoid it.

I finally decided to tackle bacon wrapped jalapenos.  Now, all recipes I have come across just call for some cream cheese in the jalapenos.  If you know me, then you’ll know that I consider that too plain.  Anyone can do that.  I wanted to put a twist in it.  Let’s bump this up and play around with it for a little bit and see what happens.  I went back and forth thinking about what I could do.  I wanted to keep it as simple as possible but still kick up the flavor.  Finally…

One of the things I love making are handheld food stuffs. Especially if it’s for a party, potluck, or just something simple to have on hand for holiday gatherings.

Another thing I love is sausage. I grew up eating all kinds and being Polish, you know you have to eat kielbasa as required by law. Back in the day on the rare occasions that I had a McDonald’s breakfast (I know, totally ew, but hey who hasn’t had one? Uh huh.) naturally it was all about the egg sandwiches right? I took off the egg and tossed it because it was icky. I only ate the muffin and sausage. That’s where it was at for me because it was all about the sausage.

I still like that combination but worked on making it a little more healthy. Yes, the dish has sausage but that doesn’t mean the dish has to be a total unhealthy fest….

I love pumpkin and one thing I have resolved to do this year was to be more creative with foods. To experiment more and branch out more. I have been doing that a lot with pumpkin.

Pumpkin doesn’t have to be just regulated to pies and I’m sure all of you are aware of this fact already. I’m new to the party. Pumpkin can be savory? Pumpkin can be spicy? Well smack my bottom, let’s get this party started!

Some of you might be aware of the Blogger Secret Ingredient contest that has been going around. Well this week, Lindsay is hosting and she picked pumpkin. Since my new found love of experimenting with pumpkin, I wanted to create something that I could enter in this week’s contest.

The idea came to me earlier this week and I pondered it a bit before fully deciding what I was going to make and how…