Cook: Beer Night

I decided yesterday to walk the girl at the park near our plot in the community garden. While there, I picked this bouquet.

It had been inspired by this mini bouquet I saw at the Blossom florist shop last week.

And then it was time to cook dinner. I do love an I.P.A., but since I’m embracing sober curiosity, I decided to instead cook with my can of beer—and no, not beer can chicken. I had a box of beer bread mix in my cupboard, which called for 12 ounces of beer.  I’m not likely to make this ever again, but I tried it and know that yeasted cheddar beer breads are tummies.

After measuring beer for the cheddar bread, I used the rest of the can to also marinate boneless, skinless chicken thighs in beer, honey, chopped onions, crushed garlic, salt, black pepper, paprika, cayenne, cumin and red pepper flakes.                          

Per Sam the Cooking guy, I also reserved marinade for after the chicken was cooked and then grated cheddar cheese to bake the bread. Cooking over charcoal is always an opportunity to cook summer squash from our vegetable garden. Hubs wanted me to use up the rest of this ginormous zucchini.

But I'm gonna use it instead for a sauté to eat with chili tonight (to go with the beer and cheddar bread) or in a gratin with some spinach (might go with that Jacques Pepin dish instead). Hubs declared the chicken pretty darn tasty.

What's great about dark meat is that it's less likely to dry out on a grill. But I had still some of that marinade even after dunking the cooked chicken in it and then putting the meat into the oven to stay warm. I still had yet to finish grilling my squash, and so poured the rest of the marinade on the vegetables and prayed that the liquid wouldn't drench my coals and stop the cooking. But I'm actually pleased with how caramelized they turned out.

And for a quick bread, not too darn bad.

After dinner, I made sweet tea and put it in the fridge to chill and put pinto beans in a pot of water to soak overnight. Friday night supper is decided.