Beer and Cheese Party

Hellooooooooooooo everyone!!

How are you doing today?

I'm doing grand thank you!

Nothing out of the ordinary happened on my end that I can think of.

It was just a regular ol' Wednesday in the life of Jenna.....

(Lol at the fact that the picture above wasn't even taken today. Don't let me fool you - I hardly look this put together. I just got out of the shower and look like a wet animal. This was taken a few weeks ago and I quite like it. So let's just pretend like this is today, shall we? :)

Woke up, went to work, cooked all morning/afternoon, came home, hung with the fam, played with Marcie for a while in the back yard, and blogged on and off throughout the evening. All the while listening to music. I've come to find that I don't really like completing any task without music in the background - it just feels wrong. The only time I can think of throughout my day where there isn't music playing is when I'm at work or when I'm reading a book (because I can't concentrate when there is any noise at all whatsoever being made when I'm reading....I just can't concentrate!) Besides that - eating, showering, cooking at home, getting dressed, blogging, etc. there is always a little tune being played. Silence is deadly. But I digress......

As I was perusing through yesterdays post I came to a realization......

I totally forgot to post pictures of the wine and cheese party (which was more like a beer and cheese party now that I think about it lol) we had at Lee Anne and Bryans house a couple of months ago!

Let me begin by saying that we (Lee Anne and I mostly) will muster up any reason under the sun to cook great food, drink amazing IPAs and call it a "party" even if it's only Bryan Lee Anne and I taking part in the festivities. These are the type of friends that are perfect for me. Work our asses off all day, drink and eat all night, sleep, wake up, make a glorious breakfast feast, and then take a nice hike through the woods! This is a typical weekend for us. And I absolutely love it.

So what exactly was the occasion for this wine and cheese party? Well....I don't remember to be quite honest lol. I'm sure it's because we just felt like eating cheese and drinking beer - what other excuse do we need to have a good time?

I wish I would've posted the day after our little party because then I would be able to recall the entire evening and commentate on every little bit of food and WOW all of you with my flowery culinary terms lol. But seeing as it was such a long time ago, and I have a bad memory to begin with, I doubt I can paint a perfect picture of our evening.

But what better way to paint this wine and cheese party than with chronological pictures of the good times that were had? No better way I can think of! I of course took pictures of absolutely everything starting at the grocery store prior to our party and ending the next morning with a breakfast feast!

Enjoy......

Our trip to the grocery store in a nutshell........

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I find it hard to respect men (or women for that matter) that drink Bud or Miller. It is an unacceptable choice of beer in my humble (lol) opinion. A twenty one year old girl such as myself shouldn't be able to outdrink (not out drink in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality and strength of the beer at hand) a man lol. Might as well put an umbrella in your drink you sissy.

IPAs are honestly the way to go - stouts, belgium beers, and porters are more than ok in my book as well. But lagers, pilsners, etc? No. Oh no. Home girl don't play that game.

The funny thing is - prior to this past fall I absolutely hated beer with a passion. I thought it was disgusting... that is until Lee Anne turned me into a giant beer snob. I'm already a bit picky when it comes to a lot of other aspects of life - and refuse to settle for less than the best. So why would I settle for anything less than the best when it comes to my alcoholic beverages? Sure it costs me $11 for a six pack - and I'm poor as fuck - but it's totally worth it. Aside from myself I am unaware of any other twenty one girls around here drinking on the same quality level that I am. Better catch up sisters!

::side note::

HopSlam was probably the best and worst thing that happened to me all winter long lol. I had the best of times and worst of times drinking that delicious treat. IPAs all the way please. As Bryan once said - I'm just preaching the gospel of good beer :)

But back on track we go....

Can't have a cheese party without a wide aray of cheeses.....

When we returned from the store we did what we do best - prepared food!

Finger licking chimichurri is a must on most occasions.

We couldn't necessarily eat the cheese with our fingers.......

Well....I'm sure I did at one point in the evening haha but the sprouted whole grain pretzels and baguette did the trick just fine!

What is a cheese party without honey????

One must have a stellar collection of honeys to pair with their array of cheeses! My Mike's Hot Honey was a wonderful heated flavor explosion in comparison to the rich and creamy cheeses. I don't quite remember the whereabouts of Lee Annes honey but I do remember it being oh soooooo good!

(If you don't already know I'm am on the verge of obsession when it comes to honey....so much that I fully intend on being a beekeeper later in life. But that's a story for another day.)

Let the cheese party commence!!!!

Holy yum this is making me so hungry!

You know how a certain smell, taste, or visual can sort of jump start your memory? The photograph above just jump started my memory of the end of this particular evening lol. It was also the very last photograph I took- so the rest of the night will remain a mystery to you all lol...... lucky me. Wouldn't want to make a fool of myself in front of all of my readers now would I? ;)

Fast forward to the next morning in the kitchen......

Cooking breakfast like champs!!!

If you know me then you know that breakfast is my all time favorite meal! I'd choose eating breakfast with friends over going out to dinner with them any day.

::Side note:: If it isn't obvious by now - Lee Anne and I are great friends. I mean we spend just about every single day of the week working alongside each other in the kitchen at Olive, and then spend almost every single weekend cooking up a storm together as well. I see her more throughout the week than anyone else. You'd think we'd get sick of each other by now lol.

I still have a lot to learn when it comes to cooking- I'm the first to tell you that I'm wet behind the ears. So it's nice to have chill time outside of work for Lee Anne to teach me a few things. Not to toot my own whistle but I do believe I'm becoming quite good at making biscuits and gravy after helping her prepare them (I better be - seeing as we've made it four or five times in the past couple of months lol).

As if I needed any more beer lol.

And so it began......

::Cue the mouthwatering::

I love that I took pictures of the entire meal. More than eating a meal - I especially love reliving it. It's the gift that keeps on giving....except for the fact that I'm now extremely hungry and have a serious hankering for breakfast and beer haha.

On most Sunday mornings we gather ourselves up and head on downtown to get coffee....

It's the perfect ending to an all night/morning party :)

I hope you all enjoyed re-living our Wine.....er......beer and cheese party with me!

If you enjoy this post then I will do my best to share cooking get togethers we have from here on out. We've had so many up until this point I'm almost regretting not documenting and sharing the experience with you! But no use in regretting the past now is there? We live we learn!

I hope all of this inspires you to cook something up with your friends as well! Can't cook? Well... that is already the beginning of a really funny story now isn't it lol. You can learn together! Nothing makes me happier than an awesome meal shared with friends and made with friends.

As always it is waaaaay past my bed time!

I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful day!!

xoxoxo - JB

Let us begin.....

[[Todays music]]

Today I've successfully renewed my old love for Lisa. Beautiful lady with such a lovely voice. I've always preferred Lisas impromptu performances over the televised ones.....

(1) LISA HANNIGAN - OCEAN AND A ROCK

(2) LISA HANNIGAN - I DON'T KNOW

[[Todays restaurant (s)]]

(1) TORTILLA FACTORY - BROOKLYN NY

(Have I ever told you guys how much I adoreAnthony Bourdain?? Similar to my love for Anderson Cooper and Dr. Drew Pinsky - Anthony is a silver fox. )

(2) CHARLIE PARKER DINER - ILLINOIS

I’m really really into diners. Anything breakfast like is AOK in my book. I don’t know why this particular one stands out. But I’m diggin it lol.

[[Todays kitchen gadget]]

(1) TEA KETTLES

(2) MICROWAVE SMORES GADGET

Sigh...this pains me.

I watched this video several times and I still can’t wrap my head around it.

First of all the commercial is hilarious - I'm not sure if that was intentional or not. I mean everyone is commenting on how delicious the smore is - well DUH it's a smore - how could you possibly go wrong melting marshmallows and chocolate between two graham crackers? The contraption has absolutely nothing to do with the flavor. But I digress.... I’m 100% positive that if you put smores in the microwave without this device for 10 seconds that they will turn out almost exactly the same. It is a clever little device, but not worth $10 in my opinion.

[[Todays random]]

(1) BOSCOLO EXEDRA HOTEL –MILAN

(2) PARKING GARAGES/LOTS

[[Todays food clip]]

(1) FOOD CURATED - RAISING DUCKS WITH PRIDE

(2) APPLE SWANS

(Do any of you remember my appleswans?)

This is a easy parlor trick when it comes to carving fruit. Probably the easiest in my opinion. Way back when - one of the chefs at school make an apple swan like nobody’s business, and I really wanted to learn how to do it for myself. So I did what any young person does these days - I looked to the internet for help! That’s when I found this extremely helpful video.

Take a jab at making one yourself! I guarantee you’ll be impressed with the finished product, and how easy it is to actually carve. Chef John does a great job demonstrating how it's done.....

[[Today's curly head]]

TRAVIS MCCOY

[[Todays recipe]]

M&M COOKIES

::Ingredients::

1 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar (regular white sugar)

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 ¼ cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 ½ cup M&Ms

::Directions::

-Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

-Cream shortening and sugars

- Once creamed, beat in vanilla and eggs until evenly distributed

-Slowly add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the wet ingredients.

-Lastly- fold in the M&Ms!

-(Your mixture should look very similar to the picture above)

-If you have an older baking sheet, or a baking sheet that has been used for things other than cookies- I recommend using parchment paper (like I did above)

-OR-

-If you have a newer baking sheet that has only been used for cookies and such –

go ahead and spoon the cookie dough right onto the sheet

-Bake the cookies for 9-12 minutes

-Remove from the oven

-Let the cookies cool on a baking sheet

-When I bake cookies I like to make them different sizes because some people will go for a petite cookie while others go for a gigantic one.

::In the above picture::

- The cookies all the way to the left were measured out with a tablespoon sized ice cream scooper

-The cookies in the middle I measured out by hand and rolled into little balls.

-The ones all the way to the right were made with dough that had no m&ms mixted into it – so I just rolled the dough into balls and placed a couple of m&ms on top

**After you try the recipe once you will get a feel for when and how you want to add the m&ms to the cookie dough.**

ENJOY!!