Breakfast Brownies

Before I started working at Grocery Z, I really didn't eat breakfast, but I found that if I ate something small, I felt better throughout the day. Well, I started to gain a little weight from all the sugary sweet stuff I was ingesting. I needed to find something that was better for me.

One of my friends, who had moved away, but stayed in touch via Facebook, had said mentioned that she made egg muffins. She said they were easy to make, froze well, and were super easy to reheat. The good things about egg muffins is that you can tailor them to your own tastes.

So, here's my recipe;
What you'll need:
12 large eggs
1lb sausage (I prefer Neese's or an all natural sausage)
1/2 green pepper
1/2 onion, I used a yellow onion because they're sweeter
Sriracha

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Dice 1/2 green pepper and 1/2 an onion, throw in a frying pan until soft. Add sausage and cook until no longer pink. Season to taste, this is where the Sriracha comes in. I like it spicy!
3. Set aside and cool.
4. In a separate bowl carefully crack open and add 12 eggs.
5. Gradually add sausage mix to eggs and stir until well incorporated.
6. At this point you'd scoop out about 1/4 cup of the mix into each muffin tin, unless you're me and you realize you left your muffin tin at your ex husband's house. In that case, you break out your trusty brownie pan!
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 min or until a toothpick, inserted in the middle, comes out clean. The middle should be solid and not jiggly. That's the best way to describe it.

Let them cool and then cut them into squares and wrap with cling wrap. You can put them in the freezer or in the fridge. If you freeze them, when you're ready to eat them, put them in the microwave for a minute. Remove the wrap and enjoy!

Ballast Point

Thursday nights Mister and I can usually be found at our favorite bar, Jake's Billiards. They're a laid back kind of place with a ping pong table, dart board, a number of pool table, and a couple of other games as well as tables and booths. Oh, and 69 taps. Let's not forget to mention the numerous bottles of beer they have too. I think that number changes though. This place is awesome. There's nothing fancy about it. The atmosphere is casual and chill. The owners are pretty cool, they recognize our faces now, and the bar tenders and staff are always really helpful and friendly. We frequent there more than just Thursday nights, but there's a reason we go on Thursdays.

Everyone looks forward to Fridays, but I look forward to Thursdays. Why? Because Thursday is Pint Night at Jake's. The focus on a brewery, sometimes local and sometimes now, and with a purchase of one of that brewery's beers, you get a free pint glass. Needless to say, we're running out of room in our cabinets and now Mister is having to look into building shelves for his man cave.

Ballast Point Logo - taken from their web page

This past Thursday they highlighted Ballast Point. One of the nice things about Jake's is that they offer beers from all over the states. North Carolina offers a lot of great brews, but it's nice to branch out and see what other states have to offer. Ballast Point hails out of San Diago, CA. That immediately had me intrigued. I'd never had a beer from the West coast before. Yippee! So, what's on tap?

The first one was Sculpin with Ghost Peppers. The boys tried this one and apparently it was spicy, true to its name. Here are the brewer's notes on it;

"Our Sculpin IPA is a great example of what got us into brewing in the first place. After years of experimenting, we knew hopping an ale at five separate stages would produce something special. The result ended up being this gold-medal winning IPA, whose inspired use of hops creates hints of apricot, peach, mango and lemon flavors, but still packs a bit of a sting, just like a Sculpin fish."

I think this beer was neat. While it might not be popular, the idea behind it is unique. I've never heard of a beer like this before and while I wouldn't try it (not a fan of spicy food and ghost peppers scare me!) I'm sure there are dare devils out there who would eagerly stand up to the challenge of taking down a pint or two.

The next was was called Steam boat. They boys both like this one and this is actually what they ended up settling on. Here are the brewer's notes;

"Collaboration with our friends from Briess Malts and White Labs. We collaborated to make a beer and have it ready to be served at the 2012 Craft Brewers Conference. Briess Malts asked us to make a beer for them using their new Blackprinz malt (a husk-less variety of malted barley which they roast to 500 Lovibond). We use Great Western and Briess Malts in the brew to make a Hoppy Black California Common beer. Chinook, Amarillo, Centennial and Crystal hops were all used in large amounts. This warm fermented lager is ebony in color and obnoxiously dry hopped. Our inspiration came from many styles. The hop aromas of an IPA, the smooth roasted flavors and low bitterness from a German Swartz Bier and the fruity aromas derived from a warm fermentation of a lager yeast like a Steam Beer."

Next! It was my turn! Goody, goody! This one was really, really intriguing to me. It was called Boob Check. C'mon, who doesn't like a good brew that has a dirty name? However, this beer is an awareness beer, which makes it more serious. Remember ladies, save the ta-tas.

Boob Check - taken from Ballast Point web page

Yes, the beer really is that color. I should've taken a picture of it in the glass because it's such a nice color. My only gripe about this beer is that it's draft only. I would love, love, love to find this again. I'm really hoping Jake's will have it if we go again soon. Here are the brewer's notes;

"Premium malted barley, Galaxy hops, and British Ale yeast are the base of this hibiscus, cherry, honey, and lime beer. A crystal-clear deep pink hue invites you in while the complex fruity aroma comes from all of the ingredients combined, not just the Cherries. Hibiscus adds some bitterness and color, while the lime adds some acidity."

I am not a beer expert. I don't know what notes or flavors to look for. I just know what I like in a good beer and this, to me, was a good beer. The lime was what stood out the most. Mister and his friend didn't care for it, so maybe it's more of a female friendly beer, but it was delicious.

Our freebie pint glasses - picture taken by me!

Overall it was another successful pint night at Jake's. Ballast Point served up some good beers that didn't fail to impress. All three of us enjoyed our picks and while I can't speak for the other two, I do hope that we'll see Ballast Point on tap at Jake's often.

We're looking forward to next week's when they're bringing in kegs from Foothills brewery!

Toothless Thursday

I mentioned during my introduction post that Mister and I adopted a bearded dragon in February of 2013. So, now I have the pleasure of introducing you to Toothless.

When we got Toothless, he was about 8 months old. We guesstimated that he was born in August of 2012. We don't know where he came from, whether from a breeder or from a petstore. We bought him from a family who had a 11-13 year old boy. The mom's story is that the lizard was bought for the boy, it became his responsibility, and then all of a sudden mom was taking care of it. Mom didn't want to keep taking care of it, so they decided to get rid of him. Needless to say he is living a much, much happier life.

He enjoys sitting on the couch and watching hockey with me and Mister.

And there are nights when he will fall asleep on me. Look at that adorable face. 

How can you not love a face like that??

Moxxi Monday

Mister and I adopted our dog, Moxxi, back in September for 2012. She's pure delight to be around. Sometimes she makes us crazy or mad, but she's just like any other dog...sorta. Moxxi has definitely become the baby in our house, which is perfectly acceptable to both of us. Without further ado, here is Miss Moxxi.

This is our pretty girl. She's part Siberian Husky and part Border Collie. She's 100% crazy and a huge ball of energy. She's super smart. I'll post pictures of her a lot because she's our pride and joy. Life wouldn't be the same without her in it! You'll have to stick around if you want to find out more about our crazy puppy.

Some Introductions

I suppose I should give some kind of introduction. I'm not big on them though as I tend to start rambling and lose my concentration easily. Here's a shot at it.

I'm a 20 something living in rural North Carolina. I work for a small, independent grocery company and have been for a little over a year. My job is mostly enjoyable. It has its stressful moments, but they're few and far between. I might blog about it a little, if I do it'll be referenced to as Grocery Z.

Mister, which is what I call my boyfriend, works for a much larger company doing mostly manual labor. He and I met about 4 years ago, but we didn't start dating until September of 2012. We've slowly built our lives together. At the beginning of October in 2012, we adopted a puppy. Around February of 2013 we adopted a bearded dragon. He moved in with me back in October of 2013. Our lives are mostly normal, but we live a little bit of a crazy life. He's a hard core metal head and I was born and raised a (mostly) good southern girl. We're polar opposites, but somehow we were attracted to each other.

It was thanks to him that I found the wonderful world of hockey. It's been the only sport, to date, that I have actually gotten into. I have a profound love for the game now, even though there are parts that I still don't understand. He's a die hard Blackhawks fan. Just to show you how much, last year, after they one the Stanley Cup, he got a huge tattoo on his arm to commemorate their wins. It's pretty freaking awesome. I, on the other hand, root for the home team. I'm a Caniac through and through. Let's Go Canes!!

Umm... I love to cook. Well, mostly bake, but I don't do it every often anymore. I really have to be moved in order to bake. I do a lot more cooking as I get older. I like to craft too, when I have time. I can be pretty crafty. I like to make my own things. I have dabbled in sewing, quilting, painting, jewelry making, and a number of other mediums.

Well, there's a lot more I could ramble on about, but I think I've hit the highlights. Just keep checking back to learn more about me and my crazy life!

2014, New Beginnings

It's the first day of 2014. People across the world are making changes in order to better their lives. Some people plan on losing weight, some are trying to be more positive, and some thing resolutions are silly. Group me in with the people who think resolutions are silly. The only thing I want to do more of in 2014 is write.

I've had 2 semi-successful blogs in my past. 1 of them I deleted. 1 of them is still active, but I don't write on it anymore. Truth be told, I miss writing. I met a lot of nice, interesting people when I first started blogging, but I lost contact with almost all of them. Well, I plan on getting back into it. I really don't have a theme for my blog...yet. More than likely it'll be my musings, daily life, etc. I do enjoy cooking, but I don't want to turn this into a recipe blog. I may do product reviews. I do plan on on showing off my babies. I'm an avid hockey fan, pulling for the Carolina Hurricanes and the Chicago Blackhawks. I will post about my teams a lot. I'll post pictures, but I'm not a photographer by any means. I don't have a top of the line camera and a lot of my pictures aren't centered or in focus. But hey, that's part of life right? You can't be perfect in everything you do.

Like I said, this is a blog about life. Sometimes you have to tell yourself to "just keep swimming" in order to make it through. For now, here's the beginning.