Hello again!!

In case you haven't heard, Dan has safely made it to Iceland and seems to be adjusting fairly well. Weather there is COLD and it looks like he won't go out into the field until Monday...he can fill us in more as he sees fit...

In other news, I just finished putting together our next beer! I bought an Oregon IPA kit from Alabrew after I dropped Dan off at the airport on Tuesday. I had a few hours to kill between the airport run and when Alabrew opened up, so I tooled around the city of Birmingham for a bit and found a fantastic coffee shop that makes a perfect soy vanilla latte (my fancy drink of choice). I am unsure why a soy latte in general is finicky, but for some reason when done correctly your first sip is like drinking a toasted marshmallow...in other words - heaven. And I was delighted to experience this at the Red Cat Cafe which is located in an area called "Pepper Place" which was the site of the old Dr. Pepper syrup plant. Now it is a collection of hip furniture and art shops and the site of a weekly Farmers Market that I have yet to attend - soon!

Needing food, I decided to visit Sol's, which was originally suggested by the Peanut Depot workers to Dan, myself, and his parents when they came last October. We have read good reviews so I gave them a try. For some reason I was craving a 9am hamburger and they were happy to oblige. It was pretty tasty and came with a side of tabouleh (it's a Greek family deli/cafe) which I think was flavored with pickle juice - sounds weird, but it was pretty darn tasty.

The Beer:

It smells amazing and should be a little hoppier than the Tuskaloosa IPA we just finished up! Took some pics of the process, and I really wish I could insert a scratch n sniff sticker into the mix because the hops are intoxicating...This beer has us throwing in some additional dried hop pellets during the second fermentation process to marinate for 2 weeks - I can't wait!! Right now we're in the first fermentation process which will be a week...

Speaking of hops, while chatting with Mr. Alabrew man I learned that hop rhizomes are currently being harvested, which explains why I haven't gotten my Cascade hops in the mail yet - plenty of time to get them in the dirt, I'm just an overly excited gardener right now...

This time I saved the grains and will be attempting some bread with it! I just put together a whole wheat bread this morning so I'm freezing the "spent grains" until I'm in need of more bread....

Also, the birds have found the window box bird seed but they are still skittish and constantly look into the window to make sure no one will kidnap them...I should put up a one-way mirror but maybe that will make it a little creepy...

Oh!! I forgot to mention another fun tidbit from last weekend: as a special treat/going away lunch, we decided to visit the Cypress Inn for a delicious Sunday lunch compliments of Dan's sister Caroline who surprised him with a gift card to one of our favorite restaurants for Christmas! It was still busy at 1pm when we headed over - it was also the first Sunday where alcohol was served in the city of Tuscaloosa, so that was worth celebrating as well. Ironically, we ended up not ordering any alcohol but instead had an another amazing lunch - fried gulf shrimp for me and fried catfish for Dan...they do both SO well! We again had their delicious spiced muffins and biscuits along with a salad, hoppin' john, mustard greens, and mashed potatoes as our sides. Thanks Caroline it was great!!!