After loaning my kegerator to my parents months ago, I finally have it back at my house and full of my latest batch of homebrew, the Hop Head Double IPA from Midwest Supplies.

Ingredients

Hops, Hops, Hops

Brew day for this batch was back on December 8 and everything went as expected for the most part. As I normally do, I started off with as much water in my kettle as I could leaving just enough space to avoid a boil-over. Unfortunately there was so much malt extract to add that I actually had to split the wort into another pot.

Brewing

The beer sat in the primary fermenter until December 15, at which time it was racked  into a secondary and 2 ounces of cascade leaf hops were added for a dry hop finish.

Dry Hop

Out Of Primary

Into Secondary

The beer was in secondary until I kegged it on December 26. Now that the beer is fully carbonated I must admit that this has to be my best homebrew yet. Of course my love for this style of beer doesn’t hurt.

Yum!

I attended my second Cincinnati Cyclones game of the season over the weekend and just like the first time it was dollar beer night. Typically dollar beer night only happens during their “Wet Wednesday” promotions, but Saturday’s “Throwback Night” was a special  occasion  with  $8 Tickets, $1 hot dogs, pizza, soda, and beer. This brought out a regular season record crowd of 12,228 people! Unfortunately the large crowd left us in a large traffic jam trying to get a parking spot and we missed the Cyclones first goal and the ensuing “Teddy Bear Toss” when stuffed animals to be collected for charity were thrown out onto the ice.

Missing the toss was a disappointment, even though we caught the tail end of it with a police cruiser on the ice, but fortunately we had tickets in a private suite compliments of my wife’s cousin whose husband works as a chiropractor for Beacon orthopedics and sports medicine. This was my first time in the suite seats, and though they are way up in the rafters of US Bank Arena, the view is pretty cool. It can be hard to tell how high an airborne puck truly is, but that was my biggest complaint of the night.

Suite Seats

The Cyclones were sporting throwback jerseys that matched closely to one that I actually had as a kid. Plus the  Inflatamaniacs were there to provide between period entertainment, which had my brother and I cracking up. The game itself was close throughout, but  unfortunately  the Fort Wayne Komets  squeaked  out a 5-4 win.

For lunch over the weekend my wife and I along with our soon to be two-year old son headed to El Jinete, a  Mexican  restaurant in a strip-mall on Red Bank Rd. Since moving back to Cincinnati we’ve been searching for a nearby and cheap (often  strip-mall  based) Mexican restaurant to call home. After a couple of tries at  El Toro, it is  definitely not the place for us. So how does El Jinete compare?

Outside El Jinete

The inside of El Jinete is decked out in southwestern style but still has multiple TV’s in sight from nearly every seat. Near our table was an elaborate fountain, but it was not working on our visit. There is plenty of seating available and we encountered no wait upon our 12:30 arrival. We were immediately seated at a spacious booth, chips and salsa dropped off within seconds, and our server was ready to take our drink order within a minute. Things were looking good so far.

Inside El Jinete

We enjoyed the chips and salsa while looking over the menu. The chips were warm and thick but fairly  standard  overall. The salsa tasted freshly prepared and full of flavor. Our visit was continuing  to look positive for El Jinete.

Chips & Salsa

I ordered the lunch fajitas with chicken, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions. This comes served with guacamole, lettuce, sour cream, pico de gallo, rice, beans, and flour tortillas ($7.25). The chicken mix came out sizzling hot and the side plate was hot to the touch as well. The portion size was excellent for the price and everything tasted great! I really liked the addition of mushrooms and tomatoes into the mix. My only complaint was that the tortillas didn’t seem as fresh as the rest of the food. I had a hard time splitting them apart once I took them out of the foil wrapper.

Lunch Fajitas

My wife created her own lunch combo with a chile relleno and a chicken chimichanga served with rice and refried beans ($6.25). At first we weren’t sure that she was given a chimichanga, as it wasn’t served fried like we are used to. Turns out they offer both fried and soft chimichangas, and it seems that she was given a soft one by default. Even though it probably would have been better fried (what isn’t?), she was happy with the selection and loved the cheese sauce on top. The chicken that was served inside the chimichanga was not dry at all and was well flavored. The chile relleno was also very good and was smothered in a delicious red sauce.

Lunch Combo

They also offer kids plates for $3.99 which is a choice of taco, enchilada, burrito, cheeseburger, pizza, hotdog, chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks, or quesadilla. Each comes with either rice, beans, or fries. We selected a cheese quesadilla with fries for our son, and he seemed very happy with the choice.

Bathroom Mural

Overall we were very happy with the food at El Jinete, the service was great, and the price was just right. The menu is very large, so we will definitely be back to sample more in the near future. We often get coupons in the mail, so make sure to look in yours for even more savings!

With so many holiday parties over the last month or so, I was struggling to come up with a different appetizer recipe to bring to a party on Christmas Eve. At a prior party I spotted cocktail rye bread slices that were used to make hanky panky  and immediately thought the same loaf of bread could be used to make mini  Reuben  sandwiches. I didn’t really need a recipe but found this one to use as a guideline.

Ready For Baking

Rather than making them all with corned beef, I used a pound of smoked turkey and a half pound of corned beef to make roughly 32 to 40 servings. I also split the two teaspoons of thousand island dressing into two layers, the first teaspoon was placed directly on the bread slices, while the second (smaller than full teaspoon) was put on top of the 1/2 tablespoon of  sauerkraut  that I used for each. So it goes slice of bread, teaspoon of dressing, 1/2 slice of meat, 1/2 tablespoon of sauerkraut, 1/2 teaspoon of dressing, 1/4 slice of cheese, heat and serve.

Turkey Complete

These were such a hit at the first party that I took them to that I decided to make them again for two more parties this past weekend. They are a little time-consuming to put together, but so far it has been worth it.

Happy New Year! Below is the list of cities that I visited in 2012 with at least one night spent in each place.

• Cincinnati, Ohio *
• Dayton, Ohio
• Denver, Colorado
• Steamboat, Colorado
• Frenchburg, Kentucky
• Miamisburg, Ohio
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Negril, Jamaica
• Jonesboro, Georgia
• Loveland, Ohio *
• Coraopolis,  Pennsylvania
• Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
• Asheville, North Carolina
• Williamstown, Kentucky *
• Palo Alto, California
• San Francisco, California
• Louisville, Kentucky

Those cities marked with an asterisk were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

See also: 2011  |  2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

I’ve already expressed how much I love Eli’s BBQ, but I recently found a spot that is just about on the same level of quality. Velvet Smoke BBQ operates on weekends out of Findlay Market, does catering, and are active in BBQ competitions throughout the midwest. They only offer a few items for sale at Findlay Market (pulled pork, brisket, and ribs). I ordered a pulled pork platter with coleslaw and asked for a toasted Servatii’s bun on the side.

Pulled Pork

The pork was perfectly smoked with a great mix of crisp outside and tender inside. I made a sandwich topped with the rather plain tasting coleslaw and a tangy Kansas City style sauce. I had plenty of extra pork leftover to eat on my own and plus a little to share with my wife. I think I give a slight edge to Eli’s overall, but Velvet Smoke is still a very solid product.

My yearly collection of favorite songs and newly discovered artists, NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music,  is available for download from the links below.

1. Alabama Shakes – Hold On
2. Allen Stone – Sleep
3. The Avett Brothers – Live And Die
4. The Lumineers – Ho Hey
5. Holy Ghost Tent Revival – Telephone Wire
6. Hoots And Hellmouth – I Don’t Mind Your Cussing
7. Michael Kiwanuka – I’m Getting Ready
8. Of Monsters And Men – Mountain Sound
9. Old Crow Medicine Show – Levi
10. Gary Clark Jr. – Bright Lights
11. Dave Matthews Band – Gaucho
12. SoundRabbit – Sister, Brother
13. Mumford & Sons – Lover Of The Light
14. Ben Howard – Only Love
15. Kassidy – Oh My God
16. Glen Hansard – Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting
17. Alexander – A Million Years

This compilation is available for download from Dropbox  and from  my site  (much slower).  Please support these artists by buying their full albums and attending their live shows.  As always I hope you enjoy the compilation and happy holidays.

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays!

Over the weekend we took Trey to the Behringer-Crawford  Museum  for their annual  Holiday Toy Trains display. I had never heard of this museum in Devou Park before reading about it on Family Friendly Cincinnati.

Permanent Train Display

Before we could make it upstairs to the temporary  Holiday  Toy Trains display we were fascinated with a model of old Covington complete with a few model trains of its own. There are a couple of portholes that you can see in the picture above, where children can climb into and get a look of the city from inside.

Trains

The first floor is dedicated to trains with a play area for kids and plenty of information and history for the older children and adults.

Street Car

The holiday toy trains are in a separate space on the third floor.  This display wasn’t as large as the one in the Cincinnati Museum Center, but this one was way more interactive. Trey spent a solid fifteen minutes running along the display case pressing various buttons to see what would happen inside the display.

Holiday Toy Trains

The second floor is full of information on the early automobile era. While the third floor contained all sorts of history on river transportation. And the very small fourth floor has information on the area’s aviation history. Throughout the museum there is all kinds of historical artifacts. I found this case filled with brewing history that was fun for me to look at for a few minutes.

Beer History

We easily could have spent even more time at the Behringer-Craword Museum than the hour and half we were there. There is so much to see that an entire afternoon could be easy to fill.

My family and I were up and out of the house early this past Saturday and decided we wanted to try somewhere new for breakfast. We have a running spreadsheet of new restaurant ideas so I picked the first place on the list, the Bluebird Restaurant in Norwood. Though I knew the general area it was in (just up Montgomery Road from Surrey Square) I nearly drove right past it. The outside of the restaurant is not easily recognizable and it looks quite small.

Inside Bluebird

Once we stepped through the front door I was amazed at just how large the restaurant really is on the inside. It isn’t very wide but offers plenty of seating with booths lining the entire length of the long right wall. There are also a few other larger tables to fill in the corners plus a large counter area that looks toward the semi-open kitchen. It’s very much an old-time diner, but still seems clean and bright.

Jukeboxes

Our son was a huge fan of the jukebox that was mounted on the wall just above our chosen booth. For 25 cents you can pick a song to be played throughout the centrally wired system of jukeboxes in every booth. This gave him plenty to do for the short time we had to wait for our food orders to arrive.

My Breakfast

I ordered from the ala carte menu and ended up with biscuits and gravy ($3.30), hash browns ($2.30), and bacon ($2.30). The biscuits and gravy were excellent with a nice peppery gravy and plenty of fluffy biscuits. I also was a huge fan of the hash browns, which were cooked perfectly with a bit of a  crispness  but not overly done. The bacon was also good and plentiful compared to what you normally get for a side of bacon.

Breakfast Special

My wife ordered the breakfast special – 2 eggs, hash browns or home fries, 1/2 order biscuits and gravy, choice of bacon or sausage (goetta and ham add 50 cents). This was a massive amount of food for the $6.90 price tag. We probably should have paid better attention to what each other were ordering, as we ended up with a lot of duplicates. I did get to steal some of her goetta, which I thought was a little overcooked but still tasty.

Children’s Pancakes And Egg

We also ordered the children’s pancakes and egg for our son. Again I was able to take a few bites of his pancakes, which I found to be light and fluffy, just as you’d expect. Though he didn’t say it, I think our son agreed with me as he nearly ate an entire pancake and most of his scrambled egg.

Our total for the three of us was $24.18 and we had enough food to take home for another breakfast the following morning. All of our food was tasty and our service couldn’t have been nicer and more efficient. We will definitely be back for more.