No Knead Bread, Pesto and what I had for dinner

Sara gave me pretty much the most simple recipe in the world for No Knead Bread

3 cups flour

1 1/3 cup H20

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

Mix everything in bowl, cover and let rise for several hours.  Dough should be more than double in size. Shape into a round loaf and place on a floured baking sheet.  Bake at 450 for 45 min. to an hour.  It's done when it sounds hollow when you knock on it.

Yep. That easy.  I used Colorado whole wheat flour and whey (left over from cheese making, don't worry, I promise to post about that soon) instead of water.  I shaped mine into more of an oblong for sandwich friendly slices.  I will admit that mine was a little dense but I am sure that was somehow my fault and not one of the recipe. 

I also made pesto yesterday.  All of the basil is about to flower so it was time to harvest it.  I'll be honest, I've never made pesto before and it seems simple enough so I just sort of winged it which, I am sure, is how everyone does it.

I didn't really take measurement because I wasn't expecting to talk about it but basically I threw all of the basil I harvested in the food processor, an amount of garlic appropriate to my taste (three cloves), some rosemary and lemon mint because they were left over in the bowl the basil was in and then I squeezed a hole lemon in there.  I turned on the processor for about 45 seconds, when I turned it off I pushed everything back to the bottom and added a little olive oil (olive oil, not local but on my "okay" list) I turned the processor back on and added just a little olive oil at a time so that it wouldn't get too runny.  Done and Done!  I ended up with about 3oz. of pesto that used about 1/2 of a medium potted basil plant.  I do want to research the proper way to can pesto so that maybe I can continue to enjoy it in the winter (or just hope that my window sill basil plant doesn't die, which it's trying really hard to do).

DINNER TIME!
I picked a tomato and a summer squash from my buildings garden.
Sauteed the squash in olive oil and a little salt.
Two slices of no knead bread, one slice with home made mozzarella the other slice with pesto.  Tomato and squash in the middle.  Pan toasted in a little olive oil.
Served with a side of Colorado peaches.

It didn't occur to me until after I had woofed it down that maybe I should have taken a picture.
Night!

Standards

First off, sorry for the hiatus.  I have good excuses, I just don't feel like telling them.

So I realize in my last post about beer I skirted around the importance of the locality of the beer I was drinking so I figure now is a good time to talk about standards.

First off this isn't a "eat local or go hungry" situation.  I'm a busy person, I have a life and I wanted this to be a reasonable diet not a war with food. 

I picked 75% local cause it seemed like a good goal.  Some days it's 100% some days it's 50%.  Maybe once I get 75% everyday I will up my goal to 80%.  I'm sure you get my jist.

The first thing I did when I decided to do this was make a list...

Once I started writing I realized there are a lot more things I can live without than not.  The first few things I wrote down without a second thought.  It was sort of a natural progression from there.  The next morning I went to make a pot of coffee and went, "OH SHIT! Did I put coffee on that list?!?".  The list became a sort of "cross that bridge when I come to" it situation.  Guacamole?  I love it but outside of that I'm not really a huge fan of avocados (I know, I know, heresy)  so, thanks for the offer but unless we are in Southern California or Mexico then I'm gonna have to pass. 

I feel like the things that are on the list are my own personal business and everyone will have a different list, some longer and some shorter.  Some things I am thinking of removing, (I've heard it's not so hard to grow a mini lemon bush inside, so I'm gonna try) and very rarely I add a new thing to the list (I thought I wouldn't miss bananas but it turns out I do, a lot).  It's not like I consume these things in grotesque excess or anything like that.  Also, for the most part - I can still find this stuff from places that finish the production locally and consciously.  There are tons of great coffee roasters in Denver and Justin's peanut butter out of Boulder is the best.  Let's not forget about breweries, wineries and distilleries - quite of few of them do have 100% local options as well but we all know when, it comes to drinking I don't really like to limit myself.  

Some things aren't on my list because it didn't occur to me that I would miss it until I stumbled on a local option first.  I'm not a really big soda drinker and usually when I get the craving it's cause someone close to me is enjoying one.  This is usually at work.  A few weeks ago all I could think about was soda so I went to pour myself one without second thought and as I was doing it I remembered we get our soda from Oogavé.  It's soda so I am sure that not many of their ingredients are local but it is a delicious, natural soda made right in Denver.  

Some days I sacrifice and some days I compromise.  And I rarely get even a glimmer of a feeling of defeat or frustration or that I want to give up.  I'm living my life the same way as always just a little more consideration.

BREWERY: Upslope

Oh boy, Oh boy

So Curley and I had this awesome idea to throw our bikes on the bus and head up to Boulder to visit Upslope Brewery.  Bless Curley's sweet little heart, he had it all planned out.  Figured out what bus we needed to take up there, what time it leaves, where the brewery is, all that jazz.  So we get off the bus near CU and look up the brewery and realize that we didn't get off the bus at quite the right time.

So I'll tell you this right now, "Upslope" is Boulder speak for "Uphill, five miles, in the rain, with the wind against you, what the hell were you thinking bringing your bike you dumb ass Denverite?!"

I will give Curley credit, he was fine.  I haven't owned a bike since I left Savannah a year ago so I haven't been riding at a mile high, nor going on long uphill rides.  I was admittedly pooped when we got there and wasn't even able to form a tangible thought until after my first beer was down my gullet.  The good news it that when we left and I was all frosty toed I mostly coasted downhill back to Boulder proper.

Biking aside, Upslope was pretty friggin' awesome!  It isn't the first brewery and tap room I have visited but it is by far the smallest, which I think makes it the perfect first brewery blog.

Now I am going to have to admit that between the bike ride brain smash and the beer brain smash I might have scrimped on the real locallyness of the whole adventure, aside from the fact that it was brewed locally.  Here is an example of my great reporting skills, notes dictated by me and translated to paper by Curley.

Maybe I should explain what some of these things mean:

barley  ready for the cows.

• "Wheat/Barley in mouth"= Alex ("brew guy") let us try some of the spent barley.  It was actually pretty tasty.  They said it makes great dog treats but they donate theirs to a local farm.  It sure does make for some happy cows!!
• "Sweet Couple - You go home, you drink it, you finish it"= The regulars we talked to who were describing how the smaller sized growlers are just right.  You can also get kegs AND if you ask real nice they will hand mix a six pack for you, three I.P.A. and three Pale Ales!
• "Canning Process"= a pretty rad raddness that happened... 

So Upslope is a pretty small operation.  They only distribute as far south as Denver and as far north as... just a little ways outside of Boulder.  They can two of their beers, the Pale Ale and the India Pale Ale.  Because I have never seen any of their beers on tap I kinda thought that was all they had.  Unfact.  They have six taps in their tap room, two are reserved for their Pale Ale and the I.P.A. but the other four rotate with a few of their other beers.  When we were there they also had a Mexican Lager, a Dunkel Weiss, a Belgium Wheat and a Stout.

All of them really were so good!  Right when we got there we had the Mexican lager which is the perfect, bright, summery beer.  It is called Tightrope and is by far one of the best Mexican Lagers I have ever had. The wheat was my favorite though.  I was hot and the coriander (which is organic by the way) was just what I wanted.  They also use a trappist yeast or "Monk Thing" according to the notes.  My notes for the Dunkel Weiss simply say, "Fun to say, Also very delicious".  That is all true.  The Stout was also very good although I only had a little sip of it.  As a little extra treat while we were there Chad, the tap room manager, cracked open one of his home brews.  It had nothing to do with Upslope but what an awesome little taster of his bourbon stout!  Chad, by the way was awesomely knowledgeable and friendly.

So onto the "canning process" note.  II never seen this done before and Upslope made it even better by letting us can our own beer!  WOAH!  Luke A.K.A. Our Dawg as Curley's notes refer to him, gave us a super casual and super awesome tour of their facility and when he asked if we wanted to can a beer I just about peed my pants. This might have been one of the coolest things I've ever done.

Curley at the can filling machine.

This is the spiny machine that seals the lids on (I learned no technical words apparently)

 

 

 

 

Every one at Upslope was so nice and so hospitable.  I wish it were a little closer to home.  Curley and I had a pretty awesome time, we had a really unique brewery experience, we talked to a lot of the regulars and boy howdy did we drink some good beer!  I'd like to thank everyone at Upslope for being so welcoming and for producing such quality brews!

Chad, Curley, Luke, Me and Alex