I guess this blog is becoming more (when I find the time to write) about food and drink (well, beer) than just food, but that’s okay, I enjoy both, the beer more in moderation than food but if I’m going tro have the choice of a good selection of beers, then I’m going to sample them.

Last week we headed along to Ivy Bar in the West End for a few drinks and to watch Mike Nisbet, who was having his album launch, play a couple of songs.

The Ivy has an small but excellent selection of bottled beers, predominantly from North and Central America. We sampled a couple, namely, Brooklyn (an old favourite), Lone Star (the ‘official’ beer of Texas and my friend Kim’s preffered beer of the evening), Anchor Steam from San Francisco and Pacifico which comes from south of the US border in Mexico.

The Pacifico was slightly light and watery for my tastes but I’m sure it would be very pleasant on a hot summer day. Anchor Steam is becoming a big favourite of mine. It’s got a nice bite to it and is a really dark brown colour.

(Un)Official Scorecard for the evening

1. Lone Star/Anchor Steam

2. Brooklyn

3. Pacifico

We’ve been having a bit of a store-cupboard/freezer/leftovers type theme to our menu over the last few weeks and I finally made corned beef hash. It was quick, easy and really tasty. I mean it doesn’t get easier than frying some leftover potatoes, adding some corned beef, a dash of Worcester sauce and then putting it in the oven to crisp up some more. I might even add a fried egg on top next time! 

I didn’t stick to a recipe for this one. Just took some advice from people and read up on similar recipes. I started by frying some apples in Breton Cider and butter and then roasted these in the oven. Using the apple pan, I quickly fried some pork steaks again in butter and cider adding some sage. 

Whilst the pork rested I used the same pan and added a touch more cider, sour cream, wholegrain mustard and some more sage to make the sauce. Simple and really tasty!

Had a few different beers recently but these are the only couple I bothered to take a picture of.

I previously uploaded pictures of the Brooklyn Chocolate stout. It is an absolute beezer. Meantime, although tasty, didn’t come close. Brooklyn is a proper stout with chocolaty undertones. Meantime is just full on Chocolate. Pleasant but I’d probably not have more than one.

Paulaner Oktoberfest is a real treat and is ‘in season’. At 6.5% it wasn’t too strong tasting but quite malty. Paulaner’s beers are generally a favourite with me anyway!

Really good apple and cinnamon cake from Tinderbox in Princes Square Glasgow. Looks crust heavy but it was nice and chewy and not dry at all.

I made this super simple tart recipe from Paul Reynaud’s Ripailles book. It’s a great book and one that you can just sit down and read as there are loads of stories, facts as well as recipes.

I started by adding some chopped hazlenuts to the tart case which I’m not ashamed to say was store-bought. I then simply added the filling which if memory serves consisted of butter, double cream and very high cocoa content dark chocolate. It’s definitely an adults dessert and a sweet tooth is not needed!!

I’ve been a rubbish blogger of late, both this one and my music one. There’s still loads of pictures of cakes or stories about food that I ate in France that I’ve been meaning to put up. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. Anyway, I just saw this recipe on the Guardian site and it must be the wet weather here in Glasgow today, but I have cravings for this soup now. Looks brilliant!

These three cakes were from trip 1 this summer to the famous Laduree in Paris. They are probably most famous for their macarons but I’ve been obsessing over their tarte au citron since last August! No other Lemon Tart even comes close!

That’s the tarte au citron, pride of place at the front. Unfortunately I totally forgot the name of the strawberry tart back left but the homemade marshmallows were yummy! The sweet pastry case was filled with a strawberry cream and had a further bottom layer of mallow.

At the back right we have an ‘Isaphan’ which is a rose flavoured macaron, with rose petal cream and fresh raspberries and lychees. I’m not mad on rose flavourings but this wasn’t too ‘flowery’ and the fresh fruit cut through it nicely.  

Okay, so my tumblr is now graduating to including interesting beers now as well as food. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout has been on my hit-list for a while now. It’s not made with chocolate at all but has a really strong dark chocolate aftertaste. It smells unnervingly like whisky but is not quite as strong. Having said that, it does weigh in at 10% abv so it’s not really a beer you could drink several of in an evening!

My take on Delia’s Stroganoff only with two mustards and sour cream instead of creme fraiche. The sour cream kinda started to split a little but came back together. It was also a little more creamy than Delia’s looked!

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/pork/pork-stroganoff-with-three-mustards.html