A Date Night…Finally.

I say “finally” in the title of this post for 2 reasons:
1) Our date was at Turkey Hill Brewing Company, a pub/restaurant I’ve been wanting to go to for at least a year and
2) It feels like forever since we’ve had a genuine, just-the-two-of-us dinner-drinks-and-conversation sort of date.

The great thing about summer is that allows plenty of entertaining opportunities…I love a full house! But quiet couple moments tend to suffer as a result. Sure, we have plenty of sweats and coffee mornings and TV show cuddles…but I like dressing up (even if it’s just a pair of heels and some makeup with my jeans and tee) and going somewhere new.

Brad and I both got samplers of the beer…you get 6 small beers of the bar’s choice. This was a nice way of trying what they have to offer. They make all of their own beers and, from what I’ve seen in the past, the menu tends to change with the seasons and times.

I didn’t have a favorite beer (truth be told, the sampler was enough to tide me over), but I LOVED the food.
I had a pulled pork sandwich, which tends to be a go-to at brewpubs for me, but the menu is extensive with a nice amount of variety.
Flatbread pizzas, sandwiches, salads, and full-blown entrees…you can’t go hungry.

All photos were taken with my iPhone and edited in Afterlight. I apologize for the grainy look, it was dark in there!

Life and the Weekend

I find that this time of year is an especially hard time to stay motivated and inspired. I can blame the wintery weather, the cold, snowy, icy, gray days. I can blame the colds and flus that are sweeping the nation and bringing everyone down in sight. I can blame the fact that the holidays are over. And part of me even wants to blame the fact that we put so much pressure onto the arrival of a New Year and a new beginning that never really comes…well, unless you MAKE it come.

Today, I read this amazing post on one of my favorite blogs, A Beautiful Mess. It was exactly what I needed to hear.
I really enjoyed it, and I hope you do too!

Anyway, the weekend. Last weekend was spent in Boston and that went by all too quickly. Then, this weekend, I worked Saturday and Sunday, Brad and I headed to my house to go to the Philadelphia Auto Show with my dad, sister, and her boyfriend. We do this pretty much every year. But this time, we took a change of pace and started at Troegs Brewing Company in Hershey. My family, my boyfriend, and myself all love beer. It’s fun to go to the place where it all begins, see how the magic happens, and, of course, try some tasty beers.

Here are some photos from Troegs!

Hope you had a great weekend!

“Proof God Loves Us”

Yesterday was all kinds of crappy. I won’t sit here and complain, but I kept thinking all day how much I wanted to enjoy a beer (or two), some snacks, and a movie with my mom and sister. I will straight up admit that I adore beer. I also adore wine and I adore trying different cocktails (my poison of choice is gin). So I’m not really picky, I guess. But beer is one of those things…there are SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS. Same thing with wine, too. Same thing with everything? It’s easy, as a young drinker like I am (who only has 4 years of legal drinking under her belt, and spent a lot of my college days with Mickey’s 40 oz because they were painfully cheap and easy to obtain) to forget that there’s more to wine than “red” or “white” and more to beer than “lite” or…well, not. It’s fun to learn about beer, to try different kinds, to expand my horizons.
I’ve had lots of tasty beers and lots of not-so-tasty beers.
But it’s fun!

Instead of going to any ol’ beer distributor for a case or a 6-pack, I like to make my own 6-pack whenever possible. 6 different beers of my choosing, from stouts to IPAs to ciders, to expand my flavor choices. I headed to Weis Markets right after work and pondered over the selection for a little while (this photo only shows about half of it).

I might not like every beer that I try when I do this, but I don’t have to settle for a whole slew of crappy beers.
Aside from going to a bar, it’s a fun way to sample.

A Visit from the West Coast

Ed and Jenna, who’ve resided in California for the majority of the year, are home for the holidays. YAY!
They stopped by on Monday night for some beers, snacks, and general catching up.
It was a lot of fun, and it’s always nice to see these faces after so long.

Hoping to squeeze in more time before they had back to the other side of the country!

Oktoberfest

This past Saturday, I had a lovely evening with my dad, sister, Josh, and Brad at the Berwick Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest. It is not comparable by any means to the massive Oktoberfest that just occurred at the casino a couple of weeks ago…but it was so much fun.

My dad works in Berwick, and that’s how I got familiar with Berwick Brewing Company. They make and serve all their own beers. To top it off, they also make amazing pizza. We split 3 pies of Curd and Jäger (as in landjäger sausage) pizza, and it was to die for. Mmm.
The beer was great, too! I think it’s important to drink locally and explore what your area has to offer.
Just like with my love for Stegmaier (Hello, Lionshead and Pumpkin Ale!).

The best part was sitting in the biergarten with people I love so much, my family and my man.
It was a beautiful fall evening, with great food, beer, and jazzy music.

Dinner Last Night: Turkey Tacos and Tornado Warnings

My sister had a bit of a tough week, so I decided to let her choose what we’d be having for dinner last night. I don’t even know why I bothered, because I knew it would be tacos. Don’t get me wrong, I love making (and eating) tacos, but I’ve been having fun coming up with things from scratch. I suppose I could make tacos from scratch but…those boxes are so damn easy!!!

I did take it upon myself to add my own little twists and turns to the meal. For starters, I got ground turkey instead of beef or chicken. I make sure to get 2 lbs of whatever meat I’m using, and two boxes of the dinner. We are big eaters at the house. I got both hard and soft shells. I decided to get some refried beans and create a “double decker” taco like they have at Taco Bell. Refried beans are spread on a soft shell and you wrap that around your hard shell filled with whatever the heck you want. I also made another batch of guacamole. I’m getting pretty good at it, and it’s incredibly tasty. I also bought a Rice Side of Mexican rice and added black beans to it for a side.
I try to make sure no one goes hungry. And I think I done good.

As for the tornado warning…we were hit with a pretty bad storm in NEPA. We don’t get tornados around here really, so the warning was scary. I always stop at the grocery store after work to pick up my dinner ingredients on Thursdays. The skies were still clear, not as foreboding as it would become. My mom and sister kept calling, though, and insisting I’d get home as soon as possible. I really wanted to pick up some
Bud Light Lime to drink while I cooked/ate, and the bummer is none of our grocery stores have little beer sections like they do in Kingston/Wilkes-Barre area. I was prepared to cut my losses, since my family wanted me home in order to miss the storm, but I realized I would be passing a beer distributer. I decided to duck in, grab what I wanted, and leave.

The only problem was, that’s when the storm decided to start. As the woman behind the counter was ringing up my purchase, a massive gust of wind blew both the entrance and exit doors open, and fliers and signs flew everywhere. They wouldn’t close on their own. So the other shoppers helped close the doors before everything got whipped and wet and the woman locked the doors. Just because I needed beer so bad, I ended up getting locked in a beer store with a bunch of strangers for about 10 minutes, waiting for the storm to calm down. Once I was finally able to leave, it was still torrential, but the wind had calmed down. As I was driving, I passed so many branches and bunches of the trees that had come down on the road and nearly hydroplane on rushing water and puddles. It was scary, but I think the beer store kind of saved my life. What’s to say I wouldn’t have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, getting my car whipped around and hit with tree branches? It’s silly, but my craving for a crappy beer kept me out of danger? Though being locked in a store wasn’t exactly…comfortable.

Needless to say, my family was a little scared.
But once I came home with the beer, everyone took one and we were happy to be home together, safe and sound.

And How Was Your 4th?

It’s 24-48 hour periods like these that remind me why I exist in this world.

Why I liked my 4th of July:
IC Light Mango, that hour that the backyard turned into a cloud of cigar smoke on accident, meeting new people, burgers and hot dogs, seven layer taco dip, the fact that my boyfriend and sister get along with all of my friends, the fact that I have some amazing friends, beer pong and whirlpooling in a pool that’s 3 feet tall, funk and disco music all day, laughing until my stomach ached, chasing fireworks across town.

Life is so good. It’s just super weird to go back to work after a wonderful mini-weekend/vacations. Only 2 and 1/2 more days until my week off!

Nails and Ales

Another month’s worth of Nails and Ales! Get ready for a bunch of summer-worthy brews!

When I purchased this six-pack, I was debating between two watermelon beers. This one won because a) it’s a wheat beer and b) it has great packaging and a neat name. 21st Amendment’s Hell or High Watermelon is what would happen if you decided to suck on a watermelon-flavored Jolly Rancher while sipping a beer. This is THE FIRST TIME I’ve ever had a wheat beer in a can. 21st Amendment only uses cans, for very simple reasons (easy to recycle, etc.). I’d say try it if you’re curious, but I don’t see myself buying it again.
Nails: OPI Sparrow Me the Drama (Pirates of the Caribbean collection) and Super Bass Shatter (Nicki Minaj collection). Quick and simple.

Hefeweizens are super-smooth, easy-to-drink, wheat beers. I was really excited to Magic Hat’s Circus Boy because I had heard good things and I’m just starting to expand my Magic Hat knowledge. Unfortunately, it didn’t really stand out for me. It wasn’t bad by any means, but I guess it just didn’t blow me away. In fact, I’m a little bummed I didn’t take a picture of the second beer
I had that night (UFO’s Raspberry Hefeweizen) but there’s always next time!
Nails: This is definitely some of my favorite nail art in a while. I was inspired by Pshiiit, but I did my own little spin. It looks a lot more complicated than it was, but it still took seven different nail polishes. Instead of using little striper brushes, I did thin lines with the regular polish brushes, and made the clouds using the same method Nailside uses.
Colors: OPI I’m Not Really a Waitress, China Glaze Riveting (Capitol Colours collection), Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, OPI Jade is the New Black and No Room for the Blues. Clouds – Sally Hansen White On. Glitter Top Coat – Prisma Luminous Color #6468

When I bought Hell or High Watermelon, this was close in the line-up. Unlike Shock-Top’s Summer Shandy, Samuel Adams Porch Rocker uses lager instead of wheat brew and tops it off with a yummy lemon flavor. I enjoyed this as much as I do a shandy, maybe even more so. It’s got such a clean, crisp taste and I can’t think of any better activity to do while drinking this than sit on a porch swing or rocking chair and enjoy a summer evening. I need to make sure I grab a case before it goes out of season!
Nails: I used OPI Nothin’ Mousie ‘Bout It (a cute pink glitter with heart confetti from the Minnie Mouse collection) over Pamplona Purple.
My only complaint about the glitter polish is that the hearts are hard to put on and hard to remove. Cute, though!

Maria’s boyfriend Josh went to make a six-pack at the local convenient store and asked if I wanted anything special. I jokingly asked him to bring me back something cute, but he actually did! Sweaty Betty is a smooth, light Bavarian-style blonde wheat beer. I drank this while sitting on the back porch, surrounded by white Christmas lights and tiki torches, and I couldn’t imagine a better beverage to be sipping on. I love a nice, clean, simple beer to drink, especially during the heat wave we endured last week.
Nails: It is very rare that I paint my nails one color without any glitter or layers. I had a couple of different designs in mind, but OPI Call Me Gwen-ever (from the Spider-Man Collection) is so lovely, it didn’t need anything but a super shiny top coat. This polish was hard to find (it’s one of the nicest colors in the collection, and a super-popular color in general) but my sister’s friend (my friend) Lindsay was able to snag the last bottle at a specialist shop. Half-price, too! Yay!

That’s all for this month! Can’t wait to share more with you next month.

Nails and Ales

Time for another round of Nails and Ales!!!

Dogfish Head’s Aprihop is a seasonal beer only available in March/April. I was excited to try it. Mostly because of the apricot flavor. I enjoyed my first bottle, but I’m not the biggest fan of IPAs (which are huge in Dogfish Land) so I could only handle the one. It was extremely hoppy but the apricot flavor helped it go down smooth. I’m glad I got to try it, but it’s not a favorite.
Nails: I have been dying to try newspaper print nails for a long time. I used China Glaze’s Pelican Gray as a base coat and followed Cute Polish’s instructions on her YouTube video! Easy and awesome nail art in seconds!

I decided to venture outside of the Woodchuck box for a moment here and try Angry Orchard’s Hard Cider. There are three different flavors: Traditional Dry, Crisp Apple, and Apple Ginger. I decided to go with the ginge on this one. I’m glad I did. It had a spicy kick to it that made it interesting and stand out from the average cider. I’m still a Woodchuck girl through and through, but this cider will not be ignored. I’d definitely recommend it, especially this flavor combo. Yum!
Nails: Using OPI’s Coney Island Cotton Candy as a base, I decided to do a variety of diagonals and stripes with China Glaze’s Fast Track (from the Capitol Colours-Hunger Games) collection. I didn’t Fast Track to be so subtle, but it was different to do some funky art with neutral colors.
I liked the result.

Magic Hat is one of those breweries that has a beer for every taste. I was excited to try Elder Betty, their summer brew. It’s a weiss (wheat) beer, and it’s rare that I don’t enjoy a good wheat beer (think Blue Moon/Shock Top/Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat). This one just happens to be brewed with elderberry flavor, which is nice and tart. It’s an easily drinkable beer that I super-duper enjoyed.
Nails: It was pure coincidence that my nails happened to match the bottle so well. Both polishes are from Urban Outfitters. I fell in love with the purple, called Bandeau, looked like it could glow under black lights. I used the uber-chunky glitter polish (Chilly) in complementary purples and blues as accent on my pointer and middle fingers. It’s simple with a kick.

I kicked off Memorial Day weekend right with a Shock Top Lemon Shandy. Shandies are awesome. You can actually make your own, mixing a beer of your choice (probably something light or wheat) with lemonade! They are the perfect beers for summer. Leinenkugel also has a tasty shandy that is so easy to sip and the perfect end (or beginning) to any summer day!
Nails: It’s been a while since I used the trusty Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips, but I was in a lazy mood. In fact, my nails were bare before I applied these (THE HORROR!). The name of these strips are "Not a Peep!” and they are from the now discontinued Spring 2012 collection. I picked them up at Target for 4 bucks. Cute little birdies kissing for less than half the price? I couldn’t say no.

And that’s the round up for this past month! Can’t wait to share more with you next month!

Nails and Ales

Time for Round 4 of Nails and Ales. It’s been a while, I apologize! I’ve been on a wine kick for a while. I’ve also found myself relying on the trustworthy and dependable cheap beers that are usually available to me. However, I have here 4 different drinks (with a bonus for fun) and nail art designs to share with you today!

Sapporo is a very enjoyable beer. I save this for trips to the Hibachi. Mix that in with the occasional squirt of sake and you’re in for a real (sloppy) treat. The large can seems never ending, but it’s a clean, crisp taste that doesn’t intrude with all the food and flavors you experience when at a Hibachi restaurant.
Nail Polish: I used too many here to remember. These were done using the Cute Polish Galaxy Nails tutorial.

The weekend I had this Immort Ale, I had made my own 6 pack at a local deli. I tried 5 completely different kinds of beers and all of them were equally enjoyable. I decided to share this one with you, because it was the most memorable.
I know this picture is kind of blurry, but if you can make it out, the ingredients are (as always with Dogfish Head) delicious! However, it being 11% ABV, it had a sting to it within the first sip. That’s the booze, baby! But once that first sip went down, it was easy going from there.
I could honestly probably only ever handle one of these, and it’s a good thing that’s all I had. I went into hot flash mode. For a moment, I thought I was becoming immortal. Dogfish Head, I LOVE THEE!
Nails: OPI’s A-Taupe the Space Needle with Warm and Fozzie accented on my pointer and middle fingers.

Oh, Woodchuck. My love. This is the Summer cider, and it’s delicious. But that was to be expected. The only one I didn’t really care for was Spring, and I had that on tap, so I don’t think it had the right fizz to it. Anyway, this is a crisp and delicious, light and tasty cider that will be good for the summer months.
Nails: This was a failed attempt at Ikat nails, but I kept them anyways. OPI’s Jade is the New Black, Sally Hansen’s White On and Black Nail Art Pen, with Wet and Wild’s How I Met Your Magenta.

I am not above cheap beer. I will always enjoy Lionshead (our favorite local lager) and PBR pounders. I always see this next to the PBR and I liked the can. It was 6 dollars for a 6-pack, so I couldn’t say no to a simple lager. Nothing special, but I’d drink it again.
Nails: My new favorite nail polish, China Glaze’s For Audrey and Essie’s Luxeffects Shine of the Times on top.

 

BONUS:

The same weekend I made my own 6-pack that housed the Immort Ale, I found this Belgian-Style Cider from Woodchuck. It was my first time purchasing one of their Private Reserve ciders. This was tasty. It was similar to a Belgium-Style beer, cloudy and orange-y, with that sweet cider kick. I really enjoyed this. It was way better than the Spring cider, and more appropriate too!
I don’t even know if they have it anywhere anymore. I made sure to scoop up a couple 6-packs. But of course I finished it. OOPS!

‘Til next time…