Beer Bread

My sister found this wonderful recipe for beer bread online and she shared it with all of us soon after! If you have ever had beer bread by Tastefully Simple, you know how yummy, soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside it is. For those times that you don't have it on hand or need a quicker, less expensive version - I suggest that you try this! It is great to use for dips and this is the recipe I used for my fondue!


Beer Bread

3 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
12 ounces beer
1/2 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 375. Mix all ingredients except butter. Pour into loaf pan. Pour butter over the top. Bake for 1 hour.

Whole Wheat Garlic Herb Bread

I was looking for a new bread recipe to try with the slow cooker white bean soup that we were having and I decided that rather then going with my whole wheat bread that I like to pair with soups, I would try this recipe. I love beer bread and usually pair it with dips for an appetizers since it is a little hard to cut into slices, but I thought this one would be fun to have with a soup. It did taste fantastic with the soup, but I am definitely going to pair it with a dip at some point in the future because I think that that would taste fabulous also!! The kids couldn't get enough of it and they all wanted more... They were definitely not happy when I cut them off at a slice and a half! :)

Whole Wheat Garlic Herb Bread
(recipe found on pinterest via gimmesomeoven.com)

3 cups whole wheat flour
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 bottle (12 ounces) beer
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, garlic, sugar, baking powder, salt, rosemary, thyme and oregano. Gently stir the beer into the dry ingredients until just mixed. Pour half the melted butter into the loaf pan, then transfer the bread batter to the pan and use a spoon to spread it out even. Pour the rest of the butter on top of the batter,spreading it around evenly on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until top is golden brown and a toothpick/knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve immediately.

Mac and Beer Cheese Cups

My kids LOVED these! They were so fun to make and a different way to serve Mac and Cheese... As we were eating them I thought about how fun they would be to have as a side dish at a party! We had them with some of the venison sausage that we have in our freezer and it made a great meal... Alas, when I got home from the grocery store, I found that I did not have the bread crumbs that I thought were in my cupboard so they didn't have the fun topping that it calls for. I think that this would have made them even more fabulous! So, do me a favor and don't forget the bread crumbs when you try this recipe! :)



I mean seriously - can you tell that they loved these?? :)


Mac and Beer Cheese Cups
(recipe found at www.pillsbury.com)

3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup beer
1 cup shredded american cheese
2 1/2 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
slices of cooked beer bratwurst or popcorn

Heat oven to 375. Place foil baking cup in each of 15 regular size muffin cups. In a small microwavable bowl, microwave 1 tablespoon of the butter uncovered on high 15-30 seconds or until melted. Stir in bread crumbs; set aside. Cook and drain macaroni as directed on the package.

Meanwhile, melt remaining butter in 4 quart saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour. Cook 1 minute, stirring with whisk. While continuing to stir, add milk and beer. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes or until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat; stir in cheese, salt and pepper. Add cooked macaroni; stir well.

Spoon about 1/4 cup macaroni into each cup. Top each with bread crumb mixture. Bake 25-30 minutes or until hot and topping is golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan.

Cheesy Beer Fondue

I thought that this year our family would start a new tradition and use Christmas Eve day to celebrate being our own individual family... We spend so much time running around to all of the extended family that usually our own Christmas seems very rushed. So, we sat down together and opened presents in the morning and while the kids enjoyed the new toys that they got, I set to work on lunch. We had fondue! :) I personally love a good fondue and what kid doesn't like to be able pick and choose their own food to dip into some yummy cheese?? We all enjoyed it immensely and after cleaning up and a little more playing took a little snooze to get ready for all the running that we have coming up!


Cheesy Beer Fondue
(recipe found at www.foodnetwork.com)

4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 (12 ounce) bottle lager beer
1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cups shredded cheddar

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes while stirring constantly to make a roux. Add beer and bring to slow boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until mixture thickens to the consistency of heavy cream. Add worcestershire, mustard and cayenne, stirring thoroughly. Add cheese 1 cup at a time, melting cheese after each addition. Stir fondue until it is smooth. Turn into fondue pot and serve.

I served my fondue with beer bread, carrots, cauliflower, pretzel rods and apples.

Garlic Cheese Beer Biscuits

I love beer bread and when I saw this recipe I just had to try it... They were yummy, but by the time that we ate them they weren't warm anymore and I think that they would have tasted better straight out of the oven! The kids knocked back quite a few of them, so they were definitely a hit with them!!


Garlic Cheese Beer Biscuits
(recipe found at www.madebystephie.blogspot.com)

3 cups of bisquick
1 can of cold beer
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup cheese
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt

Just mix all of it together and spoon into a muffin pan. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. It makes 24 biscuits!

Weekly Line Up - 12/18-12/24

Lots of Christmas fun in store this week! Can't wait to continue baking like crazy, head to holiday parties and watch all the programs my kids are in! Hope you enjoy a fantastic week also!

Saturday - *Crispy Italian Baked Chicken
Sunday - Grilled Cheese/Spaghettios
Monday - *Pepperoni Bread
Tuesday - *Corn Chowder
Wednesday - Taco Night
Thursday - *Crockpot Chili Cheese Dip (Christmas with my family)
Friday - *Cheesy Beer Fondue with Beer Bread (Christmas lunch with our little family)
- *Ribs/Beans (Christmas Eve supper)

Extras:
*Chocolate Peppermint Creams
*Chocolate Covered Pretzels
*Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies
*Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies
*Carmels

*New Recipes

Weekly Line Up - 1/22-1/28

Looking forward to another great week of cooking and especially eating! :) My birthday is this upcoming Friday and you know that cheesy Beer Fondue is on the menu - I can't wait!! Strep has been going through our house this week, so it has been a LOOOONG week and we missed our Wednesday night taco night... Sad for me, one more night of cooking at home (I like my nights out :), but great for the blog, because I had to switch my meals around and add another meal for Friday night!

Friday - *Bacon Tomato Bake
Saturday - Pizza
Sunday - *Cheesecake Pancakes with bacon
Monday - *Mexican Shepard's Pie
Tuesday - *Wild Rice Soup
Wednesday - Taco Night
Thursday - *Four Cheese Vegetable Lasagna Cups
Friday - Cheesy Beer Fondue with Beer Bread

Extras
*Caramel Peanut Butter Bars (for my sister in laws birthday! We are only 2 days apart!)

* New Recipes

Weekly Line Up - 1/29-2/4

Here's our menu for the week! My birthday dinner got moved to Saturday, due to a wrestling meet for my son... where he took first place for the first time! He was so excited that it made eating Subway instead of fondue worth it! :)

Saturday - Fondue/Beer Bread
Sunday - *Oven Fried Chicken
Monday - *Chicken Fajitas
Tuesday - *Meatball Lasagna
Wednesday - Taco Night
Thursday - *Chicken Pot Pie
Friday - Sante Fe Soup

Enjoy and have a wonderful week!

Weekly Line Up - 12/23-12/29

Only 2 more days until Christmas!! I can't believe that it is here already... and no snow still! Makes me a little sad and it definitely is part of the reason that I can't believe that it is here already! Busy weekend planned and then a week of enjoying my kids. Usually we have a ton of plans, but I think that a week of vegging and being together sounds pretty good right about now! Have a fabulous Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Friday - Christmas at mom's - I'm bring Tastefully Simple Cheesy Chive Warm Dip Mix with Beer Bread
Saturday - Chicken Bacon Alfredo Pizza for our family Christmas lunch! Orange Juiced Pork Chops for Christmas Eve supper with a few of our family...
Sunday - I'm bring a cookie tray!
Monday - Brats on the grill
Tuesday - *Bacon Cheeseburger Rice
Wednesday - Taco Night
Thursday - Omelots
Friday - Roast

* New Recipes

Weekly Line Up - 9/14-9/21

So we are off and running with our new school schedule... Got all the kids off to school and we are finally starting to settle into a routine, as much as we can settle into a routine that is! :) My 2nd grader is loving his new class, my kindergartener gets to start going full time as of today and my baby girl started preschool yesterday... Where has time gone?? Going to be pretty quiet around my place on the mornings that they are all at school! This past week was a lot of running, a lot of sports watching and while that is a lot of fun for me, it will be nice this next week to have some quiet evenings at home with nothing going on. Have a great weekend!

Friday - Supper out with the family!
Saturday - *Taco Casserole
Sunday - *Chicken Alfredo Pasta Pies
Monday - *Easy Taco Melts
Tuesday - *Cheddar Beer Chicken Tacos
Wednesday - Taco Night
Thursday - Bacon Cheeseburger Rice
Friday - Chicken Wild Rice with *bread bowls

Extras: *Pumpkin Granola, *Pumpkin Caramel Monkey Bread

* = New recipes