Culinary Adventures: Beer Thanksgiving

Because most young federal employees like me don't have enough vacation days to take off for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we have to make a choice - and inevitably, we choose to save our days for Christmas.  This leaves us to our own devices for Thanksgiving.  This time last week I was on my way to "Friendsgiving" at S & D's and brought along homemade brownies (not a very good recipe though - they taste good, but they don't look it).  Since K&R and I all had to "work" yesterday, we decided not to celebrate Thanksgiving on the actual day, but on the following Saturday - today - as an organized sort of potluck.  But whenever  K has potlucked Thanksgiving with friends she has a culinary theme.  Last year it was bacon (I went home, so I missed it), and this year, it's beer.  Everyone who brings food has to have worked beer into it somehow.  I jumped at the opportunity - I love a good culinary challenge.

All right, you think.  Baste the turkey with beer, and serve beer, and perhaps put beer in the stuffing, but how to work beer into everything?  Doesn't sound easy, does it?  Below, with one exception, are the results of my own efforts:

The exception is the batch of cookies in the upper right, which have no beer in them and are not intended for Beer Thanksgiving.  They're intended for me.  But the upper left is beer bread, and the lower right are cornbread muffins with beer in place of milk.  Have a closer look:

I'm still working on my food photography, but I think that's a tolerably good photo.  And furthermore, these are really easy.  The base is Jiffy Cornbread Mix which, as a Midwesterner, I swear by.  All you need to do is follow the instructions for cornbread muffins and substitute 1/3 c. of beer (relatively dark, so it has some flavor) for the 1/3 c. of milk the recipe calls for.  I used Killians (the bottle on the left in that first picture) because I only had one bottle of Guinness, given to me by K&R so I could make beer bread:

Now, if you like beer in your food, you'll be pleased to know that this is almost as easy as the muffins are.  Just take 3 c. of self-rising flour, add 3 Tbsp. white sugar, and one bottle of dark beer, like Guinness (don't do this with Miller Lite or it will taste like wallpaper).  Mix and pour into a greased loaf pan, then bake at 350 for 45 minutes, brush the top with butter, and bake for another 15 minutes.  (Honestly, though, it was practically done after the first half hour, so since you're supposed to brush the top with butter once a crust forms, I did it after that half hour and then put the loaf back in for the 15 minutes, and got what you see - I suspect this is because I had it on the bottom rack).

Both the muffins and the bread smell delightfully of beer when hot, and I'm sure they'll be a hit.  I just need to pack them up, change clothes, and toddle over the K&R's for my third (!) Thanksgiving!

(Oh, and if you want the recipe for those cookies, just ask.  They're amazing.)

 Om nom nom nom nom...