Serenity & Spice

The last few years have been tough. It doesn’t seem like this pandemic is ever going to really end and personal setbacks have me questioning my purpose. As with all traumatic breakups, I’ve been experiencing triumphant highs and extreme lows this year. Even my cat is tired of my shit.  This is the first time in seven years I will be single during the holidays. I’ve been searching for a movie to fit my current situation, but all I can find are cheesy Hallmark rom-coms. Can’t there be a movie about a cynical but quirky food blogger that likes beer and says “fuck” at least five times a day having a magical Christmas on her own?  I need to do things that are nourishing for my soul. Go out on the town. Support local businesses. Spend time with the friends that have stuck around. Maybe make some new ones. The holidays are not about presents or having someone to snuggle up with. Maybe next year, there will be a workaholic businessman with whom I can get into yuletide shenanigans. Thi...

When I got to Camp Taco , I didn’t know what to expect. It was my first night away from home, but luckily I had my friend Christie with me. We were both totally stoked for the start of summer camp, and it's finally here in October.  It was 5:30 on a Sunday, but the camp was full of campers. The counselors were all super cool. We managed to get a bunk at the bar. And that’s when the head counselor Biff told us about the Ghoul of East Village.  Last Summer, he went on a rampage, killing everyone in his path. No one knew who he was, but the camp was left abandoned ever since. Recently, it had been leased by a local businessman, but the plans to reopen kept being rescheduled until now. Rumor has it, the first group of counselors mysteriously vanished.  That was so long ago we weren’t going to let it spoil our fun. Christie and I were ready to start our rad summer adventure. With what else, the white poblano cheese dip with housemade tortilla chips. The cheese dip was tasty bu...

Lately, I feel this pressure to do something. Create a work of art or destroy something beautiful. In the end, my stress with the ever-changing world around me and the constant stream of life-altering events have me lying in bed staring at the ceiling, waiting for the next crisis to occur.  During this pandemic, I did accomplish something. I wrote half a book about zombies. Last November, I participated in National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo . I wrote the beginning of an atompunk story about a family that lives in a dome society created in 1955. It’s filled with 50s references, conspiracy theories, and zombies, but I only managed to finish half of it. Life gets in the way. I also made a coffee stout in honor of the month.  The blog post I wrote about it was probably one of my most popular.  As during most times of significant change, one is expected to keep themselves busy. I made my first mead earlier this month, and it's currently going through its second ferme...

I remember years ago, one cloudy afternoon when my dad decided to take me to Vino’s Pizza and Brewery not too long after my 21st birthday. He ordered two beer samplers and then proceeded to go through each one with me. My dad had been a BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) Judge for years and he took this as the perfect opportunity to teach me about beer styles.  It was probably January or February of 2006, and I had recently returned from my first tour in Iraq. Growing up, he had given me tidbits but never gave me an actual class before. To him, a beer tasting was a rite of passage for me. Ken Haycook was determined that his daughter would go out into the world knowing how to drink beer. In honor of Father’s Day, I made I Love You, Dad Pizza . I made pizza crust with 6 Bridges Cream Ale from Vino’s. A few months back, I did a beer and cookie pairing but wasn’t able to include Vino’s in the mix. Given this memory, I felt it deserved something a little more special.  My d...

As a beer lover and former Girl Scout, I feel I must guide those not from Little Rock about what beer should be tried with which Girl Scout cookie. I got the idea about a month and a half ago when I started planning my Girl Scout Cookie series of blog posts. I wanted to end with a fun tour around the city’s breweries and highlight some tasty beer. A sugar coma is not too far behind. As I was doing this mainly on my own, I knew I had to space the tastings out, or else I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to the end. Please keep in mind that some of these recollections are a bit hazy, which should be understandable.  To keep things fair, I have selected only two beers from each place. The only Little Rock brewery not included is Vino’s, which is a shame as they have probably been around longer than most of the breweries on this list. Keep a lookout, though. I do plan on doing something special featuring them in the future.  This journey begins as all journeys must, someplace a l...

Now that Thanksgiving has been canceled this year, this may be the perfect time to take off some of the pressure we tend to put on ourselves for our own emotional and psychological well-being. We don’t have to roast a turkey or talk about the election. Now that we can’t gather in groups, some of the normal holiday stressors are almost non-existent.  Maybe that in itself is stressful. This weekend, Lost Forty Brewing came out with their annual triple barrel aged Nighty Night Imperial Stout. Usually, there is a big festival with games and booths, but this year, it had all been extremely scaled down for obvious reasons.  The release had been delayed by a month.  As the festival and beer are zombie-themed, it usually takes place around Halloween. For this year, they rebranded and called it the Year From Hell.   Social distancing guidelines were strictly enforced with pre-sale available online beforehand.  I, like most people, picked up my order and went home....

I have decided recently that I am going to stop planning my future.  That’s not to say that I won’t save money for a rainy day or contribute to a retirement fund.  I’m going to stop trying to answer the question, “where do you see yourself in five years?” I’m going to stop chasing after jobs I will never get.  Stop looking up houses on Zillow and fantasizing about a future that might not happen. Let’s face it. It’s pretty risky for most people to be making big financial decisions right now. We could be living in a zombie apocalypse come January.  For right now, I think I will stay where I am and focus on what I can control.  It’s where I might need to be.  I think I will write a book this month. For those of you who don’t know, I will give the obligatory breakdown of what NaNoWriMo is. The goal is to write 50,000 words during November or one novel. This will be my first time participating even though I have never finished a book before. Usually, there is th...

As you can probably guess, the name I use is a nod to my German heritage. My grandmother's family was German, but it begs the question, what kind of Germans were we? Were we the good Germans? Were we the kind that just wanted to drink beer, listen to Beethoven, and not kill everyone? In the last few years, I have found myself reacquainted with the beer culture that I had grown up with. I have always felt that this is a world of joyous camaraderie. The people aren't petty or bias. Brewers usually let their beer speak for itself.  Despite personal differences, there's always a hearty congratulations when someone has made something truly special. For this post, I made beer pretzels using The Hunter Oktoberfest from Lost Forty Brewing . This isn’t so much of a challenge, but food for thought; pun intended. I found the recipe on one of my favorite food blogs, Half Baked Harvest . Sadly, we did not make the chipotle queso. I say “we” because this time, my boyfriend joined me.  J ...