The Boilover

Breakfast. Breakfast for lunch. Breakfast for dinner. Breakfast anytime as long as it involves heuvos–ok so I have an affinity for eggs. Dare I say when they are involved in a meal I’m eggstatic (groan).

Part of what made this last weekend so phenomenal was eating one of my favorite sandwiches, the egg-in-a-grilled-cheese basket. It all starts by building a grilled cheese to your own specs. In my case it was two slices of wheat bread, one slice of muenster and one slice of swiss. Acceptable add-ons include but are not limited to: tomato, onions, smoked salmon, salsa, and damn near anything else that goes with bread, cheese, and eggs.

This next step is critical. Locate a cup around your house that will cut a hole in the sandwich large enough to allow a nice egg layer, but small enough that there is still cheese involved–you don’t want to eat eggs wrapped in crust. In my case I use a tasting glass from the Great American Beer Festival.

Next butter up your pan (mmmmm, real butter) and throw in the sandwiches. Notice the cut-outs are still used as baby grilled cheeses.

Crack 1 or 2 eggs in the middle of each sandwich and cook for a few minutes on medium heat. If you use 2 eggs, might I suggest you crack one, sprinkle some shredded cheese on it, and then add the second egg.

Next up, flip ‘em.

I’ve found that if I follow my normal grilled cheese cooking times I get a nice easy/medium egg. If you want it super runny turn the heat up a bit to cook the bread faster (and thus a faster flip) while leaving the insides pretty mushy. I’ve also pulled the sandwiches off and wrapped them in tin foil to take for a breakfast on the run, although the eggs will normally cook the rest of the way through.

In this case, however, I pulled these straight outta the pan and dove right in. A damn good meal if you ask me.

Eggtacular

Eggceptional

Egg-a-rific

Although this was my third year living in Cincinnati during what is surely the greatest celebration of both beer and season, I had yet to participate in Bockfest. It snowed like hell my first year, and last year I was out running (I remember seeing the parade on a parallel street) and never ended up going out that night. I figure running in the spring is a good enough celebration of spring, I just left off the celebrating beer part.

This year I made progress. I’ll have to save the full glory for next year (Baby Steps) because-like last year-I got caught up in Friday’s beautiful weather and went for a run. But I kept it short, and while I missed the Bockfest parade, I certainly got my fill of Bock beer.

Arnold’s, on the other hand got their fill of people.

What I imagine (or at least hope) Laura, Pam, and the other Bartender who's name I don't know were thinking

Drunk Monk*

*Please note this was around 8pm, and the Monk may or may not have been drunk, but entering that establishment I imagine he was there soon.

Moving on to Mr. Pitifuls.

We passed Jack Potts on the way, the existence of which I was completely unaware of. For someone that lives a block away, I really don’t get up Main St. much it seems. That’s all bound to change when Neon’s opens this summer. But I digress…

It was actually less crowded than Arnold's I swear

Cheers to mini decorative drinks

I took some people new to the city out and about, and we all had a great time. There were a few people that drove downtown to meet us, and as the end of the night approached, I couldn’t help but think about those poor souls having to either sleep on a couch or temper their drinking to pilot a vehicle home. Chalk it up as another win for life in Cincinnati’s center city.

No case of the Monday’s this week, I had too much fun all weekend to be bitching about anything.

Bockfest was roaring the whole time, aided by the phenomenal weather we had. Which means one of two things as far as your Monday is concerned, either A) You, like me, had such a good time all weekend, that it’s hard to be anything other than happy today or B) you had a great time, but that simply adds to the depression you’re feeling now that you’re back on the grind.

I enjoyed Bockfest a lot, and I’ll post about it more tomorrow, but the highlight of the weekend for me was the 11 mile bike ride I went on Sunday, hitting Downtown, OTR, Newport, Mt. Adams, and Eden Park, all the while snapping pictures.

My first stop was The Banks/QCS to get a few photos of the ongoing construction.

Next I rode over to Newport to stop in Reser bikes for a little air (and because I love saying I went riding in a couple states).

Then it was back to the Ohio side to tackle Mt. Adams and Eden Park

Music Hall and the heart of OTR as seen from the Ida St. Bridge

Then it was back downtown for a few more QCS shots.

The remnants of a great season of ice skating

I hope you were able to go out an enjoy the great weather like I did!

It seems like I was just at a beerfest not too long ago, yet here we are, gearing up for another one at the end of March. The fine folks running this upcoming event stumbled upon my post about the winter beerfest, and kindly invited me and ~30 other bloggers+guests to a meet+greet at Pachinko in Covington.

First we got a little Cincinnati beer history lesson from Timothy Holian, the author of both of the Over The Barrel books. Much like the literature, Tim gave a nice talk about the culture of beer in Cincinnati, and was kind enough to answer questions for us at the end (even though only one person asked something).

Tim skyping in from Wisconsin

After the education from afar, we were treated to my style of learning–a more hands on approach (as in hands on glasses of beer). Jason and his business partner (who I didn’t get a card from, and thus forgot his name) from Rivertown Brewing Co were on hand with their 5 signature beers (available year round) and of course, their seasonal Bock.

I was first introduced to Rivertown at the Winter Beerfest (I assume that is the case with most everyone, because they are a relatively new game in town) and I have to say I wasn’t all that impressed at the time. Last night however, with the chance to taste an entire flight of brews, I thought a bit higher of their beers. Honestly, most of them aren’t my style (too damn malty) but the Hop Bomber was right up my alley. At ~60 IBU’s it was a well balanced pale ale that I could drink all night given the chance.

Bomb Me

Free beer (minus the pints we bought), free pretzels from Servatti, and the good company of other Cincinnati beer enthusiasts, what more could you ask for? How about a few more pictures….

In the interest of full disclosure (and to comply with this) I feel obligated to reiterate that I was invited to this event by the operators/promotors of the upcoming beerfest, and we were given free samples of Rivertown’s beer, and free pretzels. That said, I will be attending the beerfest, and would’ve regardless……and I already knew how much I loved Servatti’s pretzels.

In addition to the website you can also find the Cincinnati Beerfest on twitter. Follow @CinciBeerfest for info and chances to win tickets.

A special thanks to Danielle who was kind enough to coordinate this whole gig and invite yours truly.

Last Sunday I celebrated the birthday of a good friend of mine, and did so potluck style. It was a roaring success and I was reminded that there are only a few keys to a good party (besides awesome people, whose pictures are being omitted to protect the innocent).

Jameson: A necessary evil

Stanky Cheese, Delicious Fruit, and Candied Nuts

Lotsa garlic for just about everything

Latin American corn cakes with queso baked in

7 foot whiteboard for shenanigans