Butterscotch & Beer Bundt Cake

A lovely cake made with rich Bock beer and butterscotch!

I'm a little embarrassed that I'm posting recipes from nearly 3 years ago, but here we are. This cake was made for my husband, Nick, for his birthday in May 2020. He loves butterscotch - it's one of his favorite sweets. He enjoys beer and does like a Bock occasionally. I thought it would make for the perfect birthday cake. I personally did not anticipate liking this cake at all because I'm not a fan of beer, but I was pleasantly surprised. It had such a wonderful balance of the more savory beer flavor with the sweetness of the cake base and butterscotch. The glaze was magnificent. It's very much like a rum cake!

Beer Cheese and Macaroni Soup

This creamy, cheesy beer soup with bacon and veggies is just what is needed on a cold night!

I am a person who does not enjoy beer as a beverage. Not in the slightest. I've tried many different kinds, but it's really just not my thing. I, however, do enjoy beer in soups and stews and savory dishes. I'm actually going to be using beer in a dessert recipe later in the year and I'm curious to see how I'll like that. Beer cheese is one of those things that I can't explain why I like. It tastes like beer. I don't like beer. But I like beer cheese. I knew this recipe would be such a quintessential cold weather kind of food. I think of it as a really good fall dish, but I also think it isn't limited to just fall :)

Eddie's Award Winning Chili

Find the recipe on The Recipe Jackpot

Grilled Chicken and Bacon Pizza with Garlic Cream Sauce

Pizza has never tasted so good with this garlicky sauce, grilled chicken, and bacon!

I don't make a lot of chicken pizza simply because a lot of the bases are ranch and the boys will not eat ranch period. This pizza recipe caught my eye because of the garlic cream sauce. I am definitely one of those people who puts 8 to 10 cloves worth of garlic into most recipes because I love garlic. Thankfully, Nick and the big kids do too. You can never go wrong with bacon too, so I knew this would be a keeper. I opted for the wine for the sauce and used a pinot grigio and it was fantastic.

Bacon Beer Cheese Soup with Chicken

This rich beer soup has so much cheese - plus bacon and chicken for heartiness!

I have no idea what happened, but I now love beer cheese soup. I still don't like and won't drink a beer, even the wheat ones that are fine, in my opinion. But I love beer cheese soup. There is just something about a beer that adds such perfect flavor to the soup, a richness and tang. Typically, these soups only have bacon, but this one has chicken plus croutons and chives. It is such a well-rounded, hearty soup. It's perfect for this time of year!

German Cheese Soup

This beer cheese soup with brats is total comfort food for a chilly day.

Just when I finally think that Tennessee has decided to warm up, there is a cold front coming through and it's going to be chilly again. Hopefully, it's a short-lived cold front and spring will more or less arrive with no going back to all this cold weather. Today is Soup Night for us and while we're not having this German Cheese Soup, it's definitely a great pick for those who are still having some cold and chilly nights. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but I love beer with cheese. It's such a perfect pairing. This cheese soup was also made better by the addition of brats. Nothing is better than beer, cheese, and brats together!

Ham & White Cheddar Beer Cheese Soup

The perfect fall soup with ham, bacon, beer, and loads of cheese!

I am not stranger to beer cheese soup and it's one of my favorite soups to make in the fall. I'm in love with this one in particular because it has two proteins - ham and bacon. Plus green onion and loads of cheese! The combination is just total comfort food. It's a bonus that it is one pot and can be made in under 30 minutes.

Beer Battered Onion Rings

These onion rings are the perfect side to a burger or appetizer for a football game party!

I believe this was my first time making homemade onion rings and it was fairly successful. I started off in my deep fryer but it was hard to make these in the basket, so I switched to the pot and it was so much better. I just used my tongs and spider in the pot to maneuver the onion rings as they fried. I loved the flavoring of the garlic and paprika with the beer. Overall, this recipe was easier and much more addictive that I had anticipated.

Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup

The classic combination of corned beef and cabbage made into a soup in the crockpot!

Because St. Patrick's Day is coming up...I'm craving all things corned beef and cabbage related. In fact on Monday we had Corned Beef Hash for dinner and it was delicious. I think I have slowly gotten my family acquainted with and okay with having cabbage in meals. It makes me incredibly happy because I love cabbage. I feel like my mom made it a lot when I was a kid. When I first met my stepdad's parents, my grandma made pigs in a blanket -- what she called cabbage rolls -- and oh my gosh. I wish she were still alive to teach me how to make them because I have never found a recipe close to hers and I will never forget what they taste like even though it has been 15+ years since I have had them.

This Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup is a crockpot meal and super easy to fix. You just chop up your ingredients and throw them into your crockpot -- no precooking anything, no having to add any ingredients 30 minutes before cooking, etc.  Throw them in and let them go until dinnertime.

Oktoberfest Chicken Chili #SundaySupper

The perfect chili to eat while celebrating the great beer fest that is Oktoberfest.

Today's Sunday Supper event is all about OKTOBERFEST and hosted by Cricket of Cricket's Confections. I actually have a few German recipes in my post queue, but decided to go the non-German heavy route and post this recipe for a twist on the classic family favorite of chicken chili. There are 3 different Schnitzel recipes coming at some point and some Apfelkuchen (apple cake)...and I have decided upon a German recipe for my Secret Recipe Club post this month too. But for now, I cannot reveal what that is.

I've only recently started eating German cuisine [and learning the German language] and definitely love it so far. My brother-in-law is newly married to a German girl and she has integrated into our big loud family so quickly and we adore her. She's been sharing lots of her favorite foods with us, so I'm excited to check out the recipes that are on the list at the end of this post from my fellow Sunday Supper movement pals - they certainly look more authentic than my post for today.

This chicken chili has classic flavors that I love plus the addition of cinnamon that reminds me so very much of Cincinnati Chili (which is Greek based). But the Oktoberfest beer really makes the whole dish. Nick adores Oktoberfest beer and we end up getting nearly every brand out there of it. Once when he was deployed through the fall and wasn't going to be home, I bought so much Sam Adams Oktoberfest beer and stored it in our basement for his return. LOL. I hope that even though it's no where near traditional German cuisine that y'all try this yummy dish out. It's the perfect autumn dinner!

Beer Battered Broccoli Bites

We paired these tasty little gems with yesterday's burger recipe - they are pretty quick to make and thankfully they use a wet batter, so there is no egg wash, flour dip, bread crumb dip, etc. It's very simple. Toss the broccoli in the batter and then fry them up!

IPA Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I've posted a few potato soups here and there over the last 4 years of blogging...including Crockpot Loaded Baked Potato Soup, Cheddar Baked Potato Soup, Kale Soup, and Pepperjack Potato Soup to name a few. Potato soup is one of my favorite types of soup - it's so filling and they almost always include bacon and cheese. You can never go wrong with bacon and cheese. I've also really started to love the addition of beer in savory dishes. Fortunately, we always seem to have some Sam Adams on hand. Nick LOVES Sam Adams beer. Most packs will come with their Boston Lager and their Latitude 48 IPA. They aren't Nick's most favorite beers of the Sam Adams, so he doesn't mind if I snatch one up and use it for cooking. This soup also contains leeks and carrots which I also adore.

Hawaiian Pizza with Beer Crust

I love pizza. Don't most people?
We alternate pizza and burgers on Fridays and I always look forward to pizza night.

I mean...how many different combinations of pizza are there?? I mean I can't even keep track of all the different ones we've tried: see?! And with homemade crust - even better! I just really love everything about homemade pizza.

I was excited to try this recipe because it was one of my all-time favorites: Hawaiian! AND it has beer crust. The crust itself turned out to be thinner and crunchy. It offset the toppings perfectly and the whole thing was just incredibly delicious. I wish I had better words to describe its deliciousness, but I do not.

Buffalo Cauliflower

I've seen this recipe everywhere...or it seems like everywhere and I was extremely intrigued by it. I believe I made this accompanying burgers one night and it is just an excellent recipe. The cauliflower just soaks up the buffalo flavor and it really has a nice texture. The beer batter, of course, is unbelievable :) They are definitely addictive...you will sit there and pop them in your mouth, even burning your tongue or the roof of your mouth a few times because they are fresh out of the oven!

Jalapeno Coins

Sometimes you look in the mirror and you don't recognize yourself...

It seems I've been doing this a lot lately when it comes to my time in the kitchen.

I'm not really a beer drinker. I like some beers, but it's not my first choice of any type of beverage. I am hooked on beer foods though. [insert meme: BEER BATTER ALL THE THINGS!!!!] It's crazy. I also invested in a little deep fryer that also can be a steamer and a pot-shaped slow cooker - it's pretty awesome [see it on Amazon]. Once upon a time, I said I would never get one because I remember how messy they were from the Fry Daddy my family had when I was a kid. But so far, it's amazingly easy to clean and take care of. I kept the container that the oil came from and use a measuring cup to pour it back into that container. It's surprisingly easy to keep everything clean and not greasy all over.

These beer battered jalapeno slices are so addictive. I couldn't make them fast enough!

Beer-Candied Bacon

Two staples in Nick's diet that I don't think will ever disappear are bacon and beer. Now he's a little snooty when it comes to beer and prefers homebrews or craft beers. He loves Leinenkegels and Sam Adams in particular. Honestly, I prefer Leinenkugel's over Sam Adams - because they have the Summer Shandy (lemony beer) and the Honey Weiss. The latter is what I chose to use in this man-friendly recipe for candied bacon. It was the perfect beer (in my opinion) for the recipe and it went really well with Hormel's newer thick-cut bacon. I used the cherrywood, although next time, I think I want to go with the pecanwood :)

Maple Bacon Burgers

These burgers were another deployment experiment. I wanted to see how good they would be before I made them for Nick when he got home. I've yet to make them since he did get back from deployment, but they are definitely on the list.

Nick has this obsession with maple. So maple + bacon + beer = a happy husband. The burgers were really delicious and even with the crappy college beer, the beer made them so good! I really would love to try this recipe with a maple porter. I think it'd be a fabulous beer to have with the maple bacon :)

Secret Recipe Club: Oktoberfest Stew

It's time for another Group D reveal - it's been since November for our group, so Happy 2014, Group D! For those who don't know, Secret Recipe Club is a great group of food bloggers who are assigned a blog in their group secretly each month. They select a recipe or two, make it, take pictures, and blog it all on the same day. It's really fun to see who got your blog on reveal day and what they made :)

This month I was assigned to the other Group D Sarah who blogs at Curious Cuisiniere. Sarah and her husband, Tim, are adventurous souls (check out this picture of them on her about me page) and when Sarah's not blogging, she's working in a bakery (such a dream job!).

It was so hard to pick one recipe. There's the Beer & Cheddar Pull Apart Bread. Then a savory breakfast recipe of Cornmeal Herb Waffles with Fried Eggs & Bacon  - I really want to try this one soon. I love little mini muffins, so I bookmarked these Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins too. Ultimately, I chose Sarah's Oktoberfest Stew though because Nick got home

While Nick was deployed, he was missing out on Samuel Adams' Oktoberfest beer which is his favorite. So I bought some each time I went grocery shopping and stored them in our basement for when he got home. I also bought Yuengling and Leinenkugel's Oktoberfest beers too. It was easy for me to pick the stew over everything else because it used the Oktoberfest beer :) It was such a great stew. We all loved it!

South by Southwest Pasta

I've started to get a little more comfortable in my own skin when it comes to experimenting in the kitchen. This recipe was a slider recipe from Rachael Ray that I morphed into a delicious pasta dish. Years ago when I first started cooking, I would never have strayed from a printed recipe. Now I am brave enough to make it into something different without hesitation. On the day that I made this pasta, I wasn't feeling like making sliders. I didn't want to mess with all the steps and hassle, so I made pasta instead. It is super savory and delicious. I loved the beer paired with the smoky paprika and chili powder and steak seasoning. They could not have been more perfect together. It amazes me how well beer goes with "Mexican" food...but I need to remember to try it more often!!

Rosemary & Beer Marinated Steak

Nick surrendered one of his nut brown beers for me to make this recipe from Amy's Cooking Adventures. He is quite stingy and I think steak is one of the only ways he'll give up one of his homebrews willingly. There was so much flavor in this steak - it's not even funny. Even if you don't like beer, this recipe is just amazing.