The Greek Festival

All Labor Day weekend, the Greek Festival in Belmont was happening. Somehow Saturday and Sunday just slipped by so on Monday Brett & I made sure to carve out some time to check out the festival.

There were tents set up outside with all kinds of meats being cooked and sold, Gyros and lamb kebabs had the longest lines. There were various jewelery, clothes and souvenirs being sold as well as traditional Greek dancers performing.

We also were able to get inside the church and learn about the history of Greek Orthodox and admire the beautiful ceiling and wall decor that has recently been done.

There was a theater set up behind the church with plays happening throughout the day, performed by children & teens on Ancient Greek history.

A lot of what we saw and smelled reminded us of our travels last year to the Greek Islands {read about it; here, here, here and here} and how we wished we were back there soaking up the sun, lying on the sand and swimming in crystal clear waters.

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San Mateo County Fair

Last Saturday Brett & I were driving back from my company's kickball game unsure of how the rest of the afternoon and evening was going to go. We started throwing random ideas out with no sort of response or excitement. It was one of those moments from the Jungle Book, you know with the vultures, "Okay, so what we gonna do?" "I don't know, what you wanna do?" "aw, now don't start that again!"

Then I saw a billboard for the county fair and shouted "LET'S GO TO THE FAIR!" Brett started scrambling on his phone to find out how much it was and where we needed to go. And just like that we had plans.

I don't think I've ever been to an actual county fair before. Farmer's markets, street festivals, theme parks, sure.. but county fair.. no sir.

There was everything from food trucks, to carnival rides, beer tents, petting zoo, even a sloth! It was overwhelming the amount of activities to see and do. There was even a stage with performers and a hypnotist that came out towards the end of the night. 

There was a GORMET GRILLED CHEESE TRUCK, which I quickly made eyes with and high tailed it over to. You will never guess what I had... Go on, GUESS! Did you say a texas toast grilled cheese sandwich WITH macaroni and cheese inside? Because if you did, you'd be right! That's exactly what I had. And. It. Was. Epic!

Even though all the games are totally fixed and a waste of money, I wanted to play some anyway and feel like I was a little kid. The one that Brett & I did the best at was throwing darts and popping the balloons. You needed to pop 6 balloons to get a big stuffed animal and I had my eye on a certain penguin. With little effort we popped all 6 and the penguin was mine!

Of course, we had to try deep fried Twinkies, Oreo's and Reese's. One word: overrated. I don't even like Twinkies to begin with, so I went into this with zero expectations. I don't really get the fascination we seem to have with deep frying things. The only time it's acceptable is with fish & chips, or vegetable tempura in a Japanese restaurant, that's all folks, okay!?

At least I can say I tried it... and that I never need to have it again.

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beer bottling time

If you remember my previous post a couple weeks ago, Brett and I used a brew kit to brew our own beer. It's now been a couple weeks and the beer has been fermenting in a glass jug. {not going to lie, it smells pretty bad}

Now it's time to take the fermenting liquid and transfer it into bottles in order for it to carbonate for a couple more weeks.

The process is a little trickier than it sounds. First you have to sterilize all the bottles and let them air dry. Next, dissolve 3 tablespoons honey with 1/2 cup water in a sanitized pot. {It will vary from sugar to honey to maple syrup; depends on the beer you are making} Then, take the jug filled with beer and funnel the liquid into the pot. Make sure the sediment at the bottom of the jug does not get sucked up into the pot. Once everything is in the pot, it must be siphoned into each bottle.

Once you have transferred all the liquid into the bottles, you must put it in a dark place again where it will not be disturbed. The bottles will stay here for a couple more weeks until it has carbonated. Once you are sure it's ready to go, the bottles can be transferred into the refrigerator. Allow it to chill for 24 hours before you drink it.


Don't forget to come back and check in for the final post - drinking time!

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shredding the gnar

Since I was busy packing, moving and then unpacking through the entire month of December, I didn't get a chance to hit the snow at all in 2012. Once January / February came around there were a few big storms that brought a lot of snow and made for some really excellent snowboarding conditions.

I went up three times this year in total, all day trips which worked out really well. We timed all our trips perfectly so that as soon as the storm has dumped all the snow, Saturday morning at 5am we were in the car and headed north.

I'd say by my third time there, I had made some significant improvement with my boarding skills. Hopefully next winter I will have many more opportunities to improve and work on my skills!

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Brooklyn Brew Shop Beer Making Kit

For Christmas I gave Brett a beer making kit, not knowing what kind of work was ahead of us.

One Saturday, inspiration stuck and we decided today was the day to begin the beer brewing process. There were a few items that we needed to purchase before we could begin any brewing. After spending most of the day of running from Target to BevMo, to grocery stores, we were ready. Of course by this time it's 9 o'clock and we have a several hours of brewing ahead of us.

Here is a quick rundown of the steps it took to brew 1 gallon of beer:

The first and most important step that needs to be done is sanitizing everything. Otherwise bacteria can grow and kill the yeast and the beer will not be made. We definitely made sure to keep everything sanitized and re-sanitized as often as possible.

The first step of making beer is to boil the grains and make sure to keep them boiling for a entire hour, stirring every so often. After the sixty minutes is up it's time to "mash it out." First, take the mash that you just boiled and put it into a strainer and sit it on top of a new pot. You are then going to pour boiling hot water through the mash several times until you have gone through 4 liters of water.

Once that is finished, you are going to boil the liquid again for another hour, making sure that it is constantly boiling. Every 15 minutes you must stir in a small amount of the hopps. {they looks like rabbit pellets!} 

Once the hour has passed, it's time for an ice bath. Quickly take the boiling pot full of liquid and surround it with ice cold water. You will see we filled up the sink with ice and cold water. You want to get the temperature way down until it reaches the desired temperature, about 70°F.

Once it is ready, take the liquid and pour it through a strainer into your gallon jug. This will prevent any sediment from getting into the jug.

 

Now, you wait! Put the glass jug into a dark corner where it will not be disturbed for a couple weeks. Once all the bubbling and gasses have been released it is time to bottle. Be sure to check back soon to see how the bottling process is done!

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