Cheers, Salud, Slainte!

My favorite part of any gathering of friends is when the server returns, places the drink around the table, and we show our appreciation for each other by clinking and clanging our glasses.  Around the table you hear the standard, "Cheers!"  As I sat with a few of my fellow Hawks, we toasted to ourselves and to our friendship.  Then a question popped into my head: how would the rest of the world respond to a raised glass?  Here are some of my favorites that I found!

Hebrew: L'chaim (la-HI-yim)
Italian: Salute (sah-LOO-teh)
Spanish: Salud (sah-LOOD)
French: Sante (sant-AY)
German: Prost (PROOST)

And of course my favorite, the Gaelic word, Slainte (SLAHN-cha).  So here's to the next time you want to look cultured with your nearest and dearest!

Looking Back to Spring Forward: Spring Brews To Do's 2013

As some of you have heard, my family sadly lost one of our beloved Leonbergers, Oliver, this weekend.  Although we shed tears for our loss, we can smile thinking back to the memories he brought to our family.  In honor of this season of new life, I felt it was appropriate to edit my seasonal Brews To Do's to reflect my love of Spring's weather, beers, and, now, memories.  I will look back to some of my new Beer-peats as well from the 2012 collection while I get the SPF 30 ready and my v-neck tees out!

Beer-peats
Philadelphia Brewing Co.'s Fleur de Lehigh - Available March-May.  Zing of ginger and zest of lemongrass make this brew the perfect porch pour. Check out last Spring's review and pictures.

Yards Brewing Co.'s Saison - Available April-July.  Drop a piece of citrus in and you are all set for a sunny day.  Check out last Spring's review and pictures.

Spring 2013 Brews To Do's
Dogfish Head Namaste - Limited availability.  Namaste is a term typically used in yoga to imply that spirits are connected by the heart chakra (read: feeling connected to Oliver).  Lemongrass, organic orange slices, and coriander are sure to slow my pace as I take in Spring's beauty.  Thank goodness, I found one of the last bottles at Wegmans!  Read more about its origins at Dogfish's blog.

Victory Brewing Co.'s Swing - Available in Spring.  A peppered saison heightened with the lemon and orange flavors?  Yes!

Yards Brewing Co.'s Love Stout - Available year-round.  I am looking forward to washing down a light but sugary dessert with these chocolate-y and roast-y flavors.

I cannot wait to getting head start on my To Dos and taking time to revisit my faves from last year.  More importantly, I look forward to thinking back to the lazy days the dogs and I spent on the porch this time of year while sipping beer.  Well, I sipped beer and the dogs laid there but we were all lazy.  So here's to man's best friend.  Slainte!

Erin Go Bragh!

For a few days I had planned on writing about St. Patrick's Day myths or writing about the best Irish beers.  Then another thought came into my head: what were my St. Patrick's Days like growing up?  So I decided to pay homage to my Mother and to my childhood by keeping it green.  No, I did not buy shamrock stickers to accent my eyes.  Rather, I brought our traditional St Paddy's Day breakfast to dinner and added my favorite complement: beer!  Like Sue's breakfasts of my younger years, I prepared green eggs and green shamrock-shaped pancakes.  Spoiler alert: my Mom's pancakes were much better shaped than mine and that was before Pinterest was around to teach her how!  In lieu of green orange juice, I added a Harp lager that I dyed green.  Quick tips: choose a light colored beer and pour about half into the glass, tip 1 drop of food coloring in, pour the remaining beer, it will mix itself!

As we stirred the batter and I dripped McCormick green coloring into my food and drink, I thought fondly of those mornings with my mom and my siblings. Happy Saint Patrick's Day and Slainte!

Where ever you go and whatever you do,

May the luck of the Irish always be with you!

Brewed in Dublin, Ireland!

Prohibition 2013?

Last weekend with a great pair of friends, my other half and I spent the day at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center.  The featured exhibit, American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, chronicled the historical significance of alcohol and the years leading up to January 17, 1920, the passing of the constitutional amendment making alcohol illegal in almost all forms.

Get your tickets now!

The halls are filled with artifacts such as church hymnals with tunes about staying dry and an original growler - shaped much differently than our jugs of today.  Walk with the Temperance movement and learn if you are a "wet" or a "dry" based on a census-like survey asking your ethnic identity, religious affiliation, and occupation.  Perfect your Charleston while you sneak around the speakeasy and discover the origins of the term (spoiler alert: based on Irish history, naturally).  Incredibly, many of the rogue practices of the Roaring 20s still affect our drinking habits today.  Think about it: the precursor to the mixed-gender nightclub (the first Girls Night Out?); the birth of the mixed drink, gone were the days of simply ordering liquor on the rocks. Lastly, you see the impact of organized crime, how Al Capone came to shack up at our city's own Eastern State Penitentiary, and the fall of the 18th Amendment.

Sing on high the joys of being a dry.

American Spirits is running until April 28 and was about $17 as an adult.  I highly recommend taking a day into Philly and making a stop here!  Learn more about the exhibit at their site and see more of what the City of Brotherly Love is offer at the Visitor Center's Twitter (@PHLVisitorCntr)!  Slainte!

Nice to know you #18!