A Not-So-Great Great Lakes Glockenspiel

The latest seasonal 4-pack to come out of Foodgoat's favorite brewery, local or otherwise, is the Great Lakes Glockenspiel, a Weizenbock, which is a strong wheat beer.

Sadly, Foodgoat didn't like it.

While he likes the fact that it's 8% alcohol, as opposed to the usual 5%, it's one of their rare misses.

The problem?

Too ... German-y.

Actually, the Glockenspiel just doesn't taste like a Great Lakes beer. Not that it was bad, per se. But it lacks their signature ... something. Hand any other Greak Lakes to Foodgoat, and he could instantly taste the brand. This? Not so much.

The Sorry Beginning

One of Foodgoat's current favorite dishes is something he calls Blade Runner soup - an Asian noodle soup inspired by what for me is the most memorable scene in the film.

But our very first time making an Asian-style soup was a rare abject failure.

I read Saveur because the food is as authentic as it gets, it hasn't been emeril-ified or americanized or low-calorie-inated. Alas, that's the reason I don't often cook from Saveur: the ingredients are so exotic that I don't know what they are or where to find them.

That's the point where I usually give up. Fortunately, there is an Asian spice stand at the West Side Market, and she not only had kaffir lemon leaves and lemongrass and palm sugar, but she asked me if I needed galangal too, thereby sparing me from having to try to say it correctly.

Too bad the recipe didn't work out.

We neglected to rinse out the shrimp thoroughly, resulting in a gawdawful bottom of the sea taste. And the jalapeño we threw in made burn all the way down my throat, which is just too spicy. And we added too much water.

We ended up actually throwing the whole dish out.

Good things though: palm sugar in the soup rocked. And we discovered a new ingredient in galangal, a root related to ginger. Both are now in Foodgoat's repertoire, and Foodgoat managed to make Blade Runner soup, quite tastily and successfully, several times since then.

GoatSpawn's New Eating Tools

Two, slightly crooked, lower central incisors. To be used in the future for biting into food; currently being used now to scrape bits of food from Foodgoat's finger into GoatSpawn's mouth.

Foodgoat Drives!

Four years after his Volkwagon Jetta went up in flames, two years after we first started to think about replacing it, months after our first test drive ... Foodgoat finally has a new set of wheels!


It's a Subaru Forester! It's amazing how the tiny GoatSpawn that prompted us to buy a big ole SUV when we've been such fuel sippers.

What I like about the Forester:

• There is room for GoatSpawn's stroller, and luggage, and maybe even other stuff, in the trunk. It's also incredibly roomy for passengers.
• It has air conditioning and a working radio.
  
• Reliability. We keep cars for a long, long time.
  

What Foodgoat likes:

• "I can now stop having nightmares about driving with GoatSpawn on steep, icy hills and driveways in the Cleveland winters."
• "I can stand in the backseat and have your head outside the gigantic moonroof."
  
• "How bad-ass it looks with tinted windows and red lights on the dashboard at night."

What GoatSpawn likes:

• "It has 4 doors, which makes getting me and my carseat out of the back seat much easier. My feet no longer get banged up on the way in and out of the car
• "All the big windows to look out of."
• "It has a nice, smooth ride ... I fall right asleep once we get going."
  

What we don't like:

• Mileage (20 mpg city/26 mpg freeway)
• SUV guilt

(The runner-up car? The Toyota Prius Touring, which is a great car - fun to drive, surprisingly roomy for a family sedan, and of course, it blows the Forester away in fuel efficiency.)

Among the things I learned about car shopping:

1. Do your research and know as much as you can about the car, the options, the financing (including your credit score!), before you walk in. Most helpful site: True Car.
   
2. Don't go on a Saturday afternoon of a holiday weekend. Crowded, crowded, crowded.
3. Do go immediately after the baby's nap, so she's well rested for the long (and for her, totally boring) day ahead.
4. Do eat first! You'll be there longer than you think.
5. Breastfeeding? Do bring a nursing cover! Otherwise you may find yourself nursing behind the desk of the service department.
6. Do take the carseat! You'll want to know how well it fits and how easy it is to get baby out.
7. Do make sure the car will fit in your garage.

Our Kitchen Pest Experience, The Movie

Invasion!
Genre: Horror
Starring:Foodgoat and Ladygoat

Synopsis: The tranquil lives of a good-looking couple Vincent (played by Foodgoat, in his most intense role to date) and Angeline (played by Ladygoat) in a Midwestern city are disrupted when they slowly begin to notice small, brown moths in their unusually large and tastefully decorated apartment.

As the mysterious moths begin appearing with greater and more frightening frequency, the couple attempts to get to the root of the infestation, pitting themselves against the
Tracking the moths takes them into the darkest recesses of their kitchen cabinets, where they not only find hidden secrets of their past but old bags of flour that hide Mediterranean flour moths! Forcing them to question everything they believe in.

:::::SPOILER ALERT::::

Finally, a horror flick with a believable premise: moths breeding in poorly sealed bag of old and forgotten flour. It happens to everyone, or so they say, which is why people keep their grains and flour in big, airtight containers, or in the refrigerator. But what would happen if you didn't ...? This movie shows us what would happen.

Foodgoat and Ladygoat, after narrowly losing their lives in a desperate, senseless run through a chomping machine, come to the heart of the Mediterranean Flour Moth infestation. With their last gasping breath, they fling the whole wheat flour, the Wondra flour, the 3 half-filled bags of regular flour, and a bag of brown rice into the trash.