I'm not one to drink one type of beer all night long. I like flavor. I like switching things up. 

Here's what I had on the beer agenda last night. 

What was on yours?

Wife, aka, The Home Chef whipped up some killer pancakes this morning. She crushed in some bananas with fresh batter and then threw in some pancakes. At first, I thought that the sweet and sweeter tastes would be a conflict for my pallate, but that wasn't the case at al. 

They were fantastic. 

Check 'em out.

So, you're waking up this morning, feeling bloated, tired and slightly hung over. You know you have some turkey, mashies, stuffing and all types of other goodness in the fridge, but what do you really want to eat for breakfast the day after Turkey Day? 

Yes, you guessed it: cold pizza. 

In my case, it was cold pizza and leftover steak and cheese calzone. 

What are you muching on today?

Our motto here at Cold Pizza is eat it if you got it, regardless of the time.

How do you hold off the famished lunch wolf? 

I was starving, so I decided to make myself some lunch.  Since Beth now eats Indian food, we had some garlic naan in the fridge, so I toasted up some, then put some Trader Joe's ricotta (my current favorite; it really is pretty awesome) and some mozzarella on it along with some black pepper, and voila.  Delicious quick and easy lunch.

Quick piece of advice, though: don't use the naan frozen.  Toast it up just until the bottom starts to brown, then take it out, top it, and put it back in.

Home run, I think.  Quite tasty, quick to make, and it'll definitely scratch that hunger itch.  If you're feeling the rumblings, give this one a try!

If you grew up with tacos as a meal, you've probably come to associate ground beef (or, if your family was more progressive, ground turkey or chicken) with tacos, along with a kit from Old El Paso or Ortega.  I don't blame you, so did I.  The other night, however, I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and Guy Fieri went to a restaurant whose coup de grace was a shredded beef taco.  In fact, so famous was that shredded beef taco, that people went there specifically for it.

That was good enough for me.  Not to go to the restaurant, but to decide that I wanted some.  As is usually the case with my kitchen inspiration, I thought about how to make it in my slow cooker.  If you're wondering why, you have to understand that I work from 10:30am to 6:30pm.  By the time I get home, I have no time to cook if I want to eat at a reasonable time before my 11:00pm bedtime, so I need to come up with something that's easy, and that's exactly what this recipe is.  You prepare it the night before, cook it while you're at work, then come home and have dinner with minimal preparation.

Without further ado, here's what it takes to make some pretty awesome shredded beef tacos with very little effort.

Ingredients

• 1 2.25 - 2.5 lb. Brisket, First Cut (Flat Cut) or Second Cut (Triangle Cut).  First Cut is leaner and tougher, but since you're putting it in a slow cooker and shredding it afterward, either cut will work equally well.
• 1 Cup McCormick Taco Seasoning (I use McCormick for three reasons: 1: it's easy to get a huge container of it at Costco, 2: it has a lot of salt in it so when it cooks down there's plenty of flavor left, and 3: it has these awesome onion flakes in it that provide excellent flavor)
• 4 Cups Water
• 1 Box of your favorite Taco Shells (I highly recommend the ones from Trader Joe's)
• Shredded cheddar cheese, taco sauce, etc, for topping.

Directions

1.  In a large enough bowl, mix the water and taco seasoning thoroughly.  I'm assuming you could use a whole bunch of packets of seasoning from the store, but it would be a pain in the butt to open all those packages.  The other option would be to make your own seasoning, and I've done it in the past using this recipe.

2.  Place the brisket in your slow cooker's bowl, then cover it with the sauce, place the cover on it, then put it in the fridge overnight.  I recommend doing this in an effort to have some of the seasoning mixture soak into the brisket overnight.

3.  Place the bowl of the slow cooker back on the heating element and cook for 10 hours at low temperature.  Your brisket should look like the picture below when it's done.

4.  With two forks, tear the meat into shreds, then place the meat in taco shells and top with your favorite toppings.  Me?  I prefer cheddar cheese alone, but that I'll leave up to you.

Honestly?  I'm a huge fan of tacos.  Aside from Pizza, I can't think of a single food I like as much as tacos, and now that I've had these, I never want the "ground turkey" type ever again.  These are clearly more expensive to make, but they are so much more delicious I can't even begin to tell you.  If Tacos are your thing, you owe it to yourself to give these a try and they'll probably spoil you for the "Taco Bell" style tacos forever!

Bon Apetit!

Is it chili and some Sam Adams? Buds and dogs? Pizza and Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA?

We all can't be lucky enough to see every game and tailgate. So, when you're at home and tailgaiting on you couch, what's on the menu? 

Ready. Set. Go.

If you're into burgers, you need to be reading "A Hamburger Today."  You've never met a group of individuals so obsessed with burgers in your life, and trust me when I tell you, you'll be glad you started reading if you're a fan of ground beef on a bun.

I was reading a review today of a place in Portland called "Dick's Kitchen" and here's what stood out to them about the burger (and the other food for that matter):

As if to make up for the fact that the food is minimally salted in the kitchen, a grinder of sea salt rests on every table near a conspicuous placard suggesting that, should you find the food's salt content a little lacking, you may feel free to add more at your discretion. Fine in theory, but...no, not fine in theory. Adding salt to the patty after it's already been cooked doesn't draw out the flavors in the beef nearly as well and leaves a crunchy, grainy texture on the outside of your burger. In the words of Alton Brown, that's not good eats.

There's a philosophy among people that don't know any better, and it's a bad one.  The idea is that if you make salt available, adding it afterward is every bit as good as adding it from the beginning.  Sorry folks, it doesn't work that way.

Salt isn't just seasoning; it acts within the chemsitry of the food to change the actual flavor of the food.  Topping with more salt to taste is fine, but you'll never get the food to live up to its potential by topping with salt as opposed to cooking with it.  My wife and I are so cognicent of this that we don't even put salt out on the table when we eat; we season our food so perfectly that we feel slighted if someone puts salt on.

Okay, maybe I'm bragging a little, but the takeaway is a simple one: nothing demolishes the flavor of a perfectly cooked dish than missing simple seasoning, particularly salt.  If you've ever thought the words "People can just add it later," and you're not keeping sodium out for medical reasons, then you really need to re-learn how to cook because there's a good chance your food probably sucks.

We write this site for guys and let's be honest; most guys are scared to death of getting into the kitchen and cook.  And no, I don't mean "reheat," I mean really cook something delicious that you'll enjoy and be proud of.

One of the best things a working guy can own is a slow cooker.  If you've never owned one or used one, stop what you're doing and go buy one.  You throw your ingredients in, let it sit all day, and when you open it up you have food that you could only dream of.  In fact, not only does a slow cooker make things taste great because it cooks in flavors, it does an amazing job of tenderizing even the toughest meat.  

My main tip?  Buy a "smart" one.  Rival is the only company that makes the "Crock Pot," which is the one your parents probably owned.  The new ones have variable programmable timers, and all kinds of fun bells and whistles.  While you don't need those bells and whistles, they do add nice functionality.  For example, when ours is done it switches from cooking to warming automatically, meaning if you aren't there, it won't overcook your food.  Buy within your range, but don't worry about spending a few extra bucks.  You'll be amazed what you can do inside a good slow cooker.

I'll share a few recipes with you, but I made something so good for dinner that I had to share.

Here, without delay is dinner.

Beer and Honey Barbecue Chicken With Glazed Carrots

Ingredients:

1 chicken, medium sized, cut into parts

1/2 bottle of barbecue sauce (1 - 1 1/2 cups total)

6oz. of beer (I used Coors Light; keep it light, you don't want a heavy beer for this)

3-4 Tablespoons of honey

4-5 splashes of worcestershire

3-4 teaspoons of garlic powder.

Onion Crunch (crumbled durkee fried onions work also) for topping

1 Can of carrots

Directions:

1.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk the barbecue sauce, beer, honey, and worcestershire.  The consistency should be somewhat watery, but it should stick to the whisk as you pull it out.  If it's too thin and doesn't stick to the whisk, add some more honey.  You don't want this to be too watery because if it is, it will separate during cooking.

2.  Place the chicken parts in the slow cooker in one even layer.  DO NOT stack the parts if you can avoid it.  If you must, stack the smaller parts (wings and legs) on top of the breasts and thighs.  This is very important as the temperature will be somewhat higher at the bottom and the meatier parts need more heat to cook.  Pour the sauce over the chicken as evenly as possible.  Ideally, it should just barely cover the chicken.  A little exposed meat and skin is okay, but you don't want whole parts above the sauce line.

3.  Shake the garlic powder over the top of the sauce so that it's covering evenly, then put the onion crunch on top in an even layer.  You don't have to cover every inch, but you don't want lumps.  Distribute it as evenly as possible.  The onions shouldn't sink into the sauce too far and should stay mostly dry on top (see picture below).  This is important for the next step.

4.  Layer the carrots on top of the onion crunch.  DO NOT press them down into the sauce.  The reason for this is simple.  We want to cook the carrots using the steam from the sauce and the aromatics from the ingredients, but we don't want them to boil in the sauce.  If they do, they'll literally be mush when you try and eat them and will have no texture whatsoever.  During the course of cooking, the liquid will rise, but that will take a few hours, rather than starting them off in the sauce from the beginning.  This is exactly what should happen.

5.  Set the slow cooker for 7-8 hours on low heat (you could probably do high-heat for 4 hours if you wanted, but this dish works well because it can cook while you're at work).  Drop the lid on and walk away.

6.  After 7 hours, carefuly remove the carrots from the top of the cooker.  Put them aside.  Then carefully remove the chicken pieces (they may fall apart, that's normal.  Just be really REALLY careful).  We like to make this dish with yellow rice, but it works equally well with potatoes or any other sides you're accustomed to.  Try to avoid assertive flavors, though, because the flavors on this dish are very strong in their own right.  The potatoes we served it with in the picture below were simply boiled, then tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

And there you have it, plated and ready to eat.

The nice thing about this dish is that it takes very little prep, can be made the night before you make it, and can cook while you're out and about your day.  All in all, that's a win.

Next time, I'll teach you how to make a deli-authentic brisket sandwich at home using your slow cooker and you'll be blown away by how good it is.

Good luck and hit me up if you try this and let me know how much you like it!  If you don't love it, I'll come to your house and eat it for ya! 

Working in downtown Boston, there are countless options for lunch.  There are burritos spots, sandwhich shops, sit-down restaurants.  All of them are generally fine.  But over the last 6-9 months, I have narrowed my choices considerably -- to food from trucks.

Yes, the food truck explosion is everywhere, and I'm a big fan.

Across the street from my office is one such truck.  And it's where I'm headed in about 5 minutes.  BBQ Smith is focused on serving smoked meats over freshly baked buns, topped with sauces that are a bit of a twist on the usual BBQ sauces.  The smoked chicken sandwich features a tasty salsa verde and a dollop of greek yogurt and the combination works well.

But today I'm going for the smoked pork sandwich.  Because there is nothing better than that in the world.