Disc Golf...One of My New Favorite Activies

My Dad always tells me, "You know, you are always busy doing something."  He knows this because he follows me on Facebook and also has access to my Google Calendar.  Between my work, brewing, tailgating, preparing to be a new dad, working around the house, going to concerts or sporting events, and all the other activities I like doing, I've recently taken on another hobby....disc golf.

What I looked like when I
lived in Vermont

I've been aware of disc golf for years, maybe as far back as my years of living in Vermont (94-99).  I mean seriously, there's so many hippies with hacky sacks and frisbees up there, it's not event funny!  The issue here is that I've always been a contact sport guy and disc golf looked slow and never really interested me, especially when compared to my love of street hockey.  Well shot up knees and a few concussions later, I needed to stop playing hockey and find a new sport as a hobby.  I tried kickball and it lead to me drinking too much.  I tried softball, but couldn't find a reliable league for softball players who just weren't that good at it.  I even tried curling, but my free time usually comes in the summer and curling is only a winter sport around Maryland.

Then last year, a good friend from my homebrew club named Chris mentioned he was going to play disc golf and I should come along.  He and his friends were going on the morning of my birthday and I figured that would be a great way to kick off the day with some fun in the sun.  I met him and his crew over at Rockburn Branch Park in Elkridge and I completely sucked.  In fact, my first throw (along with many other throws that day) went whizzing into the woods.  Chris and his friends were patient with me and helped spot me all morning long.  They offered nothing but encouragement and it meant a lot to me.  Now here's the thing.  I've never really been good at accepting I'm not very good at something.  This is especially the case when dealing with sports.  So as the winter went on, I kept thinking to myself that I really needed to give the whole disc golf thing another try.

Well my opportunity to take on disc golf again came this past April when my wife and I ventured out to San Francisco for her Spring Break.  We drove north of San Fran so that we could go to the Anderson Valley Brewing Company (AVBC).  As one would expect, AVBC is a brewery located in the heart of the Anderson Valley region of California.  They make absolutely excellent beers and it has always been a dream of mine to visit the brewery.  As luck would have it, AVBC has an 18-hole disc golf course on site.  So my wife and I took to the course after taking the brewery tour and sampling all the beers on draft.

The yummiest beer made in the USA!

Somewhere around the 5th hole, I realized that I was having a great time.  The weather was absolutely beautiful (sunny, no humidity, around 70 degrees), the beer that I was drinking while playing tasted so amazing (mmmmm...Summer Solstice cream ale), and the land surrounding the valley was beautiful and scenic.  It was quiet and I ended up having some sort of happy zen moment out there as I enjoyed some of the best of what Mother Nature had to offer.  This was what it took to get me hooked!  I had found my new hobby.

Throwing the disc from the tee at Anderson Valley Brewing Company

So luckily I live here in central Maryland and there are some great free courses in the area where I can play.  I also have some friends in the area who enjoy playing so that makes it fun.  Here's my take on the 2 course in Maryland I've played so far.

Rockburn Branch Park (Elkridge, MD)

This is a great park that I tend to go to a lot because it is 5-minutes from my house.  I feel this park is somewhat challenging because of all the trees in the area (for some reason my discs are attracted to tree trunks).  There are also a few water hazards out there.  There's a full 18-holes at this course spread out over some fairly hilly territory.  I love it because I get a good workout walking around the course.  I think the only downside is that there are some shaded areas and it gets dark pretty early there.  Still I love this course.

Druid Hill Park (Baltimore, MD)

I recently played this park at the recommendation of my friend Fred.  Don't get put off by the neighborhood that you have to drive to in order to get here.  Druid Hill Park is beautiful and I think a great place for beginners to start out at.  There are far less trees and hills than what you'd encounter at Rockburn.  It's a neat park though and in addition to the regular 18-holes, it has 9 extra holes out in the woods.  I had a lot of fun playing this course as well.

Can you tell I'm a happy guy
when I'm out disc golfing?

Well like I said I'm pretty new to this so I haven't been to a lot of courses yet.  If you have any courses you'd recommend me play in Maryland, please let me know in the comments area of this blog.  I'd love to try some new courses before winter hits.

That's all I got!  It's 11:30pm now and I need to get up at 6:30am to hit the course at Rockburn with my friends.  Maybe I'll see some of you out there someday.  Say hi if you run across me.

Cheers!
-Brent

Visit to BGR and Updated HoCo Burger Standings

Anyone who knows me knows that I crave a good hamburger all the time.  I'm like Wimpy from the Popeye cartoon.  I could eat one every day and if I were an el cheapo, "I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." 

Well to my excitement, there has been some buzz in HoCo blogosphere about a new burger joint coming to Howard County (see HowChow, Sarah Says and Kitchen Scribble).  The name of this place is BGR The Burger Joint.  Reviews on other BGRs locations on Yelp.com weren't too bad, but weren't too great.  I had to try it out myself though before passing judgment.  

With new restaurants, my rule of thumb is to not visit them on their first week of being open.  The reason being the staff rarely has a clue as to what they are doing, the food is usually under/over cooked, and the restaurants are usually really crowded.  So I give it a week or so before going.  In this case, I think BGR opened officially on May 17th and I had my chance to visit it on the first time on May 27th.  

We (a crowd of 6 of us) arrived at 6:00pm and found plenty of open seats in there.  We all went up to place our order and the girl working the register was really well trained and had no problem taking the complex orders.  I ordered a Southwestern Burger (description from website:  A 9oz burger infused with southwestern influences, like chipotles, poblanos, onion and chilis. Topped with pepper jack and served atop our black bean salsa. Served on a fresh, buttery-toasted brioche bun with our mojo sauce.), done medium, with a side of Rosemary Parmesan Yukon gold fries.  My wife ordered the Veggie Burger (description from website:  Our fresh house-made recipe including brown rice, black beans, oats and molasses. Served on a fresh, buttery-toasted brioche bun.) and shared my fries.  Being that she's a chowing lightweight, I got to sample both of them.

Service time was just ok.  It was a little slow for a burger joint and the crowd wasn't large, but the burgers are fresh and cooked to order, so waiting 12 or so minutes wasn't too bad.  

The Southwest burger was a little more well done than I typically think of a burger that is done medium.  It was not dry though and tasted pretty good.  It was an absolute mess to eat though with pieces of the toppings and hamburger falling all over my plate.  

The Veggie Burger that I had was pretty damn good when it comes to veggie burgers.  It was thick, moist, and filling.  I am not a veggie burger fan, but I really enjoyed this.  My wife was happy too.

The fries were about average.  I thought a rosemary Parmesan fry would be something special.  It was just a pile of fries with rosemary and parmesan sprinkled on top.  Had the fries been fresh out of the fryer, they might have been moist enough for the rosemary and parmesan to stick to, but it wasn't.  Total bummer.  

A friend got the onion rings and they were enormous.  I was able to snag one of these bad boys and thought it was pretty good.  It was super greasy, but still really good.  

Another friend got the parmesan asparagus spears.  Although I didn't taste them, they were a total rip off.  Almost $4 and she only got like 6 spears.  What about a decent serving size folks?!?!?

New Coke Machines

The soda machine there is a total trip.  You can get one of like 15-20 different types of Coca-Cola products.  To each soda you can add a syrup.  My first time through I got a Grape Fanta (yeah I'm a dork) and the second time through I got a Cherry Lemonade.  The combinations are endless.  The only problem is that it is slow for people to navigate around the touch screen menu to find what they want. 

Interface on new Coke machine.

As were were leaving there was almost a brawl over the table we were sitting at.  I said we had no problem getting a seat when we arrived and that was true, but as time went on, the place began to fill up.  Tables along the right hand wall of BGR are 6 seaters and packed in pretty tight.  So seating is at a premium there.  As we were leaving two female vultures both jumped at our table claiming it was rightfully theirs.  I wasn't in to the drama so we just left as they started yelling at each other.

So bottom line, this place is pretty good, but it still doesn't beat my favorite burger joints in HoCo.  

1. King Burger at Fat Burger with Skinny Fries
2. Black Angus Burger at Victoria Gastro Pub with Poutine Duck Fat Fries
3. Burnin Love Burger at Red Robin with Onion Ring Tower
4. Southwestern Burger with onion rings at BGR
5. 1/2 lb burger at Fuddruckers with a basket of fries (thick ones)
6. Serious burger at Cheeburger Cheeburger with a Frings basket

Before everyone jumps up saying "Where's Five Guys?" let me explain.  I think the fries there are nasty and the presentation of the burger just makes the burgers look unappetizing and cheap.  

Oh and by the way, nothing beats my homemade "Madison Burger."  What's a Madison burger you ask?  ‎"The Madison" consists of a 3/4 lb burger, served on a bagel, with a slice of onion, a fried egg doused with Franks Hot Sauce, a heaping slab of macaroni salad, and topped with ketchup and mayo.

Eating the inaugural Madison Burger

So what do you think?  What are your favorite burger joints in Howard County?  I'd love to know.  Am I missing something?  Any local joints I have to try?

Cheers!

-Brent    

hocofood@@@

Damn Restaurant.com For Making Me Fat!!!

I think one of the coolest blogs for Marylanders is done at the BaltimoreSun.com in Carson Porter's Deal$ blog.  This Carson guy puts together a blog on deals in the local area.  One of them that he highlighted just this week was for 80% off at Restaurant.com.  To get the deal, you just enter the promo code of "MOM" at the checkout.  I did it today and it worked!

For those who don't know, Restaurant.com can be great and it can be sucky.  There's a few rules that you have to deal with when using the gift certificates from here.  They range from only being able to dine on certain nights of the week, to a minimum bill amount, and sometimes even the dreaded "may not be used for alcohol."  DOH!

Also, the quality of several of the "local" restaurants on there look to be somewhat questionable, but once and a while you find a few gems.  Today I found several gems for those of us in HoCo and the surrounding area.


Eggspectation

Can anyone say anything bad about Eggspectation?  Ok maybe the benches and chairs are weirdly shaped and your ass hurts after sitting in them for an hour.  Oh well, the food there is soooooooooo worth it.  My wife and I love eating there and we try to make it over there every month or so.  I bought 4 of these and will definitely use them within the next few months.

My go-to meals:  For breakfast - Chesapeake Omelet.  For lunch - Cuban Panini.  For dinner - Maple Glazed Rib Eye

The deal:  $5 for a $10 gift certificate or $10 for a $25 gift certificate.

The rules:  Minimum purchase of $20 for the $10 gift certificate or $35 for the $25 gift certificate.  18% gratuity added prior to discount.  Valid for Dinner and Dine In.

The link:  http://www.restaurant.com/rdc/eggspectation-ellicott-city-american-restaurant-rid=409144



Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro

I'm not sure how I found Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro, but I think it is some of the best Chinese food around!  It's popular with the MacAloney's because of the excellent vegetarian options for the wifey.  Me?  I like to tackle the many flavorful meat dishes that they have to offer.  They even have a great piano player who plays music while you eat dinner.  What more can you ask for?

My go-to meals:  Appetizer - Cold Sesame Peanut Noodles or Pan Fried Pork Dumplings.  For dinner - Chef Xu's Chicken or Chef's Hot Crispy Beef

The deal:  $5 for a $10 gift certificate or $10 for a $25 gift certificate.  Higher denominations available as well.

The rules:  Minimum purchase of $20 for the $10 gift certificate or $35 for the $25 gift certificate.  18% gratuity added prior to discount.  Not valid on holidays or special events.

The link:  http://www.restaurant.com/rdc/jesse-wongs-asean-bistro-columbia-asian-restaurant-rid=390859

Stained Glass Pub

This is my neighborhood bar!  It's right around the corner from my house and has amazing pizza.  It's homemade "momma style" pizza.  The wings there aren't too bad either.  The only upgrade I'd make here is to their beer selection.  It's not all just Bud and Miller, but there's not much in the way of craft beer here.  Mondays and Tuesdays bring half price pizza (cannot get deal in conjunction with Restaurants.com gift certificate) and Tuesday night is trivia night.  Sure I haven't done trivia night yet, but I plan on hitting it this summer once Manina is on Summer vacation since we make a super smart team and will own the place!!!

My go-to meals:  Appetizer - Old Bay Wings.  For dinner - Pepperoni, Hamburger, and Onion Pizza

The deal:  $17.50 for a $25 gift certificate.  Not the best deal normally, but with the 80% off discount code, it's a great deal!

The rules:  Minimum purchase of $35 for the $25 gift certificate.  18% gratuity added prior to discount.  Dine in only.  Not valid on specials.

The link:  http://www.restaurant.com/rdc/stained-glass-pub-elkridge-american-restaurant-rid=363434

Anyways, I hope you get a chance to get over there and enjoy the deals that Restaurant.com has to offer.  If you are in the Howard County or Baltimore area, tell me what your favorite restaurants on Restaurant.com are.  I'm always looking for new places to check out so I love recommendations.

Note:  I totally screwed up the title of this blog.  It's Restaurant.com, not RestaurantS.com.  Not sure why I threw an "S" in there.  Guess I need to lay off the homebrew for a while.  Haha.

-Brent

MacAloney Randomness

Go figure.  After my last entry I said how I was going to do a better job of updating my blog.  That was back on April 7th.  And here I sit on May 3rd and nothing much has been updated around these parts.  It's not due to lack of wanting to write about things, it's just that I've been on vacation and also dealing with tornadoes.  So here are some random thoughts that have gathered in my mind that I figure I would toss out there for your reading pleasure.

Oakland is a Dump?  

Oakland Crime Map

Practically my whole life I have been lead to believe that Oakland, CA is one of the worst places to visit in the USA.  I heard a million things about crime, nasty people, and overall ugliness on a scale that makes the toughest areas of Washington, DC seem like Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.  Having just visited there though, I'm really not sure where this reputation came from.  The people there were not only pleasant, but friendly and for the most part happy.  At no point of walking around downtown Oakland at night did Manina or I feel unsafe or uneasy.  In going to the Oakland Colosseum to watch the Boston Red Sox play against the Athletics, the fans were really nice.  I'm pretty sure I didn't even hear one profanity yelled the whole game.  Amazing!!!  So if in your travels to the left coast you are given the opportunity to visit Oakland, I highly recommend it and do so with an open mind.

There's Nothing to Look at Here!
Is it just me or am I the only person who feels bad for the poor victims of the tornado super outbreak last week?  It was like the rest of the USA could care less about the suffering of our own citizens and more about a stupid wedding in England.  I mean seriously folks!  Why aren't the knuckleheads from Hollywood lining up to lend their appearances to charity events for the victims?  Why don't you see a crawl at the bottom of the television screen asking people to send a text message to a number to donate $10 to the Red Cross for the victims of the deadliest tornado outbreak in almost 40 years?  Oh wait, cause everyone was waking up at 4am on a Friday morning to watch some awkward looking tool wed a girl who is clearly too hot for him, but is doing it for the money and status.  Well done America!

National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) product captures rotation tracks of April 27-28 tornado outbreak

Down on the Farm
I saw on HowChow yesterday that farmers markets are opening up this week in Howard County.  That is awesome.  I plan on visiting the farmers markets a lot more this summer.  In fact, I'm going this week in search of some vegetable plants to plant on the side of the house.  Last year a picked up a pepper plant that grew like crazy.  Green peppers and basil plants, here I come!

If you want more information on the Farmers Markets in Howard County, you can visit their Facebook page.

Fighting Fat?  Fund the National Parks!
Last week I did a great 4.5 mile hike in Muir Woods, which is located just outside of San Francisco, CA.  If you have never been there, it is an amazing place to visit.  You feel like you are in the village of the Ewoks on the planet of Endor.

Muir Woods, as well as other National Parks, was celebrating "National Parks Week" and admission fees were waived to all parks.  The place was absolutely packed!  Now I'm not sure if it is always like this at Muir Woods, but I got to wondering if the place was packed because it was free.  There were tons of families out there enjoying a beautiful day in the park.

All I hear now a days is how the Government wants to intervene on your life and tell you how to raise your kids.  Whether its forcing you to buy your kid's school lunch or putting taxes on soda and snack food, we are all being told what to eat.  How about this?  How about we use some tax dollars to fund the National Parks system to an appropriate level so that they can remain open for free, year round.  Imagine the possibilities here.  Families would definitely take advantage of this to get out and enjoy some of our national treasures on a regular basis. This would get the kids out and cut back on childhood obesity.  Great!


Oh well, that is all I got on my mind right now.  Glad you took time to read it.  I'm open to any comments you got on anything posted here.  Have a great week!

-Brent

Federal Government Shutdown = More Brewing?

So last week my wife Manina made headlines by having an article written about her in the Elkridge Patch in an article titled "Elkridge Teacher Reports for Duty in Fort Meade Classroom".  Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.  Well this week I got my turn in the Elkridge Patch spotlight in an article named "Federal Government Holds Workers and Residents in Limbo."  Sure I didn't get a whole article dedicated to me like Manina did....she's much cooler than I am....but I did get a quote in there that brought some comic relief to a few of my fellow Federal employee friends.

Brenton MacAloney, an Elkridge resident and meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said officials at his office asked employees to submit their time sheets and get them certified in advance of the possible shutdown.  “I’m probably going to brew some beer,” said MacAloney, a home-brew aficionado, on what he would do with his free time should the shutdown occur.

What the hell else am I supposed to do other than sit around all depressed, barred from the job that I've love?  I'm really not very skilled at other areas so I couldn't pick up a side job to supplement the income I'm missing.  I'm not much of a radical and don't have the attention span to stand on the steps of the Capital Building every day chanting til I'm blue in the face at a bunch of rich guys who are obviously confused about what it means to be an American.  Heck I even took a day off from work a few weeks ago and completed all my Spring lawn cleaning.  So that's out of the question.

Now I did think about doing nothing but sitting on the front porch, smoke cigars and drink beer with the rest of the Feds living in my neighborhood, but that will just lead to me getting fatter and more unhealthy.  Lord knows I need that like a hole in the head.  So why not go on a brewing blitz see just how much beer I can make while I'm out of work?

The benefits of going on a brewing blitz are endless, but here's a few that come to mind as I type this.

1. I'm not being lazy and watching 18-hours of CSI every day I'm not at work.
2. I'm not getting arrested...yes I know the thought of this happening to me does cross some of your minds on a weekly or monthly basis, so I had to say it.
3. I'm always happy when I brew...except when I knock a mash tun full of grains all over the yard by tripping over a hose.  Luckily this has only happened once since I started brewing.
4. I get to sharpen my skill in an area I would like to think will my be second career after I get tired of working for the Feds.
5. I know my beer will make my friends happy.
6. I get to be outside in the beautiful Spring air of Maryland doing something I am passionate about.

So with that said, the clock strikes 5pm and I'm already an hour and a half into the world of the unknown (got off work at 3:30pm) and things aren't looking good down in the District.  I think it's time to pull out Jamil's book for inspiration, check my inventory of grains, and open up BeerSmith to come up with the recipes for several concoction that will help me and my friends get through the idiocy that has taken over my much loved country.  I guess we'll have to see what the deal is when we wake up Monday morning. 

Are you a Federal Employee in the DC or Baltimore Metro areas who is going to be out of work if the Government goes into shutdown mode?  Want to brew or learn to brew during the shutdown?  If so, let me know and I'd love to have some help in my brewing adventures.

The Rebirth of this Blog

Long time no talk.  Yeah I know, I haven't written things here in a while.  I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I spent a lot of time working on building the CSI Homebrewers Club website over the winter.  Actually, nah, who am I kidding?  I've just been lazy and unmotivated over the winter.  But like Spring wakes up all the hibernating elements of nature, I too have been woken up and am ready to get back on track here.

I've found my way back here because of an event I went to yesterday.  As I went through my daily lunch routine of reading the Elkridge Patch (great local newspaper by the way!!), I stumbled across a posting advertising a HoCoBlogs.com happy hour / meetup occurring at the Stained Glass Pub in Elkridge.  Being that this event was taking place around a mile from my house, I figured I could swing by and do some promotion of the CSI Homebrewers Club website while drinking a beer and chatting with some local HoCo (Howard County) folks.  Little did I know how awesome this event would be. 

I don't know what I expected.  Maybe a handful of computer geeks like myself sitting around talking about the topics they blog about.  All I knew was that the first $200 in drinks were on the house and I liked the sound of that.  What I walked into was a huge gathering having somewhere on the order of 40-50 people chatting it up, having a great time, and networking.  Sure I knew no one there, but then again, I'm not very shy.  So I just hopped into conversations and started to talk to people.

I soon realized that there were other people like me out there.  In fact, I think one of the most interesting conversations of the night had to be with a couple of wine enthusiasts, Terry and Kathy, who write a blog about all aspects of wine, called WineTrailTraveler.com.  They were the wine world's version of me!!!  With a beer in my hand and glasses of wine in their hand we talked about a lot of the similarities of making beer and wine.  They were a step or two beyond basic wine making and were talking about embarking on the jump to the winemakers version of going "all grain."  I got a lot of great ideas from them on content I can add to my website, as well as the CSI website with regards to reviews of various breweries.  So that was a lot of fun. 

Another person I met there was TJ from the Elkridge Patch.  I know I probably rave too much about the Patch's coverage of what is going on in Elkridge, but I've really taken a liking to the writings of TJ.  His Patch postings are always good food for though and I find myself frequently commenting on his content.  It was great to finally meet him and talk about a passion we both have in common, the Boston Red Sox. 

Of course, I met others too...too many to name, but I had great conversations with all of them.  It's amazing how often my "just another day" turns into a new adventure of some sorts.  The only comparison I can make to that is with my beer making.  My goal is to always make something drinkable.  What I commonly find though is that the final product ends up being something really good, not just drinkable.  Maybe it's chance or maybe it's luck.  It's probably a little bit of both, but to me, that is what I love the most about life.  Finding out how something can go from ordinary to extraordinary in the blink of an eye.