Tonight, I cooked my favorite burger - the Radley Heat Burger. I haven’t made these in quite awhile. They are not insanely hot, just enough to provide a nice warmth throughout the meal.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds of lean hamburger
• Buns
• 1 large poblano pepper
• 1/4 pound pepper jack cheese
• Hottest horseradish you can find
• Worcestershire sauce
• Hot sauce
• Chili powder - Hot
• Garlic powder
• 4 large white mushrooms

Mix together the ground beef, garlic powder, horseradish, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and chili powder.

Roasted the large poblano pepper in a 375 F oven for 40 minutes. Remove, peel, and seed the roasted pepper. Cut into slices.

Take a 1/4 of the burger mixture and make a thin patty. Place pepper jack cheese and several the poblano slice onto top of it.

Make another burger patty and place on top the former patty. Seal the edges well.

Fry or grill ‘em up!

Cut white mushrooms and onion. Saute in the pan drippings.

Serve on buns with a hearty beer. In this case, the Copper John Scottish Ale from the Madison River Brewery.

This evening I had the Copper John Scottish Ale from the Madison River Brewing. The brew is a nose full of smoke and peat tones. The color is a bit light for the style, but the flavor is on. Overall, it is a good Scottish ale, but I think that it is a light in gravity and color.

These spiritual window-shoppers, who idly ask, ‘How much is that?’ Oh, I’m just looking. They handle a hundred items and put them down, shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping. But these walk into a shop, and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment, in that shop.

Where did you go? “Nowhere.” What did you have to eat? “Nothing much.”

Even if you don’t know what you want, buy  something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.

RUMI (1207-1273)

This is a most excellent dish, although I made so much I’ll be eating chicken vindaloo for a few days. My version is extra spicy, so fair warning.

Ingredients
2 teaspoon cumin seeds, whole
1 teaspoon peppercorns, black
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
1 cinnamon (3 in stick)
1 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds, whole
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds, whole
5 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon brown sugar, light
10 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)
2 large yellow onions, peeled and cut into; half-rings
6 tablespoon water
1 ginger, fresh (1-inch cube), peeled; and coarsely chopped
10 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely; chopped (or less)
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, ground
1/2 teaspoon turmeric, ground
2 lb chicken breast (boneless), cut into; bite-sized pieces
3 tomatoes
1/2 lb new potatoes, peeled and quartered

After thought: Great as a leftover rolled in a tortilla shell.

This morning I went out to the Shields River Valley with Sam and Jabe. The main goal was shorebirds; however, the high water levels of the Cottonwood Reservoir were not conducive to viewing any shorebirds other than both Yellowlegs, a lone Willet and a single American Avocet.

We continued north towards Ringling, and we were able to pick up many Golden Eagles and 4 Ferruginous Hawks (totally awesome!!!). The Regal Buteo never disappoints the observer. There were 3 adults and 1 juvenile.

Tonight, Sam and I went down to the Bozeman Brewing Company tasting room for a few great beers and to listen to the Bridger Creek Boys. The bluegrass was incredible and beers were just as amazing. The band seems to just getting tighter and tighter. I had 2 different brews; the Wee Heavy Barley Wine and the HopZone.

Wee Heavy Barley Wine The nose of this great barley wine is the first thing that you notice when bringing the sniffer to your face. Thick waves of malt fill your nostrils. the mouth-feel is full and soothing. The flavor has floral, almost honey, notes with a nice amount of alcohol. A great beer in a great atomshpere.

HopZone HopZone sums this one up. The aroma is full of floral and resin notes. The first sip brings a full force hop punch to your grill. This is awesome for a hop-head like myself. This is one of my perfect beers - high hops and high alcohol (~7.5% ABV).

Robinson Jeffers

Death’s a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made

Something more equal to centuries

Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness.

The mountains are dead stone, the people

Admire or hate their stature, their insolent quietness,

The mountains are not softened or troubled

And a few dead men’s thoughts have the same temper.

After the Golden Trout Lakes hike, Andy, the dogs and I went down to big Sky to visit the Lone Peak Brewery. Andy had been there on multiple occasions and, for myself, it was my first visit. The brewery and tasting room are located in a small location. The tasting room is inviting with shuffleboard table and a full service kitchen. I had the 3 beer maximum and got a little tour of the brewery by Gervaise Purcell. The brewery equipment consists of 4 20-barrel and 2 10-barrel fermentors along with a mashtun and kettlehouse. All the equipment was purchased new and was in excellent condition. Folowing paragraphs are reviews of the 3 brews that I tried at the Lone Peak Brewery.

Wit’s End Wheat

The beer poured a hazy amber with a short-lived head. In the aroma, you can really pick up on the coriander and a faint hop floral. With taste was infused with citrus from the orange peel and the herbaceous qualities of the coriander. Overall, a very nice summer cooler, especially after a little speed-hiking.

Hippie Highway Oatmeal Stout

Dark as the ace of spades and a aroma full of malt , smoke tones and a pepperiness. Light on the carbonation and the taste is full of malts and subtle smokiness. The gravity on this stout seems to be lighter than other oatmeal stouts that I have had, namely Moose Drool, but overall a fine beverage.

Hellroaring ESB

Poured a medium, hazy brown with very little head. The nose was full hop bitterness with some floral and citrus overtones. The mouth feel come on with floral and fruit followed by a pleasant lingering bitterness.

This afternoon, Andy, the dogs and went for a quick hike up to Golden Trout Lakes. These lakes lie beneath Elephant Head Mountain at the head of Portal Creek in the Gallatin Range. During the hike, I realized that I was not in the best hiking shape, but this hike will fix that issue. I was little worried about how Miss Olivia would hold up, but these concerns were soon dispelled. She was awesome has Maddie’s mini-me. Everything that Maddie did, Olivia did…it was hilarious. After the hike, we went down to Big Sky for a refreshing pint or two at the lone Peak Brewery.

KML

I received this in my email today and I definitely want to get everyone to lend their voice to fighting these proposed changes that would negatively affect the craft beer industry in Montana.

“The Montana Department of Revenue is proposing an amendment to Montana’s Tasting Room already restrictive laws. The Department of Revenue is proposing to hold Montana breweries to the same rules as all beverage licensees which allows no consumption of alcohol after closing time. This means that, like bars, breweries around the state would have to have all drinks off the bar and all customers physically out of the building by closing time. However, unlike bars who must close by 2am, our closing time would remain at 8pm. The Department of Revenue is having a public hearing regarding the proposed amendment next Thursday, August 7th in Helena. This amendment would obviously be a huge detriment to tasting rooms around Montana so the majority of active brewers and brewery personnel are all traveling to Helena next week to oppose this amendment.”

Glacier Brewing has created an online petition that we are planning on presenting at the hearing. Here is the link for that petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/MTTROP/petition.html

I encourage everyone to sign this petition and help the Montana craft brewers.