Book Review and Giveaway: The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer, AnUnpretentious Guide to Craft Beer

If you are a craft beer lover, you will love The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer, it's keeps the fun in craft beer and breaks down all you need to know about beer in a totally approachable way! I will be giving away 2 copies, so read on to enter!

I have been virtual friends with Ashley Routson aka "The Beer Wench" for a couple years now. We haven't met in person just yet (it may cause a sexy craft beer supernova when we meet). West Coast meets East Coast... it's bound to happen. We are kindred spirits.

Aviators glasses wearing, funky colored hair, opinionated, aggressive and FUN.

If you don't know who Ashley (The Beer Wench) is- well she is THE BIGGEST female personality in craft beer. She's written for basically ever craft beer publication, she's had a blog, she works in the craft beer industry (for Green Flash right now) and she is a self described "Craft Beer Evangelist".

She kicks ass... basically. So it's about time the girl had a book!

The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer, An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer is all it describes. Reading though this book it's like Ashley is talking to you herself. It's not all words like "mouthfeel" and "lacing" it's down to earth and totally fun (the girl loves a good pun, I do too).

As you guys know, I love me some craft beer. As you can imagine this ain't my first go at reading a book about craft beer. My first attempt at reading a craft beer book failed since it was sooooo BORING! The second wasn't so bad, but I feel like you needed a bit of a base knowledge to understand it. Ashley's book is for ANYONE, from the "Oh I just tried this beer called Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat" to the "This bottle of Raison D'Extra has been aged in my cellar for 3 years, but I think the 2 year old one is better".

What I like most is how she breaks up the information for each beer from the obvious info of smell and taste to "Drink Instead of" where she puts in other spirits and wines with similar flavor profiles. You also get a brief history lesson of each beer style and even suggested pairings.

About a third of the book goes into beer and food.... My favorite part. Let's face it, the wench also knows how to eat!! So do I...  One of my favorite parts of the book....

You can find my recipe on pages 214-215.... OMG! 
I was SUPER psyched to be a part of her book. Since I started loving craft beer I've really looked up to Ashley. She has made a career out of her love for beer and I hope to do the same.

So if you love beer, food and a fun read you MUST have this book.

Well I am giving away 2 copies!! Sign up below to WIN your own copy!

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Fall Craft Beer Picks and a Giveaway

It's fall and with the crisp cooler weather I wave adeiu to IPA's and welcome back my favorite Pumpkin Spiced Ales. You gotta have a reason to look forward to every season and I always look forward to wrapping my lips around some pumpkin beer!

This year I decided to wrap up my favorites and collaborate with fellow beer blogger Joel from Fermented Reality. I met him a while ago on twitter. He sure knows his beer, but what really got my attention is some of his t-shirts. Especially his Hip Hop t-shirt. I begged for him to make them as ladies fitted tees and he did!! YAY!

Available for both men and women, I asked him about doing a giveaway on my blog and he gladly obliged, so now YOU have a chance to win one of these awesome t-shirts! I got one and LOOOOVE it! Sometimes you get a t-shirt and don't expect much, but the quality on this t-shirt is great and I love the design!

If you cannot wait for your chance to win... you can buy a shirt here.

---------> See the bottom of the post to enter to win a shirt!

Hops and Nuts Ice Cream #ICTScoopAdventures #Giveaway

This ice cream that is a love poem to one of the four ingredients to beer: hops. Using citra hops I decided to add some citrus peel to bring out the citrus of the hops and honey to compliment it. This is one decadent treat  for the craft beer lover.

Tuesday is not my normal posting day, but once again I have a treat for you, quite literally! I am participating in another special #IceCreamTuesday, this week we are celebrating the release of Scoop Adventures, The Best Ice Cream of the 50 States. As soon as I got this book and looked over Lindsay's blog I was immediately inspired by the Boozy Scoops and then I saw the one I loved the most. It was meant to be- my eyes locked on the Hops & Nuts Ice Cream and there was no going back!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Torte and a Giveaway

This is my gratuitous Valentine's Day post. For so many years I loathed this holiday. It is the single gal's day to remember she is single. I remember in college all my friend and I didn't have a boyfriend, so we all banned together and had our own little party (under the bandstand of the college). That was one of my favorite Valentine's Days yet! So all you single ladies don't feel bad, feel empowered because V-Day is just silly even when you have a man or woman.

But still I felt compelled to make a cutesy little cake with strawberry hearts baked into it. I guess I have those two sides: the Martha Stewart and the chick that drinks craft beer and swears. Or as my husband said best: "You are like Martha Stewart, but you say fuck a lot." Yeah that sums me up. That is also why I need to start making videos for you guys! It would be loads of fun for you to meet me, like really get to know me.

But if you love or loathe this holiday- here is an incentive to at least like it. I made you a crazy delish chocolate covered strawberry torte literally with strawberry and chocolate in it and on it. But I have another surprise for you a GIVEAWAY! A really gorgeous handcrafted apron from Guate Love It.

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

Autumn is here, we're already mid-October and thanksgiving is around the corner. Usually during the holiday we 're so consumed with the preparations and the food that we can forget the very words that make the days Thanks and Giving. The very essence of this holiday is about Giving Thanks. Giving thanks for what we have: the roof over our heads, the food we eat, the clothes on our back and the wonderful people we have in our lives. I was asked to be a part of Cooking Planits "Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving" giveaway and I immediately accepted. This contest celebrates the biggest giver you know. Write a story about them and both the nominee and you can win prizes! This is a beautiful way to give back to these people!  I think it is really important to remember not only what we are thankful for, but who we are thankful for!

Before I tell you about the giveaway- I want to tell you about my own special story of giving thanks!

In 2007 I was unemployed and very, very depressed. I felt like I had nothing and I would never find a job. It felt hopeless. In a capitalistic society, like ours, if you don't have money you cannot exist and you feel insignificant. I gained MORE weight, I cried most days and I couldn't afford to do anything except pay bills. But I realized that my wealth was with my friends. The lives that I can touch, the people that will remember me. The people that listened to my problems and held me when I cried. That year, with what little money I had, I started a tradition called Friendsgiving. I invited those friends you can count on one hand: the ones you rely on and the you're not scared to cry in front of. I invited them over for dinner the Friday after Thanksgiving to celebrate them, to show just how much I appreciate them! That was my way of giving back in the best way I knew how. (More about Friendsgiving here.)

How to Enter

This contest is very simple. All you have to do is go to Cooking Planit's Blog or Facebook Page to nominate someone that you are thankful for. Someone that always puts others needs before their own. This is your way to give back to them, to let them feel appreciated like I did for my friends! Both the hero and the writer win a prize!! So what do you have to lose?! Nominate and win.

Guidelines for submissions

When writing your story, consider the following guidelines:

• •In 300 words or less, recognize an individual who is making the difference in the lives of others in your community; whether it be by donating their time, energy or love with a focus on helping others without necessarily thinking of themselves.
• •Provide details on how/what they are doing to improve or impact the lives of others.

We reserve the right not to post your story if it contains any of the following types of content:

• Obscenities, discriminatory language, or other language not suitable for a public forum
• Advertisements, “spam” content, or references to other products, offers, or websites
• Email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, physical addresses, or other forms of contact information
• Critical or spiteful comments on other stories posted on the page or their authors

In addition, if you wish to share feedback with us about Cooking Planit or other customer service issues, do not submit this feedback through the Cooking Planit Stories platform. Instead, contact us directly.

Enjoy writing your story!

Prizes

5 runners up receive a $100 Visa Gift card for the story author & $250 to their Hidden Hero (story subject)

The 1st place winner will also get the opportunity to select a local charity to which Cooking Planit will donate $1000.

I hope you all take part and nominate someone you really believe deserves this. People that give are often overlooked and this is a lovely way to make them know just how very special they are. Enjoy!

The Spice Giveaway begins- Now!

Come on you know I like to get spicy in the kitchen...now you can too and for FREE! This is NY Foodgasm's first ever give-away! The people at Cooking Planit (A super cool website and App that not only makes your grocery list, but takes you through a recipe step by step) were cool enough to offer 50 Foodblogs this set of 26 spices worth over $100! Over the next 25 days 50 food blogs (2 per week) will be giving away this colorful and fresh set of spices!

See the bottom of the page for details on how to enter!

My First Giveaway and it's a Spicy One! Thanks to Cooking Planit!

Come on you know I like to get spicy in the kitchen...now you can too and for FREE! This is NY Foodgasm's first ever give-away! The people at Cooking Planit (A super cool website and App that not only makes your grocery list, but takes you through a recipe step by step) were cool enough to offer 50 Foodblogs this set of 26 spices worth over $100! Over the next 25 days 50 food blogs (2 per week) will be giving away this colorful and fresh set of spices!