Coming Clean

So I might have been deceiving my loyal readers recently with my blog posts, but today I am coming clean.  I am currently in a workplace diet competition, but the second part is the simple fact that I am way behind on my blog postings.

So today I am finally catching up to a blog posting that happened over Thanksgiving, yes only a few months late for those of you who are counting.

My family has few heirlooms, and even few that are truly useful, but in a recent family get together for Thanksgiving here in H-Town we busted out our crown jewel.

This is our family grinder, in its heyday you could grind just about everything with this handy dandy hand grinder.... Now for those of you avid followers of American Pickers or something along those lines this has no value because my great-grandfather tweaked the original design with a twisted wing nut for a missing component.  This grinder has a patent date from the 1800s ...I do not know what exactly that means but it sure seems awesome.

This grinder makes its annual appearance to grind up cranberries to knock out a great jelly.

After proving my usefulness as the younger male in the family that sacrifices his arm for the sake of the common good, I handed off the ground up berries to my grandmother.

Evidently the secret to all of this, as with most things, is sugar, you let it all simmer and next thing you know you have a cranberry jelly that puts everything I have ever tasted from a can to shame.

If all else fails there is always the perfect fall beer to down with your Thanksgiving goodness.  St Arnold Pumpkinator, a powerful brew, an Imperial Pumpkin Stout that is full of flavor and a 10% ABV that makes it all worth while.

Ins and Outs of the Lastros

Sure the Houston Astros suck, no they really really really suck.  That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a good time at a game though, even if you end up at a Pirates game like I did one night.

You might even be lucky enough to watch a guy throw the first pitch with his foot, quite possibly the highlight of the night.

You definitely will not have to fight through the masses here.

And no one cares if you make a mess eating peanuts.

If the game isn’t going your way you can always just get a 24 oz can of beer to make it go down a little easier.

Even if your preference in beer is a foreign beer.

Or a craft beer.

Which always goes great with some scrumptious ballpark food.

While you root for players that no one outside of Houston knows, but they are heroes most nights in this ballpark.

And if you are patient enough, there is always the highlight of the night.  Yes those are giant Taco Bell hot sauces racing around the field; eat that Milwaukee with your running sausages.