Beer, Beer, & More Beer!

Sam made three of these full of carnitas!

It was yet another busy weekend for Sam and me.  We had 12 of our friends over for shabbat dinner, which we hadn't done since Sam left for Chicago in August.  Sam made carnitas in the slow cooker all day and browned the meat in the oven before we ate.  Yummy!  But we did notice that things were pretty out of line with kosher standards- serving pork shoulder and omitting the prayers being our most offensive actions.  Sam has recently been concerned that we don't belong to a community outside of work/school.  He thinks it would be beneficial to join a temple congregation so that we have a sense of community and place.  Personally, I grew up in a family that belonged to a church, but didn't regularly attend mass because Sunday we watched football and recovered from the athletic and academic endeavors of the week.  I'm not trying to

The lovely ladies at shabbat

knock organized religion, but for me, it's more important to be spiritual than to be religious.  I appreciate the shabbat dinners because they remind me of our Family Dinners on Sunday nights in high school we got together with my dad's parents and spent time as a family.  I said I would definitely give temple a shot, but it's not something I am going to do long term unless I want to.  I see Sam's point about wanting a community, and I would love to hear some opinions as to what other people do to feel included in their communities.  Maybe we will find a few options we can try out.

In the Stone Brewery Beer Garden

On Saturday we drove down to San Diego to meet up with my very dear friend Lindsay and her boyfriend Josh.  All four of us went to the Stone Brewery and enjoyed a break in the wet weather and shared a glass of wine/beer in their beautiful beer garden.  There was no planned coordination, however Lindsay and I did a great job of matching.  We took a  tour of the brewery, which included a quick brewing 101 lesson from our tour guide and a tasting of Stone's Pale Ale, IPA, Levitation, and Arrogant Bastard.  It was very cool, but I realized that most of the Stone beers are a little too bitter for my personal taste.  Josh took us to dinner in San Diego at Karl Strauss, 

In the Stone brewhouse with the kegs

another SoCal brewery.  Man, was their food delicious.  Linds had a steak topped with gruyere cheese and roasted garlic cloves: ah-mazing!  Josh had the traditional mac 'n cheese and I tried the Tree Hugger Mac (with broccoli and roasted peppers), and Sam had a jalepeno cheeseburger with garlic fries.  I seriously have not been that impressed with mac 'n cheese since my birthday dinner at The Neighborhood in San Diego.

Today we get a surprise visit from Nate, which is great, and I can't wait to hear how things up at USC's dental school have been going.  And then the Oscars are on later tonight- woohoo!  I just have to read three chapters, make Sam's yearbook page, hit the gym, and do my laundry before I can sit down with a bowl of Kettle Corn and watch the show.  LOL.