Falling Sky Brew House Review

Thursday night I was able to check out one of the local breweries in Eugene Oregon. The Falling Sky Brewery, formally known as Valley Vintner & Brewer, opened their brew house at 1334 Oak Alley, Eugene Oregon. When you walk in there is a very industrial feeling do to the concrete floors, exposed beams and duct work, but as you walk around more they have mixed in reused items. Such items are old windows making up the wall between the “beer garden” area and brewing area. It is very cool touch that fits in well to the reduce, reuse and recycle mentality here in Eugene.

They had a nice selection of beer, cider and hand crafted sodas. They also have a decent menu of their take on bar food. From what I could see on other customer’s tables, the food look very good and well made. I did get hungry half way through my first beer and decided to get their Beer Bratwurst. It came with sour krout, grain mustard and some very good thin crunchy fries. The Brat was pretty good and I am huge sourkrout fan, but what I didn’t like was the abundance of peppercorns they put in the krout. That was very peculiar to me, to have peppercorns in in the krout. Overall I the meal was satisfying.

The surroundings of Falling Sky breed an atmosphere where people are conversing, moving around and having a good time. They have done a good job building a traditional German Beer garden feel promoting interaction with people you don’t know.

All in all it was a fun atmosphere with a very good selection of house brews, local brews and some German brews. If you are in the area and are looking for a new place to go, check out Fallying Sky Brew House.

Piept de pui cu smantana si ciuperci

Today’s Recipe is something that I learned to make while living in Romania in 2007. I personalized it to make it my own, but the original concept came from a traditional Romanian dish. The translation is simply Chicken with cream and mushroom. To see what the traditional Romanian version is like. The hard part it is in Romanian... Good luck.

In my recipe, which I will show you step by step, I have added onions, potatoes, corn and black beans. I kicked it up a bit as well with some crushed red pepper and black pepper. This version would be translated like this: De pui cu smântână, ciuperci, cartofi, ceapa, porumb şi fasole neagră

Ingredients list:

½ Large Onion – sliced (you can truly cut it how you would like)
5 Red Potatoes
¼ to ½ pound of Mushrooms (depends on how many you prefer)
2 Cooked Chicken Breast (Sliced however you would like it.)
1 Can of Corn
1 Can of Black Beans
1 Pint of Sour Cream
2 Tbs of Butter (sauté Onions and Mushrooms)
3 Tbs of Olive Oil (Fry and Brown Potatoes)
Crushed Red Pepper (Add as much or as little as you would like)
Black Pepper (Add as much or as little as you would like)
Salt (Add as much or as little as you would like)


Prep:

Slice Onions, Mushrooms, Chicken (I tend to get one of the already cooked whole chickens from the grocery store; I know it is cheating but Hell there is already enough to do for this dish.). Open can of corn and beans. Strain both of them and wash the beans with cold water.

Step 1:

Boil Potatoes – I put the potatoes in the pot with the water cold and once it starts to boil I will leave them in there for about 8 to 10 minutes. I add in salt to the water (learned this on the Food Network) it helps get an even salt seasoning through the potatoes.

Step 2:

While the potatoes are boiling, sauté mushrooms with 1 Tbs of butter over medium heat. Allow the mushrooms to soften, don’t over cook, they will finish cooking when all ingredients are added together. I don’t add any seasonings to this step. By this time the potatoes will be done boiling.

Step 3:

Strain the potatoes out of the pot and immediately put the mushrooms into the pot the potatoes were in. (Easy way to eliminate a bunch of pots and pans to clean.) After the mushrooms are out of the pan, give it a quick wipe with a cloth and add 1 Tbs of butter into the pan to sauté the onions over medium heat. Sauté the onions the same way as the mushrooms don’t over cook. Slice the potatoes into 8 chunks while the onions are sautéing. When onions are done add them to the mushrooms in the pot and give the pan a quick wipe clean.

Step 4:

Add the 3 Tbs of Olive Oil to the pan bring it to med/high heat and add the potatoes. Fry/Brown the potatoes to your preference; I like a crispy outer layer since it will soften a bit when sour cream is added to the ingredients. I will also add some Black pepper to sear on to the potatoes. When the Potatoes are done add them to the pot with the mushrooms and onions.

Step 5:

Add sliced Chicken

Step 6:

Add sour cream and Corn.

Step 7:

Add Black Beans

Step 8:

Season to your liking, I don’t measure, I just add, taste, add, taste… Until it tastes the way I want it to taste. Then I put it on low heat and let it sit and bubble for about an hour. Give it a good stir every 5 minutes or so. You have to keep an eye on it, but don’t have to baby it.

This will make probably 10 servings if not more; it depends on how much you consider a serving.

If you have any questions please ask. I am more than willing to give my advice, or if you see something that I could do differently give me a shout, believe me I will not be embarrassed.

Bon Appetite

Welcome to The Edible Universe

Over the nearly 30 years I have been alive, food has been a huge part of my life. Well I guess food is a huge part of anyone’s life, but for me it took on something even more important. I love to cook, I love to experiment, I love to mess up and I love to create. All of this adds to the element and science... or inexact science of cooking. I have always tried to cook for my taste buds, but I found though my taste buds love it, my body and heart my not. But what I found was that my main problem with eating was I ate too much. It wasn’t that the food was bad for me necessarily; it was my portions were too large. With that being said I continued to cook for what my taste buds were calling for, all while keeping my portions down to one serving, rather then four.

Here at Edible Universe, my focus is going to be sharing my recipes that I have created over the years. Some of them are renditions of recipes that I have grown up with, learned from living abroad, or just plain whiped up from random items I had in the fridge.

Some days I will give examples of what you can do with a single item, while adding a bunch of random ingredients to make it a culinary wonder. Other days I will give step by step instructions of how I created an entire meal. Every once and a while I will be really bored and snap some pictures of the little snack I wiped up and talk about what it does for me, mentally and physically. Basically what it comes down to is if it involves food I will be discussing it.

As Edible Universe progresses I will delve into critiquing restaurants that I frequent or have gone for the first time. Something I am going to have to learn is to be more adventurous when I go out to eat. I am one of those people that will get the same thing whenever I go to a certain restaurant, because I know I like it and if I am going to pay for it I want to know I am going to enjoy it. Seems logical doesn’t it…..? No! I didn’t think so.

Please comment on anything your feedback will help Edible Universe grow. I came up with the name because our universe is constantly growing and the food universe is as well, so please comment (good and bad). Come back as many times or as few times. Everyone is welcome in the Edible Universe.