Beer (Bread) Me.

It's cold. It's rainy. It's time to make some beer bread, kids.

There are several recipes for beer bread, but here's one I really like. It's pretty simple, just remember, it's always easier to mix the dry ingredients to the wet mix. This avoids lumps and general doughy mayhem. Remember, "dry to wet". Print it up on a t-shirt, 'cause it's a useful little prep tidbit.

Beer Bread
• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 bottle room-temperature beer (Room temperature, very important)
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix all ingredients (go ahead, get your hands dirty...it can be therapeutic). Now, here's where you have a choice. You can put it all into a 9x3 loaf pan, glaze it with the melted butter, bake it and you're good to go. Or..

"Or"?

Or...you can have some fun and make bread bowls out of it. M-m-m-m, a beer bread bowl. Maybe mix in a little pepper jack cheese into the dough. Or cheddar. Or what about some Southwestern seasoning? Cracked pepper? Make it yours, have some fun with it. Then when you have your bread bowl, carve out the middle and fill it with dip, salsa or, go ahead and put some chili in that bad boy and violá, "Dinner is served".

Lots of fun to snack on during a game, great when friends are hanging out or, as the case tonight, it's cold, dreary and I wanted to make an entrée that went well with a cold, delicious Shiner Bock beer. Know what? It worked.

Try it, lemme know what you think.