A cold one

I'm not really a beer drinker..... Ok, I take that back, I have had beer before while on vacation. I rarely drink, so it was quite something to officially be at the Haufbrauhaus in Munich Germany. What a lively place with music, tons of people (mostly tourist), and delicious German foods. The women who could carry 6 huge steins at once were quite impressive. I must say that I remember the beer went down quite smoothly over several hours of music, laughter, and food. The Germans certainly know how to put on a show, as the people were singing drinking songs, dancing, and having an all around great time. I honestly cannot think of any American drinking songs. I wish I understood all of those that I heard. As proof of my endeavor, I have the official "my personal" stein that I used. How else would anyone really believe that it was so big, and even more so that "tea-totaler" me, drank it. I also have my little stein from Austria that was gently placed in a huge vat of warm water to warm up the beer. I've never heard of such a thing, but that is what they did. Even now, I may have just a sip of a beer, but I prefer to have my water.

I'm sure that hot pretzels with sharp/tangy mustard don't go quite as well with a Coca cola or water, but that will have to do for me. I usually keep beer and wine in my refrigerator basically for cooking purposes, yet it's offered to someone wanting a drink of course. It's usually a Guinness Stout so that I can make my Guinness Stew. I also have some Belgian been because I have a Belgian cookbook that I use quite often. Being of Greek heritage, they don't have many recipes that include beer. I find it amusing for the novelty of it all as well as the taste that it imparts to the stews.

We had a recent snow in January of this year. Since most Americans like their beer chilled, how could I go through the snowy day (which turned out to be a week off of work) without using mother nature's ice. Always on the lookout for things to photograph, I had to have a chuckle and laugh as I was on my deck placing the beer just so in the six or seven inches of snow. My dog thought I was goofy, and even had that half tilted head looking at me with the bottle. He's used to the camera though. It was cold, but I persevered and took several photos. How can one not want a cold one after seeing this photo? Ah yes, the ultimate in chilling a beer-nature's way. Cheers!