Beer, Meatballs, and Onion Goggles

Earlier this week we bottled some beer that is destined for our annual St. Patrick's Day home brew beer tasting, hosted by a fellow brewer friend.  This year we attempted an Irish stout, and used all grains, no malt extract, for the first time.  It makes me nervous to try something for the first time when we will have witnesses to our failure, should we fail.  Not that it's a competition, I just like to have the best beer.  And I like everyone to tell me it was the best.  But it's not a competition.  I just don't want to lose.  

This is the darkest colored beer we've ever made, it was nearly black.  It has both roasted and coffee roasted grains in it, which must give it it's dark color and hopefully a rich flavor.  

The disadvantage to bottling beer, versus setting up a keg system, is the hassle of storing and washing the bottles.  I think the advantages of having portable beer that's naturally carbonated outweigh the troubles with the bottles.  We have a pail with a spicket that makes it easy to fill each bottle, and the caps go on pretty easy with the snazzy capping tool.

While the bottles were being cleaned and sterilized I prepared spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, which, like most things I cook, involved chopping onions. 

I caught my reflection in the side of the sauce pan, and had a good laugh at myself.  I laughed even harder while trying to take a picture of myself.  You see, I was still wearing my onion goggles and it's not the first time I continued cooking with them on long after I was finished with the onions.  You would think that since the goggles are blue tinted, I guess to make the swimming pool a lovely aqua color, I would realize I was wearing them. 

Maybe not everyone uses onion goggles, but to me, they are worth all the embarrassment of being caught in them.  My eyes are so sensitive to onion fumes that I normally look like I've been having an emotional crisis whenever I have to cut them. It's so painful that I try to cut onions as fast as possible with my eyes closed.  This makes for irregularly diced onions, not to mention the danger of wielding a sharp knife with out watching where your fingers are!  But then my life changed when a friend asked me if I had any goggles he could wear while he was cutting onions in my kitchen.  I laughed, but then realized he was serious.  So I rummaged through the pool supplies and now I'm hooked.  They hang with my apron and I use them.  I like them so much I use them when other people can see me!  Now when a recipe calls for diced onion I don't even flinch - I'll even double dice them, just because I can.