The True Respite & Saints Row Mac and Cheese bake off - Welcome to The Buffalo Chicken District

This entry is more about me and macaroni & cheese, with guest appearances about beer. 

I feel like most of this could be an entry for my regular blog, but, I wrote it all here, and it feels like it all belongs. After all, Shenanigans were had. And that's the goal of the blog, right? 

Read on, if so inclined.

After a couple of challenging weeks at work, and life drama we are experiencing here in the family, the plan was to have fun this Saturday and participate in the Mac and Cheese bake off at True Respite, with their co-sponsoring brewery Saints Row. 

We went and picked up the tins last weekend, and my write up of our visit is linked here. 

To be honest, I spent most of the week looking forward to doing this so very hard. But by Friday afternoon though, I couldn't get out of my own way mentally. I had to go to the market, I had to prep all the things. I don't like making this recipe the day before, the noodles soak up all the moisture in the mix, and then I feel like it is dry and nasty. So you have to make it the day of.  I began to experience regret for agreeing to do a thing.  I don't like sending Geoff to the store when I am making something super specific, because sometimes he can't find the thing I need/want and comes home without it (not that I can fault him, really) so I knew I'd have to do this shop.  

I sat here on Friday afternoon, finishing my workday, defeated, thinking that all I wanted was for my Saturday to be a day of introverted hiding, sleeping until noon maybe, and a short walk around the neighborhood if that.

But. I'd entered the contest. 

Begrudgingly, I dragged myself to the market, did the shopping, came home, and executed a decent test run to make sure I recalled how to do it. 

Indeed, as I remembered, this recipe is two solid hours of work, apologies to my family. Dang. But, it came out really good, even though we didn't eat until 8:30pm. I didn't make the topping the way the recipe called for because I wanted to make sure I had all of the crumbled bleu cheese and celery greens for the "real" version for the competition. Satisfied with the recipe and my memory of it, I began to get a renewed enthusiasm for participation. After 2 hefty bowls of goodness, downed with a Lone Oak General Sherman DIPA from the fridge, once again I looked forward to the following morning. 

I got up at 8:30am, started boiling the water for the macaroni noodles. One near hiccup was that I noticed was I didn't have a another can of panko like I thought I did, and I'd used a full one the night before. So I opted to just to use regular bread crumbs rather than run to the market.... As I was working with the chicken, I recalled that panko sticks better to the chicken after you pan fry it. With regular bread crumbs, the coating falls right off when you start to mix everything together in the pan. Recalling that, I executed a plan. I had to be really careful, I gently layered mac & cheese in the tins, added the chicken, and then put more mac & cheese on top, pressing gently and organizing the mixture so the chicken would stay intact as intended without losing the coating. sigh. 

While making the roux for the cheese sauce, it wasn't getting thick enough for my liking. It was as if it was fighting with me. The night before it was wonderful. But here, pressed for time, it just didn't want to cooperate. 

I didn't want to get into that classic battle of "add more flour, oh no you added too much now add more fat, oh no, now..."which happens every time I make gravy, so I have capitulated in the past and learned my lesson. Now I just get gravy in a jar. But this was different.

Eventually, time and heat solved the problem and everything came together, but I was sweating it there for a bit, like I'd have to start over and we didn't have a great deal of time. I tasted the sauce, it wasn't cheesy enough for my liking, the way Friday night's version was. Okay - throw more Frank's Red Hot in there, and make it spicier I guess. And oh, here's some unexpected Mexican Cheddar mix in the fridge. Add another 6 ounces of cheese in and let's call it. Still doesn't taste cheesy enough but we're at the starting gate, and I am panicking. We need to go. WE NEED TO GO!

We got in the car, me nervous, but wearing my favorite Chowdaheadz Beer T-shirt as my "halloween costume." Got a few loving compliments on it. 

Way to go Chowdaheadz! Happy to represent beer, Boston, and my Irishness in one t-shirt.

We arrived at the brewery at 11:45 because I thought we had to be there at for setup and start at noon. 

But the Yoga portion of things started at noon, the mac and cheese competition was at 1. Huh.

Note to self: It helps if you re-read the instructions sent to you earlier in the week before just deciding what time you think you should be there. 

Anywhoo as we say in our house, on time is late. So we were there early. I met fellow competitor Amy, she made the same mistake I made and thought that she needed to be there for 12pm start. We had a great chat, and were feeling very excited about participating.

We were emailed our positions that morning, and I was #12, out of #17. Happily went to my spot, and started to set up. Thought of "TB12" Tom Brady and laughed that maybe 12 would be a lucky number. Or. Numbah.  Maybe.

I brought my lightboard to set up in front of my chafing dish, discovering in the car that the batteries were dead (and I didn't check them before leaving, naturally). But it was daytime, and it looked good nonetheless so there was no stress there. 

I realized I had not brought my serving spoon on accident, but entry #10 had a ton extra, and tape so putting my ingredients list sign out was secured. Thank you #10!

Entry #11 arrived, and he had also made Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese.

Huh.

Now. Some people may have panicked realizing that they were next to someone who made the same thing, like showing up to the prom in the same dress as someone else. 

But we compared our ingredients, and figured it would be nice to stay side by side and not cause a fuss asking to be separated. In fact, this was super cool the more we thought about it. I edited my lightboard to include him, and started referring to our stations, as Doug called us, the Buffalo Chicken District.

His name is Donnie, and he drove all the way from Rhode Island to participate. I thought to myself, damn son. What? You really are into Mac and Cheese cook offs!  

Turns out he's good friends/former roommates with one of the guys who works at True Respite, Alec (or Alek, if he spells it that way) and had been invited to come and participate and spend the weekend. 

How fun is that? Considering the night before I was ready to just withdraw and cancel, here's a guy who just drove from basically my parents' house to be part of this. I felt like a jerk a little bit and was happy he was there. 

The girl on my other side, Grace #13, was also friends with the same guy from the brewery, so it was like I was in the middle of people becoming friends. We decided to sample each other's recipes, Grace's was super creamy and Donnie had ranch dressing in his and you could taste it just right. And I just wanted to pick the chicken out of mine and eat it all. It was so good. 

Doug brought me a Moonlight Manifesto to get things started. I didn't get a picture of it, but it was a nice 7%, Rye Porter.

Before the competition got fully underway, I went over to the Tap Trailer and bought a Rainbow Connection from partner brewery Saints Row, pictured here. 

With my little taste of my own mac & cheese, this was a nice companion beer. 

A hazy IPA with a lot of flavor, even by the picture you can see it has almost a creamy consistency. How perfect. 

The beer description on the webpage says it has a "soft, pillowy mouthfeel" and it sure does.

Let's start the competition. It's 1pm! People are lined up! Let's get our mac and cheese on! Yay!

Things were a little weird at first because they started the line at the top by station #1, where people picked up their tasting sporks, and then they just stopped at the first few stations to get their samples. A couple people down the row from us were fussing hard that no one was going to make it down to us, and they were all going to get full up by entry 7 or so.... 

That was not the case. We did not lack for an audience. 

We were filling our sample cups as fast as we could at some points. I wanted to keep 6 at a time out. People asked Donnie and me if we knew each other, or knew that we were both making buffalo chicken, and we confessed to neither. People tasted both of ours at the same time and did some fun comparison, "oh this one is creamy but the chicken over here..." 

I had brought extra hot sauce (when I forgot to bring my own serving spoon, I guess my priorities sometimes are odd).

People asked me if they were supposed to use it. I told them only if they thought they wanted an extra splash after their first bite, or, if they really like hot sauce. It was not required but offered. 

Some folks took me up on it for both mine and Donnie's. 

On to another beer, another Hazy IPA but this time the Week Away IPA from True Respite, pictured here.

I liked it a little better than the Rainbow Connection, and joked with Doug that I'd like a week away. 

It didn't have the same creamy-ish consistency but did have bit more flavor. Kind of nice to have the two back to back for consideration. 

As you can see from the shot here, I'd already gone through one my trays, and it was only 1:30.  I was wondering if I was over serving for my samples, so Grace and Donnie and I filled our cups and compared. Nope. We were putting the same amount in. Were people just taking a lot more of mine? Is this a good thing or a bad thing! I was kind of freaking out inside that I'd be out of food in no time. 

I'd contemplated bringing a third tin since I had the batch from the night before's sample run, but I then realized it was far better to be on the same quantity and level playing field with the other presenters. That is fair.

Here's Donnie serving up next to me, and only a small amount of the crowd of people coming in for tastes. The next half hour was a blur of answering questions about the mac & cheese ingredients, and welcoming people to the Buffalo Chicken District.  

A few people came back for seconds and winked at me. 

Doug came over to visit with the Mac Daddy (2021) specifically brewed in collaboration with Saints Row for the contest that day. And let me tell you, it would be a killer hot & spicy combo with either Donnie's or my offering. It had a peppery scent and taste, but unlike other pepper beers we'd had in the past in our lives, this did not hurt our faces. 

Definitely a niche beer for those who like something smoky, spicy, and different!  A nice offering!

I ran out of mac and cheese and cleaned up my station. It was only 1:50.  Donnie and Grace still had most of their second trays, so I played hype man for them, like a dope. I hope I was funny. 

Things were winding down for other contestants too, 
I went over to the beer truck and got a Bright Spot IPA. Bright Spot being the name of the brewery, and IPA just simply the name of the beer. 

It didn't have a specific name other than IPA so I found that funny, but I was intrigued. I didn't know what Bright Spot was, but had seen them on the menu board inside, with T-shirts for sale at the merch wall.  (I really like the logo).

It was a very nice, simple IPA. Refreshing. 

I sat in my folding chair and rested up a little bit chatting with contestant #10. I'm glad I brought two folding chairs out, which we keep in the back of the Jeep. She was happy to hang and chat with me as we watched the contestants who still had product get their food into faces.

At about 2:15 everyone was pretty much out of their wares. 

I felt bad for anyone who was going to roll up on the scene at 3 expecting to get a taste! I thought for sure we'd have food to offer up to 3pm. This was impressive. 

I think the long and short of it is people really wanted something to do, and were pandemic weary, masked up, ready to be out, and enjoy the day with perfect weather in an event outside. And it was a beautiful day. Such a beautiful day. I sat and enjoyed my beer and watched Donnie and Grace chatting without me in the middle.

After a break, I helped gather trays and chafing racks, and put out sternos. It is a lot of work setting things up on these kinds of events, there's a lot to cleaning up. I'm the kind of person who if you invite me to a party at your house, I'm there for set up and break down. I do your dishes. I bus tables at events. 

So I did my best to assist.

I joined Doug, Geoff, and the Phineas Dog under the tent to relax and wait for the winner announcement. We listened to Kate Virginia sing and play, and had a couple more beers. 

Here is Scrum & Hooker, English Brown Ale, which I got on draft instead of cask.

A very nice nutty brown ale. Feet up and watching time for the adoptable dogs. 

Sadly, our dog is not a dog-dog, he doesn't get along with other dogs so it was kind of depressing because I'd love to get a second dog. We couldn't mingle him with others, and I eyeballed a couple puppies that would have been fun to bring home but I know that will never work. 

Oh Phineas. I wish you were nice. 

I then had Rock East District, named for the neighborhood where the brewery is. 

Which is now also Buffalo Chicken District.

A double red rye, very flavorful. Beautiful lace and so nice to just kick back with after a run of IPAs. 

What was nice for this entire experience was all of the beers I had were low/normal ABVs. None of them knocked me off my feet and onto my ass. But as an active "work-day" kind of thing, I had two beers more than I probably would have had if I was just sitting on my butt drinking beer. 

Doug and I spent some time chatting with a couple who (I think) are very connected with the brewery, even though we did not get their names, and I can't find their info through the internet.  He said that the Tap Trailer has just about paid for itself in the several weeks they've had it. Which is awesome. 

Having the opportunity to ask, I got the story of Bright Spot beer. As a kind of a separate brand, they came as a result of the purchase of another brewery when "Covid Happened." This article from DC Beer explains it all wonderfully. 

And keeping in mind how things happen with lawsuits and trademarks, I thought about what recently happened with our other favorites at 7 Locks with "Surrender. " Under this new label, True Respite can offer and distribute craft beer options (the aforementioned IPA and a Lager) at a lower price point, so people can get that better beer experience than say a 30 pack of PBR. 

I told him how I work with a software company out of Virginia with the same name. He cocked his head and said "they don't brew beer, so they?" Nope. I had a good laugh and now I want a Bright Spot beer shirt so I can wear it to work on conference calls with our CMS vendor.

I stood with Donnie and Grace as they announced the winners, the three of us were not contenders. Sadly. But I think we won at having the most fun yesterday. 

Someone came late to the tasting party!
And they sure do look like they need some mac & cheese! 

I regret not connecting with Donnie and Grace on social media in person, but all told, I'm thinking of how much fun I had, and I hope they did too. 

We came home with me tired, happy, and a gift card to come back to the brewery again and get some more. You bet that's a winning day. 

Thanks to Bailey and Brendan O'Leary for throwing this great, and very fun, event. Thank you for working to make a community space for not just beer but for yoga and meetups and other social offerings.

 We're true fans of True Respite. 

True Respite, Rockville MD

 This is my first post about True Respite, but it is our second visit here. 

We came in 2018 or 2019, I've lost track, but I do remember it was right around this time of year. The brewery is a little bit hidden in an office park in a part of Rockville I never go to, so it isn't like somewhere I'd just be dropping by. It is literally something one could miss if not dedicated to driving around the maze of buildings and parking. 

I remember on our first visit we almost gave up trying to find it. Our GPS brought us to the office park, but there were no signs to indicate where the brewery was. We turned left when we should have gone straight and boom - there they were. My recommendation would be that the office park would do some signage, not just for the brewery but for all the other businesses in the complex. 

Once inside, the tasting room is big and open, with the bar at the back and the brewing operations to the right. Ample take away coolers, and a few TVs for the sportsballs or something else to watch. 

They do not have food but plenty of delivery orders were brought it. The office park would do good to have a deli or quick service restaurant somewhere in the maze of businesses. The brewery could partner with them (similar to when we were in Colorado when the restaurant in the strip mall was more than happy to come through every 20 minutes to take orders) and folks would make bank. 

I started with something that I don't often go for, the Nessie's Girl, a wee heavy Scotch Ale. 

It was flavorful and not overwhelmingly sweet or even hot with the higher ABV of 8%. Served in the tulip glass, it is a rich, dark brown, had pretty lace, and does have a toffee taste without being too cloying. 

Doug went with the Rock East District Imperial Red Rye ale (not pictured). He enjoyed it a lot and it was similar to the Surrender (Dorothy) from 7 Locks that I wrote about recently. 

Had a little fun with the sun streaming in, and took this picture of the Nessie's Girl just shimmering in the light. I've had good luck with doing this with a few beers recently. 

Moving on, I got the White Tail Hefeweizen, which was described as having  hints of banana and clove. It was neither clovey or banana-y. Had literally no aroma, but a nice taste to it. It looks like banana, that's for sure. I liked how it looked like a banana milkshake, kind of a unique brew.

 

Doug had The Woods oatmeal stout (not pictured) and said he found it underwhelming. Not a lot of flavor, not everything can be the BEST, right? 

Our last beers were the Lagerhosen for me, the Marzen for Oktoberfest, and it was really nice. Your standard pretty great beer, and usually would have been my starter but I had been adventurous.

The beer was smooth and tasty, and a great way to end our visit.

I love the artwork in the tasting room, I'd really love to get that fox painting.  

Doug's last beer was the Puckered: Tangerine Sky which was pretty much the absolute opposite of the Nessie's Girl I started with. Nice and sour, bright and fun with a delicious fruity flavor. We ended up bringing home Nessie and Puckered for our home enjoyment and to share with the boy. 

We'll actually be back next week. I entered a macaroni and cheese bake-off competition because I'm feeling ready to have some fun and do social things, and why not. I'll be making the famous (infamous!) Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese that I learned to make at the cooking school back in the day. 

I had fun talking with the staff (Emily, and sadly I didn't get the name of the young man pulling today) about the competition and what people are making. Emily said she was entering too, and we discussed a shared liking of the powdered cheese in the Kraft realm. I confessed I always make it too soupy even though I try not to. And I recalled how my sister used to work at a Friendly's on Long Island, and they had an epic cheese sauce that they'd pour all over a burger, with bacon, and it was literally my very favorite thing in the universe. 

Not wanting to keep them from waiting on other customers, we got our trays for next Saturday, bought our take away beers, and headed home. 

Very much looking forward to the event next week. Wondering how many people are entering. Allegedly, we should show up with Halloween costumes on, and I'm not sure where my really bad wig is for Linda Belcher, but I may think of something else between now and then.  

I also have never done yoga, but heck, maybe I will! Since it is there, may as well! 

Lone Oak Brewery, Olney MD

Doug and I both have a long holiday weekend, so we opted to head up to the Lone Oak Brewery in Olney. Not too far from our house, but due  to the pandemic (mostly) we hadn't made it over there. They opened up in June of 2020, and we only recently started heading out to in person enjoyment of the breweries. Happy they are there.

There is a storied history to the namesake of the farm, a Lone Oak that stands at the edge of the property, pictured here with the Haystack hazy IPA. Their website talks about it briefly, but I'd honestly like a more resourced reading list of this pre-Civil War tree. 

They have a large property, with a beautiful main building, a separate building for events, and a pavilion with taps. 

There are yurts for rent, plenty of picnic tables, a playground, and tons of space for kids and adults to run around in and play. 

They offer a limited food menu but have food trucks regularly, and outside food is welcome, but not outside booze, naturally. 

And they also support live, local music. Which, they happened to be hosting that day. How lucky are we?

I started with the General Sherman DIPA. It packs a flavorful punch, and I'd even describe it as spicy. At 8.2% ABV it is a good starter beer. We settled into the pavilion to enjoy the band on hand, Silver Books. Timing wise we got there just as they finished setting up. And if there's a jam band around, you can bet we'll be enjoying. 

General Sherman here, pictured with the taproom house in the distance. Hardly anyone was here yet, but the field between filled up nicely as the time went by with picnic blankets, folding camp chairs, dogs, kids, and games. 

Doug started with the Groove It Sour, a pink guava concoction that was deliciously sour and very flavorful itself. 

We're off to a good start here!

I ordered up hot dogs for us from the food truck of the day, Catalyst Hot Dogs. Served up with chili sauce, cheese, onions, these were quality dogs on my favorite buns (Martin's potato rolls!)

I noted that the hot dog truck was displaying a sign saying they were featured on the NPR Podcast "The Indicator." And you can listen to the episode at the link there. 

I mentioned I worked there, and the guys in the truck were thrilled that I noticed. They told me the story of how the truck came to be, and how they are supporters of the local NPR station in DC. 

We had a moment of mutual admiration, they're obviously proud of their pandemic success story, as well as they should be, and the line behind me was 7 people deep consistently. It didn't seem to wane the entire time I could see them from our spot. 

They humored me with a picture that I could share with the podcast team. 

Back to beer. 

I then got the Deep Root, a chocolate porter. 

A lot of times, chocolate beers are really sweet but this wasn't. It had a lovely chocolate flavor, but no syrupy sweetness to bring it down. 

Doug got the OAKtoberfest because, after all, everyone here is celebrating Oktoberfest. Everyone has a Märzen this time of year, obviously, lest it wouldn't be Oktoberfest. It was a tasty brew, very gentle flavor, and I enjoyed my sample from his cup. 

I got the Olney Amber, a nice finishing beer with low ABV. 

We had to move out of the pavilion because they were hosting a private event, so we sat at a picnic table to still enjoy the band until they took a break. It was all perfect timing. We finished our beers as they finished their set, to "take a 5 minute break and be back in 20 minutes." They had a lot of friends and family there to see them, Doug tipped the band and we thanked them, and left to walk around the space for a bit before getting back in the car. 

The playground was hopping, the yurts were full, and more people were still arriving. There is plenty of parking so we headed back to the car with people walking towards us, with their dogs and kids in wagons, ready to go enjoy an afternoon by the Lone Oak. We could hear the band start up again (Before they had started, I jokingly asked if they were going to play a 20 minute rendition of "I Know You Rider" and the lead singer said "oh yeah. You'll probably hear that.") 

Overall this was a really nice trip. All the beers were good, and Doug commented that he thought they were better than another local farm that we've been to many times (that I haven't yet written about). I'm not sure they are better but they sure are on par with! We'll be back for sure. 

And, because. Here's me for a change, not just beer and buildings. Apologies to all the humans behind me for being included. I should have held the beer over to my left to cover them but didn't realize. 

Surrender.... not Dorothy. A RyePA story

When we moved here (literally 4 years ago this week) we started to get settled in  and discover the beer scene. One of the first places  we went for in person brewery time was 7 Locks Brewing in Rockville  (yeah go ahead and sing that we shouldn't go back to Rockville and waste another year. We do it. I'm sure Rockville is used to it by now). 

The tasting room and brewery is in a small industrial park, kid and dog friendly, with food trucks and live music. Small, which is nice. Sometimes we've gone, and it's been too crowded, so we get a couple sixers to go. Or, we are there with the place to ourselves, playing board games and waiting for the delivery pizza to arrive. We have seen some stellar local music here. It's a good place, with good beer. An honest, and tremendously good local brewery.

I like it.

All of the beers are named for local spots, and one of them has, well, a history. 

The beer now known as simply Surrender used to be called "Surrender Dorothy." In your mind, if you think of a certain witch spraying smoke across the sky from the bristles of her broom in an effort to get a little girl from Kansas to give up some shoes, you've got a good reference. 

However, If you are in  the DC area, and you are driving on the Beltway, about a mile from our house you come around a bend, and there is ... well... a sight. 

The Washington DC area Mormon Temple is right in front of you. Right there. In Your Face.

It makes an astonishing first impression for those who have never seen it.

Doug moved here two weeks before I did because his job started before mine ended. So he got to experience the area for a little while and there was something he insisted I see when I got here. 

One night, we got in the car at dusk and drove towards Virginia. He told me to keep looking out the windshield, don't look at my phone, don't get distracted. Just. Be ready. 

I wasn't ready. 

The sunset hitting the building caused the white marble to glow with a pinkish orange tint, and the spires, the golden spires, just radiated in the magic hour light. 

"Holy shit." I believe was my reaction.  I pondered how many people coming around that corner may have lost control of their cars as they gazed upon this majestic sight. 

"It's like.... Oz or something," was my next comment. 

"Exactly," said Doug. 

We then came to find out that at one point in the 1970s, there was graffiti on the bridge we'd just gone under that said "Surrender Dorothy." Apparently, I was not the only one to visually connect Oz and the Emerald City (though salmony pink at the time). 

7 Locks created a Rye IPA (RyePA) and named it Surrender Dorothy.  Not in homage or to steal from The Wizard himself, but as a nod to this historic local lore. 

The beer is a delicious, flavorful blend and became their flagship brew. What a cool local thing to learn about, what a fun and exciting piece of history, right here. 

I never equated the beer itself with any sort of trying to glean any sort of benefit from Oz. It was the local story, the history, and the greatness of the tale that made it great.

A couple years ago, 7 Locks attempted to secure the copyright to Surrender Dorothy, and I believe that was their undoing. 

Turner Entertainment fought them on it, as they hold the copyright on anything "Dorothy" and Oz related. This would be too close to what the Wicked Witch wrote in the sky for anyone's liking and would confuse consumers.  To be honest, no. For me, at least, the two are detached and far apart from each other.

The old label did include a yellow brick road as the Beltway, and the overpass says Rye IPA and not Dorothy. I think it is apart enough that there isn't any benefit stolen from Turner Entertainment but a change in the branding would have worked out to distance the Turner Entertainment concerns from the beer.

7 Locks has rebranded the beer to just "Surrender," aptly. The Beltway is now just a grey ribbon of boringness, the Temple still stands in the distance. There is a worker painting the overpass to remove "Dorothy." 

After Donald Trump was elected, they temporarily rebranded this beer as "Surrender Donald," and I regret not getting a can, or a T-shirt, or anything to jump in on the commemoration.

Name or not, as Surrender Dorothy, Surrender Donald, or just Surrender, the beer is the same, delicious, and wonderful brew. If nothing else, Turner Entertainment should sue the Mormon Church for making a really amazing Oz on the highway for us all to see. 

There is a good article here in the Washington Post, if you can read it. Democracy doesn't die in darkness, it dies behind a paywall. 

And as for me, I still love this beer. It will always have the Dorothy Connection for me, and honestly the first DC area thing I've felt connection to. Cheers to 7 Locks. Keep brewing beautiful beer, and I'll keep buying it.