Beer at 30...

It's been busy around here the last two weeks. Last Wednesday was husband's 30th birthday (yay!), so I spent my time planning, cooking, and shopping. I was exhausted by Saturday, but the outcome was fantastic--we celebrated his birthday with a 'Tarts & Vicars' Dirty Thirty Party over the weekend. Here's a sample of what I've been doing:

(Top: Making Czech Goulash and bread dumplings.)

(Bottom: In honor of Husband's dual love for beer and jelly beans, I etched pub glasses and filled them with jelly beans for the party favors.)

Husband and I grew up in the Pacific Northwest--arguably the center of craft microbrewing in the United States. Portland, OR has more breweries per capita than any other city, and we grew up in a town with one of the best and most-well known microbreweries in the country: Deschutes Brewery. In college husband and I studied abroad in London, where he was introduced to traditional English beer and grew to love it above all but his PacNW microbrews. We stayed with a host family, and the dad was an avid 'Real Ale' fan (introduced us to CAMRA, and etc.). The very first night there, he took Husband out to the garage to make his first beer. Adam's Ale. Then he took him to the pub and gave him an education in cask-conditioned real ale. It's no wonder husband became such a beer lover. So for Christmas I got him his first beer-making kit. His second batch was finished just in time for the party this weekend.

A friend hosted the party at his house--his built-in bar and back yard were much more fun than our tiny condo. We ate and drank 'around the world' with food and beer samplings from various locales. The original menu included most of the major beer countries, but we had to whittle it down to avoid drowning in food and beer, so instead we sampled the following: England, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Pacific NW, California, and India (random, but our friend makes a mean curry, and wanted some Maharaja).The end result was quite a blast. Any guesses on my costume? Here's a hint: I went with a bookish stereotype, while Husband--standing next to me--decided that as the birthday boy he should be the pope. :)