Blue Bottle Dinner

Read on for recipes for: Beer Bread, Beer Cheese Soup, Beer Pork Loin Roast, Strawberry Beer Cake AND Chocolate Peanut Butter Beer Cake.  :0)

Mike and I are getting married in December.  I have this idea in my mind that I want to use gorgeous blue bottles as vases to decorate my reception.  This means that I need lots of people to drink things that come in blue bottles and donate them to me!  Moscatos, Rieslings, Bud Light Platinum, etc...  I found an AMAZING one at Sam's Club.  It is a huge, 1.5 Liter bottle of Riesling. I have no idea what I would use it for, but I really feel that I need 2 ;-)

Thanks, yet again to Sam's Club, I found cases of 12 Bud Light Platinum's for about $10.50.  This is an awesome deal.  The problem is that I do not love to drink beer. This means that I have to cook with it instead.  So, get ready for my Blue Bottle Dinner!









Bud Light Platinum Beer Bread:

Preheat oven to 400F.  Grease/flour loaf pan 

Sift together: 
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar (or sugar substitute)
3 3/4 teaspoon
3/4 teaspoon salt

Gently stir in 1 bottle of Bud Light Platinum until just combined.  Pour in to bread pan.  

Optional: Top with a sprinkle of oatmeal or 1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup at the start of baking and 1/4 cup midway through).

Bake for 40 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack until ready to devour. 


Bud Light Platinum Beer Cheese Soup:

1/2 medium onion, finely diced
3/4 cup carrot, finely diced
4 stalks celery, finely diced
2 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup fat free powdered milk
1/4 cup nacho cheese powder (check GFS for this)
1 Tablespoon powdered chicken bouillon
2 teaspoons powdered garlic
3 cups fat free milk
1 bottle Bud Light Platinum
8 oz shredded cheese (I used equal parts mozzarella, 2% colby jack, 2% cheddar)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sweat down vegetables in large pot on medium until very soft. Melt in butter. In another bowl, mix flour, powdered milk, cheese powder, bouillon, garlic.  Using whisk, stir dry ingredients into vegetables.  Continue to stir until flour is no longer white (a few minutes).  Whisk in milk.  Once mixture is warm again, whisk in beer.  Once the temperature is just below boiling, slowly whisk in small amounts of cheese until all is incorporated.  Keep whisking.  DO NOT LET IT BOIL!  Soup will begin to thicken.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy with some beer bread.


Bud Light Platinum Pork Loin Roast

I started my pork loin roast in a crock pot, then had to move it to a roasting pan and to the oven. I would recommend just cooking it in the oven on 300F for about 2 hours.

In pan, place:
2 lbs pork loin (thanks to Sam's Club for the HUGE pork loin at $1.99/lb)
1.5 lbs  baby pototoes, quartered
1 cup baby carrots
4 stalks celery, cut in to 2 inch segments
1/2 medium onion, cut in to rings

Over everything:
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon dry minced onion
2 bottles of Bud Light Platinum

Once meat it cooked through and vegetables are soft, removed extra juices from pan and add a slurry of cornstarch/water and 1 teaspoon of chicken bouillon along with salt and pepper to taste.  Whisk until you have a lovely gravy.


Bud Light Platinum Strawberry Cake:


This is a take on two cakes I like to make. One made with cake mix and yogurt, another made with soda pop instead of typical ingredients.

1 box of strawberry cake mix
1 bottle Bud Light Platinum
Follow instructions on cake mix to bake.

Frost with a thawed 8 oz container of cool whip (fat free works well) mixed with a 6 oz container of strawberry yogurt.  Garnish with free strawberries. 

This cake can be a bit sticky because there is no egg in it.  So, with my next cake, I tried something a little bit different.  Either way, it was delicious. :0)


Bud Light Platinum Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake: 

1 box vanilla cake mix
1/2 cup cocoa powder
- OR - 1 box chocolate cake mix, if you remember to have some in the house!
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Bud Light Platinum
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup egg beaters - OR - 3 eggs
Follow instructions on cake mix to bake.

In a small sauce pan on low heat, reduce the rest of the bottle of Bud Light Platinum (around 1/4 cup to start) to about half.  Once removed from the heat, add 1/3 cup peanut butter, 2 Tablespoons sugar (I used half brown sugar and half regular sugar - both as sugar substitutes).  Slowly mix peanut butter concoction in to a thawed, 8 oz tub of (fat free) cool whip.  

Frost bottom layer of cake. Sprinkle on approximately 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips.  Add second layer and frost. Top with chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. 

I took this cake to a family dinner tonight and it got rave reviews.  Most people had no idea it was made with beer.  Mostly since I didn't tell them. :0)  And, with all the recipes, you can use any beer you please. Bud Light Platinum comes in blue bottles, so that is why we used them!

Total Blue Bottle Count for these recipes? 6.  Only about 100 more to go!