Beer Bread

my husband and i have always agreed on not going overboard for mother's and father's days. since this was our first year of  really celebrating it, we stuck to it and honestly, i like the simplicity of it!! (i know  some husbands and wives  like to go all out on these sort of occasions, in addition to push presents and whatnot, and the idea of doing something so extravagant really stresses me out!) you know, for my first mother's day, my husband gave me the FIRST card he's EVER given me in the 6+ years we've been together, and that would've been more than enough for me! being pampered and getting my hair done? that was an added bonus!

Hubby and B enjoying their first Daddy's day!

my husband recently started a new website- a beer rating website. it's been a project he's been working on for a while, and when he came up with it, i figured he'd be doing it alone, but then one of his co-workers joined in on it. and it's been non-stop beer drinking since! have i mentioned, i don't drink beer? in fact, i generally hate the taste of it! BUT somehow i still take sips every time my husband tries a new beer thinking that maybe, just maybe, i might find a beer i like and could actually drink...so far, i haven't!

i figured for father's day i'd try and incorporate the whole beer thing into his first daddy's day; and there were several beer recipes i've been wanting to try- beer bread and those chocolate covered beer marshmallows that keep popping up all over the food blogs! i asked hubby which he'd prefer and beer bread won! after searching through some recipes i decided to go with the simple one- no extra cheese or herbs or anything- just plain ol' beer bread. and lemme tell you, who needs the Tastefully Simple beer bread mix when it's THIS easy!!

i ended up using one of the beers he had that he didn't like very much. (from what he said, it didn't taste much like a pale ale and had more citrusy notes and blah blah blah blah...) i figured i'd use it since the beer would bake out anyways. the beer bread tasted great, but we were actually both surprised that the beer flavor was more than just a "hint" and you could really taste it! (if you've ever had beer bread, you normally can't even tell there's beer in it!) this is definitely a quick and easy recipe, and i'll be making MANY more loaves, i'm sure! it came out SUPER moist, and i can't wait to try some of the more savory ones and also some made with wheat flour!

Beer Bread

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 bottle 12oz beer
• 4 tbsp melted butter

preheat oven to 375 degrees. combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. add the beer, and with a wooden spoon mix just enough to incorporate all the ingredients- you don't want to overmix otherwise i think the bread won't cook properly. (the batter should be lumpy!)

in a 9x5 loaf pan, coat with half of the melted butter, then pour in the bread batter, then top with the remaining butter. (if you don't like crusty bread, you can just put all the butter on top to make only the top part crustier...if you decide you only want the butter on the top, then i'd suggest greasing the pan just to make sure it doesn't stick). bake for about 40 minutes (test with a toothpick and when it comes out clean, it's done). let cool for a bit on rack.