MansBrand.com Articles Provided as noted by attribution.
Let’s face it, America loves its trucks and SUVs, more so than any other part of the world. If you ever travel to the Midwest or venture into American suburbs, you’ll find a plethora of utility vehicles ranging from compact crossovers to mammoth-sized SUVs like the latest 2020 Ford Expedition that I had a chance to check out over the past week.
Ford’s latest Expedition, now in its fourth generation, touts a new aluminum body on its frame first introduced in 2018 for a complete redesign. For the 2020 model year, the Expedition remains the same but makes its Ford Co-Pilot360 suite of driver aids and safety features standard on all trim levels. Moreover, the trim levels, with their many levels, brings us a King Range model and a black accent package for XLT trims.
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We love beer. Some might say our passion for it borders on obsession. Luckily beer has some surprising benefits (assuming it’s consumed in moderation). For one, it has nutrients—yes, you read that right. And some studies have shown that it may potentially improve cholesterol levels and boost cognitive health, among other perks.
In the name of health, and summertime, we’ve come up with the following recipes, which might just convince you that beer is good for more than just drinking. It’s fun to cook with and it adds flavor, too. A few of these recipes can be made on the grill, and all of them can be taken on the road—not a bad way to spend a summer afternoon.
Appetizer: Kickin’ Beer Queso
Forget what you bought at the store, and make it fresh. Photo: Erin McGrady Photo: Erin McGrady
Ingredients:
-12 oz beer (we used Miller Lite)
-8 oz low fat cream cheese
-4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
-1 medium tomato
-2 garlic cloves, minced
Garlic is almost always the star of any good dip. Photo: Erin McGrady
Directions:
-Put beer, garlic and cubed cream cheese in a pot on low heat.
-Whisk or stir until the cream cheese is melted and smooth. Make sure the mixture does not boil or the cream cheese will curdle.
-Add shredded cheese a handful at a time and stir until melted.
Docks and dip. Photo: Erin McGrady
-Add diced tomato and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes until the dip thickens. Check this by coating a spoon and letting the dip cool (It should be creamy but not soupy.)
-Pour in a bowl and eat with corn chips, pretzels, veggies, crostini, or anything dip-worthy.
Main Dish: Curry Beer Chicken
Nothing says summer like the sizzle of a grill. Photo: Erin McGrady
Ingredients:
-1 cup beer (we used Amstel Light)
-2 lbs chicken (we used bone-in thighs with the skin)
-½ cup olive oil
-1 ½ tsp salt
-½ tsp black pepper
-1 tsp curry powder
-½ tsp cumin
-1 tsp dried oregano
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-3 tbsp onion, chopped fine
-¼ cup fresh thyme
-1 lemon squeezed
This marinade just got a little better. Photo: Erin McGrady
Directions:
-Add all of the ingredients to a 1 gallon resealable bag.
-Squeeze out as much air as possible and close bag.
-Knead the bag so that all the ingredients are evenly mixed.
-Put the bag on a plate or pan and let sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
-Remove from refrigerator and turn the bag over a few more times to evenly disperse the marinade.
Curry and beer come together to create some of the best barbecued chicken. Photo: Erin McGrady
-Turn your grill to medium heat.
-Sear the chicken for ten minutes on one side; flip to sear for ten minutes on the other side.
-Change heat to low and move chicken to the upper rack to cook for ten more minutes or until chicken is cooked through the center. If you don’t have an upper rack on your grill, put chicken in a pan and tent loosely with foil for ten minutes to finish cooking.
Side Dish: Damn-Good Beer Bread
Cheese, onions and beer – a combination just about anyone can appreciate. Photo: Erin McGrady
Makes 1 (8 ½-inch) loaf
Ingredients
-2 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour
-1 tbsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-12 oz Sierra Nevada Summerfest beer
-1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
-1 medium onion, diced and sauteed
-2 tbsp melted butter
Mix it up. Photo: Erin McGrady
Directions
-Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
-Grease loaf pan with butter or oil.
-Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
-Pour in the beer and onions and stir until thoroughly mixed.
-Gently fold in ¾ cup of cheddar cheese.
-Pour batter into pan.
-Drizzle the melted butter on top of the batter.
Pack this up and take it with you. Photo: Erin McGrady
-Bake for about 30 minutes then sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top and return to the oven for about 15 minutes.
-Test to make sure the bread is cooked in the center by sticking a knife in the center. It should come out clean.
-Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Great served warm or toasted.
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We love beer. Some might say our passion for it borders on obsession. Luckily beer has some surprising benefits (assuming it’s consumed in moderation). For one, it has nutrients—yes, you read that right. And some studies have shown that it may potentially improve cholesterol levels and boost cognitive health, among other perks.
In the name of health, and summertime, we’ve come up with the following recipes, which might just convince you that beer is good for more than just drinking. It’s fun to cook with and it adds flavor, too. A few of these recipes can be made on the grill, and all of them can be taken on the road—not a bad way to spend a summer afternoon.
Appetizer: Kickin’ Beer Queso
Forget what you bought at the store, and make it fresh. Photo: Erin McGrady Photo: Erin McGrady
Ingredients:
-12 oz beer (we used Miller Lite)
-8 oz low fat cream cheese
-4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
-1 medium tomato
-2 garlic cloves, minced
Garlic is almost always the star of any good dip. Photo: Erin McGrady
Directions:
-Put beer, garlic and cubed cream cheese in a pot on low heat.
-Whisk or stir until the cream cheese is melted and smooth. Make sure the mixture does not boil or the cream cheese will curdle.
-Add shredded cheese a handful at a time and stir until melted.
Docks and dip. Photo: Erin McGrady
-Add diced tomato and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes until the dip thickens. Check this by coating a spoon and letting the dip cool (It should be creamy but not soupy.)
-Pour in a bowl and eat with corn chips, pretzels, veggies, crostini, or anything dip-worthy.
Main Dish: Curry Beer Chicken
Nothing says summer like the sizzle of a grill. Photo: Erin McGrady
Ingredients:
-1 cup beer (we used Amstel Light)
-2 lbs chicken (we used bone-in thighs with the skin)
-½ cup olive oil
-1 ½ tsp salt
-½ tsp black pepper
-1 tsp curry powder
-½ tsp cumin
-1 tsp dried oregano
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-3 tbsp onion, chopped fine
-¼ cup fresh thyme
-1 lemon squeezed
This marinade just got a little better. Photo: Erin McGrady
Directions:
-Add all of the ingredients to a 1 gallon resealable bag.
-Squeeze out as much air as possible and close bag.
-Knead the bag so that all the ingredients are evenly mixed.
-Put the bag on a plate or pan and let sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
-Remove from refrigerator and turn the bag over a few more times to evenly disperse the marinade.
Curry and beer come together to create some of the best barbecued chicken. Photo: Erin McGrady
-Turn your grill to medium heat.
-Sear the chicken for ten minutes on one side; flip to sear for ten minutes on the other side.
-Change heat to low and move chicken to the upper rack to cook for ten more minutes or until chicken is cooked through the center. If you don’t have an upper rack on your grill, put chicken in a pan and tent loosely with foil for ten minutes to finish cooking.
Side Dish: Damn-Good Beer Bread
Cheese, onions and beer – a combination just about anyone can appreciate. Photo: Erin McGrady
Makes 1 (8 ½-inch) loaf
Ingredients
-2 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour
-1 tbsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-12 oz Sierra Nevada Summerfest beer
-1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
-1 medium onion, diced and sauteed
-2 tbsp melted butter
Mix it up. Photo: Erin McGrady
Directions
-Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
-Grease loaf pan with butter or oil.
-Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
-Pour in the beer and onions and stir until thoroughly mixed.
-Gently fold in ¾ cup of cheddar cheese.
-Pour batter into pan.
-Drizzle the melted butter on top of the batter.
Pack this up and take it with you. Photo: Erin McGrady
-Bake for about 30 minutes then sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top and return to the oven for about 15 minutes.
-Test to make sure the bread is cooked in the center by sticking a knife in the center. It should come out clean.
-Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Great served warm or toasted.
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There’s a whole world of whiskey out there, quite literally. Though broadly associated with a few specific countries or regions—Scotland, Ireland, Japan, and a handful of U.S. states like Kentucky and Tennessee—whiskey (or whisky) comes from all across the globe, often produced from unique ingredients and matured in unconventional casks and/or climates.
Australian whiskey matured in locally-sourced red wine casks over the course of several warm Melbourne summers will develop differently than one matured in ex-bourbon barrels in the cooler Scottish highlands. A spirit made from an ancestral Mexican corn variety will exude flavor notes that diverge significantly from those in a Kentucky bourbon.
The following list of world whiskeys is by no means comprehensive, but it does include some excellent bottles (at various price points) that have captured our interest at a time when global travel has been seriously curtailed. This summer travel season may prove a stationary one for many of us, but that doesn’t mean you can’t expand your horizons along with your palate by adding a few of these bottles to your bar.
Abasolo Ancestral Corn Whisky
Billed as the first-ever 100% Mexican corn whiskey, Abasolo couldn’t be mistaken for anything else, with a smooth and savory roasted corn top note that evokes elote. Made by the same team that brings you Montelobos mezcal, Abasolo is crafted from a heritage corn variety known as Cacahuazintle long grown by farmers in Jilotepec de Abasolo that then undergoes nixtamalization, the same alkaline-cooking process used to turn corn into masa (a process that itself goes back to Mexico’s indigenous Aztec and Mayan cultures). After double-distillation in copper pot stills and aging in oak, the final product offers up copious notes of corn that give way to sweeter vanilla, honey, and toffee flavors.
[$40; astorwines.com]
Rampur
Rampur Double Cask Single Malt Whiskey
On paper, Rampur Double Cask is produced in a very traditional way for a single malt whiskey, spending time in a combination of American ex-bourbon barrels and European oak casks that once held sherry. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh in northern India, this Double Cask is packed with stewed and dried fruits, dark berries, salted caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg, and more vanilla—floral and tropical on the nose with hints of vanilla and spice. Tropical south-Asian fruit and florals atop rich, dry European sherry notes and baking spice from American oak makes this dram a true intercontinental journey.
[$90; winechateau.com]
Nomad
Nomad
When Nomad Outland Whisky reaches the glass, it’s already made a journey that any scotch lover would envy, particularly those who appreciate a good sherry cask-finished whisky. Nomad whisky starts in Scotland, where renowned master blender Richard Paterson (the talent behind The Dalmore, among others) creates a blend from more than 30 aged malt and grain whiskies and matures it for a few more years before sending it on to legendary sherry bodega Gonzalez Byass in Jerez, Spain, for finishing in sherry casks. The resulting whisky is not technically scotch (because it’s partially matured and bottled outside of Scotland). It’s not exactly “Spanish whiskey” either. If you must have a word to describe Nomad, we’d suggest: “delicious.”
[$40; wine.com]
Courtesy image
Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Casks
In March, Washington State’s Woodinville took home the honors for Best Straight Bourbon Whiskey at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirit Awards. This iteration takes that same bourbon (aged five years) and finishes it for six months in tawny port barrels, rounding the bourbon’s sharper notes a bit while layering notes of cherry, dried plum, and raisin atop what is already a fantastic foundation. Available in limited quantities, so don’t sleep on it.
[$50; wine.com]
Courtesy image
Starward Nova Single Malt
Despite a lack of visibility in the U.S. market, Australia produces a whole lot of great whisky (that unfortunately never makes it to American shores). However, Melbourne-based Starward has cracked the U.S. market, and regular readers likely have noticed that we’re big fans. Starward retains its sense of place in a very tangible way, aging its whiskies in locally-sourced Australian red wine casks rather than traditional American or European oak. Its flagship Nova Single Malt spends its entire life in these wine barrels, producing a light, somewhat sweet whisky—think: honey and stewed fruits—with tailing notes of warm baking spice and malt.
[$50; astorwines.com]
Courtesy image
Kilbeggan Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey
Ireland is not exactly an unconventional source of whiskey, but Kilbeggan’s has in recent years set about resurrecting recipes last seen more than a century ago that are anything but conventional. Its Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey incorporates oats into the mash bill, an ingredient once found in many Irish whiskey recipes but largely phased out by the early 1900s. With just 2.5 percent oats in the mash bill the presence is notable in a textural creaminess and unique roundness atop the typical fresh fruit, vanilla, baking space, and malt you’ll find in many great Irish whiskeys. Think of it less as a whiskey that will transport you to another place, and more of a time traveler bringing souvenirs from another era.
[$45; worldofliquor.com]
Courtesy image
Jefferson’s Ocean Voyage 17
Every so often, Jefferson’s founder Trey Zoeller blends a few barrels worth of Kentucky bourbon and then places them on a friend’s 126-foot research ship for a four-year, equator-crisscrossing journey around the world. While it might be easy to dismiss the resulting Jefferson’s Ocean series as a marketing gimmick, we do know that factors such as temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure influence maturation in the barrel. That’s not even accounting for the movement of the boat, which churns the whiskey within the cask and increases contact with the wood. Whether or not it makes better whiskey, it certainly makes a different whiskey—the Voyage 17 is well-matured, overflowing with delicious wood aromas of spice, brown sugar, and vanilla—and one that most definitely has some travel stories to share.
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You jump out of bed, throw on shorts and a shirt, lace up your running shoes and head for the front door. You’re ready to hit the trails and log some miles. But should you stretch first?
You’ve probably heard that it’s good to stretch before any physical activity to help prevent injury, and that can be true, but there has been debate on whether to stretch before running.
According to a 2014 study, static stretching—stretching where you’re holding a single non-moving position from 10 to 20 seconds—can actually have a negative effect on your strength and power. This matters most for sprinters, but other studies have found that stretching pre-run can also hinder running economy for distance runners, and there’s no concrete evidence that it can reduce delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS.
You should be thinking beyond proper gear when it comes to running prep. Photo: Unsplash
“It’s helpful to realize that the old adage, ‘never stretch a cold muscle’ is true,” explains Jason Fitzgerald, USA Track and Field certified run coach, and founder and head coach of Strength Running. “And because that’s true, it means you should never engage in static stretching before a run. Muscles are not pliable and won’t respond well to lengthening if they’re cold.” Translation: You could actually end up doing more harm than good.
However, that doesn’t mean you should totally write off a pre-trail stretch. While there aren’t many advantages you can get from static stretching, instead, swap them out for a dynamic warm-up. “The most effective warm-up is a series of dynamic flexibility exercises, also known as dynamic stretching,” says Fitzgerald.
And it’s beneficial for many reasons—the main one being that it will literally warm you up. “This type of routine increases your heart rate, respiration, perspiration and metabolic pathways that will prime you to run. It will also improve your range of motion, lubricate the joints and open up small capillaries in the extremities to promote more blood flow—all the great things a proper warm-up should do.”
Get moving before you hit the trail. Photo: Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash
This holds true even if you’re running a short distance. Fitzgerald explains that it’s always beneficial, despite mileage, to warm up. “It will help you feel better, perform better and reduce your injury risk,” he says.
A dynamic warm-up can be made up of different elements including running drills, light strength exercises and mobility work.
We asked Fitzgerald for an example and he suggested the Mattock Dynamic warm-up routine, which includes squats, walking lunges, walking leg swings, high knee skips and more. Try it before your next run.
“Runners are not gymnasts,” says Fitzgerald. “We don’t need to be super loose and flexible; we actually need stiffness—high isometric strength or not ‘being tight’—to promote economical form and faster race times.”
Penis Hair Removal – Tips To Make It Painless and Easier
More and more men are finding that by limiting the amount of body hair they have, they are increasing the number of potential partners they can get. It’s true, today more women prefer men with less body hair than in times past. This ‘manscaping’ also includes the genital area. Few women consider it sexy when a man has a big bush of pubic hair. To find the best penis hair removal method for you here are some ideas to consider.
When it comes to removing body hair, no matter what part of the body it’s on, there are really only a few options: shaving, wax, chemicals, laser and electrolysis. These methods can be used even in the sensitive genital area for most men although if you have unusually sensitive skin you may want to test a small spot first to see how your skin reacts before you commit to using a certain method all over your genital area.
Here are some tips to make your manscaping less painful and easier:
1. If your pubic hair is particularly long and bushy you should first trim it with scissors. By cutting some of the hair off first, you won’t clog up the razor as quickly.
2. Never, ever use an old razor when trimming your pubic area. This is not the place you want to get a lot of razor burn. Use a brand new razor or at least a brand new blade when manscaping.
3. Use some top quality shaving cream to lessen the friction of the razor. Another trick is to apply a warm hot towel to your pubic area for a few minutes before you start shaving.
4. Make sure to rinse the razor often, again a clogged blade will only irritate your skin that much more.
5. This one may sound obvious but make sure you take your time. Use slow and careful strokes of the razor to avoid nicks.
6. The styling choices are totally up to you. Some men prefer to completely shave their penis and the whole pubic area, others will leave some hair on their testicles and still others will leave their penis and testicles hair covered but will trim the pubic area above the penis. Whatever you decide just make sure to keep in mind that it does take maintenance, you will need to trim fairly often to keep the desired look.
7. To alleviate some of the burning of shaving you can use a top quality calming lotion, baby oil and even an ice cube can help reduce the friction of shaving.
If you’re a little worried about manscaping I have three words for you: get over it. Women have been doing this for years, suck it up guys and show your woman that you want to look as good for her as she does for you. Find the best method of penis hair removal and stick with it. After all, what would you say if your woman came to bed one night with a big bush of hair under her arms? What makes you think she likes it any more than you do?
