My Thanksgiving in Three Acts

Filling the House with Smoke

Well, not literally. I can only imagine the crazy ideas you all just had about what went down at my Thanksgiving. I smoked a turkey. And that’s not anything new. But this time it came out damn good, my best ever. And it filled the house full of aromas of smoked meat goodness.

( The smell was so rich and deep. )

We also roasted a turkey and served both with the usual sides including, homemade cranberry sauce, a root vegetable gratin that wouldn’t be good until it was reheated three days later, mashed potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots, stuffing, bread and of course gravy.

Thanksgiving Day was all about laughs and good food. No fuss was made of wine pairings and we finished off the Saisons from the prior day before dinner was even served.

We finished the day with board games and homemade pie.

Say Hello to My Little Mojo

On Friday my parents came to visit for the holiday. I had planned a non-traditional menu for dinner to avoid any boredom with the typical post-Turkey Day fare. One of the dishes I made, they were all small bites/portions, was a Cuban Sandwich on a lettuce leaf instead of bread.

Several key elements came together for this plate to have made the impact it did. First, bone-in pork chops marinated in an orange mojo overnight and then slow cooked. Take a look at this little mojo.

Orange Mojo Marinade

¼ cup fresh squeezed OJ

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp lime juice

Peel of 1 orange

2 large garlic cloves, smashed and chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 Tbsp annatto soaked oil

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Mix and pour over pork in a container than can be sealed and refrigerated overnight. Agitate several times during the marinating.

The cooked pork was topped with thick cut bacon that had been baked with melted brown sugar and Dijon mustard on it. The bacon alone was immensely flavorful and had a good spicy bite. I melted Gruyere over the two meats and then placed all of that on top of the lettuce leaf, pickle and a small amount of Dijon mustard. My take on a Cuban sandwich. Everyone said it was the best of the four courses I served.

( Not the best shot, but the best one I got! )

For the first course I served fish croquettes I made following my friend Kelly at The Pink Apron’s recipe. I deep fried them, I would normally use the oven, and served them hot, and with the dijonaise. Wow! Lots of flavor and the fish was cooked just right. The ones in the freezer won’t stand a chance at a party real soon!

I paired wine with each course, finding the Westport RiversSparkling Wine to be a keen match for the croquettes. I used the remainder of it to make several cocktails two days later with no loss of carbonation or flavor. Other wines from my own collection and my trip to Virginia were tasted with several courses.

I served an intermezzo course of grilled butternut squash & pineapple topped with Meyer lemon curd crème fraiche. I followed that with dinner consisting of slow cooked Asian style BBQ lamb, creamed corn muffin and an Asian-inspired slaw. I’ll save more on those dishes for another day.

If the Muppets Can’t Make You Smile, You’re Dead

The rest of the weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. I made three batches of mead on Saturday morning, look for notes on that project at WineMaker Magazine’s web site real soon, and we rung in the holidays with friends Ed & Jim and their house full of guests in the afternoon.

For the party on Saturday I made a beer & cheese bread dip that surprisingly pleased more people and went more quickly than I had expected. It was pretty simple actually. Sadly I forgot to get a picture.

Beer & Cheese Dip

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

¼ cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tsp dried sage

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup beer (I used Shipyard Pumpkinhead)

1 large round loaf of bread

1 loaf of bread, similar type to above

Place all the ingredients, except the beer & bread in the Cuisinart and mix well. Slowly add the beer and mix until smooth. Refrigerate overnight.

Cut a cone out of the center of the round loaf of bread, much like taking the top off a pumpkin. Cube the removed bread and the additional load of bread. Using a spatula place the dip in the bread bowl and serve the bowl and the bread for dipping on a large platter.

We checked out the new Muppet movie on Sunday and spent a couple hours laughing over our shared Muppet memories. Margot and I both grew up watching the Muppets and we pondered over the self-reflection and contemporary relevance questions raised by the movie. We would still watch the Muppets now, it wasn’t exclusively for kids in the beginning, but over time I think the perception of the show and the movies has seen them relegated to the big pile of kid’s shows out there. Who knows, maybe this movie can reverse that trend.We laughed a lot and think most people our age could relate.

Fini

Thanksgiving is what you make it and clearly we made something of this one! The leftovers have been parlayed into nearly a week of different meals with a bacon and pineapple pizza making an appearance tonight.

We finished the weekend with a late day walk up to the old cemetery. The big, gnarly and leafless sugar maples set against the fleeting sun were a sure sign of where we are in the year, the weather notwithstanding!

I hope you enjoyed time with family and friends this Thanksgiving, and I wish you even more good times for the remainder of the holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Cheers!

Jason

Don't forget to enter to win a Spanish Wine Party Pack at http://ancientfirewineblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/wine-spanish-wine-party-pack-from.html

Saisons for the Season

This isn’t a Thanksgiving (or even a Christmas) food & beverage pairing post. The title is catchy. I thought of it and decided to write a post reviewing several saisons that I would drink while cooking and hanging out on Thanksgiving Day. When I wrote this I didn’t even know yet what I would break out to drink with the multiple dinners for the upcoming holiday. On Thanksgiving day we did open up some homemade wine, but beers of several varieties won the day. I was hosting a beer drinking crowd so this was not surprising. The day after I served a menu of small plates, not themed for Thanksgiving, each with its own wine pairing. That’s for another post though.

My other reason for lining up a flight of saisons is that I plan to make a sour cherry saison this winter that will be done in time to celebrate Spring and Summer with. For that project I need some inspiration from commercially available examples. My life is hard!

What is a saison? First off saison is the French word for season. This style of beer hails from Wallonia in Belgium, and a French speaking part of that country to bring it all together. Brewed as farmhouse ales, saisons were originally brewed seasonally in the fall or winter for consumption by farm workers during the next planting and harvest seasons. During that time sources of potable water were few and brewed beer was safe to drink, contained some nutrition and was hydrating. Low alcohol levels in the original brews would have staved off outright drunkenness. Just a few historical facts that take us back to the beginnings of beer. Back to saisons however. Variations were available from many different brewers making the style somewhat broad to define. Modern day versions cover a broad range creating some excitement when trying new ones.

Saisons were historically brewed as pale ales and likely with a low ABV of around 3%.  Strong hop character was a foregone conclusion based on the need to cellar the beers for quite some time without the aid of refrigeration. The preservative qualities of hops and considerable acidity (sometimes through blending with lambics and prior year saisons) ensured the beer didn’t spoil. Most modern-day saisons are typically cloudy, golden in color with an off-white head. The nose will vary between different saisons, with a range of fruity, spicy, earthy/funky and yeasty often having moderate tartness and bitterness as well.  Darker versions are common enough (called biere de garde in France) to be notable. Likewise some versions will have a perceptibly sweet, rich and malty finish.

Saisons are typically sold in large format bottles, 22oz bombers, often with a cork and wire harness much like sparkling wine and champagne. Most are bottle conditioned and some labels will suggest what you should or shouldn’t do with the bottle sediment to ensure a good drink. Bottle conditioning also adds variation, with the level of charge and size of the bubbles of different labels to span a range.

Names of several highly rated commercial versions of saisons include Dupont, Hennepin, Sofie and Jack D’or, all of which we will taste and review here. I also have the Ovila Saison, a new product from a partnership between Sierra Nevada and Abbey of New Clairvaux, to try alongside the others. Selections from Fantome and The Bruery are on my list to search for to taste another day.

Saison Dupont

Pours a gold/orange color. Tall white head. Considerable sour and savory notes, herbs, drying grass, etc. in the nose. Sour citrus in the mouth followed by tart stone fruits. Dry with moderate funkiness towards the finish. Very effervescent, mouth filling in fact. Very smooth finish and a well balanced disposition. I’ve only had this a few other times and couldn’t recall them well enough to compare. The smooth finish increases the likelihood I would drink this anytime I found it. web site

Pretty Things Jack D’or

Big funky nose. Short white head. I found hay, herbs, unripe fruits and spices. Margot said herbaceous and I can’t disagree with that at all. Pours gold and unfiltered. I picked up quite a bit of citrus in the nose and sour notes. Margot thought it came off as very hoppy which is consistent with my expressions of the nose. Mouth filling carbonation is a note we both made. I found the mouth to be considerably full with light malts and grains, almost like a golden ale. The hops came on big for me in the flavors with many green elements like grass, herbs, spruce and bitter greens. The finish is clean, albeit more bitter than we liked. web site

Goose Island Sofie

Pours yellow/gold and hazy. Tall white head. The complexity of the nose caught my attention right away. The fullness of the sour, fruit, yeast and malt notes in the nose was surprising. As you sip earthy notes show up very early and slip away in favor of dried fruits and citrus. The finish was like sour lemon candy. Margot felt it was more complex, very balanced and finished smooth. This was the most drinkable and the mutual favorite for both of us and one we hope to enjoy again very soon. web site

Ovila Saison

Pours orange/gold with a medium off-white head. Moderate sour notes to the nose, hints of green apple. Full bodied and fruit with a dry finish. Hops are present in the nose and mouth, but not very big. Not as complex as the others, aromas and flavors are not very deep is how Margot described it. web site

Ommegang Hennepin

Pours hazy and gold. Short white head. I picked up some salinity in the otherwise sour nose. This beer is malty and grainy in the mouth with considerable prickly carbonation. Citrus and tart unripe fruits were the predominant flavors. The finish was very clean and smooth. I ended up rushing through this tasting and I didn’t get back to my notes when I shared the rest of the bottle with friends the next day. web site

Like with a lot of foodstuffs you have to want to like something to enjoy it. If you try saison and don’t like the style I won’t argue the point. Beverages of all kinds are designed to accentuate several key tastes, sour and bitter here specifically, and that coupled with textural elements like bubbles and tannins in beers, wines and spirits, create a lot of action for your palate. Any one off presentation and it could be the end of any enjoyment. Adventure does come with a cost. I love finding new beverages that channel their attributes in that way that I must pause and consider the tweaking of my senses that is going on. I don’t like everything I drink, the experience notwithstanding.

I was in the Boston Wine Exchange on Tuesday picking up the last of the saisons for our lineup. One of the staff was picking some fall beers to put in a holiday display. She asked what I was drinking and whether it was for Thanksgiving. I mentioned that I was picking up some saison or “beer drinkers Champagne” to take for a test drive. I didn’t commit to it being my Turkey Day pairing choice because in this case most of it will be gone before dinner!

With the moderate (or higher) carbonation, healthy acidity and range of flavors saisons are a solid utility player when it comes to entertaining, supporting both socializing and enjoyable eating. Having an all-sparkling-beverage party is a lot easier to envision when you consider beers such as saison. As an aside, dry sparkling cider adds yet another option increasing that potential further still. I’ll leave you with that thought as you ponder what to serve to your family and friends this holiday season.

Cheers!

Jason

Thanksgiving Highlights

Well, this week certainly turned out to be the adventure you are always anxious about. My Dad is becoming famous for needing to visit the hospital on Thanksgiving. This time it was serious, but he’s on the mend. Our family had Thanksgiving plans on multiple dates and in multiple locations before the detour. As much of that as could went on as scheduled. As a result, I’ve been low key this week and didn’t take a lot of pictures. I did very much have fun spending time with family and friends. We also decorated the house for our upcoming holiday events and shared some homemade wine with friends at an open house.

My Holiday Pies post from earlier in the week was executed at our place in VT. My parents were supposed to be there, I was responsible for pie ingredients and my Mom had some fantastic recipes to try for meals. Unfortunately my parents were at home with my Dad having some tests to see what was going on. With no specific worries afoot we went to VT and made all the pies.

A trip out to Dutton’s was necessary to pickup apples and snacks.

( Some of these are in our holiday pies! )

( Squash = Thanksgiving }

I made the pie crusts in the morning and we made the pies from early afternoon into the evening. Six apple, two pumpkin and two blueberry. Making pies all by hand is taxing but to worth it.

We also had a nice sunset walk up Adams road, a favorite of the whole family.

Early in the week I spent two days down in CT with my family. Everyone was nervous on Tuesday before surgery and relieved to hear my Dad crack a joke about how bad he felt after surgery. Yeah no kidding.

Dad was going to be rocking the hospital for the holiday and my brother and his wife were going to go to VT without my parents much like we did the weekend before. We were going to be with friends up in Croydon, NH as planned. My Mom took friends up on a prior offer and joined them on Thanksgiving in between visits with my Dad.

Our Thanksgiving with Missy & Steve was everything you would want in a holiday. Just for the record Missy and Steve might not agree on the count that they were moving the week of the holiday, but they will also read on to find out my take. Moving is so much fun that Margot and I have sworn it off for almost 10 years now. That day will come. Prior to the moving coming up we had planned a nice quiet “extended” family holiday at their home. We had worked out that they would do the turkey, stuffing, potatoes and squash and we would bring snacks, side dishes, bread, pies and wine/beer/cider. Despite being exhausted from moving, and being in a new place, Missy and Steve pulled it off. There were moments specifically noted as being very much like “a fun old-fashioned family Christmas” a-la National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, but we all had fun and the food was fantastic. I should have used a cart to get myself out of there.

Steve totally killed it with the turkey. Wrapped in bacon and baked until complete. That is just too damn easy for something that was as good as it was. Missy makes a mean stuffing using a combination of packaged and fresh ingredients. I didn’t get the recipe yet but I can say I really enjoyed it.

Margot and I brought three cheeses and opened three of our own dessert wines for a starter. All three wines, Cabernet Franc, Riesling and Peach are very sweet with a good balance of acid and paired best with the goat cheese for me. The sharp cheddar and horseradish cheeses are great in their own rights but did also pair well with the wines.

I then opened up a cherry flavored cider and a medium dry cider from 2009. Both had great clean flavors, not apparent re-fermentation (a problem being watched) and were smooth and refreshing. My cider project is developing a nice legend! We didn’t have the materials at the time but when I mentioned the following beer cocktail everyone’s ears perked up. Next time.

Cherry Stout
½ Dieu du Ciel Imperial Stout
½ Ancient Fire Cherry Cider

For a side dish Margot and I made glazed leeks and carrots. Steve’s admission pretty much sums this up. “I had never had a leek in my life until Jay made these earlier in the year, and now they are never not in my fridge.”

Glazed Leeks and Carrots

5 medium leeks, washed and cut (white part only)
5 medium carrots, washed, peeled and cut 3/8 inch
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 stick butter
¼ tsp ground ginger
Salt & pepper to taste

Boil the cut carrots until just tender. Drain. Melt butter in large sauté pan. Add leeks. Saute 3-5 minutes. Add carrots, sugar, ginger and mix well. Saute until sugar is thickened and leeks begin to caramelize.

We also made buttermilk biscuits that were great with some melted butter on them. The second bag was specifically requested to stay behind when we left. I didn’t make more when we got home and now I am missing them! We opened 2008 Viognier and 2009 Pinot Noir with dinner. Both were easy matches for all the food.

( Gracie, Missy, Steve and lots of food! )

( Gracie with a cameo, me and Margot. Again the food! )

On Saturday our friends Ed and Jim had their annual holiday open house. You go for the food and the decorations. We missed their Thanksgiving celebration the weekend we were making pies but sent a gift ahead to say we were sorry. Ten bottles of wine! Ed and Jim were so nice to us in appreciation of the wine. Their friends we saw yesterday couldn’t stop talking about how much they enjoyed it, how much they drank of it and asked why I didn’t do this for a job many times. For Thanksgiving we prepared a menu of wines for them to serve at their celebration.

Pacific Quartet – Cocktails & snacks; wine is light fruit and medium-dry
Symphony – Dinner white; subtle smoked fruits and medium to light body, dry
Cabernet Blend – Dinner red; presents good fruit flavors without much heft, dry
Pomegranate / Black Currant – After dinner; tart and sweet with rich red fruit flavors
Moscato – Dessert; sweet and fruity!

We heard the Pacific Quarter went like crazy during cocktail hour. That would have been fun to see. We have just started serving this wine, made earlier in the year, and it seems quite pleasing. We also heard the Pomegranate/Black Currant and Moscato were both a hit after dinner. Ed’s friend (and ours now!) Amy said she indulged in multiple glasses of everything we sent over. Other reports about the white and red with dinner suggested people found good pairings and were happy. Wow!

Yesterday we brought the Pacific Quartet again and added in Cabernet Sauvignon and Concord Rosé. The Concord Rosé is one of our newest wines made with a batch of wild Concord grapes that a friend had on his property. It is light pink in color, dry with delicate and fleeting fruit flavors. It is very pleasing but doesn’t linger. I bet it will do well despite those observations. I was the only one drinking the Cab (from 2008) yesterday and the magnum was almost full when I left so it came home with me.

Tonight I’ll be drinking some of that Cabernet cooking stuffed squash for lunches this week. I’ll also be pondering what new holiday adventures I can get into in the next month.

Check out all four holiday posts from earlier in the week.
Holiday Entertaining - Final Post
Holiday Beer Talk - Post 3 of 4
Holiday Pies - Post 2 of 4
Holiday Wine Advice - Post 1 of 4

Cheers!

--Jason