Oktoberfest in January

January is always the same with us. We don't make any New Year's resolutions. At least I don't. I think New Year's resolutions are dumb. I don't really believe in rebirth or dates or numerology or any other such nonsense. Any day of the year is just as good as any other to start something new.

I'm really fun at parties too.

That being said, after the holiday we generally try to keep things a little lighter and that also usually includes a massive cleaning of our fridge, pantry, and freezer. January, to us, is an amalgamation of old things from our freezer, new things we received as Christmas gifts, and a vaguely healthful addition of foods so that we can try to shake off some of the massive quantities of butter ingested in November and December.



After torturing my sister-in-law with salads that were overly laden with fruits I decided to resist all urges and focus on making a salad that she might enjoy. She's not here, mind you, but I know that even knowing about my fruity salads makes her life a little less happy so I figured I'd give her a break this evening.

I baked a sweet potato in the oven then sliced it up, tossed it with quinoa, kale, hot sauce, olive oil, salt, pepper, cider vinegar, and toasted cashews. I'm not sure how she would feel about this given that sweet potatoes are sweet like a fruit. She may also disapprove of the nut element. If she reports any discontent or trouble sleeping I'll try to make something tomorrow night with lettuce, tomato, and shredded carrot to try to win back her favor.



After the salad I browned up some Irish bangers in a pan then added some sauerkraut from Greyrock Farm CSA out of Cazenovia, NY. We got this sauerkraut last month in our delivery from Milk Not Jails. After cooking this down for a few minutes I tossed in some circular cut Red Bliss and Yukon Gold potato slices which I'd tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper.



While it cooked I added some of my beer to the pan. Which beer?



It was another gift for Christmas, this Oktoberfest from Schmohz Brewing in Grand Rapids, MI. Seeing that it's an Oktoberfest beer I figured I'd best get to drinking this as one of the first beers. It won't quite make it to next Oktoberfest so it's time for a little Bavarian festivity. With the fall like weather we have been experiencing it seemed appropriate.

I served it with fresh bread and whole grain mustard. If I'd had more foresight I would have gotten some brown bread or pumpernickel but hindsight is 20/20.

For dessert we enjoyed a few episodes of Eureka which Jen has recently become obsessed with. I initially disapproved of this show because of what I perceived to be too close a similarity to Bones, however, now I admit that it is not actually like Bones at all.

Anything that is not much like Bones is okay with me.

What The Hake?

Today, I had the day off. While this may not sound like a big deal to you this is the first day I spent at home, off from work, in about a month.

It was glorious. I set out early to go to shopping and restock our woefully understocked fridge and pantry. Our freezer needed no such help.



After a discussion with my sister-in-law at Christmas it was decided that every salad I make is like a poison to her. You see, she hates fruit in salads. I happen to enjoy adding citrus and other fruits and nuts to salad for flavor, acidity, color, and just plain fun. Tonight's salad, while vegan and fairly healthful, will likely make her recoil in disgust.

I tossed some chopped kale with currants, dried figs, toasted cashews, blood orange segments, pomegranate seeds and juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I also tossed in a small amount of baby greens just for fun.

Lisa, don't worry, next time you come to visit my salads will be entire fruit-free. That's the promise I make to you.



My local fishmonger had the most amazing looking hake today that I had to buy some. Once I saw it I knew what dinner was going to be tonight. I seared it in a pan and finished roasting it in the oven. While it was in there I rendered some pancetta with olive oil and butter then threw in some diced vidalia onion, peas and kohlrabi greens which I served with along with the roasted hake loin. I garnished them with fennel fronds, partially because I thought the flavor would be nice and partially because I like the word fronds.

After taking a bite Jen said, "Can I tell you something that is not going to sound like a compliment but it totally is?"

"What is that?" I said.

"This fish tastes like the most delicious chicken McNuggets I had as a child."

"You were right," I said. "But thank you."



As a side dish I boiled some kohlrabi wedges tossed with sour cream, tarragon, salt, and pepper. This was in our continued effort to no longer dislike tarragon. Another successful mission!



I have long not loved the IPA. Recently, however, particularly in the last year, I have grown more appreciative of the style. Tonight I selected this Christmas gift which was the Mad Tom IPA from Muskoka Brewery. It comes in at 62 IBUS, according to the website, but to me it tasted a little more like 162 IBUs.

This beer was very good but it definitely pushed my outer limits of IPA appreciation. I've had beers that technically had higher IBUs but this one made me make a face like that guy in those Keystone Light commercials from the 90s.

Does Keystone Light still exist? I'm guessing that if it does it makes you make a similar bitter face but instead of being caused by dry-hopping it's caused by bitter disappointment.

The Smiling Saint's Christmas Stew

Jen emailed me today to declare that she had smelled a great deal of hamburgers today and that she had a craving for hamburgers. I didn't really understand where she was all day that she was smelling a bunch of hamburgers. To the best of my knowledge she returned to her job after an extensive 17 days off and not to a new job peddling hamburgers.

I only got home in time to spend five minutes cooking before I picked Jen up at the train. That's just enough time to heat a pan, toss in some garlic, onion, potato, and peppers, then get them almost to the sizzling stage before turning off the head and dashing out the door.



When Jen got home I put together some quick salad with greens, leftover La Quercia prosciutto from Jen's New Year's dinner, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, olive oil, and a little balsamic glaze I'd made a couple of months ago. This was enough to keep us from starving to death as I finished the main dinner.



I briefly entertained the idea of making hamburgers but it would have required a lot of additional ingredients when we already had so much to clear out of the fridge and freezer. Instead I put the fire back on the pan, added some frozen ground beef (an ingredient in hamburgers, I am told), and then added some jalapeno, salt, pepper, hot sauce, and chopped mustard greens.



Since I had a little extra St. Bernardus Christmas Ale leftover I added that into the pot to cook down the stew. Some would say this is a waste of perfectly good Belgian Christmas ale, however . . .



. . . some probably also did not recive quite as many beer-themed presents for Christmas there year. I'd like to think that the smiling saint would approve.



Jen said that she also had a craving for avocados. We both generally share this craving 100% of the time but since she actually mentioned it verbally I chose to add some to the stew with a little sour cream and some slices of her sweet roll loaf that I'd buttered and fried.



I do love Christmas stews and dark winter ales so I paired this with one of my many Christmas presents, this Christmas Ale from Bell's Brewery in Michigan. It was a very nice Christmas beer, dark, mildly spiced, and piney from the West coast hops used in its brewing. One would imagine a piney hop aroma to be perfect for a Christmas beer, like you have swept up all the needles under the tree and thrown them into the mash tun.

This particular drink was a present from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. I also got to enjoy it in a nonic glass that Jen got me for Christmas. Jen, aside from having a hankering for some hamburgers, also recognized that I have been struggling with only twenty-some-odd different glasses to enjoy beer from. This just could not be allowed to stand.

This is why I married her.

Thirteen Cods-a-Roasting

Yesterday was Epiphany, or the twelfth day of Christmas. You know, the one where the twelve drummers are drumming. That is Epiphany, the day we normally feast and take down out tree.

However, since we were previously engaged last night we elected to celebrate Epiphany tonight, on the oft forgotten thirteenth day of Christmas.



When I got home from work, after taking a lengthy nap, I made this capricho de cabra con tomate. We had a delicious version of this whilst visiting family in Illinois earlier this week and I decided to recreate it in an incredibly lazy way by just melting some goat cheese in some tomato sauce in the oven. Given that this took about 45 seconds to prepare it was a good way of fending off our hunger until the main courses arrived. It also used up some past-its-prime bread from the freezer.



I took a somewhat lackluster cut of cod, thawed it out, and roasted it in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Old Bay Seasoning. The result was not pretty but was delicious.



For a side dish I made collard greens with leftover kielbasa from New Year's Eve, onion, olive oil, butter, hot sauce, cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.



For the final side dish I boiled some New Potatoes then tossed them with butter, olive oil, salt, and pepper.



And what beer does one pair with this final Christmas meal of the season? I chose the St. Bernardus Christmas Ale from Sint Bernardus. I'd been looking forward to this beer for some time. The end result was good but not great. It had a very heavy alcohol taste and I think might have been better served to be allowed to age for a year or so to mellow.

Or so I've read.



To close out this Christmas holiday I made up the celebratory plate of dessert reminiscence. The plate contained Jen's fruit cake which still has not mellowed and will be at its peak in a year's time. Also we had some peanut squares, magic bars, and peanut butter chocolate squares made by Jen's mother. Also some of Jen's fudge and shortbread cookies.



There you have it. Tomorrow we will take down the tree and put a close on another eight-week-long Christmas celebration. What wonders will await us next Christmas? What will change? What will be the same? How will we continue our privileged life of excess?

Well, I'm not telling. You're just going to have to keep reading and find out.

Warning: Spoilers Below!!!


















It's not going to be that exciting.

Hearty Cabbage Stew with Winter Ale

Before leaving the great state of Illinois I had the pleasure of visiting a local liquor store and marveling at the selection of beers that are not available to us in New York thanks to the bizarre and cryptic world of beer distribution.



I did, however, have a chance to have have this beer, The Bitter End, by Two Brothers Brewing Company, just down the street from where my in-laws live. This beer is actually available in New York but you know what they say: when in DuPage County, drink like the DuPagians.



After the short flight to LaGuardia we returned to a beginning-of-the-year classic. Every year we start off with a freezer so full that it will not stay shut without the use of some sort of foreign object such as a broom handle. After the constant rushing of the holidays it's always nice to settle back and focus on one relaxing task: cleaning out our freezer. It's also something of a game to see how little we can spend on groceries in the month of January as we move through our inventory.



To celebrate our homecoming I had another late Christmas beer, this Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2011 from Anchor Brewing. The recipe for this beer is top secret and changes every year. I know far too little about beer to be able to be able to reverse engineer so all I can tell you is that it was different than I expected, spiced, dark, and quite nice.



For dinner I made a cabbage soup which essentially used up all fresh produce in the crisper along with some miscellaneous items from the freezer. I rendered some bacon in olive oil then added crushed garlic, anchovy, onion, carrot, celery, cabbage, potato, turkey stock from the freezer, salt, and pepper. When it was done I topped it with some toasted bread, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and fried sage leaves, drizzling the remaining olive oil and butter over the top.

Two things I love about the winter: winter beer and winter stew. Sure it was only 35 degrees tonight but winter is upon us. It is the season for dark winter ales and hearty soups and stews!

And cleaning out the damned freezer!