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!

New Year's Eve Followed by Christmas Eve

New Year's Eve started much like any with Jen making a fantastic meal and me getting home around 11:00 PM to eat it. It ended like many too with us watching that horrible New Year's Eve special. Basically we watch this until I can't stand it any more which takes about four or five minutes. Then it's a race to see how long Jen can stand me complaining about how terrible it is which generally lasts another hour or so.

I'm not one to reflect on New Year's about the passing of time or any of that nonsense but each year this horrific slice of television reminds me about how old I am getting by the simple fact that I don't know who any of these people are.



This salad consisted of beets, grapefruit, satsumas, avocado, red onion, and a vinaigrette made by Jen. This may sound like an overstatement but this was quite simply the best salad I have ever had. Maybe this had to do with having to wait until 11:00 PM to have dinner. Maybe it was because it contained nearly all of my favorite ingredients. At any rate I would look forward to having this on a nearly daily basis in 2012.



Jen also made shrimp and grits with kielbasa given that tasso was not available.



Jen also followed the advice of Lidia Bastianich and made this veal saltimbocca but did not roll it. Also Lidia does not add any sort of cheese to this dish. It was delicious. You can't argue with Lidia!

After turning in around 1:00 AM it was a 6:45 AM wake up time for our flight to Illinois! This fact meant that we did not partake in any alcohol for celebratory purposes.



I took care of that when we arrived in Illinois before our Christmas Eve celebration but enjoying the local flavor with this Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale from Two Brothers Brewing Company which is located the next town over. I was actually astonished at how much it tasted like my home brew which I, regretfully, have not discussed at all on the site yet.



After the mad rush of December -- even more rushy than previous years -- January 1st was the first time I had to sit down and relax in the atmosphere of our third (and final) Christmas celebration.



The Illinois brand of Christmas starts with shrimp cocktail made by my father-in-law.



This year he had some extra shrimp and made some Caribbean shrimp skewers with them. This was a nice break from tradition and a way to make Nana, who previously has spent her Christmases in Barbados, feel much more at home. Or away from home. Or however you want to view it.



Somehow, over the years, the stories and tales of my turkey carving prowess have been inflated and overblown to the fact that I get this task every year. I would grade my turkey-carving skills as a B- but I appreciate the praise of the family and take on this task with a great sense of pride and responsibility. Since my father-in-law if far better than me at actually cooking turkey I am happy to lend my skills to the completion of the meal.

However, I'd gladly trade my carving ability for the ability to be able to cook a turkey properly. I'm still not sure why, with all my years of cooking, I still don't have a system for how to do this in an acceptable manner.



Last night's day-after-Christmas dinner begun with one of my Christmas gifts this Insanely Bad Elf from Ridgeway Brewery and imported by Shelton Brothers in Belchertown, Masachusetts. This is a difficult beer to come by but five bottles are here for me in Illinois. I think I will have to let them age in the cellars here since I cannot really consume five 11.2% alcohol by volume beers in just three nights.

The beer was quite good, sweet with a surprising viscosity. Even splitting the bottle with my brother-in-law I felt the effects of it quite quickly.



The traditional day-after-Christmas and day-after-Thanksgiving dinners are, as always, a sampling of Jen and my basic philosophical difference in life: our preferred manner of serving a hot turkey sandwich.

Still, day by day, we make our marriage work. Marriage is tough, kids! It's all about compromise and acceptance! Keep at it!



After half a beer (and an hour or two to recuperate) I had this Old Man Winter Ale from Southern Tier Brewing Company. After a week of no beer I was determined to make the most of this vacation by enjoying a sampling of many different beers.

That's right, two beers in one night. Things are getting rowdy up in here!