Thanksgiving Recap

Another favorite holiday come and gone. A house thick with family, friends, food, dogs, football, wine, noise and good cheer. The outside air thick with lake-effect snow. Remembering Sandy the recently-departed, and welcoming Camden the newly-arrived.

The food (cooked by moi) was to die for (geez, he's modest too!) Pear and goat cheese Bruschetta. Carrot and ginger soup laced with jalapeno pepper and creme fraiche. Pumpkin bread and wild mushroom stuffing with herbs (with my own fresh-baked pumpkin bread.) Roast turkey (small and fresh so it cooks quickly) glazed with maple syrup and Calvados. Herbed mashed potatoes. Green beans glazed with honey, vinegar and mustard seeds. Mom's apple pie. Mom's pumpkin pie. All things sweet and spicy, just like I like 'em!

And of course there was wine. A magnum of Gary Farrell's awesome Pinot Noir. A Four Sisters chardonnay, not really that good but I liked the name and bought it in honor of 4 Tri-Daughters. Two bottles of the just-released Beaujolais Nouveau. A Rosenblum Syrah. A really good Barolo, I mean REALLY, REALLY good, a recommendation from my favorite waitperson at my favorite Great Plains wine bar. She knows wine... A Justin Isoceles from Paso Robles, CA. A Viader something-or-other, a wonderfully succulent Napa red wine even if I have forgotten the name.

Note: this year I'm not including independent wine reviews because I'm sick of twaddle like "chewy tannins" and "firm structure." I'm content if the women in my life have firm structures; I don't demand it of my wine. And the more wine I drink the more I think Robert Parker is an asshole and his reviews are, appropriately, called crap.

iPod shuffle: "To Fill My Heart" by Bruce Cockburn from "Life Short Call Now." Just got it. Too new for a review. Cool title, though.