A Good Appetite: December 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

Summer and Fall 2010 in Review

Today we continue our look back in A Good Appetite's year in food 2010....
Click the links to read more & for recipes.

JULY
We hosted a barbecue we called Smokapalooza where we made Smoked Pulled Pork, Homemade Smoked Sausage, Baked Beans & Maple Bacon Ice Cream.

Later in the month we ate our way through Seattle. Some favorite places were Restaurant Zoë, Citizen Coffee & the food truck Skillet.

AUGUST
We headed out to LoveTree Farm in Wisconsin to visit their sheep & eat some wood-fired pizza.

The rest of the month was all about figs thanks to the CA Fig Advisory Board who sent us over 18 dozen fresh figs & 8 pounds of dried! We made Grilled Prosciutto Wrapped Figs, Honey Fig & Pistachio Ice Cream, Pork Tenderloin with Fig Sauce, Fig Pizza, Flying Fig Cocktail, Fig Rickeys, Figgy (Bread) Pudding, Figgy Mac & Cheese & my favorite, Fig Jalapeno Jam (this has been a huge favorite over brie for the holidays).

SEPTEMBER
September found us in Holland & Belgium. Of course, food was a big part of our trip. We ate Indonesian Rijsttafe, Belgium Waffles, Frites, Mussels, Toasties, Apple Cake, lots of good cheese & lots of good beer! Next time we need to get some herring.

We got back in time for our second Tour de Farm. This time at the Oliver Kelly Farm, a working 1860's farm. The chefs were Scott Pampuch and Mike Phillips so of course the menu was all about pig!

OCTOBER
The weather stayed unusually warm here in October so we were still out on the patio grilling. We given a Big Easy Oil-less Turkey Fryer from Char Broil to experiment with which was a big success for both chickens & turkey.

We were also part of the Great HalloTweet. Our dishes included Pumpkin Guts, Chai Spiced Pumpkin Cake & Easy Pumpkin Turnovers.

NOVEMBER
We were chosen as one of the 25 competitors in Iron Foodie. Our Sweet & Spicy Spare Ribs didn't win but we certainly enjoyed eating them!

On our way to Michigan for Thanksgiving, we spent the night in Chicago & ate at Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill something MAtt has dreamed of for awhile. It was fabulous!

DECEMBER
The year wrapped up with the opening of a much needed new pizza restaurant in our neighborhood, Pizzeria Lola. We instantly fell in love with their wood-fire grilled pizzas & even tried to make our own version of their breakfast pizza.

There was also time for one more pork filled dinner with Scott Pampuch & Mike Phillips serving us the whole hog at The Local. Making it even better was the beer pairings from Rush River Beer.

Here's to a Healthy, Happy & Tasty New Year!

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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Raspberry Beers

While we we in Holland & Belgium this fall we drank a lot of great beers.

I became particularly enamored with the raspberry beers & decided to see what varieties I could get back here at home. I find the raspberry infused beers to be quite easy drinking & not overly sweet as you might think. Not that there aren't some very sweet ones out there, they just weren't they type I was interested in. My preference is for a raspberry beer that has the flavor of raspberry but you can still taste the beer flavor, I'm not looking for a raspberry wine. These are not girlie beers! With everyone thinking about what they'll be enjoying on New Year's Eve I thought I'd share my tasting notes on some of the better raspberry beers I've found. (Yes, it was a lot of work drinking all those beers but I do these things for you my readers.)

New Belgium Frambozen - Raspberry Brown Ale
Apparently, this seasonal release from New Belgium Brewery is highly anticipated every year. When we brought it up to the counter at the liquor store purchase, the clerk was so excited it was available he said he had to take a break to go buy some. In the glass this ale has just the slightest hint of pink color & a thick, white head. With the first sip there was just a hint of sweetness & raspberry. The raspberry flavor actually gets less distinct the more you drink it. Both Matt & I felt the flavor that came through was more of a slight chocolate or coffee flavor. A good beer though not as much raspberry flavor as I was searching for.

Sam'l Smith's Organic Raspberry Fruit Ale
This raspberry ale was recommended to us by the very helpful, knowledgable employees of South Lyndale Liquors. Darker than the New Belgium ale with a pretty pink head that dissipates quickly. The aroma of raspberries is very strong & with the first sip so is the flavor. Once again this is not an overly sweet beer & you can still taste the beer as well as the berries. There is also a slightly herbal flavor to this beer. All & all this is a very easy drinking beer & one of my new favorites.

Whole Hog Raspberry Saison
I thought about not adding this Wisconsin beer as it isn't available anymore to the best of my knowledge but it is one I have been drinking a lot this fall so hopefully it will be back again next year. As this beer is saison style it is a much paler ale than any of the others I was trying. It had the least raspberry aroma & flavor of all the beers, though the flavor is there as a background note. I quite enjoyed it's sight sour flavor.

Timmermans Framboise
Matt searched out this Belgium Lambic beer for me finding it at Zipp's Liquors here in Minneapolis. We had loved the Timmermans beers we'd had in Brussels but hadn't been able to find them in the states. So, far we've only been able to find the raspberry & cherry in the States. This was the pinkest all the beers right down to the head. The berry aroma is very strong. The flavor is a very drinkable combination of sweet & sour. The flavor reminded me a bit of the Timmermans Lambic Doux we had in Belgium. Quite drinkable & if it was available at my local liquor store like the Sam'l Smith's I'd probably drink it more often.

I'm still on the look out for other choices so if you know of one please let me know!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Winter and Spring 2010 in Review

This is the time of year where we find ourselves looking back at the last 12 months to see what we've experienced & learned before we head to a fresh new year. We thought we'd take a walk through some of our favorite food remembrances of 2010. Click the links to read full posts & get recipes.

JANUARY
We invited Cooking MN over to try our hands at making tamales. We also learned to make Pamonhas de Norte, a sweet Brazilian tamale.

We cooked a lot of good food that month but a favorite had to be this Miso Glazed Salmon.

FEBRUARY
We fulfilled one of our cooking resolutions & made Duck Confit. We used the method from Ad Hoc at Home & then turned it into a Pizza & a Warm Lentil Salad.

We celebrated the Olympics with an opening ceremonies party where guest brought food from around the world. We made Piragi from Latvia & Potato-Stuff Parathas from India.

MARCH
We discovered that chai makes a pretty amazing brine for chicken & a lot of you agreed.

We also entered the Eating YOur Words contest with our homemade Polish Sausage.

APRIL
We grilled a chicken under a brick & there was a little controversy about whether or not we were ruining it that way. Our results were fantastic & we heard of few of you had the same juicy results.

Later in the month we made little piggies of ourselves at a Pork Belly Class at Corner Table with Scott Pampuch. We even discovered we liked salad with pig's tongue.

MAY
We ate our way through New Orleans for our birthdays in May visiting John Besh & Emeril restaurants.

I made my first ever cheese soufflé & figured out how to make it just for one.

JUNE
We started the canning season with our first try at mustard. We made two versions, Garlic Scape and Champagne Thyme.

The end of June saw us at our first Tour de Farm. What a wonderful day enjoying fresh farm meats & produce, cooked without electricity, in a beautiful setting.