Obscure Holiday Cocktails IV

You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can´t make it out alone
I´ve built my dreams around you

And the boys of the NYPD choir’s still singing Galway Bay
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas day.
–Shane McGowen “Fairytale of New York”

There are two things that signify Christmas time for me.  The first is having my alarm clock go off the day after Thanksgiving and hearing Wham’s “Last Christmas” playing on the radio. The second is gathering with some fantastic friends and indulging in more bitters and booze in one night than I do in one year.  Happy 4th Annual (HOLY SHIT!!) Obscure Holiday Cocktails, kiddies.

The mood was festive as we all had a pretty damn good year in 2012. For us, I received a promotion at work over the summer, that very morning the Missus had officially finished her graduate school program and Maine became the first state to recognize marriage equality via popular vote this past November.  We’ve spent the past month partially dreaming about our ceremony and fretting over where we were going to host about 100 friends and family..and how we would pay for it all.

But, this was not a night to worry, this was the night for all of us to drink beyond the boundaries of moderation. Except for Vrylena, whose due any day. Dave drank her share and she got to sit there, eat cheese and watch as some of us wore our drunk a little more pronounced than others.

To start the evening was my darling Kate, who had a rough go of it in her choice of drink last year. This year she poured:

Stone Rose

Ice

1 ounce apple brandy

3/4 ounce rosé vermouth

3/4 ounce Spiced Honey Syrup (See Note)

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

Dash of Peychaud’s bitters

1 ounce chilled cava or other dry sparkling wine

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the cava and shake well. Strain into a large chilled coupe and top with the cava. 

Notes Spiced Honey Syrup: Wrap 1/2 cinnamon stick and 2 green cardamom pods in a kitchen towel and crush with a mallet or heavy pan. In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup honey with 4 ounces water. Add 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger and the crushed spices and simmer over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until the syrup darkens and the spices are very aromatic, about 15 minutes. Let cool, then cover and refrigerate until chilled and infused, at least 8 hours. Pour the syrup through a fine strainer into a clean jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Makes about 6 ounces

and I paired: 

Lady Laurier d’Arthabaska, a triple creme brie from Canada that is infused with vanilla. On the plate I added a bit of Leslie Stowe’s Salty Date and Almond Raincoast Crisps.  

Maybe it was a subconscious nod to Vrylena, but this trio would be right at home at a baby shower. I’ll play into gender norms for a moment to declare: This was extremely girly f’ing way to start off the evening.  Kate’s drink had a cava float, for God’s sake!  But, all of it melded so perfectly together.

Professor A. asked why I had chosen that particular cheese and, for me, it was all about the addition of the sparkling wine. If the sparkling element wasn’t there, the cheese would have been completely different.  But, for general pairings, triple cremes and sparklings are meant to be together.  

The butterfat of a triple creme starts at around 72% (for perspective, butter starts at around 80%), so it is complimented by a bubbly because the bubbles help lighten the richness of the cheese. Most triple cremes are so rich that they eat like ice cream. Add in the elements of tartness from the apple brandy and sweetness of the honey syrup, combined with the light vanilla profile, and you have a beautifully sweet marriage. The crackers, there really to act as a vessel for the creamy cheese, added a bit of salt and crunch. There wasn’t anything left on the plate, or in our glasses, at the end of round one, so I think we can call it a resounding success. 

Our hostess, Dawn, was up next. Because the night fell on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, she dubbed her drink the “Admiral Yamamoto:”

 

“Wash” a martini glass with a splash of Laphroig single-malt scotch
Pour 2 ounces of Bulleit Rye into a martini shaker full of ice
Add .5 ounce of Cherry Heering
Add .5 ounce of Carpano Antica
Add .5 ounces of Campari
Add 2 dashes of orange bitters

Shake, pour into martini glass. Then, put flame to an orange peel to slight smoke. Add to drink. 

I chose: 

 Robiola di Capra in Foglie di Castagna. 

How’s that for a mouthful?  I guess it’s only fitting, for a WWII inspired drink, that I chose to pair an Italian cheese. The Robiola di Capra is a beautiful goats milk cheese, from the Piedmont region of Italy, wrapped and aged in chestnut leaves.  When I saw the list of Dawn’s ingredients, I knew I wanted a goat cheese because I enjoy pairing younger style goat cheeses with cherry preserves. I imagined the Cherry Heering would have a pronounced presence in the drink. It did not. In fact, Dawn’s drink wins the award this year for “Most Burny.”  Seriously, my notes simply say: 

Burny. Tangy goat cheese brought up more sweetness in the drink.

I’d suffice to say that I am in no way up to Dawn’s level of spirit appreciation. But, while the drink was a little too stiff for me, the cheese smoothed it all out.  Though it was too young to start being influenced from it’s swathing in chestnut leaves, the cheese was probably my favorite of the evening. When eaten in small bites the paste, dense and cakey, did coat the tongue enough to buffer against the burn of the Rye. But, take too big of a bite and the acidity, naturally found in a goats milk cheese, seemed to turn up the flame on my tongue. Both called for restraint and moderation, which was good because there was still a bit of cheese and drinks ahead.

Professor A. followed next and his drink was the most anticipated of the evening (at least for me). Because a name was demanded, he went with “Cider House Rules:”

3 oz ice cider, Eden single varietal barrel aged

1 oz single barrel Jack Daniels

.5 oz ice extracted tower shot from Speckled Ax

2 dashes walnut bitters

Orange twist

We nibbled on: 

Tarentaise from Spring Brook Farm in Vermont.

This was the only moment of the night where I enjoyed the drink more than the cheese–and I LOVE me some Tarentaise. One thing about this raw cow’s milk, Alpine style cheese is that the raw milk can have a very large presence. This will usually translate to a dance across the palate or, if you’re not familiar with raw milk cheeses, you can think you’re having an allergic reaction to the cheese because your mouth begins to itch.  I like to tell people that it’s the cheeses way to remind you that its milk is still alive when you eat it. Get past that, though, and you’re rewarded with the best thing west of Comte. It’s the perfect Swiss: grassy, nutty and buttery, with a smooth texture. This is one of the best domestic representations of the style out there. I picked it for the nutty bite to pair with the walnut bitters in his drink.  

And, man, what a drink. If I weren’t already growing belligerent and demanding that Vrylena drive us all to Denny’s for Hobbit Holes, I would have had another one. But, instead, I plotted with the Missus and Dawn to make this again, serving it over a bowl of anything from Gorgeous Gelato. At first sniff, it reminded me of toasted almonds, but was sweet and syrupy, with notes of dark chocolate when it hit my lips. This was the unexpected hit of the evening all around, and you could tell that Professor A. was quite pleased with his original creation (and I’m going to openly advocate for this to be picked up by Hugo’s or Bar Lola for their drink menu. Mostly so I can go there and drink it when I want).

Lastly, we have Adam and his “Pearl Arbor:”

From his email:

exact recipe is in progress but basically, its an eggnog made with spruce infused vodka.

ingredients: cream, egg, vodka, spruce needles, pinenuts, frangelico, nutmeg.

could call it the ‘i’m dreaming of a white russian christmas’, or since we’re celebrating on dec 7, it could be called the ‘pearl arbor’.

Our cheese finale was:

Winnimere, from Jasper Hill Farm and homemade dark chocolate fudge.   

So, um..yea. Spruce needle infused vodka. I have to tell you, it was a bit of a mindfuck. You would think that it would smell very much like Lysol. But, it smells like mint. Yet, tastes of pine.

I love Adam, but I did not like this at all. I think I drank about a 1/4 of my share and called it good. There was just too much happening and to end with this, after so many different alcohols and sugar (on top of more sugar) were consumed. I just couldn’t.

I could, however, enjoy some cheese and chocolate.  This would have been a better pairing with Professor A.’s drink for the coffee, nut and chocolate layers in it. With this being the first Winnimere batch of the season, you can see that it’s not terribly ripe. So, the usual notes of smoke and meat were tame. It was, however, buttery and rich with umami. The fudge, while basic, was a nice note to end on.

And so we end this chapter of Obscure Holiday Cocktails. Let’s have a toast to Vrylena and Dave and the little fellow to soon join them. A toast to having health, love, family and good friends. Cheers to you and yours.

  

 

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Celebrating with a (Mostly) Local Cheese Plate

It was like the Birthday Gods were smiling on us. All within the week of our birthday, I was gifted a bag of cheese from Spring Day Creamery, in Durham, ME (a ‘Thank You’ for helping her out a bit at the Brunswick Farmers Market when she found herself a smidge in the weeds) and a sizable chunk of Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise, which was given to me by the owner, Jim, after talking to him for a bit about his cheeses and their “Farms for City Kids” program.

I took this as a sign that I needed to make a cheese plate for The Missus and I for our special day (though, in reality, it was a day late when we finally had room in our bellies to enjoy it). So, I gathered up some other sundries, like the German Landjaeger sausage from Rosemont Market, some Marcona Almonds from Whole Foods and a small jar of Blueberry Blossom Honey from Urban Farm Fermentory. Served with toasted homemade crostini, using a baguette purchased from Zu Bakery, it all made for a lovely, mostly local, plate.

The Candide is Sarah Spring’s peppered brie.  The wheel she was selling at the market was perfectly gooey and ripe.  The flavor, only a hint of pepper came through from the rind, was of butter and mushroom. It was nice to have a Maine produced brie that didn’t fall victim to over salting or too thick of a rind, which can lead to a bitter finish at the end.

Most of the Tarentaise that I’ve had is aged around a year, but this slice came from a wheel aged somewhere between 5-7 months. It lacked the intense raw milk bite that I’m accustomed to with this cheese, but it’s subtlety made it more representative of other Alpine styled cheeses like Le Gruyere and Comte. It was smooth, slightly nutty with a breath of swissiness at its finish. It also made for a fantastic melting cheese the following night as I grated some over a shaved steak and mushroom sandwich.

Washed rinds are a finicky lot and, because of this, you won’t find too many Maine cheese makers venturing out and attempting this style of cheese. Some of my favorite cheeses are washed rinds, like Winnimere and Epoisses, so it excites me when I come across a washed rind that’s produced closer to home.  The La Vie En Rose is a subtle one, you probably won’t have your refrigerator stinking up with its presence ( The Missus has questioned many a smell in our refrigerator because of my cheese choices), but it does have that wonderful, sweet paste that I adore in washed rinds. It’s pliable texture puts it closer to Saint-Nectaire than any other French style washed rind. But, honestly, I’d take the La Vie En Rose any day.

Ah, the jewel in the crown of Spring Day Creamery cheeses: Spring Day Blues.  Last year, Spring Day placed 2nd to Rogue River Blue at the American Cheese Society Awards, which is no small fete for a cheese maker working with such limited space. In fact, to me, this is a coup. When I had the cheese three years ago, I recalled it tasting slightly earthy and mushroomy, like Blue D’Auvergne. After three years, its easy to see that Sarah has honed her blue making skills. The blue now lies somewhere between a Gorgonzola Dolce and St. Agur. The texture was spreadable and the paste was sweet and creamy, with a back note of pepper. This was, paired with a touch of the UFF honey, my favorite on the plate.

12 Days of Cheesemas–Day 11

(photo from TheKitchn.com)

One of the best dishes I ate this year had Burrata at the center of it. It was at Bresca, back in March, during Restaurant Week. Dawn and Adam were with The Missus and I, settling in for a four course dinner when the plate arrived. We hadn’t ordered it, mind you, but Chef Krista Desjarlais generously surprised us (she knows my love of cheese) with an antipasto course of Burrata, prosciutto, roasted tomatoes, capers, olive oil, aged balsamic and bread. The table didn’t speak for over the course of the next twenty minutes. We were too focused and our mouths were too full to articulate how wonderful it was at the time. I think I thanked Chef Desjarlais for the month for her kindness and the amazing food we had that night. Burrata is NOT a cooking mozzarella, it’s filled with cream and melty curd, so don’t waste it on a pizza. Make a plate, similar to the one that we were served, and enjoy some comfortable silence with some friends over one of the simplest–yet, exquisite–cheeses in the world.

Obscure Holiday Cocktails III

It’s that magical time again, folks… Holiday inspired drinking time. This year marked our 3rd incarnation of Obscure Holiday Cocktails, hosted by the lovely Dawn and, the equally as lovely, Adam. Seriously, he’s a beautiful man.

They definitely pushed the envelope this year and challenged my cheese pairing abilities more than previous years. I mean, really, how often have I been asked to pair something with Metaxa? Just about never. Port AND Sherry, you say? Together? What crazy, mixed up world is this? Who thought of these things? Why, my lovely friends did. I may have cursed them more than once as I fretted over pairings.

But, enough of my blabbering, let’s get onto the booze.

The Good

Christmas Bellringer

Gin

Cointreau

Frangelico

Freshly squeezed orange juice

Orange twist

We started the evening on a light and lovely note. The cheese, which I forgot to take a photo of, was the Spanish goats milk cheese, Capricho de Cabra, which was paired with Tupelo honey from The Savannah Bee Company. The drink and cheese paired nicely together with the citrus in the drink meshing wonderfully with the lemony and acidic notes of the cheese.

Greek Airmail

Metaxa

Lime juice

Honey

Q tonic

Bitters

Mint

This was actually my most enjoyed drink of the night, though I was a bit worried when I took my first whiff of Metaxa. But, when Professor A. handed me the drink, and I took my first sip, I was absolutely smitten with it. There was absolutely so much going on in the drink, at least from the list of ingredients, but everything in the glass seemed to play very nicely with each other. The loveliest touch was the mint leaf floating at the top. The cheese paired with this one, which came at the recommendation of Dawn and Professor A. was Keen’s Cheddar. The honey in the drink toned down a bit of the bite and salt of the cheese, while the salt in the cheese drew out a bit more of the honey flavor in the drink. See how that works there? That’s why I love to pair cheeses.

The Weird

Lion’s Pride

St Germain

Gin

1 egg white

Dash Peychaud Bitters

Lime juice

Topped with lime zest and black pepper

Oh, Adam, where did you get this one again? From Lion’s Pride in Brunswick? I have to say, I wasn’t a fan. Well, I was at first, when I smelled the drink and the lime zest and pepper beckoned me to take my first sip. And it tasted absolutely NOTHING like it smelled. I wanted the lime to be at the forefront, but mine seemed to be all Gin, with a note of potpourri. I don’t think I got through more than a couple of sips before I set it down and went right into eating the Valencay. While everyone seemed to love the cheese–it’s a favorite of mine–I’m not so sure that I would have paired this with the Lion’s Pride had I known what it would have tasted like. The texture of the Valencay is gorgeous, as Dawn said it seems like the paste is whipped, but I found it much too mild to really balance the alcohol. Perhaps something more in the line of Midnight Moon or Twig Farm Tomme would have been better.

The Burny

Whispers of the Frost

Whiskey or Bourbon

Sherry

Port

Powdered Sugar

To be served with slices of lemon and orange

I’ll put this in the ‘Burny’ category, but only because it’s pure booze with little added to the drink to cut into the alcohol. I also learned that, apparently, having Sherry and Port together will boggle the minds of some seasoned workers at RSVP. However, I did enjoy this drink and took Vrylena’s direction to squeeze the citrus and add it to the glass. The pairing for this was the easiest of the night. Port NEEDS blue cheese. Just straight out, no questions asked, it cries for a blue. The hardest part is whittling down the options. While I thought about the Rogue River Blue, I decided, in the end, to go with something a bit more like Stilton. That led me to Bayley Hazen Blue from Jasper Hill Farms in Vermont, something I find to be very much like a domestic made Stilton. The pepper from the Roqueforti Penicillium brought a nice vibrancy to the drink, while the paste mellowed out the harshness of the drink. This, in my opinion, was the best pairing of the evening.

Tom and Jerry

12 egg(s)

1 cup sugar

1 bottle brandy

Pinch of ground allspice

Pinch of ground cinnamon

Pinch of ground cloves

1 bottle dark rum

milk

nutmeg

I love Kate. She’s my girl, you know? But, I don’t think I’ve had a more vile drink in my life than this one. Seriously, bring me back to last years gay raver drink, The Grinch, or even the much hated Christmas Pudding we had the first year. Anything but this. One sip. One sip was all I could stand of it. If I had been more inebriated by the time we reached this drink, I would have taken out my lighter to see if it would erupt into flames because that shit was pure alcohol.

But, it’s not really Kate’s fault–this was a last minute choice when she realized that the recipe she had was the same one she made last year. So, at the 11th hour, she switched it up not really knowing what to expect. And, it’s a bit sad that I didn’t really like the drink because she spent a bit of time in the kitchen doing prep work for it.

Now, because I was expecting to pair something with a ‘Nog drink, I opted out of cheese this year–realizing last year that it’s just too much dairy and creates for a unpleasant existence–and went with chocolate. I made two barks, one with roasted Marcona almonds and the other with a sprinkling of Ghost Pepper salt. Call it a ‘Naughty and Nice’ pairing. I’m assuming that everyone liked the barks, as there was almost nothing left by the end of the night, but I can’t really speak if they went with the drink.

I also made these little bits for the evening, Deviled Eggs with Pickled Beets, from Bon Appetit. They’re a bit more work than your average deviled egg, but the end results are more than worth it. If you’re looking for a last minute dish to make for the holidays, I’d put these right at the top of your list. I would also recommend Dawn’s Bacon Wrapped Apricots with Sage. Don’t tell her, but I sneaked a few before the dish ever left the kitchen.

So, this year was a bit of a mixed bag for me when it came to the mixed drinks. But, as it has been the past few years, the true joy of it is just getting together with friends, enjoying some great food, getting a bit of a schwill on and laughing until you nearly pee.

With that… A Happy Holiday to you!

Edible Obsession: Winnimere from Jasper Hill Farms

My fingers smell like funk right now. I can smell honey, yeast and must. To be more specific, they smell like the rind of Jasper Hill Farm’s Winnimere cheese and the local honey I paired with it. Six months ago I said goodbye to this cheese as it’s season ended. Six months of hardly touching a gooey washed rind until now. Two weeks ago I saw on the Jasper Hill Facebook page that they were releasing the first batches and then I waited patiently.

Then, while shopping at Whole Foods today I noticed her there in the case. She was a perfectly untouched, deep copper toned round. Had I been $28 richer, I would have bought the whole wheel just to marvel at by myself in the privacy of my own home. It is one of my desert island foods, you see. But, upon looking at the piece that was cut for me, to see how quickly the cheese tried to rush out from it’s rind, I knew it was actually best to not get the whole wheel. Why? Because it’s perfect right f’ing now. In fact, it may be one of the best batches I’ve seen from them since their first release of this particular cheese. But, it shouldn’t surprise me at all because it seems like Jasper Hill is hitting it’s stride. Recent sampled batches of their Moses Sleeper, Constant Bliss, Clothbound Cheddar (done in conjunction with Cabot Creamery) and their Bayley Hazen Blue have been particularly delicious.

My first taste of this years Winnimere was a pleasant surprise. While it had the body of a near overly ripened cheese, it had a sweetness that was extremely reminiscent of a triple creme brie. The slight smokiness of a cured meat–something I absolutely love in this cheese–was more subtle than I remembered it, though the rind itself(washed with a lambic ale) was as yeasty as ever.

You can seek it out at Whole Foods, The Cheese Iron and K. Hortons(I think) for the next six months, as well as it’s appearances on many a cheese plate at local restaurants. Do yourself a favor and buy a small wedge of it. Let it come to room temperature, smear it on slices of your favorite crusty bread and share my obsession. I’ll need the shoulders of others to cry upon come July when she disappears once again.

Homemade Membrillo

They looking kind of frighteningly boobish, don’t they? The Quince. I first got to know her, as everyone seems to do, in the form of a paste called Membrillo. I had it at Street and Co. when I first moved here. It was paired, as it traditionally is, with Manchego (which was also a first introduction), the most famous of all Spanish Cheeses. I believe there may have been some balsamic reduction there and some cracked pepper. Nearly six years later and I still remember the plate, that’s how much those new flavors stuck to me. Now, I’ve eaten a few hundred different cheeses since then, or so says my “Cheese Journal” that I keep, but I haven’t forgotten the first time I had that classic pairing.
Recently seeing some Quince at Whole Foods made me feel a smidge sentimental and I felt inspired to make my own Membrillo. For the price of four quince ($1.99/ea), I produced about as much as three retail containers that cost around $6.99/ea. Not too bad and I’ve been packing some up to give as gifts this year.

Membrillo

Directions

• 4 pounds quince, washed, peeled, cored, roughly chopped
• 1 vanilla pod, split
• 2 strips (1/2 inch by 2 inches each) of lemon peel (only the yellow peel, no white pith)
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• About 4 cups of granulated sugar, exact amount will be determined during cooking

Method

1 Place quince pieces in a large saucepan (6-8 quarts) and cover with water. Add the vanilla pod and lemon peel and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and let cook until the quince pieces are fork tender (30-40 minutes).

2 Strain the water from the quince pieces. Discard the vanilla pod but keep the lemon peel with the quince. Purée the quince pieces in a food processor, blender, or by using a food mill.

Measure the quince purée. Whatever amount of quince purée you have, that’s how much sugar you will need. So if you have 4 cups of purée, you’ll need 4 cups of sugar. Return the quince purée to the large pan. Heat to medium-low. Add the sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the lemon juice.

3 Continue to cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 1-1 1/2 hours, until the quince paste is very thick and has a deep orange pink color.

4 Preheat oven to a low 125°F (52°C). Line a 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper (do not use wax paper, it will melt!). Grease the parchment paper with a thin coating of butter. Pour the cooked quince paste into the parchment paper-lined baking pan. Smooth out the top of the paste so it is even. Place in the oven for about an hour to help it dry. Remove from oven and let cool.

To serve, cut into squares or wedges and present with Manchego cheese. To eat, take a small slice of the membrillo and spread it on top of a slice of the cheese. Store by wrapping in foil or plastic wrap, an keeping in the refrigerator.

**I could have definitely stood to reduce the pureed paste down a bit more as the color was more of a blush than the usual deep orange. I also noticed that the flavor was more citrusy, rather than the apple/pear flavor I associate with Membrillo. This could have been because it wasn’t cooked down enough. I will say that it was definitely great with some aged cheddar I had on hand and something I will easily make again.

Obscure Holiday Cocktails II

Miscommunications. Grumpy people. Mercury in retrograde. But this past Friday it didn’t matter, I was having cocktails that evening. In fact, when something went wrong that afternoon at work, I would just cheer myself up by declaring, out loud, “I’m having cocktails tonight!” I wouldn’t be surprised if it annoyed my coworkers a bit, I probably said it over a dozen times, but it got me through a shit day and that’s all that mattered to me.

And I wasn’t be facetious about it. For the only time in the past year, I went out with the sole purpose to drink alcohol. It’s a Christmas miracle… and the second gathering of local bloggers (Appetite Portland, The Blueberry Files and Portland Food Map) for a night celebrating obscure holiday cocktails, cheese and shrimp dip. We drank, we nibbled, we gossiped and quickly got our Yuletide gay on and it honestly didn’t get much gayer than:

The Grinch

• 3 oz Vodka
• 1 oz Midori Melon Liqueur
• 1 oz Cointreau Orange Liqueur
• 1 oz Sour Mix
Preparation: Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice cubes. Shake well,
strain into a large cocktail glass, and serve.

When I use to drink, I was a ‘girl drink drunk.” I liked Raspberry Kamikaze’s and Lemon Drops and other brightly colored drinks and I loved the gay bars that I sipped them in. The only thing missing from this drink was a Lady Gaga song playing in the background. It had a color somewhere close to Hi-C ‘Ectoplasm’ and the first sip felt like turpentine. But, as they tend to for me, it got better after the shock of alcohol and sour mix. It was also helped by the Queso Leonora goat cheese that was paired with it (Many a thanks to Kara from The Cheese Iron who opened up a good dozen cheeses so I could decide what to pair). Goat cheeses, because of tangier and citrusy flavors it greatly complimented the melon and sour in the drink. The creaminess of the paste also worked greatly to mute the burn of the vodka.
My notes merely say, “Sweet. Kicky.” My notes do not state that I also felt a bit buzzed by the time I reached the end of it and noticed that I was swearing a bit more than I normally do.
I was ready to move on to:

The Ultimate Holiday

• 2 oz Orange Juice
• 1 ½ oz Bulleit Bourbon
• ½ oz Lime Juice
• 1 splash Grenadine Syrup
• 1 splash Ginger Ale
Preparation: Pour over rocks.

I think the word “Holiday”, in this case, was meant to be more European meaning(ie, vacation) because the drink–as Dawn so perfectly put it–tasted more like a glass of boozy grapefruit juice. It was nice and light but in no way invoked the mental image of celebrating a New England Christmas. This was for suntan lotion, beaches and palm trees. Apparently, bourbon is a huge hit with the crowd. After this drink was finished, two bottles came out for a taste test/pairing with the Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese. Uplands Extra Aged was name the ‘Best in Show’ this year at the American Cheese Society Awards in Seattle but this slightly younger version is much more accessible and has also taken home the award. This was definitely the best cheese on the plate. The sweetness and salt in the cheese played well to the Bourbon’s caramel notes and the cheeses finish lasted well after the alcohol did on the palate.

Mulsum

• Glass of wine
• Honey stirred in, to taste

So we go from the least holiday like drink to the most. Like the mulled wine we enjoyed last year, this was the most reminiscent of the holiday season. While traditionally made with a white wine, A opted for the Casillero del Diablo. While a much meatier wine than I enjoy, the honey cut into it was one of the best I’ve tasted.
The cheese, a just legal raw milk Dutch Farmstead Cheese from Cato Corner in Connecticut. The creamy, milder paste did well with the stronger edge of the wine. The raw milk and washed rind gave just enough depth to the cheese preventing it from getting lost underneath the gaminess of the wine.

Spanish Reindeer

•1 oz Dark Creme de Cacao
•1 oz Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur
•Eggnog
Preparation: Shake with ice and pour into an old-fashioned glass. Sprinkle with
cinnamon. Variation 1: Rim glass with cinnamon. Variation 2: Use Kahlua instead of
creme de cacao.

This was the one that boggled myself and Kara the most for the cheese pairing. My first instinct was a fresher goat cheese, which I know pairs nicely with chocolate. It honestly was the Eggnog aspect of it that through me off. Outside of a few sips of store bought Nog, I’m far from being knowledgeable about the traditional drink. I can say, however, that the cooked version that Kate brought with her was beautiful. Rummy, spicey and citrusy, I found it to be perfect on it’s own. But the addition of the liqueurs never overshadowed the fact that we had started with such a wonderful Nog base. The cheese, however, was probably my least favorite of the pairings. The mushroom of the Colston Bassett Stilton was just a little off putting with the drink itself. The chocolate and hazelnut made sense, as both rich chocolates and nuts usually pair well blues, but I think it was the egg in the nog that made it a bit of a conflict, rather than compliment, for me.

The highlights of the night, outside of having an excuse to spend some time with some great friends, were ‘The Ultimate Holiday,’ which went down for all of us a bit too easy, and the Dutch Farmers Cheese, which was just all around beautiful both texturally and flavor wise.

Happy Holidays to all!