Well, crap. The height of holiday entertaining is behind us, we cooked and ate and shared so many good meals in December that we have recipes and post ideas stockpiled...but unpublished. So we'll roll these out in *slightly-less-timely* batches.
We started the Christmas season by hosting a winter/Christmas/holiday ale showdown, an homage to Great Lakes Brewery's Christmas Ale, a much-anticipated and quickly sold out brew that's only available between Thanksgiving and Christmas in Ohio. We asked our guests to contribute a six-pack of a winter seasonal brew, and we purchased a few Belgian seasonal lagers for everyone to sample and judge.
Of the domestic winter beers, we had some conflicting opinions about what makes a better, more festive brew. Some of our guests, including Zach, preferred Anchor's Christmas Ale and its rich, somewhat hoppy character. Others, myself included, liked Harpoon's Winter Warmer with its sweeter, spicier, more discernibly "Christmasy" flavor--like drinking a gingerbread cookie.
We all agreed that the Belgian beers were in a class by themselves: smooth, almost creamy, with just the right amount of sweetness and hops, the Belgians had an entirely different profile than their American microbrew counterparts--and higher alcohol content. Of the three we sampled, I actually didn't write down the name of the one we liked best (consider that an admission of my drunkenness)! but am fairly certain from an exhaustive search of Belgian Christmas ales that it was Het Anker’s Gouden Carolus Noel. Yum. We also liked Delirium Noel's darker and spicier flavor, and the toastier St. Bernardus Christmas Ale. These larger bottles are a good alternative to bringing or giving wine at holiday parties, for future reference.
And of course, we made food. Two recipes were from my mom and her mom's entertaining repertoire: a sweet and spicy mixed nut brittle with cumin, lovingly referred to as "hot nuts;" and the cheese biscuit recipe that we usually make around Christmastime. Zach and I also improvised a couple new recipes (and new favorites!): two variations on butternut squash bites, one wrapped in bacon with maple sugar and pepper, and a veg-friendly version roasted in maple syrup and garam masala; and a vegan-friendly spin on our standby stuffed mushrooms using this white bean dip instead of goat cheese. Those recipes are posted below and linked, to make for easier recipe searching in the future.
Next post: reports and recipes from my office's vegan bake-off!
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