2011, I hardly knew you
Wow…what a year. It seems like just yesterday we were giving 2010 the kiss off and now all of a sudden it's 2012. Where did it go? I was lucky enough to be off work between Christmas and New Year's and spent a ton of great time with family and friends.
Christmas was spectacular. It was fabulous to have the entire family together. This is something that rarely happens. After hosting Christmas dinner and enjoying the time off, there are a few things I took away.
1. Zoë is an organizational machine. Although credit is often given to me for a "good meal", the truth is I'm just the guy who throws meat on the grill. The true air traffic controller is Zoë and she deserves the credit. For instance, this is our stove:
On the day before dinner. I, on the other hand, was concerned with more important things, like how to have a roaring fireplace in the kitchen.
Yes, Amazon Prime's Streaming fireplace video is my new favorite show. It adds such charm to the kitchen. Now only if I could do something about the heat output.
2. Always brine your bird. When it comes to brining, I'm on again and off again, a lot like this season's Cincinnati's Bengals.
This year I decided to get my act together and brine. I'm glad I did. After spending a healthy 24 hours in its salt and sugar bath, the turkey was finished off on the Saffire.
The results were better than I expected and left me wondering why I don't brine more often. For the record, I followed Michael Ruhlman's brine recipe in Charcuterie. I can't recommend it enough.
3. Infinimum is a really amazing beer.
We had our first taste of the '11 edition of Samuel Adam's Infinium at the last Brew Day. The next day we all scrambled to find more. I distinctly remember my ho-hum take on the '10 edition. Not so this year, it's a solid collaboration. The champagne like high ABV beer is something else. In fact, I've got two my bottles squirreled away for later this year.
3. Brew Days can become Brew Nights. I would have never guessed a midweek late night brew day would be so attended by the Backyard Brewing Society, but it was.
As usual, we hard pork:
and pork:
We also got a taste of Eric's annual Christmas themed beer. Last year it was Santa's Sack. This year it was a chocolate porter called Santa's Back Door. Here's the PG label…as the actual label will is safely tucked away with an advisory warning over it:
Not only did 5 of us brew at this off time, we broke Bryan in on his maiden brew. It was quite a night that quickly turned into morning.
2011 really was a great year and I hope for 2012 to be even better. To all of my faithful readers, you are an incredible part of this. Thanks so much for all of your support, clicks and comments. Happy New Year everyone.
