The last two days were spent with the family in South Carolina. We had a great time; eating great food, drinking stellar wine, and generally spending time with each other. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, eh?
I mentioned that Wednesday’s dinner was going to be a curried lamb stew of sorts, with risotto cakes I found on TasteSpotting. The picture looked fantastic, and they did not dissapoint. I highly recommend giving them a try. My mom browned them to perfection.
With dinner we first had a bottle of 2003 Hendry Primitivo. They are a small winery in Napa that makes quite a few varietals. My parents regularly purchase both of the Chardonnay’s, their Zinfandel, their Primitivo (funny that they do both Zin and Primitivo), the Albarino, and the Red Blend. I always Hendry’s wines to be better than average to extremely good and this ‘03 Primitivo was no exception. It was drinking very nicely, glad we didn’t crack it too soon.
After dinner we moved into the kitchen and dug into the Slivovitz that was given to us by our cousin from Slovakia. It’s the heat. Literally, it burns your insides. They made this themselves – you can see this is their classic ‘98 vintage.
The Thanksgiving plate we brought over to my grandmother. She couldn’t leave her home due to illness, but she did get a big plate of turkey and a bottle of wine!
Dinner was very good. The dishes were traditional and tasty.
We drank a 2002 Trespass Cab Franc with dinner. It was very jammy on the nose, it was still very firm, and it was still very well balanced after 6 years. Also, large format bottles are always fun.
The sauteed pearl onions.
Later that night we cooked up the pierogis my parents ordered from Marty’s. They were awesome.
Getting the onions ready in an bunch of butter.
Cooking the pierogis for a few minutes on each side.
For dessert (and breakfast) we had poppy rolls from Marty’s. One morning we also had ricotto pancakes that were very light and fantastic.
Finally, Thursday night we settled in for the Thanksgiving secret pack with our buddy, Gary Vaynerchuck. I really enjoyed the Torrentes and the Zin that he served up, and his secret packs are a very fun and unique way to learn a lot about wine in 20 minutes.
I hope your holiday was as great as mine, and for the sake of your internal organs, I hope you imbibed less.
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