Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving and I am counting my many blessings.

I am grateful for all that I have.  I'm thankful that I live in this country in as crazy as the direction as it is going.  After all, where else can a person who comes from nothing become someone great other than in the United States??  I've visited many countries and the answer is, nowhere else.

This Thanksgiving so many people are suffering because of the superstorm that hit the New York region.  They have lost everything that was near and dear to them, including their homes.  It's a stressful thing when things that you hold dear are taken away, but one must remember, they are just things and can be easily replaced.  One thing I have learned is that one's health is irreplaceable.  So is one's family.

So today, I'm splitting the cooking duties with my mom.  I'm cooking the meats and she's making the sides.  The desserts are split up amongst the rest of the family.  Sounds fair.

What wine to serve?  Well, I chose the Guigal Cotes du Rhone Rouge from the Rhone region.  It is a blend of syrah, grenache and mouvedre.  In the Rhone region, reds are typically a blend of 4 grapes, each of which adds its own element to the blend.  Syrah provides the structure, grenache the alcohol and mouvedre the spice.  There's a hint of sweetness on this wine, which will work well since I am also serving a skirt steak chimichurri alongside my turkey.  The sweetness will marry well with the sweet potatoes and accent the spices from the chimichurri marinade.  This wine is a full bodied wine and while it has complexity, it's not too complicated for a long day of eating and drinking.  It's smooth and it will work with a broad spectrum of flavors which is typical of a Thanksgiving meal. The price is under USD$20 which makes it a good value for all that is packed in the glass.



Then for dessert, I'm serving a dessert wine called Bigaro.  It's a blend of moscato and brachetto from the Piedmonte region in Italy.  The taste?  Like strawberry soda quite frankly.  The alcohol content is 5%.  My folks are sweet wine drinkers.  This goes back to their Ruinite days.  Inasmuch as I've tried to convert them, they will be forever sweet people.  Sweet drink for sweet folks!  The foam will cleanse our palates and a great way to end the meal.

Enjoy your families today and remember what's really important. 

Links:
http://www.guigal.com/en/
http://www.amazon.com/Elio-Perrone-Bigaro-2011-750ML/dp/B005J0P2EA

Storms

It's a little hard to write about fabulous foods and wines when people in New York and New Jersey have been devastated by this superstorm called Sandy.  Guiseppe and I are fine.  One of my sisters just got back power yesterday -- and she has four children.  Now it's snowing outside as we are hit with a nor'easter!  How much more can some of these people endure?

As you have probably seen on television, homes and lives were decimated by the hurricane.  Homes were flooded and a lifetime of memories must be thrown away to avoid the mold that will surely come next.  The cold weather has set in and it's a raw kind of cold -- the cold that hits your bones.  I can only imagine what one feels like in a cold house without heat or hot water.

I saw on television that a wine shop in Brooklyn had to throw away hundreds and thousands of dollars of inventory.  Why?  Because the unopened bottles were found in the floating brown water that flooded the wine shop.  The wine was unsaleable.  While the cork closure and foil were probably fine, the owners felt it was too much of a risk to sell a questionable product.  Those wines had to be destroyed.  Tant pis -- what a pity as it is said in French, but completely understandable.  There is a small amount of exchange in a cork closure so even a small amount of penetration would be undetectable until a bottle is opened. 

We've been helping in whatever way we can -- donating items, going to fundraisers.  I'm glad the elections are over.  We can finally focus on devoting our time and efforts to helping our friends and fellow man.  Whatever we believe in, we're all human with the same needs.  Somehow, it seems we've forgotten that.

What can you do?  Donate to the Red Cross.
 

Link:
www.redcross.org