The perfect pairing refers to our friendship

Last Saturday, my buddy Luke from Luke What's Cookin put together a wine/beer pairing dinner for our friends that were having a housewarming. We had been wanting to do it for a while, and this was a great excuse.

Booze.

Luke wrote a pretty exhaustive post, so I will try not to re-hash to much of it. Luke, being a very talented chef, planned and executed 5 incredible courses. My job was to pair a beer and a wine with each. Here is the menu with pairings in its entirety:

Course #1: Herbed Spring Mix with Goat Cheese, Almonds, Orange
Beer #1: Ommegang Rouge, Flanders Red Ale, Cooperstown, NY
Wine #1: Verdemar Albariño, 2009, Riaz Baixas, Spain

Course #2: Chicken and Andouille Gumbo
Beer #2: Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, India Pale Ale, Milton, DE
Wine #2: Chateau Routas Rosé, 2010, Provence, France

Course #3: Pork Belly, Confit Tomato, Frisée
Beer #3: NXNW Northern Light, Pilsner, Austin, TX
Wine #3: Kenwood Pinot Noir, 2010, Sonoma County, CA

Course #4: Venison Leg Roast, Potato Celeriac Purée, Roasted Squash
Beer #4: Chimay Premiére, Belgian Dubbel, Hainut, Belgium
Wine #4: Red Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008, Patterson, WA

Course #5: Roasted Banana Semifreddo with Peanut Butter Caramel
Beer #5: Rahr & Sons Ugly Pug, Black Lager, Fort Worth, TX
Wine #5: Tott's Gold Medal Cuvée, San Joaquin Valley, CA

I was floored by how well Luke was able to execute his cuisine. It was fun to go over each one with him and pick out minute things that might work better, but overall he really showed his talent. It was incredibly fun to try and pair drinks with his stuff. I wanted to do two things with the pairings: 1. Have the pairing of food and drink create a taste experience that doesn't exist independently in either, and 2. Use one drink to accentuate the flavors of the course and the other to subdue or soften them.

I accomplished 2. a lot better than 1. and I think we can chalk that up to lack of experience. The pairings went over pretty well from what I could tell. No surprise here, but more people seemed to think the beer pairings were spot-on with the food. My take-home lesson is that I need to keep learning wine. Definitely planning to do this again though, and I think we want to expand the audience. I will keep everyone posted.

Training continues to go well, and I feel stronger than ever right now. I went out to throw this afternoon and had quite a day.

16# standing put to 30 ft
16# with reverse to 33 ft
16# spin to 35

22# braemar to 30 ft PR

HWFD - 20 ft PR

LWFD 52 ft PR

I will take three personal records in one session. Yes, I will.