Over the River and Through the Woods

To grandmother's house I go.

I love my grandma's cooking. I'm part Belgian. My mom's side of the family is Belgian. As my mother once put it, "We're food people." We love food. It is the center of every gathering. This weekend meal times were some of the few times all 14? of us got together at one time.

Typically my mother's side of the family doesn't get together for the Easter holiday, Christmas and the Fourth of July are the major holidays that the majority of the family makes the trek to my grandparent's place for a big gathering. This year was an exception. Many (but not all) of my mom's family including my aunt, uncle and cousins (and my cousin's wife since last August) gathered for nights spend playing poker and enjoying each others' company.

So back to the important stuff. Friday and Saturday night dinners consisted of the perch fish fry and venison stroganoff dinners at Coun's C Club and my grandma's kitchen respectively. The greasy fish fingers and potato wedges are always a welcome resort after a long day's drive across Wisconsin. Similarly, my grandma's venison Stroganoff is probably my favorite meal that she makes. This is good home cooking at it's finest. And as always, it fed the entire crowd with nothing but apreciative mmm's.


On a more recent note, after my long Monday I decided to watch the end of the Twins game with my classmate-fast-becoming-good-friend Wade over a Surly CynicAle beer (Brooklyn Center, MN). I've had this beverage before and as always it did not disappoint. A true craft beer with "French malted barley, English oats ... Belgian yeast ... [and] lively Slovenian hops" the taste is a sum of well balanced, moderately sweet and slightly spiced flavor that reminds me that there is a world beyond Pabst, Leinenkugels, Grain Belt and other locally produced lagers.