Midatlantic Food And Wine Festival: Had some fun and learned a lot at all of the educational courses offered in last weekend’s Midatlantic Food and Wine Festival 2014; where I learned about pairing honey in “The Terroir of Honey: Why Location Matters” with presentation from Gage Family Beekeeping; learned more about salting, smoking, jamming, canning, fermenting, pickling, and charcuterie in “The Art of Preservation” by Chef HariCam of a(MUSE.); witnessed a whole hog break down with hand tools, + learned the proper whole salmon segmentation at “The Craft of Butchering: Swine vs. Sea”; and worked on my food photography skills in the “Mastering FoodPorn” class.

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Wilted Dandelion Salad: tender center dandelion leaves freshly foraged from an organic lawn combined with hard boiled egg slices and d’Artagnan’s uncured smoked Duck Bacon; topped in a vinaigrette made from the deglazed pan drippings of the duck bacon combined with sugar, cider vinegar, whole grain mustard, salt, and pepper. Served with New Belgium’s and Red Rock Brewing’s collaboration beer from the Lips Of Faith series, Paardebloem. This beer was brewed with peach juice, grains of paradise, wood aged beer, and then bittered using Dandelion Greens. The sweetness of the peach juice combined with the light sour tartness from the wood balanced the bitterness of the dandelion greens for a tasty Spring beer pairing.

Carnitas with Fresh-Corn Tamales: what better way to celebrate Cinco De Mayo than with some pressure cooked Pork Carnitas spiced with achiote paste and chipotle chili powder; served with pressure cooked Corn Tamales made with fresh corn cut off the cob, butter, Masa Harina, homemade toasted corn stock, and sour cream all wrapped in a dried corn husk and steamed; garnished with more chili power, fresh corn, and fresh cilantro? Paired with Corona Familiar.

Spring Beekeeping: It has been a busy spring so far, getting the first shipment of bees settled into their new hive.

HomemadePizza: What better #BeerPairing to have while reading Steve Hindy’s newly released book The Craft Beer Revolution than Brooklyn Brewery’s Wild Streak and some home baked pizza? This Golden Ale was aged in second-use bourbon barrels and re-fermented with Brettanomyces, making it a great pairing choice for: a crab pizza (first picture) made on a homemade pizza dough bottom topped with home canned tomato sauce made from tangy homegrown heirloom Green Zebra tomatoes topped with lump crab meat and sprinkled with cheese and herbs, and a sweet onion/kielbasa pizza (second photo) with sautéed onions and homemade kielbasa sausage made from home ground picnic cut pork mixed with spices. The beer’s bourbon side complemented the kielbasa while the Brett’s funkiness went great with the tangy seafood pizza.

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Carrot Cookies: What better way to celebrate 420 than with Stone Brewing Co’s Enjoy By 420 Beer Pairing? Butter, sugar, #organic mashed carrots, an egg, homemade bourbon vanilla extract, flour, and salt combine to form a tasty cookie that is then drizzled with a sweet icing. This Double IPA has the hoppy bitterness to bring out the inherent sweetness of the cooked carrots while the sweet icing goes great with the hoppy floral taste.

Kielbasa and Chive-Infused Potato Pierogi: home ground picnic cut pork mixed with spices and stuffed into natural hog casings to form fresh homemade sausage, then hot smoked in the backyard over hardwood logs; served on home baked honey-whole wheat rolls with homemade freshly grated horseradish, course ground mustard, beer and brown sugar cooked sauerkraut, and homemade mashed potato Perogi enriched by cream infused with the first spring cutting of the fresh-cut #homegrown chives. Paired with Professor Fritz Briem’s Piwo Grodziskie Gratzer, a Digerieren style sour mashed historical recreation of a Sour Smoked Wheat Ale. This beer had a some tartness that matched the sauerkraut while the smoked flavor complimented the smoky sausage for a very traditional beer pairing.

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Hot Cross Buns: home baked buns with raisins and homemade candied grapefruit peel added; then lightly spiced with cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon; coated with a sweetened apricot jam flavored glaze; and crossed with icing. Served with The Wild Beer Co’s Bliss. This beer was made with spices, wild yeast, and roasted apricots; making for a great complimentary pairing with the spiced buns and the apricot glaze.

LemonCurd filled Madeleines: in preparation for Easter 2014, home baked egg-shaped vanilla madeleines made from génoise cake batter dusted with powdered sugar and stuffed with a “yolk” of my great-grandmother’s recipe for lemon butter. Served with Dogfish Head’s Namaste. This witbier is brewed with organic orange slices and lemongrass making for an excellent complimentary citrus/lemon flavor beer pairing.

Matzo Ball Soup for Passover:  NYC Lower East Side baked Streits matzos crushed and combined with eggs, home rendered schmaltz, salt, and club soda to form whole wheat matzo balls floating in a rich and flavorful homemade pressured-cooked, golden-hued, chicken stock flavored with onions, parsnips, shallots, and spices; and what better for dessert than Shmaltz Brewing’s Jewbelation Reborn, a sweet barley wine-like beer brewed with 17 malts, 17 hops, and a 17% abv.