This hot, homemade, French dip sandwich accompanied by a good beer was just the thing to combat the chill in the air today! The raw beef was first smoked outside on the smoker to pick up the woodsy flavor of the smoldering hardwood before being vacuum sealed with fresh herbs and cooked sous vide until rare. The home baked spelt and rye #Baguette sandwiching this beef dip sandwich has a flavor robust enough to hold up to the flavorful meat, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and cheese contained within without overdoing it. Served with home baked “fries”, a beef consume made from the stock for dipping, and the delectable Dulcis Succubus from Le Trou Du Diable, a wine barrel aged, tart, wild saison that complements the beef and cleans the palate for the next bite.

Since both Halloween and National Caramel Apple Day are coming up this week (October 31^st) it seemed only natural when this delicious galette popped out of the oven and promptly announced its presence by filling the entire house with its sweet apple pie aroma! The homemade whole wheat sugar crust proved a hearty foundation to hold up the seasonally ripe local apples, while the sweet caramel sauce tied everything together while conjuring up fond memories of dipping caramel apples, just with less mess; Served with Angry Orchard’s Crisp Apple Cider to complement the fresh, firm, fall apples.

Learned a lot, and had fun drinking along with everyone at this year’s GABF. Congratulations to all the winners and the virtual festival presenters! I enjoyed drinking the beers along with the live presentations and trying their recommended beer and food pairings by cooking the festival recipes ahead of time. Very interesting!

Now that the summer heat is just giving way to the cool of autumn, the temperature outside is conducive to some much needed barbecue time. The most recent barbecue session resulted in this delicious pulled pork sandwich: BBQ pulled pork flavored with a sweet homemade peach and blackberry barbecue sauce, homegrown lettuce, all sandwiched in-between home baked whole wheat buns; Served with a generous portion of crisp, homemade sweet potato chips, Allagash Brewing’s Farm to Face, and Terrapin Brewing’s Maggie’s Blackberry Cobbler, to resonate with the fruit forward flavors in the BBQ sauce.

Corn & Crab Pasta for National Noodle Day

This homemade Tiramisu cake was an excellent “Pick me up” for this afternoon since today is National Coffee Day 2020. Layered home baked lady fingers soaked in Asbach Uralt Brandy, rich mascarpone cheese, and some slightly bitter dark cocoa were complimented with by Terrapin Beer Co’s TiramisuHoo for a delightful beer pairing.

These hand made Lobster Ravioli are a great way to celebrate National Lobster Day this week (September 25). Paired with Rodenbach Grand Cru.

Since it’s Double Cheeseburger Day today (September 15^th) and Cheeseburger Day this Friday (September18th) it’s time to double down on some homemade beef-and-veggie-blend burger patties loaded with all of the fresh fixings straight from the garden! The single patty burger had gruyere cheese, homegrown tomatoes, garden fresh lettuce, onions, homemade quick pickles (made from homegrown cucumbers) topped with a fried egg, mushrooms, and covered in a Steak au Poivre inspired sauce. The double burger had all the fresh garden toppings and some thick sliced, medium-strength, melted cheddar for a hearty traditional burger experience. Such loaded burgers need a loaded pairing, and Tree House Brewing’s unfiltered, kettle and dry-hopped, double IPA Haze (Alt. Link) delivered; bringing some slightly sweet peachy-tropical juice flavors to the party to round things out.

This chilled lemon pudding cake with lemon butter was just the thing to cool down with when paired with this vintage lemongrass beer.

Since National Cheese Pizza Day is just around the corner (September 5th), it seemed as good an excuse as any to chop some wood and fire up the brick pizza oven to test out some new cheesy pizza recipes! One winner was the shrimp and sausage pizza paired with a refreshing gose; the perfect pairing to savor while enjoying these last few weeks of summer!