A moveable feast continues....
Readers of The Rockettman blog understand that food and wine have always been central to our lifestyle. With even more time available in retirement (aka, the ‘relaunch’ years), we now are able to expand the holiday culinary calendar over multiple events that celebrate the cultures and cuisines that have been part of our life over the years. This goes beyond the year-end holidays that represent benchmark culinary celebrations in the USA, but rather, spans the entirety of the year - including some outlier commemorative events that we have come to apprecate during our time living abroad.
A Memorial Day weekend feast
My wife’s birthday always overlaps with Memorial Day weekend and the start to the summer season so we tend to take full advantage of it. Weather permitting, we will endeavor to eat outdoors, sometimes leveraging the ceramic cooker (Big Green Egg, or BGE) for an al fresco feast. If it is close enough to the start of soft-shell crab season, that will be the go-to dish for the celebration. Otherwise, rack of lamb or duck breast on the BGE will generally be the second option. Favorite summer cocktails will feature as a start to our summer holiday dining.
July Fourth feast
To be honest, my wife and I have not celebrated an Independence Day holiday together in about a decade. She has family in Europe, so for her most summer holidays are spent on the other side of the pond. This may be by design as the British generally consider the War for Independence as the “little temper tantrum (Americans) call the Revolutionary War”. But in years past we have met with neighbors on the back patio and thrown steamed crabs and corn on the cob on the outdoor granite table!
Labor Day Weekend feast
On this occasion it is generally back to the barbeque and will most certainly involve our neighbors and friends. Again, the Big Green Egg gets center stage, sometimes as the facilitator of a rack of pork ribs or Brazilian Picanha steaks. But there is also the prospect of using the sous vide method to par cook a beef tenderloin and finish it on the BGE. Summer cocktails will also start off this feast.
Thanksgiving feast
For a long time, we were 'all-in" on turkey as the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving holiday. Normally the turkey would be brined in buttermilk and spices to produce a succulent, 'bird' when roasted in the oven. But we have moved on to other alternatives to this Thanksgiving feast of the past. Some dishes may evoke traditional flavors/dishes, but we have expanded the poultry options to include duck and Cornish game hens. Being only two for dinner allows us to be creative with this most revered of American culinary celebrations.
Christmas Eve/Christmas Dinner feast
It is hard to nail down which is the more important dinner of these two days and that is a good thing! We choose to let the availability of family/friends/neighbors steer us toward which day or days are celebrated over a meal during the Christmas holiday. For us this holiday can extend (from a culinary perspective) from December 23rd to January 6th. We do have a few traditions that we will share alone together over this holiday period. But then, the world is our oyster at dinner (and it can even include oysters)! Suffice it to say that the menu will depend on who we are with and where we are, but you can always expect fresh seafood to feature prominently.
Bon appétit!
Comentários