[Jen & Nate]

We were a week late. Last Sunday we should have stirred up all our ingredients for the overly-elaborate preparation of the fruit cake. Every three or four years we need to make a new batch as we've finally powered through the ten pounds in our freezer. Yesterday was our day to finally complete a batch of fruitcake that will likely get us through until the year portrayed in Back to the Future II -- otherwise known as the thing I've been looking forward to in life more than anything.



By "our" time I, of course, mean Jen's time. Jen worked on all of this while I was work, stirring, measuring, and baking after a day of soaking up copious amounts of dried fruit and nuts in brandy. A few more weeks of brandy applications and the fruit cake will be almost ready for consumption.

After another year it will be perfect for consumption.



The setting for the following courses is in an average American home after accumulating a large quantity of Thanksgiving leftovers.

After reading Mark Bittman's annual guide on how to use Thanksgiving leftovers I had a few ideas of what to do. I like his idea of using the stuffing with roasted peppers so I grilled these orange Bell peppers over an open flame, stuffed them with the leftover chestnut, leek, and apple stuffing, and topped them with shredded Gruyere. I browned them up under the broiler.

This is a winner. I'd highly recommend this if you have any leftover stuffing. It's dead easy and tasty too.



To go with these Thanksgiving flavors I cracked open a bottle of Triple Bag by Long Trail Brewing Company. I've had the Double Bag. In fact, it's one of my favorites. When I saw the Triple Bag I passed it by subconsciously dismissing it as the Double Bag. That's when Jen asked me about it and I noticed that the label was different. It looked like Bessie the Riveter was calling me to enjoy Double Bag's older, less sophisticated sister.

It was a very good beer. It was malty, roasty, and pretty high in alcohol at 9.2%. That ass-kicking cow on the label is not to be messed with.



For dessert I made this parfait with yogurt, leftover cranberry sauce, Manuka honey, and chopped toasted pistachios. It was a nice finish to the evening and a great way to use up some leftover cranberry sauce.

And that, my friends, is how we rock this milieu.

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