Oktoberfest

Yeah I know, real Oktoberfest is in late Sep but we had to do it. This dinner had couple of twists that we found when we were in Denver a few weeks ago.  We started off with some bratwurst that had cheese in the casing.  I boiled them fist in beer and then grilled them outside to give them a nice brown and crispy outside.  They were ok, we like the traditional bratwurst better.  The cheese did nothing for them.  Lauri did a couple of unique things with this dinner.  Have you ever had mashed potatoes with sauerkraut mixed in?  Awesome!  I am no fan of the kraut but wow it really made the potatoes pop.  Another treat we ran into in Denver was a sauerkraut, swiss and pastrami eggroll.  Yes, eggroll.  Dipped in a good mustard and again, awesome.   To go with this German dinner we found some Spatan Dunkel at the store.   That just toped it off nicely.  Can you say full?



Fresh Green Chili and some guests.

It is that time of year for fresh green chile straight from Hatch New Mexico.  There is nothing like the smell and the flavor of fresh roasted chile .

So what do you do with all of that Chile?  Make burritos and cover them with the stuff.  They were awesome.  Black beans, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, ripe olives, onions, sour cream and homemade guacamole.  To top that off I brought back a growler of Left Hand Fade to Black 3, Pepper Porter.  The meal was especially good with a couple of friends to share it with.  Tim and Andrea came up and shared it with us.  The meal, beer and company were awesome.