Sweet Thanksgivings

dessert-wine

Yes, most of our Thanksgiving coverage this year has been pretty protein-centric, but don’t think that means we’ve forgotten about you sweet tooths! (sweet teeth?) If you’ve always wished Thanksgiving dinner involved a little more Coca-Cola, marshmallows, and good ol’ sugar, you’ll want to check out our menu for A Candy Fiend’s Thanksgiving.

Speaking of sweet Thanksgivings, we were recently sent a sample of Essensia wine, which the makers recommend pairing with — I shit you not — pumpkin pie. I’m not usually one for dessert wines, but I found this idea funny enough that I had to give it a try (albeit with pre-Thanksgiving cupcakes) and I was pretty surprised to find I actually really liked it. It’s a thick, amber-y wine with some orange and apricot flavas goin on in there. To me it tasted more like a Spanish sherry than any dessert wine I’ve had before. I’m no wine critic, but I can say it really does kind of taste like drinking a glass of alcoholic pumpkin pie along with your slice of pumpkin pie, and who could complain about that?

So I’m officially on the dessert wine bandwagon, at least when eating pie. I only have two problems:

1 – I have no idea how to make pie.

2 – I still know basically nothing about wine.

So, any recommendations out there on either front? You know we’re not big bakers here (Belmont’s apple cranberry crisp is the closest thing we’ve got) so drop us some links to great Thanksgiving pie recipes if you’ve got ’em. And I’m curious — what do you all drink on Thanksgiving? Do you have special T-day drinking traditions, or do you just go with the regular stuff?

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4 comments

  • gansie November 24, 2009  

    know what i really wish i was better at – drinking while cooking.

  • Sara November 24, 2009  

    Oh my god that’s me!

    Your post makes me ask the questions: should a dessert wine/liquor match the taste of the dessert? Does pumpkin dessert wine go best with pumpkin pie? Is it like dressing in all black? It’s delicious when the blacks match, but horrendous when they don’t? Should dessert wine complement the dessert? I know nothing about dessert wines.

  • LC November 24, 2009  

    As sweet drinks go, we drink manhattans at my house – 2 parts bourbon/whiskey, 1 part sweet vermouth, splash of cherry juice, and a cherry on top. It sounds sweet but it is not to be confused with a “i can’t even taste the alcohol” drink since it’s pretty much all alcohol.. And if you fuck up dinner, one or two of these and your guests are likely not to care/remember.

  • Brian November 25, 2009  

    I don’t like eggs and I prefer soy milk to regular milk. That said, I effing love eggnog. My family’s never been so intolerable though that I need to add rum. We’ll see how this year goes…

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