Dinner - Easter Dinner With The Family

Unfortunately, freshman year here at Virginia Tech was the only year I have been able to go home for Easter. I'm not an extremely religious person but I do love spending time with my family on the holidays so my parents decided to come visit my sister and I this year to celebrate Easter Sunday.

Left to right: Mom, Chris, Erin, Ty (the dog), Dad, Josh (me)

Of course my apartment is way too dirty for my mother to cook her magnificent Easter feast that she prepares every year so she managed to find a family that was renting out their 'cottage' in Christiansburg; it actually turned out to be quite a nice place.

The meal consisted of:  Honey baked ham, pineapple casserole, string beans, cornbread, brussel sprouts, coleslaw, homemade french bread, potato pie, and some jelly beans. I know half of these you're probably like "what the hell is that", don't worry Ill explain.

We all know honey baked ham...I mean come on if you haven't had it by now you probably don't live in America. Anyway, it's delicious and what makes it even better is the pineapple casserole. Eat them together and you're in heaven. It basically consists of pineapples (duh), Ritz Crackers, and butter ooooooooh lots and lots of butter.

Honey baked ham (bottom) and pineapple casserole (top)

My dad is a big wine fanatic and gets his wine from this club called Naked Wines, "a group of 120,000 wine drinkers who invest in independent winemakers -- to make us delicious, exclusive wines" according to their website. Basically this consists of independent wine makers who are able to get their name out and allow people to try their surprisingly amazing wines. Two of the wines we drank for dinner were from this club (priced somewhere between $30-$40 a bottle) and a $12 bottle I picked up from Kroger.

At the point that we were beginning the meal and eating the ham and pineapple wonderfulness we were drinking a Naked Wines wine produced by Ken Deis - a 2011 Cab Sav from Napa valley, California. 14.5% ABV with very delicious deep rounded flavors of currant, cherries, and a hint of oakiness; Very balanced, you can barely feel the heat in this wine - Amazing $40 wine.

Ken Deis - 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California

This wine paired wonderfully with the ham! It added flavor and brought out flavors that I didn't taste when eating the ham by itself.





The next wine we tried was a $35 Shiraz made by Henry’s Drive Vignerons.

Henry's Drive - 2007 Shiraz, Padthaway Australia

This was a 2007 vintage with 14% ABV and went wonderfully with the potatoe pie. Potato pie is basically potatoes, onions, and lots of pepper in a pie crust. The shiraz was dry and had some pepper flavors to it which very well matched the spicyness and heavyness of the potato pie. On a side note, I made the french bread myself right before dinner so it was nice and hot (and delicious if I say so myself).

Left to right: Potato pie, homemade french bread, coleslaw, cornbread, brussel sprouts, jelly beans

The last wine we had was a Gnarly Head which you may recognize from an older wine tasting post about two weeks ago. The one I had previously was a Zinfandel so I decided to try the Cabernet Sauvignon. Coincidentally, this is also a 2011 vintage from California (Mandeca this time) with a 14.5% ABV just like the Ken Deis, although this one only cost $15.

Gnarly Head - 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon, Mandeca, California

This Cabernet was much more acidic than the Ken Deis and had some bite to it which made it pair well with the high acidity of the brussel sprouts and coleslaw. Of the three wines this was my least favorite but it was still a great wine to have with this dinner.

Unfortunately, none of the wines really paired too well with the jelly beans...but everyone still had a great time!!

Clean plates and smiles all around. Getting ready for the impossible Easter egg hunt my parents made in the backyard. On the left is my sister's boyfriend, Alex

This was an awesome dinner and an awesome experience with wine. I had a wonderful time with my family and even after this class is over I think I will try to do this again in the future.