In our continued quest to drink only great beer, I bring you Breckenridge Brewery’s Vanilla Porter. This beer is delicious and though it is available year round it is especially nice in the Fall: while it’s still warm enough to enjoy a cold beer yet the crispness in the air makes welcome this beer’s creaminess and notes of chocolate and vanilla. If poured, it is a beautiful dark chocolate color and smells of vanilla and roasted nuts. I don’t consider this beer especially sweet, it is still beer after all, however it does have a smoothness that I don’t taste in many porters. There is hardly a trace of bitterness; just easy drinking, deeply flavored beer with a creamy, rich mouthfeel.

What’s for dinner this week?

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While the typical beer in the Chaos household is Mexican and gets a lime wedge and salt for garnish, a Blue Moon Belgium White Ale gets a hefty orange slice. The citrus flavors in this beer really pop when offset by the fresh orange. Unlike many beers, this one is actually unfiltered. The body is cloudy and there is sediment in the bottle. The flavorfulness of this beer though is much like a fine wine and unlike many typical beers. You can taste the complexity of wheat and citrus flavors, feel the thickness of the beer’s body, and smell the hoppy aroma. The fresh orange slices make “having a beer” much more of a sensory experience-like pairing a good wine.

It has been said that pairing beers can be even more complex and satisfying than wine pairings. Never big beer drinkers, we are only beginners in pairing beers but we may start trying more of these special brews in the future. We have had Blue Moon’s Summer Ale: Honey Moon-which is equally delicious. You can bet we’ll be trying their other seasonal flavors as they become available.

Do you have a favorite beer? Have you tried something a little different lately?

What’s for Dinner this week?

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Tart, tangy, sweet and sour. This salad has so much going on: from the salty, creamy feta to the crunchy nuttiness of the pecans to the sweet/sour notes of the chewy dried cranberries, crisp green apples and poppy seed dressing. Thanks to Jacqui for suggesting this combination and the dressing to match with it. I tried and tried to find a poppy seed dressing recipe I felt comfortable making from scratch until, finally, I figured I would never get around to making the dang salad if I had to make the dressing as well. So I caved and bought the brand Jacqui recommended. It is light and tangy with a tart sweet and sour match to the rest of the flavors in the salad. The bottle says it’s delicious on peaches and I am so thrown by even the suggestion of eating peaches with salad dressing that I might just have to try it.

Anyway, about that salad… I am not a huge fan of sweet and sour combos, however the earthiness of the nuts and creaminess of the feta cut through the sour notes and balance it just enough to keep it interesting.

Green Apple Salad

• salad greens, Jacqui recommends romaine or spinach
• dried cranberries
• crumbled feta cheese
• pecans, chopped
• green apple, cut into matchsticks
• poppy seed dressing

Toss your salad ingredients as desired with a little of the poppy seed dressing. Unlike many dressings, I have found 1 tbsp to be perfect for a 1 person salad. This is a great, interesting lunch or side salad. It travels pretty well also, just be sure to add your apple slices just before tossing the salad in the dressing so they don’t turn brown.

Any more salads you recommend before the end of summer?

Photo Update: Homemade Rice-a-Roni

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The restaurant itself was eclectic and casual with a frog fountain out front, a patio, and a large great room with comfortable booths and tables inside. I was surprised, and pleased, to see a kids menu offering the usual kids’ fare. We eat pretty early here in the Chaos household so the restaurant was fairly empty when we got there. This gave us plenty of time to chat with our friendly and enthusiastic waitress. I was disappointed by the “by the glass” wine choices and the wine list in general. However, after being informed by our waitress that in Arkansas it is apparently legal to cork the bottle and take it with us, we chose a tempranillo with plans to take it back to the hotel.

Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to return for some time, the biggest problem we had was deciding which dishes we couldn’t leave Hot Springs without trying. That was a tough choice and I already have my choices picked out for the next time we pass through. The menu was a delight to pore over and our waitress was helpful and knowledgeable. We chose appetizers of Fried Brie, Duck Confit Egg rolls, and Caramelized Scallops. Our entrees were the Mushroom Risotto and Boursin Filet Mignon. For dessert we shared a banana creme brulee just to prove we could still shove some more food in our mouths.

The fried brie and duck confit egg rolls were interesting and tasty. Honestly, I cannot compare them to anything I’ve had before, which was exactly the point in ordering them. The caramelized scallops were delicious-slightly sweet and meaty-and served atop an equally delicious truffle scented polenta with fresh corn. On a return trip I would order them again, and I would definitely try the Angus beef and pork confit mini burger (aka “truffle slider”).

Our entrees were equally good. I had the creamy, hearty mushroom risotto. It was a huge portion and ultimately I broke my promise to the waitress not to have any leftovers. Mr. Chaos chose the Boursin filet after debating heavily between the lollipop pork chop and the orange/chipotle duck breast. His filet came sandwiched between the delicious polenta and a generous dollop of Boursin cheese with some perfectly cooked asparagus spears on the side. While the steak itself was overcooked-he ordered medium rare and got closer to medium well-the combination of flavors in the dish was so delicious we hardly noticed and didn’t bother sending it back.

The dessert was good: a banana creme brulee we ordered-despite being stuffed-simply because we’re suckers for creme brulee. Overall, the meal was fun, entertaining, and delicious. The second best aspect of our meal-after the adventurous nature of the food-was the price. At $24 our bottle of wine was the most expensive item on our bill. Our entire meal was less than $100. That’s pretty incredible considering the amount of food we ordered and the care obviously put into the creation of each dish.

Ultimately, the only lasting disappointment of the night was knowing we will only get to sample this restaurant on return trips to Arkansas. My review is very amateurish and my few criticisms should be taken lightly. We were not able to sample our dishes numerous times or under various conditions. We are not restaurant reviewers but we were so impressed that we wanted to send our experience out into the void with the hopes that some other wayward foodie traveller will pick it up and have as delightful an experience as we did.

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Before I get into my opinion of their Camembert, I first want to mention a few things about their website. My first stop on the site was the pairings section, because my favorite way to experience new cheeses is balanced with the perfect wine. The Chaos household tends towards hard, aged cheeses so I have found the pairings information extremely helpful considering I don’t have a clue as to what to pair with soft, rich, creamy cheeses like the ones Ile de France specializes in.

Next stop, Recipes. I love browsing new recipes and learning about creative ways to use ingredients I am unfamiliar with, like soft cheese. I thought the video recipes were interesting, since watching someone make a recipe goes along way towards boosting my confidence in trying out a new recipe myself. My final stop on the Ile de France website tour: their Wellness page. I learned that soft cheese while seemingly richer and therefore fattier than hard cheese actually has fewer calories and fat per ounce due to the higher moisture content. Of course, I like cave-aged hard cheeses that are so dry they’ve built up lactic acid crystals and are probably 1,000 calories of pure fat per ounce. So rest assured, I’ll be switching over to triple-cream brie, you know, for health reasons. But seriously, the trick to cheese consumption is to find powerful, flavorful cheeses that satisfy you after a single ounce.

Which bring us to the question: how does Ile de France’s Camembert satisfy?

In the interest of fair play I asked the wine guy to suggest an alternate pairing and also picked up an alternate brand of cheese from the deli. The second wine pairing was a Rutz Cellars Russian River Valley Cuvee Chardonnay ($14) and our other camembert was by Delice de France. Thusly, we embarked on our own mini wine and cheese tasting.

The wines: The Beaujolais was a good wine choice to compliment the creamy cheese. It is somewhat dry but fruity and is quite crisp tasting for a red wine. I definitely tastes best chilled. The rich creaminess of the Camembert requires a wine with some acid which both the Beaujolais and chardonnay had. The chardonnay was our favorite for the night. It was rich (and dare I say buttery? Not really sure I know what I am talking about…) with only slight acid and went wonderfully with the tang from the cheese.

The cheeses: The Delice de France cheese was texturally quite different from the Ile de France cheese. It was creamier with less structure and the flavor was quite a bit more intense from the offset. The Ile de France cheese was milder, with a stronger finish. Both cheeses, although creamy and rich, had a lighter-yet tangier and nuttier-flavor than Brie. The Delice de France was our favorite for flavor and texture. We were easily satiated by the one ounce mark. Unfortunately, the cost-at over a $1 per ounce-would make it difficult to enjoy this cheese very often. The Ile de France was the better budget choice at about 75¢ per ounce. It is also more widely available: I was able to locate it at all 4 of the major grocery stores in our area. One advantage the Ile de France cheese had over the Delice de France cheese: it’s firmer structure made removing the rind much easier. I know, I know-real connoisseurs eat the rind. Well, the dog then is quite the cheese connoisseur because he gets all the rinds at my house. Sorry, I just can’t stand the texture or taste; I like my creamy cheeses creamy.

The verdict: Ile de France’s Camembert cheese is the winner in convenience, price, and availability. The flavor is less intense-which means I could easily put away several ounces, ack!-than the more expensive brand which I would occasionally splurge on instead. Both wines went very well with both cheeses, the chardonnay being our favorite. This was a really fun experiment and I encourage anyone who is interested to try it yourselves and let me know what you think!

This is not a paid advertisement. In fact, I spent $32 on wine and cheese that I will happily accept reimbursement for. Anyone? Anyone? If I do any more cheese reviews I might have to ask someone to buy me one of these in exchange. I have been familiar with the Ile de France brand for some time because the grocery stores in my area carry it in their deli section. If you aren’t able to find it in your area they are available online as well, and it comes in a cute package.

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