Navigating Holiday Food & Wine Mishaps

Whether you are sliding heels-up through the kitchen with mom’s homemade pie, tripping circuit breakers with that extra string of outdoor lights, or spilling syrah on Uncle Ernie’s sweater, the holidays are fraught with mishaps. They may humor us now, but many situations can be stressful in the moment. For example, there was the turkey that never cooked.

Several years ago, a friend placed her turkey in the oven at noon, but unfortunately, it was as frozen as the Alaskan tundra. The bird was still cooking when her guests left late that night, hungry and bewildered.

These experiences demonstrate the awkward moments that may occur during the holidays as we prepare and serve food and wine. There are others to share, but more importantly, we offer simple solutions and friendly advice.

Food Follies

Everything is magnified around the holidays, including the volume of food and the size of the utensils we call into service.

Case in point, serving turkey on a platter a la George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life is trickier than imagined. Per Sir Isaac Newton, “objects in uniform motion tend to stay in uniform motion”, so that slippery 25-pounder may continue down the hallway as we pivot towards the table. Solution: allow extra time; get help lifting heavy platters; anticipate the challenge of handling large, oily objects.

Bringing food and wine to the homes of loved ones presents other challenges.

How many times have you brought a side dish, only to not get the dish — the ceramic kind — handed back to you before leaving? You don’t expect to depart with that empty bottle of Chateau Cheval Blanc, but the platter is another matter. Solution: write your name on a strip of painter’s tape, and place it on the bottom of the dish.

Wine Willies

Ever bring a special bottle — something you’ve aged and anticipated savoring for years — to a dinner party? Imagine the horror when the host stashes it away, only to serve something ordinary. Solution: (a) Ask the host in advance if the wine will pair with and be enjoyed at their meal. (b) Take a backup bottle to minimize disappointment, on the chance the wine is corked or over the hill, or if the situation isn’t conducive to something special.

Variation: that same wine is opened, but is placed at the far end of the table. Solution: offer to help serve the wine, and be sure to pour some for yourself.

Food and Wine with Family and Friends

The holidays offer the best of times for enjoying food and wine. Expectations run high, but there are plenty of distractions. We recommend keeping things simple to provide enough time for cherishing the special moments. Remember: wine shouldn’t dominate food, it should accentuate it; and food and wine shouldn’t dominate special occasions, they should accentuate them.

By the way, Uncle Ernie left the house with a clean sweater because we had Wine Away© ready to deploy.

Happy holidays from all of us at Cinnabar Winery!

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