My wife and I recently had a bit of a housewarming party here in our new place. Mostly we figured on having a few of our new, local friends over for a simple barbecue. We didn’t really expect any of our family and friends “back home” in New Jersey to make the four- to five-hour trip, but several did. So many, in fact, that we weren’t sure where we were going to put them all.
As usual, my wife went all out. I won’t say she’s like Martha Stewart, but it seems like that sometimes. In addition to the standard BBQ fare of hot dogs, burgers, and tuna pasta salad, she made empanadas, Santa Fe chicken salad (grilled chicken over greens, corn, black beans, peppers and onions with a barbecue sauce vinaigrette served with fried and salted tortilla strips), and her not-quite-famous sangria. She is an excellent cook; it’s no wonder I can’t seem to lose any weight.
My tasks were simple: choose the music to play and pick out the beer. For music, I chose from our CD collection discs that were fun and interesting, avoiding anything too hard or soft.
Choosing beer was much the same exercise. None of the people we were having over are what you would call “fans” of beer. Oh, sure, most of them would drink it, but they wouldn’t really taste it. Of course, being who I am, there was certainly an expectation that there would be beer there outside of the mainstream.
I skipped my local beer retailer. In spite of his decent selection of craft brews, I’ve been burned too many times by beers that were left on the shelf too long and should never have been sold. (Tip: never buy dusty bottles.) I made the trek up to Westridge Liquors which has an even better selection and does a better job keeping fresher stock.
I know why Ron refers to his local retailer as the “candy store”. That’s exactly what I felt like, knowing that I had to get a bunch of different interesting selections, and seeing that I would only be getting a fraction of what they were offering. After several admonishments from my wife to not get anything too exotic, I settled on several interesting and some middle-of-the-road brews. All were lighter styles (the weather was forecast to be in the nineties; who wants to drink a porter in that?) but would be suitable for a variety of palates.
The party was a success, of course. Everyone had a good time. I even think we were outnumbered by the children for a while. I was asked a couple times for recommendations, and all seemed to be spot on as I received no complaints. I think I may even have created a new fan of Tröegs Sunshine Pils. I went overboard with the beer, as we barely made a dent in it. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. There were no leftovers of my wife’s delicious food, and we all had plenty to eat.
An afternoon and evening surrounded by new friends and loved ones we’ve known forever, eating great food and enjoying excellent beer, is time well-spent.
