Thanksgiving dinner was a monumental dinner, just because of the crowd we had this year, and the food preparation was awesome as well. I must say that my Bride should receive all the accolades that were bestowed upon her that night, as she deserved them. One of the reasons that she made such a vast amount of food was that most of the people that were there on Thanksgiving were also invited to come back on Saturday night for leftovers and another night of merriment.

There was still plenty of the standing rib roast for the carnivores to enjoy, and there was none left by the end of the evening, which goes to show you that a great cut of meat can be wonderful a second time around. As for the turkey, my Bride did get creative and made two huge pot pies using the left over turkey, made a roux and added vegetables. She had gotten this recipe from her sister, and she changed it a little to make it her own. Another hit for the evening as both pies disappeared as well. Speaking of pies, all of the desserts that were still left went and she also had to make another Caramel Apple Pie as it had been requested, and that disappeared as well. Her planning paid off, as she made all that work satisfy a crowd of people on two different evenings.

As for the wines, there were plenty of Chardonnay wines enjoyed earlier, and then during dinner there were a couple of Pinot Noir wines to enjoy. The first wine that was opened was some more of the Meiomi Pinot Noir 2013, that my Bride had discovered at a wine tasting and had bought some, and this discovery was seconded by her Sister and Brother-in-Law that live in Kentucky, as they had brought some of the wine up as well. This wine is from the Wagner Family of Wines, from their Belle Glos Collection. The word “Meiomi” is a tribal California Indian term for “coast” and it is fitting as the fruit is sourced from three coastal wine counties; Monterey, Sonoma and Santa Barbara. The other Pinot Noir wine that we enjoyed that evening, I brought up from the cellar. We had enjoyed an Aiena Pinot Noir 2009 once where the fruit was sourced from two different vineyards. I opened up a bottle of Aiena Pinot Noir 2008, which was from the Santa Lucia Highlands, but all the fruit was from the McIntyre Vineyard, the sad part is that there were only 270 cases made of this wine, so I am sure that we will never find this exact wine again. We were all amazed by the beauty of this wine. The fruit, terroir and tannins were all balanced and in harmony, and the nose was wonderful and we were just all enthralled with it. The Aiena may have been over kill for leftovers, but it truly added to the evening.