Our family chose Tuesday to come home for Thanksgiving. So we will be off to college (125 miles away) to pick up our son, off to the airport to pick up others and finally off to the bus station. Picking them up will take most of the day and they will arrive home at different times. So what should we have for dinner?

We decided on a slow cooked beef stew. The weather has been unseasonably cold for this time of year averaging ten to twenty degrees below average and stew just seems to fit. We’ll make it in a crock-pot so timing for dinner doesn’t have to be exact. Along with the beef stew we’ll have fresh baked bread, Jell-O mold and apple crisp for dessert.

Now onto the wines to pair with dinner, I’ll go with a red. To start, I’ll open a bottle of the Cabernet Sauvignon I made from a wine kit. If I decant the wine, it is OK as a table wine. It has only been in the bottle for three months so it is still young. Natalie MacLean’s November newsletter suggests pouring a little Port in the bottom of the decanter before decanting the bottle of wine. I’ll see if this helps and let you know tomorrow. I have several good reds from around the United States in case our family associates the word “Yuk” with my wine.