Pleased to Meat You

Oven ready, oven fresh. Pleased to meat you!

Sometimes, the most unlikely partners come together and find that they’re a match made in heaven. It happens all the time – you know, the whole “opposites attract” or Odd Couple thing. Such was the case tonight in my kitchen when I decided to make meatloaf for dinner and paired with a wine I least expected.

This week is going to be one full of extra long days at the office, so I decided that tonight (since I had a relatively regular evening post-work) I’d “cook ahead”. I find it’s always a good idea for the busy guy or gal to over-prepare meal portions on busy weeks, thus leaving plenty of delicious leftovers. Occasionally, I’ll even be organized enough to prepare items that I can freeze for later consumption.

This morning I was thinking, “What can I make that we can eat for a couple of days, using items from my current supplies combined with ingredients from the late-summer abundance of my garden?”

I opened the freezer and out tumbled a couple frozen blocks of lean ground beef. My fridge is teeming with Roma tomatoes, and I have plenty of purple Russian garlic, onions, bales of basil, and several types of cheese. Ladies and gents, I give you Meatloaf!

The wine, flanked by garden bounty.

Whilst preparing my giant brick of oven-baked beef, I opened a recently purchased bottle of Tantalus Vineyards 2006 Pinot Noir. The bottle was recently procured at an event I attended, at which Tantalus was the exclusive wine sponsor. (No, they weren’t officially selling wine there… but I have a problem and I couldn’t help myself. So, I bought a bottle of the ’06 Pinot and a bottle of the 2010 Riesling). I imagined myself having a glass or two, or maybe three… and before you know it, the meatloaf was on the table and I was enjoying yet another glass with my meal.

I wondered: “Pinot Noir…with meatloaf?” and yet, it was as if the two stars of my evening meal were lovers who hadn’t seen one another in an eternity, and found themselves running in slow-motion across a field of wildflowers with “that song” playing in the background. (You know the song I’m talking about. Right?)

“Pinot Noir…with meatloaf?”

The meatloaf was delicious; the wine, sublime. While I won’t share my meatloaf with you (for reasons the begin with “FoodSafe” and end with “shipping meat in the mail is never a good idea”), I will share a wine tip: Tantalus Vineyards 2006 Pinot Noir is ready to drink NOW. Ready, willing, and able – need I say more? Go get some. My meat pairing might have been a bit whacky, but sometimes when it just tastes right, that’s all that matters.