After 19 years there were still new things to see and experience:
- The first time it rained on Sausagefest in 19 years; about 15 minutes of hard rain (not that anyone in the wine tent cared).
- Our granddaughter Addison attended her first Sausagefest! (See picture at right.)
- Fewer than four wine glasses broke – a new record.
- The largest number of lazy-RSVP’s to ever attend; we had 51 RSVPs but 82 people attended.
- For the first time ever, we had ten bottles of wine left over. That never happens, but it did this year.
- A spectacular array of desserts was gifted to the Fest – and we thank all the people with baking skills.
- The first time we had sausage from Taiwan.
- For the first time ever we have co-champions in both Home Made and Store Bought sausage categories.
- For the first time ever, sisters are champions in two different categories. Dawn and Donna congrats (the awards follow below).
Some Measures Worth Sharing:
- 30 bottles of wines were consumed; mostly red mostly older, mostly first tier wines. It’s what Sausagefest has turned into – a wine fest with sausage as the lead act, but wine as a main course.
- 34 sausages, well, 33 got on the grill Saturday night but the 34th sausage was grilled less than 24 hours later and that is a story worth telling.
- 82 people with 16 people who were new to the fest; good to see new faces and new friends.
- The beer count exceeded 200 cans/bottles and the variety pointed out that we live in the golden age of beer in America. Which leads to this axiom: “Beer choice increases in proportion to the scale of repulsiveness of domestic politics.” We will call this, “The alcohol to deviancy continuum”.
The Thank You list has these people in gold letters: Shawn and Will for their grill work; Kellen for mastering the sausage registration desk; Tom for his bartending skills in the wine tent; Kathleen for some beautifully inscribed Sausagefest 19 wine goblets; Kathy for being the Master Organizer as usual; Richie for the wonderful bottles of Turley and Chappelet; to all the attendees for ignoring the rain and partying on.
Paul and Joy Munson for the Romanian Mititei sausage
Dawn Tuttle for the Merguez, a North African lamb sausage.
Both sausages were delicious and it was too hard to choose which one was better. I can tell you that both sausages were terrific with a glass of Turley Zin.
Steve Zimmerman who brought Louisiana Hot sausage from the Butcher on the Block (Lake in the Hills, Ill.).
Donna Kastning who brought Atomic Sausages from Johnny’s G (Bloomingdale, Ill)
This is Steve’s second win in a row for this category. Last year was his first fest and he obviously knows how to scout for sausage. Donna brought Atomic sausages from Johnny G’s a couple years ago but this vintage was stunningly sadomasochistic with its hotness.
Fresh over retirement rituals, it was good to see Casey Wasilewski get out of rehab in time to assemble the ambrosia of his Polish Sausage and Sauerkraut casserole. Casey is to Polish Sausage Casserole as John Wooden was to college basketball. Every year it’s the same old winning team. The piranhas were circling his large bowl as he set it down on the buffet table. It’s hard to count nanoseconds, but the bowl was licked clean very quickly. I can’t believe there weren’t serious knife and fork injuries for the all the silverware that were thrust into such a small area.
Susan G year after year sees her baked beans disappear as quickly as they are set out. The piranha thing again. This year I never got a whiff of them.
The next day we had one sausage that did not get cooked. We think this was a happy mistake. The sausages were from Taiwanese Lap Ceung sausages. We are grateful to rookie fest goer, David Nealis for bringing these delicious gems to the event. We will have to find more of them quickly. They were made of smoked meat and seasoned with the spices you associate with Chinese cuisine. I won’t attempt to guess at all the seasoning. But, when warmed up on the grill it was like eating bacon candy – with some soy overtones. Pretty amazing stuff.
David, when you comeback from China to Fest #20, bring a lot more.
Kudos to Joyce for bringing terrific Key Lime pie – the real stuff. Nice counter part to the sausage entrees.