Let the 2012 Olympics Begin

I'm a huge Olympics fan, so I'm very happy for today's start of the 2012 Olympics. In addition, it's the start of a Flower's family tradition of themed meals during the Olympics. Gail wonderfully plans and prepares a variety of meals from various nations. This year, I'm trying to match the meals with a beer from each country. As a preview, in the picture below you see America, Italy, Great Britain, Korea, India, Japan, Australia, Germany and Russia.

Tonight's meal was in honor of the host country. Gail made a British Bubble 'n' Squeak based on a recipe from allrecipes.com. Gail added a poached egg to round it out. To me the flavor was excellent, but Gail thought it could use a bit less pepper and paprika and bit more salt. We both agreed it tasted a bit like hash. It was an excellent first meal of these Olympics.

Tonight's beer was Sam Smith's Organic Best Ale. This beer reminds me of the beers I had last summer in London. It was clean and creamy with a slightly sweet finish. And, it had the low carbonation and tiny bubble structure common in British pub beers.

Thanks Gail for a great opening ceremony meal.