A wee dram for charity!

This year Ali, our fellow teammate and friend Blythe and I attempted a new fundraising strategy - we set out to do an organized event to help raise money for the MS society.  Some how we came up with the brilliant idea of having a paired scotch tasting dinner - 5 courses of food paired up with 5 scotchs from the different regions of Scotland.  We also managed to easily convince our local Scottish pub to host the event.  Things couldn't have gone smoother.

Unfortunately, the night before the big event the little man came down with some unknown illness which included a raging fever and a case of the pukeys and crankys.  He was feeling so bad that the next night for the scotch tasting Ali had to stay home with him.  Bummer.  We missed her, but our paired scotch tasting was a rousing (and tasty) success!  We sold all of the 25 tickets for the big event and we packed tightly into the back half of the pub (a pub that both Ali and I had basically lived in watching games of the last rugby world cup).   

The introduction to each pairing, as explained by the manager and the scotch master, included a mouth watering description of the food, a little history and details of each scotch, why the scotch was chosen, and what made the pairing work.  We then thoroughly enjoyed the combination over lively conversation.  Then the tables were promptly emptied by the attentive staff and the next course of scotch and food was served up.  By the end we were very full from all the food and very happy from all the scotch.   It was quite the experience!   

Personally, I have never drank my scotch with food and it was an epiphany! No one thinks twice of pairing wine with a specific dish, but never had I thought of applying the same logic to scotch.  There were many interesting flavor combinations that the food brought out of the scotch and vice versa.  

All in all a very successful and fun evening.  Through the generosity of our attendees and the fantastic staff at Two Fools, the Penultimates were able to raise over $1200 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society!  And plans have already been laid for next years event!   If you are in ABQ hope you can join us!