Blue Moon Surprise

My husband, Patrick, and I have this tradition of trying different bottled beers when money allows. This started some years ago when we moved into our first new home. The idea of coming home, getting a beer, and relaxing in your own living room until dinner (or in my case drinking a beer while I made the dinner) was something we relished. We don’t drink a lot of beer, maybe once or twice a month, and don’t want to have too many bottles of extra un-liked beer around. So we don’t taste test very often.


Not too long ago my husband came home with a six pack of Blue Moon Beer. I was immediately intrigued by the title and his enthusiasm. He opened two bottles and immediately started to cut an orange to put some slices into the beer. Orange? Yep. He said that his work buddy drinks it that way and that the beer was real smooth. To my surprise that idea was true. I think that the Blue Moon beers will disappear faster than our treasured dark Heinekens. As I drank my beer making dinner that night, I wondered what foodie things were related to a Blue Moon.

First, let us review a little history of a Blue Moon. Since each calendar month has a Full Moon and a New Moon, a Blue Moon is a second full moon in a calendar month. Depending on your perspective, this does not happen very often, about every 2-3 years -- Thus one reason for the saying “once in a Blue Moon. “ Our next Blue Moon will be in August 2012.


(Reference: http://www.obliquity.com/astro/bluemoon.html)

In learning about a Blue Moon, I remembered a cookbook treasure I had found a couple of months ago at a second-hand store. It is a family cookbook by Chief Gary Goss and Illustrated by Jane Dyer entitled Blue Moon Soup (1999). It is a beautifully illustrated book with many soup recipes organized by season. On the back dust jacket (yes, I was lucky enough to find this book with an intact dust jacket) is an illustration of a turtle eating soup in front of full moon and the saying “Soup this good comes only once in a blue moon”. This coincides with the first page poem by Lewis Carroll, Turtle Soup. If you click on the book cover below, you will be taken to Amazon and can browse the contents in which I guarantee you will enjoy.


  At the Blue Moon Brewing Company website, you will discover that they idea of putting an orange in the beer is their own. Also, they produce a Winter Abbey Ale between November and January in which they suggest you make a hearty stew and a chocolate dessert to go with this beer. A great idea! http://www.bluemoonbrewingcompany.com/ We splurged and bought this Ale…it is wonderful and is now my new favorite beer. Sorry Corona. I am going to try making “Sob Soup” from the Blue Moon Soup cookbook which is Baked French Onion Soup (p. 9).


Here are some other great foodie things related to the Moon in general:

The Moon Food Page
Here you will find some great recipes for making food related to full moons.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonfood/index.htm

The Original Moon Pie
The official site for this dessert tradition.
http://www.moonpie.com/

Rachel Ray’s Recipe for Full Moon Sundaes at the Food Network
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/full-moon-sundaes-recipe/index.html

Bible Translations
MANY different bible version of the verse Psalm 81:3 which mentions feasts and full moons.
http://bible.cc/psalms/81-3.htm