Hump day dinner

It's Wednesday night, what's for dinner?  I have dreamed about this meal while I was at work and it turned out perfectly.  Just what we needed to get over hump day.  Have you ever planned a meal around a drink?  This meal was planned around beer!

Frosty mugs and all

An easy one skillet meal.  Dutch yellow potatoes sliced and pan fried with Turkey Kielbasa Sausage and a green salad on the side. This is also the first time we tried Trader Joe's Turkey Kielbasa and I recommend it highly.


Chimay is an authentic Trappist beer that is brewed within a Trappist monastery since 1862, under the control and responsibility of the monastic community. Only 6 beers in Belgium can carry the appellation "Trappist": Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren and Achel.

The ingredients have been the subject of interest: all the beers are made from water, malted barley, wheat starch, sugar, hop extract and yeast; malt extract is used in Rouge and Bleu for coloring.

• Chimay Rouge (Red), 7% abv. In the 75 cl bottle, it is known as Première. It is a dark brown color and has a sweet, fruity aroma.
• Chimay Bleue (Blue), 9% abv darker ale. In the 75 cl bottle, it is known as Grande Réserve. This copper-brown beer has a creamy head and a slightly bitter taste. Considered to be the "classic" Chimay ale, it exhibits a considerable depth of fruity, peppery character. Our choice for tonight
• Chimay Blanche (White), or Chimay Triple, 8% abv golden tripel. In the 75 cl bottle, it is known as Cinq Cents. This crisp beer bears a light orange colour, and is the most hopped and driest of the three.
• Chimay Dorée (Golden), 4.8% abv ale, brewed from very similar ingredients as the Red, but paler and spiced differently. It is a patersbier, intended only to be drunk at the abbey or at the nearby inn Auberge de Poteaupré, which is associated with the abbey. The monks themselves drink this variety rather than the stronger three. The Dorée is not sold commercially and the rare bottles which make their way out are through unofficial sources. Even the brewery's own web site makes no mention of this variety.  (courtesy of Wikipedia) 

Cooper wishing this was his dinner.

 Our love of Chimay spurred us to visit Belgium while on our beer tour of Europe.  Cedric will share a travel journal about Ghent, Bruges, and Bruxelles in a future post.