January 04/2019  Sausagefest Reviews

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).
  

  Addison’s First Sausagefest

• 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 saus...

October 08/2017  Sausagefest Reviews

It was a very cool and windy Sausagefest 13 but there was no bad luck blowing into the festivities this year.

We were lucky enough to have four hours of acoustic guitar and song from Irv Pavlik. Irv has perfected his Neil Young songbook and the nicest compliment I heard was that “Irv’s better than Neil Young right now.” It was nice seeing an old colleague doing his avocation and people appreciating it. Irv plays in a number
(Check him out on YouTube)

We had some outstanding sausages this year – both home made and store bought. Maybe it was the year 13 thing or a full moon but the voting for all the categories was either very close or tied. Maybe the lesson was that there were no losers here...

October 08/2017  Sausagefest Reviews

September 2, 2006

The main question facing this years event is can Dr. Tuttle and his fertile sausage imagination be stopped? Is he the DaVinci of sausage making? He has a two year streak going and this is far more consistent than his golf game. He might have found his true calling; orthopedics is getting old and boring (“You seen one broken bone you’ve seen them all.”)

Maybe there’s something about the grinding up of meat tissues that gets the physician drooling, who knows? He’s a generally soft spoken Texan but we all know anybody from Texas is a bit twisted. But then it’s a fine line between insanity and creativity and who can bitch about the outstanding smoked chorizo with chipotle he whipped up last year?

In a not too long ago talk with the Do...

October 08/2017  Sausagefest Reviews

August 21, 2007

Tin, aluminum, and diamond – those are the British, American, and Modern symbols for the tenth anniversary. I can see the Brits doing a tin of candy, a tin of tea, but what really nice gift of tin have you received lately? Something from the Wizard of Oz catalog from the Tin Man section?

But the Brits have been civilized longer than we have and maybe tin back in the day was more meaningful. Aluminum foil is handy but don’t bring a case of aluminum foil to Sausagefest. So let’s just agree that diamonds are okay and any size larger than a fingernail is acceptable

It’s hard to believe that ten years of great sausages and great wine drinking has grown into a very large party with a cult like following.

Hey wait a second; e...

October 08/2017  Sausagefest Reviews

Thanks to all the guests, friends and friends of friends that helped make 2009 a great Sausagefest.

Sausagefest has a simple goal – find the best sausages, enjoy tasting them, then let people know who’s making them and if they are publicly available. We also recognize that there professional sausage makers and amateurs.

Too often sausages get a bad rap. But, when you taste a sausage made by an sausage artist like Hungry Hill, Elburn Market, Lalich’s Deli, Gaziano’s, (Des Moines) or Goodrich’s (East Lansing) you know you are eating a quality food product.

The sausages from professional sausage makers at Sausagefest 2009 were many, but the following sausages and their sausage maker were exceptional.

Exceptional Sausages (Professional Sausage Artists...

October 08/2017  Sausagefest Reviews

For the first time in Sausagefest history we had to deal with some rainy weather. But, we had positive things happened that helped us deal with the weather.

First, we had Spontaneous Tent Erection (STE, for you medical types) and that saved us from:
A. Electrocuting Irv and his musical equipment
B. Kept our sausage serving buffet dry
Many thanks to our friends who brought the extra tents. May your STE powers stay with you forever.

Second, several people walked up to me and said. “It never rains at Sausagefest.” Proving that a positive attitude can overcome obvious empirical evidence to the contrary. I think the wine and beer consumption helped bolster that ignore-the-weather attitude.

Here are some of the measures of our misbegotten behavior:
• Fo...

October 08/2017  Sausagefest Reviews

Even with a one year hiatus the sausagefest participants went back to the established practices they learned over the past 17 years:

• Bring great wine?
• Bring lots of great beer?
• Bring lots of good sausage?
• Wish for nice weather☀

While three of the variables are in human hands, the weather answered prayers,a cool early fall day gave way to a beautiful evening. Eighteen years of great weather, so you know it is an ordained event from on high.

By unofficial count the fest had 65 to 70 people, 35 bottles of wine consumed, 30 sausages grilled and more than 100 beers consumed. (We actually received more than 30 sausages but when the grill crew took a break at 6:30 with 30 sausages already served the cooking petered out.)