More cleaning out the fridge tonight. We invited Charlie and
Susan Palmer for a Texas style steak dinner. Charlie
asked for us to serve the beans I had made for Willy’s BD/Bon Voyage party and we
decided to heat up the PPI roasted vegetables and to use up the sugar snap peas
that I had bought at Ta Lin 1 ½ weeks ago.
Suzette had driven to Santa Rosa today and she called at 5:30 to say she
would be home at 6:30 p.m.
So at 6:00 I de-stemmed the sugar snap peas and when she
arrived I was slicing garlic and a shallot and mushrooms for the sauce after
fetching the beans and roasted vegetables and having put them on the stove and
in the oven. The reason that Charlie
liked the beans I think is because I put a mirepoix into the beans and so they
had the French soup base flavor along with that distinctly Texas sauce of
cumin and salt. Ranch style Beans were made in Fort Worth, Texas and are one of the classic Texas foods that Charlie and I remember from our childhood. To carry the theme a little farther, Susan baked a large baking dish of russet potatoes and yams, also.
We bought four beautiful 1 inch thick rib eye steaks at Costco last
Saturday ($7.39/lb.) so we took two out and let them come to room
temperature. At around 6:30 Willy’s
friend, Tom, stopped by and we made gin and tonics and Charlie and I talked to
him about his plans to go to Australia in a day of two. Tom is an Australian citizen, although born
in the U.S., through his dad, so he does not need a visa to settle in
Australia. He will live initially in Adelaide,
where his family is from he said. After
Tom and Eli, who came by to meet him left, we all agreed that Tom, who is tall,
dark, handsome and intelligent, is one of those lucky people who can go
anywhere and get a job in a bar just by walking in.
Not to be ideally speculating, Tom did mention that his last job was at a bar on one of the San Juan islands in
Washington State after he ended his education at Western Washington State. He and Willy had visited occasionally, because his school was only 20 miles from the Canadian border, which made it about 80 miles from Vancouver.
When Tom and Eli left for their dinner, we started the mushrooms and steaks
cooking, continued heating the beans and roasted vegetables, and started the
sugar snap peas steaming. In about ten or
fifteen minutes everything was ready.
We gorged on all the good food along with the heated last six or
seven butter flake rolls, which, predictably, Charlie loved even though they were
over heated and had become quite hard on the outside (Again, one of those Texas 50/60's things).
We served a recently purchased
bottle of 2010 Chateau du Buisson ($6.99, Trader Joe’s) that was a blend of 60%
Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. It was very drinkable if a bit young and had won
a silver medal in at an International Competition of Wine. Pretty good for $6.99 with a light fruity taste and dark red claret color.
While we waited for Susan to go pick up Lisa, Suzette brought out two sets of binoculars and we did some planet gazing in the darkening evening sky as it cooled down on the patio.
When Susan returned from picking up Lisa, she brought
dessert; ramekins filled with a mixture of decadent baked chocolate cake and chocolates chips and bowl of coffee flavored whipped
cream that we dabbed on top. Both were excellent. I made a cup of tea and enjoyed dessert, although
I was a bit stuffed by this time.
Bon Appétit
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