January 25, 2015 Breakfast Bacon, shrimp and squash Burrito Dinner-Ratatouille Pepperoni Crostini and salad

January 25, 2015 Breakfast Bacon, shrimp and squash Burrito   Dinner-Ratatouille Pepperoni Crostini and salad

Breakfast was our best meal of the day.  Suzette braised two pieces of thick bacon in a large skillet and then emptied the grease and scrambled eggs with PPI shrimp and squash and made burritos by heating flour tortillas over an open flame and slicing ½ of an avocado for garnish.  We filled tortillas with the mixture and garnished with the avocado slices and I heated some PPI Shed Red Sauce and spooned about 2 Tbsp. of it over my burrito.  I drank a cup of lapsang souchong tea and Suzette drank a cup of her new herbal concoction of honeysuckle leaves and eucalyptus.

After breakfast I called Albertsons and was told they would cut the aged beef, but when I arrived the meat cutter said they did not cut any meat after it had left the store, so I bought another side of Rib Steaks at $5.97/lb. and had it cut into 1 1/4 inch thick steaks, so we will not face this issue again.  I then bought 2 5 oz. tuna steaks for $2.99 each and a lb. of slab bacon for $3.99/lb. in the butcher area and ½ gallon each of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla and Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream on my way to the cashier..  

I went home and wrapped the 14 steaks.  Their total weight was 20 lbs. ($140.00), so $10.00 per steak.  Suzette later told me she could age each individual steak, so we might have found the way around the difficulty of cutting the steaks.  I will see tomorrow when I try to cut the side of steaks and see if they are thawed and how easy it is to cut them off the side of beef.  We could do as Suzette suggests and make a standing rib roast for a dinner party.

Suzette was not available for dinner because she was hosting a company party at a bowling alley, so I made a simple dinner by covering a piece of PPI meat lover’s pizza from Costco with ratatouille and heating it in the microwave and making a simple salad of organic greens, cucumber, tomato, Mexican Green onion, and croutons and slices of Romano Pecorino cheese and dressing it with the citrus dressing I made for Christmas.

I opened a magnum of 2013 Concho y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend from Chile ($7.99? Costco) and had a simple but lovely dinner; sort of a ratatouille and pepperoni crostini with a fresh salad.

I then sipped a small glass of oak aged Grappa and watched the first episode of this season’s Downtown Abbey and a new Masterpiece Mystery named GrandChester.  When Suzette arrived she immediately went to soak in the hot tub but after her soak we enjoyed bowls of Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream and she toasted a small pan of shelled pecans and salt with which we garnished the ice cream.  I added a splash of cognac to my ice cream and she drank a small glass of cognac.

Before dinner I finally opened the book Susie and Dana sent to me titled Monet's Table.  It was a revelation because it showed me a possible path to publication of this journal describing our meals.

It is a compilation of Claude Monet's journal entries of the meals he ate with pictures of his home and garden in Giverny in Normandy and a bit of history of his art and the house and his love of food with over 140 recipes for the dishes he ate edited and tested by Joel Rebuchon.

Bon Appétit