May 17, 2015 Black Mole, Black Beans, Sautéed Chard, Rice and Clafoutis for Cynthia and Ricardo’s BD; May 18, 2015 Lunch – Salad Nicoise Dinner –Grilled Steak, Potatoes Savoyard and Steamed Asparagus

May 17, 2015 Black Mole, Black Beans, Sautéed Chard, Rice and Clafoutis for Cynthia and Ricardo’s BD; 

May 18, 2015 Lunch – Salad Nicoise  Dinner –Grilled Steak, Potatoes Savoyard and Steamed Asparagus

            We are into leftovers land this week.  I have stopped buying food and we are trying to use up everything we have in the freezers and crispers.  I ate PPI Clafoutis that I made last night for breakfast.

            For lunch I used 1/2 head of Romaine I had bought several weeks ago to make a Salad Nicoise, with Saturday night's PPI Teriyaki Tuna, a boiled potato, a boiled egg, an avocado, a tomato, some Kalamata olives, a radish, and some boiled green beans.  I added fresh tarragon, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic to the old dressing to freshen it up.  

           The last food I bought was on Saturday at Ranch Market, when I bought 2 lbs. of cherries, three leeks, some green beans, a 10 lb. bag of potatoes, 5 avocados for $.99, 1/2 lb. of crema (sin sal), four serrano chilis, about two pounds of cluster tomatoes for $.69/lb. about 2/3 lb. of Chapala queso fresco for $.3.19/lb., some discontinued re-fried black beans for $.25 per 15 oz. can and a few limes for $.50/lb.

           Last night we made a mostly PPI diner for Cynthia and Ricardo’s birthday. We thawed out and heated up some black chicken mole and black beans from Christmas.  The Chicken mole tasted wonderful with a bite of chili, the sweetness chocolate and the pungency of of the rest of the mole herbs.  The black beans were still sublime with their combination of fresh avocado and Hoja Santo  leaves ingredients and a sprinkle of  queso fresco.  We used some PPI rice we had made and we picked and sautéed fresh chard and garlic from the garden.  Cynthia made a lovely salad with dark purple and yellow tomatoes and a wonderful balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.  I actually made clafoutis to go with the dish.  I had soaked about six cups of pitted and halved sherries in about 1/3 cup of cognac and 3 Tbsps. of Grand Marnier overnight.  We drank LBV port with the Clafoutis and ate in the garden for a lovely dinner.  The garden is a sea of colors with white and pink water lilies, purple sage, orange and yellow snap dragons, pink/red Tropicana and pink Don Juan roses, purple chive, and yellow columbine flowers all in bloom.  

The Clafoutis

Ricardo pouring champagne

toasting the birthday guys

Black Chicken mole, chard and black beans

We also added some crema

             

         We drank Gruet Rosé champagne and Tecate and Monk’s ale beer with dinner last night with the mole.

         Today I thawed out an aged steak, which we grilled and when the wind picked up finished cooking by sautéing the steak on the stove inside with the last three of our white and last three of our shitake mushrooms, some sherry, 1 oz. of butter, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme from the garden. 

        Suzette also steamed the few stalks of asparagus that were not limp.  I made potatoes Savoyard with some of the fresh potatoes, the last ½ cup of Swiss Gruyere cheese, 3 oz. fresh double brie and about ½ cup of Manchego, plus 6 oz. of butter and 1 cup of beef bouillon.  It turned out that the combination of the extra ½ cup of cheese and the 6 oz. of butter produced too much fat and the potatoes were swimming in butter fat, but they were delicious even though we had baked the potatoes for over 50 minutes at 375˚.

         I wanted a pinot noir to drink tonight so I went to the basement and discovered that I had a 2007 Carneros Creek Pinot Noir.  I opened it and when Suzette sipped it, she declared, “It’s lovely.”  After a few minutes the wine opened up more and became smoother and fruitier, which was good because the steak turned out to be a bit stringy, so the wine had to make the dinner memorable.  I ate the last Tsp. of béarnaise sauce, but it was unnecessary because of all the extra butter fat in the potatoes and mushroom sauce.

  

          Bon Appétit