March 27, 2022 Breakfast - Oatmeal. Lunch - Dumpling Soup. Dinner - Roast Duck Confit with Asparagus Couscous

March 27, 2022 Breakfast - Oatmeal. Lunch - Dumpling Soup. Dinner - Roast Duck Confit with Asparagus Couscous 

I had gone to bed after 1:00 a.m. and slept until 7:15 a.m. 

Suzette has been in a whirlwind of activity. Yesterday she met her repair man at Willy’s apartment and repaired the wooden tiles on his patio. She even got on her knees and spread sealant on the wooden tiles.

Today Suzette met Loyda at Willy’s to do a deep cleaning.  

Last Thursday she met with Joe, the plumber to repair Willy’s shower.

Apparently the origin plumber failed to install gaskets around the shower stall and that ruined the steam unit, which we will now fix.

Today after she worked at Willy’s with Loyda she drove to Los Lunas and worked in her office before coming home and working in the garden.

I left my desk at 6:30 to help her tie a rope to the peach tree trunk to bring the trunk into verticality.

While I watched the news in the morning I made oatmeal with brown sugar, raisins, and slivered almonds.

At 1:00 I added five chicken dumplings to the PPI dumpling soup and heated it.

It was wonderful, sort of like a minestrone without the beans with the slices of meatball and penne in a tomato broth.

I added more cases to the brief but it is still within the length limit.

I hope to finish it today.

We had thawed the box of duck confit and at 7:00 Suzette put the partially thawed duck halves with their own sauce into the oven to roast in a Pyrex baking dish.

I made asparagus couscous.  I minced a shallot and diced six or seven stalks of asparagus.  I then sautéed the shallot and diced asparagus in 2 T.  of butter. After a few minutes I added a cup of couscous and 1 3/4 cups of boiling water and turned down the heat and we covered the pot so the couscous could cook and steam.

After 20 minutes of roasting the duck at 400 degrees Suzette took the duck out of the oven and we served it with couscous.  The duck was still cold in the center so Suzette cooked the duck a few more minutes in the microwave.

I suggested a Cotes Du Rhone red and Suzette found the bottle of 2020 Presidente Cotes Du Rhone that had won a gold at Orange.  It was a little different than many other Rhône’s. It was a blend of the four main grapes, Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, and Carignan.  It was much more jammy than the usual.  We liked it a lot although we agreed it could use several years of cellaring.

After dinner I ate a few squares of chocolate with a cup of tea and a sip of Calvados. We watched another episode of The Last Kingdom and then we went to bed by 10:00.

Bon Appetit