We finished packing the luminarias this morning and then
Suzette went to work. I ate a bowl of
posole, with a tamale and red chili sauce around noon.
At 1:30 p.m. I rode my bike and at 3:00 p.m., I went to
Costco and bought salad ($3.99), spinach, and eggs for dinner. I was looking for Swiss Emmentaler cheese for
the quiche, but there was none, but luckily there was French Beaufort, which I
had never seen before ($13.99/lb.), so I bought a 1 lb. wedge of it. Susan had graciously offered me a package of
two Pillsbury pie shells, so I picked those up and a few green onions on my way
home.
Soon after I arrived home at 4:00 Suzette arrived and I
asked her to make the partially cooked pie shells while I chopped and mixed the
ingredients for the quiche. I used Julia
Child’s recipe for spinach quiche. You
start with the basic recipe for quiche at the top of page 152 and add the ingredients
for Spinach quiche listed on page 153. 
I made a double recipe because we had two shells and six for
dinner. Lauren, a friend of Rebecca’s
from Sunday school and her friend, Allison, who were driving to San Francisco
for New Year’s Eve had asked to stay the night with us.
So I chopped up about ½ cup of ham, four green onions, and
three mushrooms. In a separate bowl I
chopped the three cups of spinach.
Suzette then sautéed all four ingredients in a large skillet with salt,
pepper and nutmeg while I mixed 7 eggs, 3 cups of heavy cream and a pinch of
nutmeg in the Kitchenaid.
When the spinach filling was cooked Suzette put them in the
partially cooked pie shells and we added the egg and cream mixture to the
shells and baked them for thirty minutes at 350˚, as the recipe recommended.
While the quiches were baking, I made a salad dressing with a
tsp. of the Herbs Provence that Mike and Cathryn had given us, 2 tsp. of red
wine vinegar, a squeeze of lemon, ½ tsp. of Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard, olive
oil and pressed in three small cloves of garlic. I also chopped about two Tbsps. of red bell
pepper and a large tomatoes and sliced three palm hearts to make a salad and Suzette
filled our new bowl with salad and we added the other ingredients and then I
tossed them all in the salad dressing.
When the quiches puffed up a bit and the tops turned golden
brown after thirty minutes, we were ready to eat.
Charlie and Susan had brought a bottle of chilled 2012
Bayten Sauvignon Blanc made and bottled at Buitenverwaching Wine Farm located
in the Constantia Valley, just north of the Cape of Good Hope. According to the label it is one of South
Africa’s premier wine properties founded in 1796 and Susan said it garnered a
rating of 91. It tasted fine to me and
very fresh. It had a good balance of
fruit and light clean flavor and still retained that slight earthiness that is
so common among South African wines.
We ate and enjoyed the quiche and salad and wine. After a bit I saw that the wine had been
enjoyed and I opened a bottle of Le Ferme Julian rosé, which had darker and
more muted smoky flavors, but was nice.
Finally we passed Susan’s red velvet cupcakes with the white icing and
Susan and Charlie told us about how two 4 year olds had come over Christmas Eve
to help them light the luminarias and had insisted on sprinkling micro sparkles
on the cupcakes.
After a lovely meal, I retired to the T.V. room to watch the
Dallas Cowboys lose to Philadelphia in the NFC division game with Charlie and
Susan and Suzette schmoozed at the dining table in the T.V. room.
After Charlie and Susan left around 9:30 and we went to bed.
Bon Appétit
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