Finally a
great day of food. We decided to rest
all day and that always means we cook.
While I watched the morning news programs, Suzette made a tomato, crab
meat, cheddar cheese and avocado omelet, with the ingredients I had bought at Sprouts
on Friday. It looked so lovely I had to fetch
a bottle of 2013 J Pinot Gris to drink with it ($11.99 at Costco). I toasted slices of fresh French baguette bought
at Fano on Friday and we smeared them with butter and Rose’s Lime and Lemon marmalade
for a lovely breakfast.
It turned
into a cool wet day with intermittent rain, so we decided to spend a quiet day
and evening at home rather than go to the Day of the Dead Celebration and
dinner party at Cynthia and Ricardo‘s house, although we did manage to cover two beds for the winter with plastic.
At 3:00 I
took a steak out to thaw. At 4:00
Suzette put several spaghetti squashes from our garden and the two sweet
potatoes she bought at the Farmers’ Market last week into the oven to bake for
an hour at 350˚.
At 5:00 we
began cooking in earnest. I fetched a
bottle of 2007 Chateau de La Rivière, Appellation Fronsac Contrôlée, that I had
bought at Trader Joe’s last year for $15.99.
It had garnered a Silver Medal at the Paris wine competition which is
always a good sign. It tasted clean and
delicious. Even better when we put a dab
of PPI Bearnaise Sauce on the mushroom and crab garnished steak.
Suzette had
suggested making a mushroom and crab garnish for the steak. I sliced five brown mushrooms and a shallot
and a clove of garlic. Then Suzette
found the string beans I had bought at Sprouts on Friday and steamed them and
grilled the steak while I sautéed the mushrooms, garlic and shallot in butter
and the garlic and pepper infused olive oil Max Aragon had brought me and
finished with Amontillado sherry. By
6:00 we had a lovely dinner of sweet potato, steamed green beans and steak
garnished with the mushroom and crab and shallot garnish that had been sautéed in
a second sherry reduction. I like to
pick the string beans at Sprouts because they put large trays of them out and I
can sort through them to find the haricot verts, which in my world means the
ones that have not yet developed large beans inside their husks and are young,
slender and tender.
The wine had
a light and fragrant aroma and both a toothsome and chalky flavor that appealed
to several senses at once. I shall try
to find more of this wine.
We watched
Doc Martin at 6:00 and after it ended, Suzette fetched her tres leches cake
from the fridge in the garage and declared that we needed to eat it or it would
go bad, so we ate several pieces and she poured Kahlua on what was left to
preserve it a bit longer and put it into the fridge. We each ate a piece doused in Kahlua and we thought
it was better, moister more flavorful and more alcoholic.
Bon Appétit
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