May 23, 2015
We woke up this morning and I ate a bowl of warm baked oatmeal heated with milk.
We then went on a tour of the yard and especially the herb gardens. Suzette decided to make a flower arrangement with the lovely red and white peonies that are blooming now.
Then when Jean, Suzette's sister arrived at around 9:00, we drove to several garage sales. The best one was out in country at a contemporary house where a woman who was obviously a hoarder was moving and had sell the 45 years of accumulated stuff. I bought what appeared to me to be a very old Mexican blanket for $2.00.
At another garage sale, I found what for me was the find of the day, the box set of Jimi Hendrix' music, musical history and a video published by his family several years ago for $5.00. Don and Bev arrived around 11:30 at another garage sale area with a box filled with one-half of a roasted chicken from the Fire Department BBQ Chicken Roast, we had seen from one of the garage sales earlier in the morning.
Last night when we arrived at Suzette's parents' home, we had seen the 8 lovely marinated Delmonico steaks packed in cryovac that the Lindemuths had bought for tonight's dinner and knew we were going to grill them, so we just needed to add the side dishes to them.
We all decided to drive to a large open air and enclosed flea market nearby. I did not find anything there but Suzette found salt cellars. After a while Bev found me and said there were greengrocers inside the large enclosed sales area, so we walked inside and the over 1/4 mile length of the building and came to the green grocers' area. I first found fresh local mushrooms for $2.50/lb. and bought 1.6lb. of them.
Then we saw a lady with lovely local green onions ($.79) and asparagus ($2.50/bunch). After calling Mrs. Lindemuth to see whether she had asparagus, I bought a bunch of onions and two bunches of asparagus (about 1 lb. each). Mrs Lindemuth said she had fresh white potatoes.
We then drove home for a lunch of cheddar cheese, pretzels, beer, Lebanon salami, fresh white radishes, carrot sticks, and fresh green onions.
Everyone (Suzette's mom and dad, her brother Don and his wife, Bev, Suzette younger sister, Jean, all said they were okay with us preparing some Bearnaise Sauce for dinner. We also determined that we wanted to grill the large lovely local asparagus with the steaks.
On our way home for lunch Don and Bev drove to the Giant Supermarket where we bought four nice shallots and a small container of fresh tarragon. Then we drove to the State Wine and spirits store, where we bought five bottles of wine; a DOCG Gavi di Gavi Massseria del Camelitani white from the Barola region of Italy, a 2013 Wild Horse Central Coast Pinot Noir, a 2012 Red Rock Winery Reserve Pinot Noir from Healdsburg, CA, a Zinfandel from Amador County and a bottle of Cotes du Rhone red (75% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 5% Mourvedre).
We then met the girls (Suzette and Jean) at the local brew pub (Mooduck), which was closed, so we drove to a tavern in downtown Elizabethtown where Suzette, Bev and Don sampled more of the local beers and Jean and I had a drink.
I was 5:00 by the time we finished our drinks, so we drove home and began cooking dinner.
Bev and Don said they wanted to learn how to cook better. Bev is a very conscientious learner and carefully watched me make the Bearnaise Sauce. unfortunately, Don needed to grill the steaks and asparagus with Suzette's assistance, so he had to leave after I showed him how to hold a chef's knife so he could control the blade and not cut himself, which he immediately got and sliced about twenty mushrooms in beautiful thin slices. Bev helped him and sliced the green onions. Suzette and Jean had picked and de-stemmed about 2 Tbsps. of fresh thyme and 4 Tbsp. of fresh mint.
We chopped about 10 potatoes into bite sized chunks and Suzette tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper and put them into the oven to cook covered for about 45 minutes and then uncoveredfor about 15 to 20 minutes.
Bearnaise Sauce
I decided to make 1 1/2 recipes of Sauce so I used 1/2 cup each of white wine and tarragon white wine vinegar and chopped one large shallot (2 bsp.) and stripped two Tbsp. of tarragon leaves from a stalk of tarragon.
I then put all the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and reduced the liquid by 2/3's at medium high heat.
I then separated three eggs into yolks and whites and whisked the yellows until emulsified. Then I added the yellows to the cooled reduction of liquid that I had strained into another saucepan and began adding 12 oz. of butter in one oz. slices to the liquid and egg mixture over the lowest heat available on the Lindemuth's electric stove. The secret is to not let the mixture curdle or get granular. The way to do this is to balance the heat so that the sauce drives off the liquid in the for of steam while not heating to such a high temperature that the egg and butter emulsion breaks apart or the eggs curdle. The way I achieved that tonight was to periodically move the saucepan off the heat on the stove to let it cool down a bit but to not stop the action of driving liquid off the sauce. I must confess that the skill of knowing how to manipulate the heat in a saucepan is an acquired knowledge gained after many years of failures. The tried and true method recommended by Julia Child and others is to use a double boiler so you can create a more constant and stable heat source.
After the butter was all added I continued to stir the sauce both on and off the heat until it became creamy. I then added about 1/4 tsp. of white pepper and 1/2 tsp of salt and took the saucepan off the heat and stirred it for about two minutes more to allow it to cool down a it and then poured it into a pyrex 3 cup measuring pitcher and placed it in the refrigerator to cool and consolidate its texture.
We opened the two bottles of Pinot Noir to let them air out a bit.
Suzette had marinated the asparagus in virgin olive oil and when she and Don started grilling the steaks and the asparagus, Bev and I started the mushrooms. I asked Bev if there was some sherry and she went to the basement liquor cabinet and found a small bottle of White Vermouth. Don and Bev had filled a large deep sided skillet with the mushroom and slices of two green onions and the 2 Tbsps. of chopped thyme leaves. I then turned the heat to high and put about four oz. of butter and about 2 Tbsp. of olive oil into the large skillet.
I sauteed the mushrooms and after them began to absorb the butter added about 3 Tbsps. of white vermouth and cooked them until their juices combined with the other cooking liquids.
Soon the steaks were ready when cooked to medium rare to rare and soon after that Suzette brought in the grilled asparagus. We took the potatoes out of the oven, put the wine on the table and each person took their steak, served themselves the potatoes and asparagus and we put the wine and Bearnaise Sauce onto the table and had a fabulous dinner. We all agreed thatthe wines were a little young but all like them, especially the Wild Horse Pinot.
After dinner we talked for a while and then took slices of a fabulous cheesecake made by Mrs. Lindemuth, graham cracker crust on the bottom, cream cheese with lemon filling on top of that and a top layer of flavored sour cream. The cake is baked three times to cook all its three layers.
Here is the recipe:
Bon Appetit
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