uly 21, 2015 lun ch – East Ocean. Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak, Mac and Cheese, sautéed Mushrooms with green beans and Caprese Salad

July 21, 2015 lun ch – East Ocean. Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak, Mac and Cheese, sautéed Mushrooms with green beans and Caprese Salad

I met Aaron at East Ocean for lunch.  I ordered my usual scallops in lobster sauce with sweet and sour chicken.  Aaron ordered a wonderful Shrimp Lo Mein with fried shrimp.  East Ocean uses thin Shanghai noodles for its Lo Mein which is rather special.  

I had thawed out a steak for dinner.  I sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and went to the garden and picked about  9 or 10 basil leaves and alternated them.  Then I mixed balsamic vinegar and olive oil to make a dressing and drizzled it over the salad.

I then sliced five white mushrooms, three cloves of garlic, 1shallot and then snapped about ½ lb. of green beans and microwaved them with about ¼ cup of water for 2.22 minutes in the microwave and then added them to the mushrooms. I picked four or five sprigs of thyme and took the leaves off and put it into a steel frying pan with the mushrooms plus a couple of Tbsps. of butter and a Tbsp. of olive oil and put the skillet on the shelf in the grill over the flame.  Soon the butter melted and began to bubble.  Suzette stirred the ingredients occasionally and let them cook for a few minutes after she removed the steak and corn from the grill.

We also heated a container of macaroni and cheese prepared by the bistro for its All American meal.

We ate a fabulous dinner of steak with Béarnaise. Sauce, roasted ear of corn, sautéed mushrooms with green beans, and Caprese Salad.

I opened a bottle of 2007 Summers  Cabernet Sauvignon from Knight’s Valley, near Calistoga, Ca. In northern Napa Valley that Aaron Lohmann gave me several years ago as a Christmas gift.  The red wine was breathtakingly smooth.  It had no rough edges and complemented the steak perfectly.  

When we finished eating all the steak and watching Jon Stewart at 8:25, we decided to go outside to the table in the garden for a cheese course and another glass of wine.  I opened the container of Marin county Brie cheese we had bought at Costco some time ago.  It was decidedly soft with a creamy texture and a buttery taste with just a hint of ammonia in the rind.  We cut two pieces of the thick Fano baguette into thirds and toasted six slices of bread.  I cut the rind off about 1/3 of the approximately 1 lb. round of brie and we poured out the last of the Cab and took that to the garden.  We enjoyed the sunset in the cool evening.  As soon saw we finished the cheese and bread we started picking garlic plants and picked until the mosquitoes drive us inside.

Bon Appetit