August 2, 2015 Brunch – Gravad Lax and Bagels, Dinner – Grilled Lamb Chops, Chanterelle Stroganoff and Tossed Salad and Mint Chutney

August 2, 2015 Brunch – Gravad Lax and Bagels,  Dinner – Grilled Lamb Chops, Chantrelle Stroganoff and Tossed Salad and Mint Chutney

Mike and Kathryn spent the night.  Suzette and I exercised in the morning and Cynthia came by a bit after 9:30.  I sliced gravad lax I had made last week, onions, fresh tomatoes from the garden and then made up platters with cream cheese and capers plus all the above.  I toasted bagels we had bought at Lowe’s last night and opened a bottle of Spanish La Granja Cava.  We ate under the gazebo in the garden and spent a lovely morning talking and eating.  A bit later Kathryn’s mother joined us and I toasted the last two bagels, sliced the last large tomato and more gravad lax and opened a bottle of Gruet brut rose.

Cynthia was kind enough to give us suggestions for landscaping around the bocce court. 

Around 2:30 Mike and Kathryn and Suzette and I drove to Cynthia’s house for a tour of her new kitchen inside and outside and then we drove to Gruet Winery and tasted champagne and their still wines until almost 4:00.  I joined Gruet's Wine Club and we bought a case of wine with 5 bottles of the new still rose ($13.00, a luscious 100% Pinot noir rose), 4 bottles of the  Blanc de Noir 25 aged in the bottle for three years ($20.00, the pourer said, “Laurent considers this the best value of any of Gruet’s wines.”) and 3 bottles of Chenin Blanc ($12.00, which is very dry this year and lacking in much of the fruitiness of some of Gruet’s prior year’s Chenin Blancs.

 

We also signed up for a wine dinner for Saturday evening ($65.00 each). 

We tasted almost all the wines that Gruet makes in the course of 1 ½ hours.  We did not like the 2010 Pinot Noir because it had a spicy Zinfandel flavor but did like the Cabernet Sauvignon, which came from Washington grapes and had a very velvety flavor.  We bought a bottle of Cabernet for dinner ($17.00).  By joining the wine club we obtained a 25% discount on all the wine we bought because we purchased at least a case of wine and we got a free tasting each month and a glass of the featured wine of the month.

We then drove to Costco and bought lamb chops and pasta for dinner plus asparagus and strawberries. 

We then went home and discovered that we had forgotten to get cream or half and half for the cream sauce we intended to make with the pasta, so we decided to make a stroganoff sauce with white wine, butter, and sour cream.

I finely chopped six small cloves of fresh garlic, one medium onion, and almost the entire pound of chanterelles.

Suzette fired up the Cajun cooker and boiled a lb. of penne pasta.  Then she cooked the onions, garlic and chanterelles in butter and olive oil and made  the sauce by adding white wine and sour cream. Then we switched the gas to the grill and she grilled the lamb chops to medium rare and Cynthia made a salad with celery , cherry tomatoes, lettuces, and chopped green olives with a white balsamic vinegar dressing.  

Cynthia also brought a mint chutney made with fresh mint, garam masala and Anaheim chili.  Here is her recipe:

We drank the two bottles of Gruet Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner in the garden.

After dinner we retreated inside from the mosquitoes and Cynthia made us dessert.  She had brought a container of fresh Mission figs, a wedge of Gorgonzola, a bottle of sparkling Spanish Cava made from the Monistral grape (Total Wine) and a bag of fresh red plums from one of her gardens.

Cynthia halved about a dozen figs and cut small pieces of Gorgozola cheese and put the small pieces of Gorgonzola on each fig half.  We poured the Cava and ate figs and plums for dessert.

At 10.00 Cynthia said good night and we all went to bed.

Bon Appetit