January 10, 2016 Breakfast – Lax sandwiches, Lunch – Pate and Cheese sandwiches and Apple slices, Dinner – Grilled Rack of Lamb, Cauliflower Couscous, chick Pea and preserved Lemon salad

January 10, 2016 Breakfast – Lax sandwiches, Lunch – Pate and Cheese sandwiches and Apple slices, Dinner – Grilled Rack of Lamb, Cauliflower Couscous, chick Pea and preserved Lemon salad. 

We spent a leisurely day watching news programs and NFC Wildcard Playoff games and then new series of Doc Martin and Downton Abbey.

We also installed two new shower heads and decided to re-paint our guest bathroom.  It seems that our re-modeling effort in the kitchen area of the house is spreading to other areas of the house.

At 9:30 Suzette was hungry, so we toasted three slices of bread and I sliced gravad Lax, tomato, onion, and spread cream cheese on the bread and we constructed lax and cream cheese open faced sandwiches.  We decided to grill a rack of Lamb for dinner, so I thawed a 1 lb. rack of lamb.

Friends of Cynthia and Ricardo visited around 1:30 to see the glass back splash and after they left I felt like a picnic of the type we usually have when we travel in France.  I opened the new package of duck and pork Pate ($7.99 at Lowe’s Market at 11th and Lomas), a couple of the cheeses left from Christmas, and sliced a Granny Smith Apple. Suzette toasted slices of fresh Bosque Bakery baguette, Cynthia and Ricardo brought for dinner last Wednesday evening.  I fetched a 1.5 liter bottle of Patch Block French Pinot Noir.  I found this George Dubouf produced wine as a close out at Quarters on Yale.  Connie seems to have a knack for finding interesting wine close outs.  This wine is a smooth good tasting pinot noir from France.  It reminds me of the 1.5 liter bottles of wine that are sold in supermarkets all over France.  It does not have great strength or character, but goes well with food. 

We ate a pleasant lunch of Pate, wine, toasted French baguette, cheese, and apple. 

After lunch I served us bowls of Black cherry ice cream garnished with dehydrated cherries that had been rehydrated in maraschino cherry syrup.

At 6:00 we decided to cook dinner.  We discussed the vegetable dish for a while and Suzette finally came up with the idea of making a dish she had made for Christmas, cauliflower Couscous and chick pea salad.

She cleaned a 2 lb. bag of cauliflower flowerets we had bought at Costco for Christmas and I fetched the Cuisinart and she pulsed the cauliflower into small kernels that resembled couscous, the we separated the pulp of one preserved lemon from its peel and I minced the peel of one lemon, I also minced two cloves of garlic, which Suzette Sautéed in a skillet with olive oil to which we added the minced preserved lemon, cauliflower, and a can of whole chick peas.  After that mixture was heated thoroughly Suzette added about ½ cup of Italian Parsley leaves I had de-stemmed and chopped finely.

Suzette grilled the lamb chops to medium rare and we looked for but could not find our mint jelly, so we ate the land riblets with cranberry sauce and the cauliflower dish and drank the rest of the bottle of Pinot Noir.  The dinner was very satisfying.  The simply salted and peppered grilled lamb was delicious and tender and the cauliflower and chick pea salad with its tangy lemon flavor was a splendid accompaniment.  Of course the light clean taste of the pinot went well with the dishes also.  

We did not feel hungry or desire dessert after this meal.  

Suzette suggested we soak in the hot tub after Downtown Abbey ended at 9:00.

After a soak we went to bed, relaxed and satisfied with our lovely dinner.

Bon Appetit