February 16, 2016 Lunch – Duck Confit Salad, with Palm hearts, tomato, cucumber, potato, sugar snap peas, and onion, Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak with baked potato, corn custard, steamed vegetables, and New Recipe - Sautéed mushroom sauce

February 16, 2016 Lunch – Duck Confit Salad, with Palm hearts, tomato, cucumber, potato, sugar snap peas, and onion, Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak with baked potato, corn custard, steamed vegetables, and New Recipe - Sautéed mushroom sauce

I ate a salad for brunch with the above mentioned ingredients with a shallot vinaigrette dressing.  I spread some of Malka Sutin’s chopped chicken liver on the dark bread Elaine brought and drank water.

At 1:00 I went to inspect the remodel of the Birdland and was pleased with what Duke and Ultra Health had done.  

   The newly remodeled Birdland area

   The remodeled dispensary area

I then drove to Albertson’s at the corner of San Mateo and Montgomery, where I bought Ricotta cheese for Suzette’s planned ravioli and milk.  I then went to the Butcher Block and bought 1 ½ lb. of large heads off shrimp for $4.99/lb. and had the butcher cut me three Rib steaks.  There is a special on rib eye, in which you buy 1 and get 2 free for $16.99/lb., which works out to about $5.75/lb. for USDA Choice bone in rib steak, which is my favorite cut of beef. Albertson’s USDA Choice is the most reliably delicious beef in town for the money. Remember I bought four boneless USDA Choice rib eye steaks of similar quality at Spouts for $7.99/lb.  I bought three 1 ¼ inch thick steaks weighing about 1 1/3 lb. each.  When I returned home I froze two steaks and the shrimp and put the third steak in the meat drawer of the new fridge.

I napped from 3:00 to 4:00 and then rode to Rio Bravo and back in less than an hour.  Suzette had just arrived when I returned.

We decided upon a super easy dinner: Grilled Steak, PPI corn custard, PPI baked potato, PPI steamed broccoli and cauliflower and a sautéed mushroom sauce.

New Recipe:  I remembered that last night I had forgotten to put any shallot or garlic in the mushrooms, so tonight I minced a shallot and sliced eight baby portobello mushrooms.  I then cooked them in the normal way 1 T. of butter and 1 T. of olive oil heated in a skillet.  Then I cooked the shallot for a couple of minutes on medium heat and then added the mushrooms. After another minute I saw that there was not enough fat to cook all the mushrooms so I added about 2 T. of Amontillado Sherry.  When the mushrooms had softened and turned color from light brown to dark brownish gray I added two tsp. of PPI the beef and red wine cream sauce we made for the party on Valentine’s Day to further enrich the mushroom sauce.  This is the best tasting mushroom sauce I have ever tasted.  The use of the red wine beef sauce enriches anything it is combined into.  

I bought the bottle of 2010 Villa Mt. Eden Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir in the close out section of Jubilation last week for $10.99.  It was surprisingly smooth but not a lot of character.  It went well with the rich flavors of the steak and mushroom sauce though.  There are so many good wines raised in the  mountains and hillsides of the coastal range along the Pacific from Central California through the Willamette Valley, we are truly blessed with many, many great wines.

After dinner we discussed using the sauce with duck confit tacos and duck confit ravioli, which are the next two dishes on the horizon.  I ate some chocolate covered peanuts and 2 dark chocolate Lindor and they kept my heart racing a bit, so I got up and blogged this blog for an hour and drank some water.

Bon Appetit