April 17, 2016 Breakfast – Oatmeal, Lunch – French Onion Soup and Cheese Sandwiches and Artichoke, Dinner – Baked Ham and Roasted Vegetables

April 17, 2016 Breakfast – Oatmeal, Lunch – French Onion Soup and Cheese Sandwiches and Artichoke, Dinner – Baked Ham and Roasted Vegetables

I was talking to Scott this morning, so Suzette made oatmeal.  It was delicious made with lots of cranberries, raisins, and cherries that she had rehydrated in hot water before putting them into the oatmeal.  Rehydration made all the difference, unlocking their fruity flavor.

We moved art in anticipation of redoing the floors until 1:00.  Suzette heated the PPI French Onion Soup I made and made lovely grilled cheese sandwiches with the French whole wheat bread and 

Old Windmill Farms brie cheese we bought at the Farmers’ Market yesterday.  I poured out the last of the PPI Chianti to drink with it.

After eating the soup I made a sauce with mayonnaise, lemon juice, and about 1 T. of fresh dill from the garden.

I napped until after 5:00.  Suzette was sewing in the basement, so I made a pot of potato soup using Julia Child’s recipe.  This is the simplest recipe in the book.  Perhaps that is why they put soups first.  

Potato Soup

Equal amounts of leeks (both the green and white portions) and potatoes chopped. I had eight cups of leeks, being three large leeks for $1.99 at Ranch Market.  Potatoes were even cheaper; 10 lb. for $.99, so this can be an incredibly inexpensive dish.  

The recipe called for an equal amount of water, which would have been 8 cups, but I used 10 cups to float the vegetables more freely in liquid in the pot.  I simmered the vegetables for an hour, although the recipe called for 40 to 50 minutes, to make sure they fully cooked.

After watching Masterpiece Theater Suzette puréed the soup in a Waring Blender while I went to the garden to pick seven of eight stalks of chives and slicing them thinly.

In our continuing effort to use up all the ingredients, I prepared the ham I bought a week ago (Lowe’s for $.98/lb.) by scoring the fatty side and cooking it in a roasting pan with a couple cups of water in the bottom, covered with aluminum foil for two hours and an hour uncovered to brown at 350 degrees until it reached an internal temperature of 145 degrees.  Suzette placed the PPI Roasted vegetables and broccoli and a chopped Gala Apple in a pyrex baking dish with a little water and microwaved them when the ham was done.

I opened a bottle of Chilean rose that was not very good (Trader Joe’s $3.99??) and poured glasses of it.  Suzette said, “It tastes like Kool Aid.”

She was right it was a mess of a wine without any direction, like someone had thrown lots of different grapes into a barrel and fermented them.

I sliced the ham and we each added the roasted vegetables to our dishes.  Willy came home a little after 9:00 and joined us for a glass of wine.  The ham was a little salty, but was moist and very pleasant with the roasted vegetables.

Bon Appeti