April 8, 2016 Lunch – Miso Noodle Soup, Dinner – Cream of Celery Soup with Cheese Sandwiches

April 8, 2016 Lunch – Miso Noodle Soup, Dinner – Cream of Celery Soup with Cheese Sandwiches 

I skipped breakfast today.  I drove to Ranch Market at 11:00 to shop for groceries.  Friday is a special day because there are both weekly specials such as 5 lb. of oranges or onions for $.99 and small avocados for 5 for $.99, plus Friday through Sunday specials such as 1 gallon of milk for $1.89 or ten limes for $.99.  I bought all of those specials plus  a daily special of medium head-on shrimp for $4.99 and cilantro for $.25/bunch.  There was 85% fat free hamburger meat for $3.59/lb. and smoked pork cutlet for $3.49, which are very cheap. I also bought mung bean sprouts for $.99/lb. and green onions for $.50/bunch, thus committing me to making a Miso/Vietnamese Noodle soup for lunch.  

When I returned home at noon, Willy was at home and I had to break the news to him that lunch plans had changed and we now we're going to eat home made noodle soup for lunch.  He took it pretty well and I suggested that he watch me if he wanted to learn how I make my weird hybrid Japanese and Vietnamese noodle soup.

Miso/Vietnamese Noodle Soup

I start filling a 3 quart pot 2/3 full of water and add 2 tsp. of dehydrated dashi and about 2 tsp. of dried shredded Wakame seaweed and start that simmering.  Today I did the full rendition of the soup, so I went to the garden and picked a handful of chard, two garlic plants, and a sprig of lovage.

I de stemmed the chard and lovage and cut the leaves into bite sized pieces.  I sliced both the white and green parts of the garlic thinly and about ¼ onion and added all of that to the pot of stock.  Then I sliced two Portobello mushrooms and four shitake mushrooms and added them.  I the added rice vermicelli and egg noodles to the pot with 1 T. of ground dehydrated pork, 1 T. Chinese Rice Cooking wine, 1 tsp. Thai Fish sauce, 1 tsp. of soy, and ½ tsp. of sesame oil.  I then added a heaping T. of white miso.  At this point I would add tofu, if I had any, but today I did not. 

Willy did not want any shrimp, so he served himself and then I added 7 medium heads on shrimp to the soup.

I ate two bowls of noodle soup with hoisin sauce and Shiracha, the juice of ½ lime, fresh cilantro, and fresh mung bean sprouts.   

We both enjoyed the soup. 

We had made no plan for dinner because we had a plan to go see Honey House at Hotel Andaluz (the old Hilton) at Copper and 2nd.

We arrived at 7:00 and found Ricardo and Cynthia and said hello to some of their friends.  A stage was set up at the reception end of the large lobby.  Since all seats were taken in the lobby,  I quickly decided that we should go upstairs to find seating.  There was practically no one upstairs and we found four large lounge chairs near the stage end of the balcony that gave us a good view of the stage and a very comfortable seat.  Ricardo wanted to buy a bottle of wine, so I joined him. We went to the lobby bar.  He bought a bottle of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc.  I looked so the wine list and saw a bottle of Cava Reserva Brut and decided to try it.  Suzette said she wanted a glass of red so I selected a Tempranillo crianza for her.  As it turned out Suzette drank the cava, which was a very good brut and only half of the double glass of red. We listened to Honey House and dance and talked to Ricardo and CynthIa and to Glen and Beverley, who live at Roma and Keleher, downtown also.  The purpose of the evening was to hire Honey House to play at my 70th Birthday Party on July 3.  I was surprised at what a lovely evening it was. We talked, danced and sipped cava for three hours.

I was energized and put on Nina Simone’s record “To Love Somebody” poured a cognac/Courvoisier and listened to it with Suzette, who was in a good mood also, because when she heard “Turn, Turn, Turn” she said, I want that to be played at my funeral.”  And, “We need to listen to all of your records.  We should listen to a record every night.”  After Suzette went to bed at 11:00 I went through the records and organized them a bit.

I went to bed at 12:00 after a Willy arrived.  

Bon Appetit