May 27, 2016 Lunch – Boiled Lunch with Sautéed Italian Sausages, Fresh Corn and Asparagus Dinner – Duck Confit Ravioli with a Champagne Brown Butter Sauce with onions, Mushrooms, garlic, and Sugar Snap and Snow peas
I went to Trader Joe’s after my podiatry appointment and bought two bottles of Cherry Blossom California Pinot Noir ( $3.99), three bottles of La Granja Spanish Rioja 50/50 Tempranillo/Grenache blend ($4.99, my favorite red wine for the money), a bottle of Valreas Cuvée Prestige 2013 Cotes du Rhone ($6.99) and a bottle of 2014 Chateau Haut Sorillon Bordeaux Superior ($7.99), plus a 4 ounce package of Prosciutto and a container of mini fresh Mozzarella balls. Trader Joe’s is my favorite store for our every day wines.
I then drove to Nantucket Shoals and bought a dozen frozen snails in the shells in a small plastic dish ready to microwave for $10.99 and 1 lb. of frozen crawfish tails for $14.95.
I then drove next door to Sprouts and bought Rainier cherries, apricots, and blueberries for the clafoutis, vine ripe tomatoes, three Sweet Italian Sausages, olive oil, and a container of grape tomatoes and a Tuscan melon for appetizers.
I then drove to Lowe’s to buy fresh ears of gourmet corn for 6 ears for $1.00 and two two liter bottles of tonic water and drove home, arriving at about 11:30. I was hungry and asked Willy if he wanted me to make lunch. He said okay. I boiled a pot of water and first cooked two Italian Sausages, then I split the sausages and we sautéed the sausages in a large skillet with slices of yellow onion. I the shucked the husk from two ears of corn and put them in the boiling water to cook with six stalks of asparagus. When the sausages and slices of onion were cooked and brown, we served lunch with horseradish and German Deli mustard. I drank a Negra Modelo with my lunch.
Melissa was coming to dinner at 6:00 at 5:30 Suzette picked some chard leaves and de-stemmed them. Then she skewered a mozzarella ball, a grape tomato, and a piece of fresh chard on a toothpick for appetizers. I peeled and cubed ½ of the Tuscan melon into about twenty pieces and then wrapped pieces of prosciutto around each piece of melon and secured them with toothpicks. Suzette arranged the apps on our large new Portuguese appetizer plate. I had chilled two bottles of Gruet brut champagne, so when Melissa arrived we poured glasses of champagne and took the bocce balls and appetizers to the bocce court and drank and ate and played bocce for an hour as the sun was setting.
We then went back inside and Suzette heated a pot of water and cooked the PPI Duck Confit Raviolis we made for our Valentine’s Day dinner and made a Champagne Brown Butter Sauce with onions, Mushrooms, garlic, and Sugar Snap and Snow peas. We grew the snow peas and sugar snap peas in our garden and everyone helped strip the threads from them before Suzette put them into the sauce.
We discussed a wine and Melissa and Suzette both said Rose so I went to the fridge in the garage and fetched a bottle of Clavijo Rioja Rose that was 60% Grenache and 40% Tempranillo. It was lovely with the duck confit in brown butter sauce (Total Wine for about $7.00 less 20%). Everyone loved it. A good inexpensive wine well matched to good food makes a strong combination.
We were still a little hungry after dinner so I fetched the Iberico cheese, butter, and fresh goose foie gras and toasted some Fano baguette and Bosque Bakery whole wheat sourdough and we had a cheese course with the rest of the Rose’.
Melissa had brought vanilla bean and caramel salt gelato and cookies from Flying Star, so for dessert Suzette and Melissa made parfaits of gelato and cookies.
It was a lovely simple, but elegant, meal in the cool late evening air and light in the gazebo by the pond in the garden.
Melissa said goodnight at around 9:30 and we went to bed pleasantly full.
Bon Appetit
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