January 29, 2017 Brunch – Mushroom, bacon, cheddar cheese, and Spinach Omelet. Dinner – Grilled Pork Chops, with a medley of corn, black bean, onion, pimiento and garlic and corn bread and steamed string beans

January 29, 2017 Brunch – Mushroom, bacon, cheddar cheese, and Spinach Omelet. Dinner – Grilled Pork Chops, with a medley of corn, black bean, onion, pimiento and garlic and corn bread and steamed string beans

This morning during the news shows Suzette made one of my favorite omelets ever.  We discussed ingredients and after rejecting lax, goat cheese, and red onion, we settled on mushrooms, spinach, onion, cheddar cheese, and bacon.

This was one of the best omelets I have ever eaten, a really complete meal with four slices of crumbled bacon, lots of sliced mushrooms and spinach and cheddar cheese.

Suzette made her traditional Sunday Bloody Mary and I drank a glass of Clamato juice with a squeeze of the juice of ½ lime in it.

We were not hungry for lunch, but Suzette ate a couple of almond clusters to keep her going on her marathon cabinet door and drawer sanding project in the garage and around 2:30 I ate a few bites of Fruit cake with a cup of chai to give me some energy to ride.  I then rode to Rio Bravo and back at a moderate pace.

I showered and rested a bit and then we started to cook around 5:00.  We had invited Charlie and Susan to dinner at 6:30.  The menu was geared to Charlie’s food likes which include beans and corn and red meat and do not include seafood and vegetables, except for string beans.  So, on Friday Suzette bought string beans and pork chops at Costco.

Today we went to the pantry and found cans of corn, whole black beans, and Spanish pimientos.

Mexican Black Bean Medley

Suzette decided to make a Mexican style Black bean medley with corn and chopped pimiento.  She chopped onion and several cloves of garlic an sautéed them in a large Le Crueset casserole in butter.  Then she added a 15 oz. can off each of corn and cooked black beans and about 1/3 cup of chopped canned pimiento.  We the added dried Mexican oregano, avocado leaves and hojo santo leaves and about 1 cup of water and stewed the vegetables and herbs for about an hour.  If we had been Mexicans, we would have used a hotter pepper than a pimiento.

Cornbread

I decided to reach back to my Southern roots, which I share with Charlie and Susan, and make cornbread.  I found a five star recipe by Betty Crocker on the internet that included ½ stick of melted butter mixed with 1 cup of milk and one large egg to which is added 1 cup of white flour, 1 ¼ cup of corn meal flour, 1 T. of baking powder, ½ of sugar and ½ tsp. of salt.  I had to add a second egg to grit the dry ingredients int solution.  I guess my eggs were not large enough.  The recipe calls for baking the cornbread for 20 to 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven until a straw or knife comes out clean when inserted into the cornbread.  We cooked the cornbread for 20 minutes until it was golden brown but the straw was still a little sticky with batter, so I turned off the heat in the oven and let to cornbread cook and stay warm in the oven until we were ready to eat.  The cornbread turned out to be a little dry but kept its heat in the thirty minutes it sat in the oven.

When Charlie and Susan arrived, Charlie and I watched the 60 Minutes segment about how some bicycle racers may be using motor powered bikes to get an unfair advantage.  Charlie explained that the small motors and high efficiency lithium batteries used in the bikes are exactly the same ones he is using for the latest 12 foot wing span model plane he is now building.

I showed Susan some of the art collection that relates to the Mabel Dodge Luhan and Company show until Suzette called us to dinner.

Suzette plated each of our plates with one half of a grilled pork chop, string beans, and the black bean medley.  I cut squares of cornbread and put them into the bread container covered with a napkin to keep the warm. Suzette put a stick of Irish Butter on the table and I put the jar of honey out with a honey dipper.  Charlie and Suzette drank Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon and I drank 2015 Benton Lane Rose’, a moderately interesting Pinot Noir Rose from the southern Willamette Valley located about twenty miles north of Corvallis, Oregon, which I buy because it costs $15.00 per bottle.

Susan brought chocolate brownies with nuts that we ate for dessert.  Suzette made Susan a cup of coffee from the Miele and I heated a kettle of water and we made cups of Earl Grey with lavender tea for Suzette and me.

At 9:00 we said goodnight, as it was our bedtime.

Bon Appetit