May 21, 2017, Lunch – Polish Dog at Costco. Dinner – Rack of lamb, Roasted turnips, sweet potatoes, and onion, Tzatziki, and steamed asparagus

 May 21, 2017, Lunch – Polish Dog at Costco. Dinner – Rack of lamb, Roasted turnips, sweet potatoes, and onion, Tzatziki, and steamed asparagus

I watched the news shows and drank a coffee hot chocolate.  Then worked until 11:00.  At 12:30 Suzette and I drove to Costco.  We were hungry so we ate Polish Dogs first.  Then we shopped.  We bought a rack of lamb for $10.99/lb., a salmon filet, stuff for the Center, raisins, lemons, and oil for the truck.

We then went home and rested.  We invited Aaron and Willy to dinner at 6:00.  While I worked in the morning Suzette had worked in the garden and among the tasks she accomplished was the picking of a basket full of young turnips, which she had cleaned and cubed the larger ones.

At 3:30 she diced sweet potatoes and onions and roasted those with the turnips for about 40 minutes.  While the vegetables were roasting I made a clafoutis.  I make clafoutis every year when the fresh crop of cherries arrives.

Clafoutis

I pitted 1 lb. of fresh cherries.  Suzette cut them in half and I marinated them in cognac and framboise liquor.

We then scalded 2 cups of whole milk and 1 cup of half and half.

I then mixed 7 T. of flour, 10 T. of powdered sugar and ½ tsp. of salt in a large bowl and made a well in the middle of the dry mixture.

I the lightly beat three eggs and stirred them into the dry mixture with a wooden spoon.

I then blended in the slightly cooled scalded milk and stirred the mixture to remove any lumps.

I then buttered and sugared a ceramic baking dish.

Suzette pre-heated the oven to 375 degrees and set the oven on convection bake.

The oven did not need much preheating becauseSuzette had recently taken the roasted vegetables from the oven and covered them with aluminum foil to keep warm.

I then added the fruit to the batter and poured the mixture into the ceramic baking dish.  I placed the baking dish on an aluminum baking tray and placed it in the oven and baked it for 45 minutes and turned off the heat and let the clafoutis sit in the oven until we finished dinner.

Dinner –

Suzette grilled the rack of lamb while I fetched the PPI tzatziki that I had refreshed on Friday evening.

I fetched the bottle of Serve’ Cuvée Charlotte that Aaron and Ioana brought me from Romania.  It it a Bordeaux style blend of merlot and feteasca neagra grapes aged in oak barrels.

Fetească Neagră (Romanian pronunciation: [feˈte̯askə ˈne̯aɡrə]); English: Black Maiden) is an old pre-phylloxeric variety of Romanian[1] - Moldovan grape,[2] cultivated mainly in several areas in the Romanian regions of Moldova, Muntenia, Oltenia, Banat, Northern Dobruja[3] and also in the Republic of Moldova.

These grapes produce dry, semi-dry or sweet wines, with an alcohol content of 12-14%,[4] a deep red colour with ruby shades, and a black currant flavour, which becomes richer and smoother with aging.

I noticed the currant flavor, which was very pleasing.

When the rack was cooked to medium rare, which took a few extra minutes, I sliced the rib steaks and Suzette plated the dishes and we all went outside and ate under the gazebo.

After dinner I ate some Brie cheese with the last few sips of wine.  Willy did laundry and we watched Boston beat the Cavaliers in the Eastern NBA finals.

Bon Appetit