This was a easy food day for me. We did not ride today. At 9:30 I ate my usual breakfast of granola, yogurt, blueberries and a dash of milk allowed to sit for a few minutes until the milk converts into a light yogurt from contact with the yogurt. This organic chemistry in a bowl never ceases to amaze me and I love the resulting creamy yogurt formed by the bacterial action.
Here is a simple chemical description.
Yogurt forms when bacteria ferment the sugar lactose (C12H22O11) into lactic acid (C3H6O3). The lactic acid makes the milk more acidic (lower the pH), causing the proteins in milk to coagulate. ... There is no simple chemical equation for yogurt production since multiple reactions occur.
At 11:30 I became hungry but Steve was on his way, so I made a cup of coffee and hot chocolate with the newly repaired Miele coffee machine, a bag of Carnation cocoa mix, some heated milk and some hot water. I was delicious and filling.
I worked with a Steve until 2:00. I then ate the other half of yesterday’s lunch of Chirashi Donburi that I brought home with two additions that made it better. The sushi rice was rather dry yesterday so today I drizzled a tsp. of Japanese rice vinegar and a tsp. of Aji Mirin on the approximately 1/2 cup of rice, which made it moist and gave it the sushi rice flavor I like. I also took the bag of Armenian cucumber sticks from the fridge and dipped some into the soy sauce and wasabi dipping sauce. Instead of throwing out the PPI dipping sauce when I finished lunch I poured the approximately 1 T. of sauce into the bag of cucumber sticks to see what happens.
At 4:00 after talking with Luke for a few minutes, I called Suzette to ask her if she wanted a Dungeness crab and champagne for brunch on Sunday. She said, “That would be nice.”
So I drove to Costco at 4:15. It was crowded with what appeared to by out of town folks shopping, which made it fun and a little crazy with lots of near misses of carts and people, several of which I precipitated as I made stops and turns as I remembered items I needed. I found a nice 1.8 lb. Dungeness crab ($7.99/lb. frozen) and then bought a three pack of butter lettuce because I saw a recipe in Suzette’s new “Martha Stewart Living” for a chicken salad with carrots and other ingredients dressed in scallion oil in a bowl made from several leaves of butter lettuce that looked attractive. I also replenished our peanut butter and Nutella. Actually my dual purpose for going to Costco was the $3.50 coupon on a two pack of Nutella that normally sells for $11.99.
In the meat department after buying the crab I saw that boneless pork steaks were offered for $2.69/lb. with a $3.00 per pack discount so I bought a 5 lb. package of them. I then looked at the Australian lamb and saw that nice lamb chops were $6.99/lb. which seemed to be a $1.00 cheaper than usual, so I bought a package of 10 of those also. We needed AA batteries, so I bought a box of them also.
When I arrived home around 5:30 Suzette was in the kitchen sautéing the diced chicken breast, onion, apple, asparagus, and pecan stuffing for her squash dish. I helped her slice the top off two turban shaped squashes she brought from her organic garden in Los Lunas that she had baked a bit in the microwave to soften. She then removed the seed core and stuffed each squash with the stuffing. There was lots of stuffing left so she made a mound of stuffing in the baking pan and baked the extra stuffing with the squashes for 45 minutes. I retired to our bed while she cooked and ordered two books for the book club on Kindle to read on our vacation, Hidden Figures by Shetterley and
Alexander Hamilton by Chernow. Suzette called me to the kitchen when about ten minutes of baking time was left. She was putting the finishing touches on a Caprese salad made with fresh tomatoes from her Los Luna garden, fresh mozzarella slices from Costco, fresh leaves of basil from our garden, and a balsamic and olive oil dressing that she plated.
She poured out the ½ bottle of La Granja white Spanish Viura and Verdejo grape blend.
When the squash timer went off we removed the squashes and added one to each plate and distributed the pile of extra stuffing between the two plates. We carried out plates to the garden table and enjoyed a leisurely dinner. The thing I liked best was the crispness of the pecans in the extra stuffing pile that had been baked to a tasty crispness. My second favorite thing was the new squash that had a firm dense texture. The loose stuffing made a nice contrast and complemented the squash’s earthiness.
The wine was fine although the density of the squash somewhat overpowered both the stuffing and the wine. Suzette said, “I could have added more butter.” I said, “No, I like it as it is.” The extra stuffing was just enough to add to pieces of squash until I had eaten everything on my plate. Suzette finished about 80% of her squash.
I had not drunk my four cups of water for the day, so after dinner I found drinking three glasses of water enjoyable and helpful in digesting the heavy squash dinner.
We watched the August 11, 2017 Bill Maher show with Fareed Zacharia and Joe Meacham. It was wonderful to witness an animated 20 to 30 minute conversation engaged in by three clever, insightful commentators on current affairs.
After dinner we each husked, peeled, and ate about ¼ cup of peanuts that probably burned more calories than the peanuts contained. More importantly, it satisfied a desire for dessert.
At 10:00 Suzette sent me the Amazon email sent to her phone from the Amazon Kindle store and went to bed after her big day of helping set up and run the concert and lunch in the Park at the Center for Ageless Living.
I then downloaded the two new books I ordered and began reading “Hidden Figures”.
Bon Appetit
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