July 31, 2017 Lunch – PPI Chile Relleno. Dinner with Susan and Sandi. New Recipe Sautéed Pork steaks with a Port, Butter, and Plum Reduction Sauce, Steamed Asparagus, Baked Squash stuffed with cranberries and pecans, and Caprese Salad.

July 31, 2017 Lunch – PPI Chile Relleno. Dinner with Susan and Sandi. New Recipe  Sautéed Pork steaks with a Port, Butter, and Plum Reduction Sauce, Steamed Asparagus, Baked Squash stuffed with cranberries and pecans, and Caprese Salad.

I ate a couple of spoonfuls of tropical fruit salad and then we rode to Rio Bravo and back at 7:30 a.m.

I met with a new client until 12:45 when I heated the PPP Chile Relleno and carne adovado that Suzette had brought home on Saturday and ate it with slices of jicama and a generous dab of sour cream because of its spiciness.

We had invited Sandi, Willy, and Susan for dinner at 5:30 but I was able to get in a 30 minute nap at 4:30.  There was very little prep.  All I did was dice 3 oz. of onions and fetch the pecan pieces and cranraisins I had bought at Sprouts last week for the stuffing for the partially pre-baked squashes that Suzette brought home from her organic garden at the Center for Ageless Living last week.

Willy called to tell us he was not joining us, so we decided to eat at the round table in the TV room.

Suzette and I had a discussion about the pork chop dish.  Since it was raining, we decided to sauté them in a skillet inside and we decided to make a sauce with the lovely plum sauce Suzette made from the plums she picked from Megan’s plum tree. Suzette decided to deglaze the pan after sautéing the chops with 2 oz. of the six grapes port, Linda and T.R. gave us last weekend when we visited their house and then added 2 oz. of plum sauce and then 1 ½ oz. of butter and then 2 more oz. of plum sauce to increase volume of the sauce a bit.  The result was a unique sauce that was well balanced between fruit, fat, and alcohol.  Everyone seemed to like it and we poured it over our pork chops and I even poured it over the baked squash.

Sandi brought an elegantly simple Caprese salad of fresh tomato slices and basil leaves from her garden arranged with slices of exquisitely fresh mozzarella and drizzled with an olive oil and balsamic dressing.  The flavor of the fresh mozzarella and garden fresh tomato slices made a perfect salad.

Susan brought a package of fresh asparagus from Costco.  E snapped 20 stalks and steamed them for the green vegetable.

The other unique dish was the stuffed squash.  I am not familiar with this small round squash with yellow meat that was a little mealy and not sweet.  Suzette prepared them by filling their round cavities with butter, brown sugar, chopped onion, pecan pieces, and cranraisins and baking them.

This was our first dinner with Sandi and it quickly became apparent that she is knowledgeable about wine.  I asked her what she wanted and we soon settled on red wine.  She said she wanted to try a Portuguese wine. So I poured her the last of the open bottle of Quinta das Carvaljas Douro red.  Her immediate reaction was, “This wine is a little old.”

So I opened a bottle of Tuella, which Sandi liked very much.

This. Initiated a discussion about wine. Sandi mentioned liking Oregon pinots.  I mentioned that I had chilled a bottle of Anderson Valley Rose of Pinot Noir,  I asked Sandi if she had tried the Archer’s Summit Rose’ of Pinot Noir and she had not, so I ran to the cellar and grabbed a bottle and put it in the freezer and pulled the Toulouse 2010 Rose’ of Pinot Noir.

When the asparagus and squash were ready we plated them with a pork chop, asparagus, and a squash and Suzette scooped the plum sauce into a pitcher, and I poured glasses of Archer’s Summit rose’.

Sandi’s surprised smile when she tasted the Archer’s Summit was priceless.  When I told her that Archer’ Summit was on the Dundee Hills just above Drouhin and Chateau Serene and Sandi said, “I visited Drouhin and Serene.” I knew Sandi was a knowledgeable oenophile.

We will have more dinners in the future with Sandi to try more wines.

Sandi had to leave to relieve her baby sitter at 7:00 so at 6:50 I served the clafoutis and ran to the fridge in the garage for a can of whipped cream.  Suzette put some clafoutis into.a plastic container and Sandi asked and got a shot of whipped cream on her clafoutis.  We said goodnight at 7:00 to Sandi.

Susan stayed for about 15 minutes to smooze and eat finish her clafoutis.

By 7:20 we were able to turn on Antiques Roadshow and I took a couple of phone calls as I sipped a Trimbach Grand Reserve Plum Brandy.

We went to bed by 9:25.

Bon Appetit