June 5, 2018 Lunch – Miso Soup with Chicken Wontons. Dinner – Bobby Flay cooked Chicken breasts stuffed with lemon slices and tarragon on Sautéed Roasted Root Vegetables with Asparagus and Rice

I ate 2/3 of a bagel with cream cheese, sliced red onion, Lax and capers for breakfast with Earl Grey tea.

Miso Soup

For lunch I wanted to make a light lunch and decided upon Miso Soup so we could use up the open carton of tofu and some green onions that had seen better days.

I filled a 2 quart pot to 2/3 full of water.

Then I added a tsp. of dehydrated dashi and about 2 tsp. of dried seaweed.  Then I added about 6 oz. of medium tofu, 2 sliced green onions, 4 stalks of Napa cabbage diced, 8 chicken wontons, 1 heaping T. of red miso, 1 T. Chinese Cooking wine, 2 tsp. sesame oil and 1 minced shallot.

The soup was delicious.  I dipped the wontons into a combination of soy sauce and Chinese red pepper oil.

At 5:00 I made two open faced sandwiches on toasted slices of Cloud Cliff Bakery whole wheat bread, 1 of peanut butter and honey and the other with sour cream, red onion slices and Danish pickled herring.

I then went to meditate.  Etienne was in town and came to meditate, so I invited him to come over to taste the Romanian wines.  Suzette had just arrived when we arrived at 7:00.  I poured us tastes of the Nori 2017 rose and then the La Dans rose, both of which Etienne liked.  We went to sit in the far northeast corner of the garden.  I fetched both La Dans Chardonnays.  We all agreed the Lightly Oakes La Dans was the best wine and Etienne also liked the Nori Sauvignon Blanc with 25% Fetnetsca

I brought out some olives, labne, and pita, but when we went back inside at. 8:00, Suzette decided to cook dinner.

Bobby Flay Style chicken Breasts

She decided to cook the three chicken breasts I thawed today Bobby Flay style.  Instead of a paprika rub she decided to slide slices of lemon and sprigs of tarragon under the skin of each breast before sautéing the breasts in olive oil and butter weighed down with a skillet filled with water.

 The chicken breasts included their bones so they were thick and when Suzette checked their internal temperature after browning them on both sides it was around 115 degrees, so they benefited from being baked in the oven another 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

While the chicken was cooking I diced the remaining ten stalks of asparagus and tossed them into the skillet in which Suzette was sautéing the roasted vegetables.  She also heated the container of PPI steamed white rice from my lunch at East Ocean last week.  When everything was hot.  Suzette lay a small pile of rice in the center of each of three pasta bowls, then covered that with sautéed roasted vegetables and asparagus, and finally crowned the top of each pile of vegetables with a roasted
chicken breast.

The dish reminded me of a French farmhouse dish, simple ingredients with excellent flavors, served in a pleasing combination, but without the elegance of Haute Cuisine.

I poured Etienne the last of the Presidente Cotes Du Rhone Marsanne and Viognier from Carianne. I drank some Nori Fume Blanc and Suzette drank some Gruner Vetliner.

We enjoyed dinner and chatted as we watched the primary election results be announced on MSNBC.  Michelle Lujan Grisham swept the field of democratic contestants for governor. Etienne told us about his recent trip to Hollywood and judging the Orange County Wine Competition.

We ate and chatted until 10:00, when Suzette went to bed. Etienne and I had a small sniffer of grappa and then we went to bed at 10:30.

Bon Appetit