August 5, 2018 Breakfast – Banana Bread. Lunch – Shrimp Omelet Dinner – Roasted Pork, Apple, and Onion Tapa and Catalan Chard and Bok Choy

August 5, 2018 Breakfast – Banana Bread. Lunch – Shrimp Omelet
Dinner – Roasted Pork, Apple, and Onion Tapa and Catalan Chard and Bok Choy

We woke up and started cooking.  I made cherry and peach Clafoutis and Suzette made banana bread with pistachios.

 I Removed the pits from the cherries and peaches and drizzled them with Grand Marnier.
I then buttered and sugared two baking dishes.  Then I made the custard mix with 2 ¼ cups of scalded heavy cream and 1 ¼ cups of half and half, 12 T. of powdered Sugar and 10 T. of flour and ½ tsp. of salt and five eggs.  I have discovered that using more heavy cream holds the flour in suspension.  I increased the quantities of ingredients to fill both a ceramic baking dish and a nine inch round Pyrex baking dish because I was using not only four cups of cherries but also two peaches sliced.
We ate slices of banana bread for breakfast.  I put peach butter on my warm piece of bread and drank a cup of green tea.  Delicious.

Suzette then went to work in the garden and I joined her at 10:00.  I worked with her turning the weeds in the garden until 11:00 when Mario arrived.  I went in and rested until 12:30 when Suzette asked me to cook a shrimp omelet for lunch.  I sliced two mushrooms, 1 small green bell pepper, a baked potato, and 3 oz. of onion.  I sautéed those ingredients in a large skillet for a few minutes.  Then I added ¼ cup of purslane and fifteen large shrimp cut into thirds and then a layer of Jarlsberg cheese.  After a few minutes I flipped ½ onto the other half.  Willy arrived at this time and we served him a small plate of omelet, which he did not eat much of because he had brought a McDonald’s  pancake breakfast.  We ate on the patio.

After lunch while Willy and Suzette and Mario and his girl friend worked on the garden, I took a nap until 2:30.  I then read an interesting New Yorker article on Teresa May and the UK’s Brexit negotiations.

At 5:00 we started cooking dinner.  I went to the garden and picked Chard and Suzette cleaned and tore it, while I chopped ½ head of bok Choy to make the Catalan Spinach dish.  I then sliced two apples and two medium onions for the roasted pork dish and three boneless pork sirloin steaks into halves.

Suzette went to the garden and picked eight or nine stalks of oregano and trimmed of the flowery tops.

Aaron arrived at 6:15 and Willy called to say he would not be joining us for dinner.  We poured glasses of Benton Lane Rose and talked for about a hour about the trip and then Suzette began booking flights, so I cooked dinner.  I  sautéed the apples and onion slices in Spanish olive oil and then added the meat and seared it.  I then added the oregano and placed the roasting pan with all the ingredients into a 275 degree oven for twenty minutes.

I then removed the pan from the oven and placed it on the stove and turned the stove burners to their lowest setting and made 1/3 cup of chicken stock and added it to the pan and stirred it into the sauce.  Then I added about 2 T. of cognac to the pan and flambeed the pan and stirred in the cognac into the
sauce and served the dish with the chard and bok Choy that I had sautéed with piñon nuts and raisins
in another skillet in olive oil and butter.

I poured a bottle of 2009 Castillo Clavijo Gran Reserva red Rioja that I had chilled a bit.

Suzette ate quickly and then went to the laptop computer to finish booking our flights on Norwegian Airlines and Whiz Airline as Aaron had suggested.  The total cost for our four flights from Denver to Paris to Bucharest and return through Oslo to Denver was under $1,000 each which seems reasonable.

While Suzette was booking Aaron and I finished out dinner and the last of the wine.

I served Aaron and me scoops of Clafoutis with whipped cream.

At 9:00 Aaron left and shortly thereafter Suzette finished booking the airline tickets and ate some Clafoutis with whipped cream.  Suzette liked the Clafoutis, which confirmed the success of my combining peaches with cherries.

It is comforting to know I can alter the ingredients and adjust the recipe and maintain a good result with Clafoutis.  I used 5 eggs instead of three, 3 ½ cups of heavy milk instead of 3 cups, 10 T. of flour instead of 7 T. and 12 T. of powdered sugar instead of the usual 10 T. and  6 cups of fruit instead of 4 and still produced a good result.

Bon Appetit