September 1, 2018 Brunch – Church Street Café. Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak, Sautéed Mushrooms, Sautéed Roasted Pumpkin with Pine Nuts, cranberries and onions and a grilled beet Caprese Salad

September 1, 2018 Brunch – Church Street Café. Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak, Sautéed Mushrooms, Sautéed Roasted Pumpkin with Pine Nuts, cranberries and onions and a grilled beet Caprese Salad

I had a cup of coffee hot chocolate as I watched John McCain’s funeral.

Then we drove to the Store in Old Town and fixed the gate by driving a PVC pipe into the ground to hold the vertical rod connected to the gate in place.  I wanted to meet Mrs. Coleman, who owns the Church Street Café, so we walked there in a light drizzle.  At 10:15 when we arrived there were only a few people dining but after 11:09 it started filling up.

                                          Suzette reading at our table at Church St. Cafe

I ordered my usual at Church Street, Carne Adovado with eggs and Suzette ordered her favorite, eggs with chorizo.  We both ordered corn tortillas as our bread.

We both enjoyed our meal.  Church Street seems to mix tomato pulp in its adovado sauce, which makes it less spicy and more appealing to me as a sauce.

After brunch Suzette and I went to work at 12:00 and I worked until 4:00, when I watched West Virginia handily beat Tennessee.  West Virginia is picked to finish second in the Big 12 behind Oklahoma and ahead of TCU, so the Big 12 Championship is due to be very exciting this year.

Suzette arrived at 5:30 and when I thought to get a snack, she said, “Let’s cook dinner.”

We had invited Willy for dinner at 6:30, so I chopped up an onion, which Suzette sautéed with a couple of lb. of the roasted pumpkin she diced.  When Willy arrived around 6:15 he suggested adding piñon nuts, which Suzette did,  plus she added about ½ cup of dried cranberries and a handful of minced sage.

I minced a medium shallot and two large cloves of garlic and ½ lb. of mushrooms and then asked Suzette to pick a handful of thyme when she went to the garden to pick basil leaves for the Caprese Salad .  I started sautéing the shallot and garlic in butter and olive oil and then added the mushrooms and then de-stemmed the thyme leaves from their stalks and added about 2 T. of  thyme to the mushrooms and finally added about 2T. of Amontillado sherry to the mushrooms while Suzette grilled the two rib steaks I had thawed during the day.

Caprese Salad with Sliced Roasted Beets

In the midst of all this activity I peeled and sliced about six small beets Suzette had brought from her garden at the Center for Ageless Living.

She then grilled them on our new steel vegetable grilling tray.  When Suzette brought in the grilled
 beats, I sliced them as thinly as I could and we constructed a Caprese Salad with slices of fresh tomatoes from the Center garden, fresh basil leaves from our garden, and slices of fresh mozzarella from Costco.  Suzette then drizzled the Caprese with Balsamic Vinegar.

I opened a bottle of the Shaw organic Pinot Noir from Trader Joe’s for $3.98.  We all tasted it and declared it drinkable, so I poured three glasses.  The Shaw Pinot Noir did not elevate the meal, but it did not diminish it either.  It is definitely a good hamburger Pinot, especially for $3.98.  I can see it being served at better art gallery openings.

When the steaks were grilled to medium rare Suzette brought them in and I sliced them and we served ourselves steak, sautéed mushrooms and Pumpkin and Caprese Salad for a beautiful and delicious end of Summer meal.

Suzette created two new recipes this evenin, the Sauteed Roasted Pumpkin and the Grilled Beet Caprese Salad.  The Pumpkin was a little fibrous but the flavor of the dish was wonderful with its medley of sweet cranberries, crunchy piñon nuts, and creamy sautéed onions and sage.  Perhaps that is why they usually purée Pumpkin when making pumpkin pie.

The Beet Caprese was also somewhat distinctive but the soft grilled beets became indistinguishable from the ripe soft tomato and mozzarella.  The only complaint I had about the salad was the skin on the tomatoes was tough and clashed with the incredibly soft texture of the ripe tomatoes.

This was definitely a paleo style meal, probably available to us only at this time of year when we can forage in our gardens

We took our plates and glasses of wine out to the garden table under the gazebo.  Willy discussed his therapy in a very moving way and we responded as heartfeltly as possible.  I, unfortunately, am rather cut off emotionally, so probably did not console him, but Suzette was wonderful.

After dinner he left and I ate some Cherry Clafoutis with whipped cream and we watched the Rachel Maddox Show we had missed last night.

I then read in bed and went to sleep around 9:00 and slept until 11:30 when I awakened and wrote this blog.

Bon Appetit