January 18, 2019 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner – PPI Meatloaf and Roasted Potatoes with Steamed green beans

January 18, 2019 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner – PPI Meatloaf and Roasted Potatoes with Steamed green beans

I made oatmeal with raisins for breakfast.

I heated the PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup for lunch although I added two beef meatballs to it and a bit of water and sesame oil.  It made 1 ½ bowls of soup.  I added liberal handfuls of mung bean sprouts and cilantro and dipped the slices of meatball into a line of mixed hoisin and sriracha stretched across a small plate as I saw Vietnam veterans do at the community table at Hong Kong restaurant years ago.

After the market closed with the Dow up 336 points, giving me another healthy gain, I drove to Home Depot and bought a “For Rent” sign and then to Sprouts on Coors to shop for food.  I bought several specials, including an 18 oz. container of blueberries on sale for $2.98, two avocados on sale for $1.00, green beans on sale for $.98/lb., a 1 lb. box of mussels in garlic butter Sauce for $4.55 and 2 ¾ lb. Aji tuna steaks for $7.99/lb.  I also bought a quart of half and half to make another blueberry clafoutis and bananas for $.49/lb.

When I returned home around 4:00 I froze the tuna steaks and mussels.  It was 5:00 and I was a bit hungry, so I heated 1 1/2 tamales and spread a dash the red Chile sauce Luke and I made for a Christmas over them.

Suzette came home at 5:45 and we rested in bed for 45 minutes. At 6:40 after Brook and Marcus’ Friday weekly commentary on the PBS Nightly News we started cooking.

Tonight’s meal was a super easy prep.  I snapped the ends off the green beans I had bought at Sprouts.  I poured some of the PPI Roasted potatoes into the Pyrex baking dish in which the meatloaf was cooked and stored.  I covered the pan with Saran after a Suzette sectioned the Meatloaf into six sections so it would heat more evenly and heated it in the microwave on sensor reheat, after which Suzette re-heated the meatloaf and potato container for an additional 3 minutes to make sure it was fully re-heated.

While the Meatloaf and potatoes were re-heating Suzette steamed the Green Beans in the steamer.

In the blink of a microwave we had a delicious hot meal.

I had anticipated the meal and had fetched a bottle of 2000 Franciscan Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from the cellar.  I had a hankering for a full bodied yet smooth cab and this bottle delivered in both categories.  When we checked Vinvino it rated 4.0 out of 5 and an estimated cost of $22.50, so a very nice bottle of red.

I finally understand the commoditization of fine wine and why the French Burgundy wine makers say their cellars full of bottles of wine are their annuities.

I recall buying a bottle of wonderful Marc and an ever better bottle of prunelle (a liquor made from the juice of wild plums picked in the forests near Nuits Saint Georges) from our propritess at the farmhouse chambers we stayed at near Nuit St. George in Burgundy,  the best I ever tasted.  We walked out to her barn which was filled with racks of bottles.  She came from a multigenerational wine growing family.  There is no telling what was in that barn.

Here are the bottles hand signed by Madame Dufouleur.

We sipped the wine before dinner but its ability to complement the food is what impressed me.  It supplanted the residual greasiness of the Meatloaf and potatoes with a rich dark berry flavor.  It was a powerful, complex wine with lots of tannins and not much fruit.

I tried it with slices of Brie after the meal.  It did not complement the delicate cheese’s flavor, but it had done its job with the meat course.

After a chocolate covered cherry and watching Washington Week we went to bed a bit before 9:00.

Bon Appetit