March 10, 2019 Brunch – Bacon, egg, onion, and cheese tacos with guacamole crema. Dinner – Grilled T-Bone steak with Sautéed Mushrooms, Steamed Broccoli and Vichyssoises

March 10, 2019 Brunch – Bacon, egg, onion, and cheese tacos with guacamole crema. Dinner – Grilled T-Bone steak with Sautéed Mushrooms, Steamed Broccoli and Vichyssoises

I awakened at 7:51, which was 6:51 before the Spring forward to daylight saving time.

I switched between Premier League soccer, Sunday Morning, and Fareed Zacharia.

Then at 9:00 I switched between Reliable Sources, Meet the Press, and George Stephanopolis and Sunday Morning and Soccer.

Sunday morning TV watching is kinetic.

At 9:30 Suzette suggested brunch.  We decided to scramble eggs with bacon, onion, and cheese and serve it on steamed corn tortillas.  Suzette cooked while I watched TV.

She cooked four slices of bacon to crisp.  Then sautéed onion and garlic and added the eggs and grated Mexican mozzarella cheese.  At 10:00 I helped for a few minutes and stirred the egg mixture while she whipped the PPI guacamole into the PPI crema to make a guacamole spread and heated five corn tortillas wrapped inside a wet paper towel wrapped inside a wet cloth tea towel in the microwave.  Suzette also made a Bloody Mary and poured me a glass of Clamato juice and we were ready to eat.  We both piled the egg mixture onto tortillas.  Suzette made two tacos and I ate my mixture open faced on three tortillas and spread guacamole on top.  I loved the fact that Suzette created a delicious breakfast almost out of the air.    

                          Suzette’s two bacon and egg tacos with cheese and guacamole

After breakfast I started working on taxes and Suzette worked in the garden until 1:30.

She then went shopping and I worked in my office, mostly on the hotel closing set for Tuesday.

When Suzette returned at 4:00 we started discussing dinner.  We decided to grill the two T-bone steaks I bought at Smith’s on Wednesday for $4.77/lb. and steam broccoli and serve Vichyssoises with dinner as our starch.

We opened the case and removed one bottle of De Ponte 2016 Pinot Noir and took the rest of the case to the wine cellar.

Willy called and we invited him to join us for dinner and do his laundry.


We planned on serving dinner at 6:00 to 6:30.  We fetched the Vichyssoises and steaks from the
garage fridge.

Then Suzette suggested making sautéed mushrooms to garnish the grilled steak, so I went into action
while she prepared the broccoli for steaming and the steaks for grilling.

I went to the garden and picked a small handful of chives to garnish the Vichyssoises and three small sprigs of tarragon. I then sliced and diced ½ shallot, seven or eight white mushrooms, about ½ oz. of poblano Chile, and two cloves of garlic and put them in a large skillet with olive oil and butter and sautéed those ingredients about ten minutes until soft and added the chopped tarragon and then added about three T. of Amontillado sherry to create a light sauce.

Suzette ladled Vichyssoises into soup bowls and garnished them with the fresh chopped chives from the garden and started steaming the broccoli and grilled the steaks while I sautéed the mushrooms.  Willy arrived and started his laundry. Suzette brought in the grilled steaks I turned off the heat on the broccoli and mushrooms and opened the bottle of Pinot, while Suzette covered the steaks with aluminum foil to keep them warm and still cooking.  Then after I poured glasses of wine, I sliced the steaks and we served ourselves, steak, broccoli and mushrooms, and Suzette served the bowls of soup.

Everything was delicious.  The steak was exceptional.  I had forgotten how flavorful a good T-bone could be. I shall go get some more this week to freeze.  The wine was also wonderful but still very young.  Suzette thought it should age at least five years.

We explained to Willy that we love good Pinot Noir and our favorite is from Anderson Valley in nortern California and the Dundee Hills in Oregon’s southern  Willamette Valley.  I told Willy that when we drove to Vancouver for his graduation with Billy and Elaine we visited De Ponte and the other major vineyards on the Dundee Hills.  Since Londer Vineyard in Anderson Valley had ceased to
 operate, we needed another source for high quality Pinot.  Since I am on the mailing list of De Ponte, when I received a recent mailing that its 2016 Pinot was rated 96 points and it had a case sale that reduced the price per bottle from $47.00 to $33.70 I decided to buy a case and join its wine club.  Even at $47.00, De Ponte’s wine  qis as good as the other more famous wineries on the Dundee Hills like Chateau Serene, Drouhin, and Archer’s Summit and half the price.  It is comforting to know we have high quality Pinot aging in the Cellar again.

After dinner I fetched a blue cheese, the wheel of a Humboldt Fog from Northern California, and the brie from Isigny Sainte Mere Cooperative in Normandy.  I love that Costco sells this brand of Brie because every time I open the box in which the small wheel of cheese rests I recall our dinner on Omaha beach on the evening of June 6 with thousands of French sitting at picnic tables aligned along the beach front promenade for a distance of about a mile on Omaha Beach (I stood on the seat and could not see the other end of tables) celebrating a communal dinner to commentate the liberation of France in 1944.  A man with a milk carton filled with similar 500 gram wheels of Camembert walked along the promenade giving out wheels of this creamery’s cheese.  He gave us one which we shared with the French around us who shared their apple cider and quiche with us.  This was one of the most
moving experiences of all my travels. We went for the cider and Calvados and left being deeply affected by this celebration, as well as our visit to Pont de Hoc at the south end of Omaha Beach and the American cemetery a few miles north.  Isigny Sainte Mere is a fishing village on an estuary where oysters are grown several miles south of Omaha Beach.

                                       The Brie box and open end of the wheel of Humboldt Fog

Suzette toasted several slices o& whole wheat bread and we enjoyed the cheese even more on the toasted bread. After cheese and the last of the smooth Pinot I became tired and after eating two chocolate donuts and a cup of chai, I said goodnight around 8:30 and went to bed.

Bon Appetit