March 13, 2019 Lunch – Vietnamese Pho Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner – French Onion Soup and PPI Greek Salad

March 13, 2019 Lunch – Vietnamese Pho Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner – French Onion Soup and PPI Greek Salad

I ate a toasted slice of whole wheat everything bagel smeared with cream cheese and garnished with slices of onion and Lax and capers.

For lunch I made a pot of noodle soup with beef broth extract, a cube of pho seasoning, diced PPI steak, beef meatballs, miso, PPI broccoli, a large handful of spinach leaves, ½ of a shallot, and mung bean, soba, and rice stick noodles.  It resulted in a thick mass of noodles so after I ate a bowl in which I had to pour in most of the stock I added water to fill the pot so the next bowls will have a reasonable amount of liquid and put the pot into the fridge.

The switch to Daylight savings time has upset our sleep cycle. Suzette came home at 4:00 to rest.and I went to the bank and post office.

When I returned I lay down for an hour and read until 5:30 when I started dinner. I had saved a portion of the extra beef and because there was a big winter storm blowing through, I decided to make French Onion Soup.  I use Julia Child’s recipe from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” because it is so easy. Here is the recipe.

I sliced five cups of onions thinly and then sautéed them slowly in a large covered enamel Le Creuset casserole with 3 T. of butter and 1 or 2 T. of olive oil. Suzette uncovered the casserole and found that the onions were already soft and golden brown so we reduced the second step of cooking the onions for 30 to forty after adding 1tsp. of salt and ¼ tsp. of sugar to about 10 minutes.  Then I added 3 T. of flour and cooked the onions another 3 to 5 minutes to cook the flour, to avoid a doughy taste.  We had made a beef stock with the steak bones from out T-bone dinner that we had been heating while the onions sautéed.

I poured the beef stock through I sieve into the casserole. And then 1/2 cup of white vermouth.
I then heated a frozen piece of French baguette from the freezer until golden brown in a 350 degree oven set to convection.  I grated about 1cup of Swiss cheese and diced the PPI steak. I added the steak to the soup.  Suzette fetched two French onion soup bowls, sliced the bread, filled the bowls with hot soup, placed two slices of toasted bread rounds on top of the soup, garnished each bowl with grated cheese, and baked the bowls in the oven until the cheese melted and turned golden brown on top.  I forgot to add a dash of cognac, but will not forget when we reheat the soup..

I opened a bottle of Charles Shaw California’s organic Pinot Noir ($3.99 at Trader Joe’s) and poured glasses of wine.  I also toasted two slices of whole wheat bread and spread them with Boursin Fine herbs cheese spread and nibbled bread and cheese with the PPI Greek salad from last night’s meal after I ate two bowls of soup.

I was still tired, so after dinner I lay down and read The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Gailbraith (the LTBC selection for March) and then around 8:30 slipped into sleep.

I awakened at 12:30 to blog, drink the rest of my glass of wine from dinner, and read some more.

Damn Daylight Saving Time.

If the storm holds its grip for another day we shall make our first stew of the year.

Also the Market was kind to me today. My portfolio went up another 1/2%.

Bon Appetit