July 24, 2019 Lunch – PPI Gazpacho and lamb chop on Couscous   Dinner – Hamburger with mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, onion, garlic, and carrot Casserole

I ate breakfast and then rode 10 miles to Montano and back.

I watched the Mueller testimony for a while and then showered and dressed.  As I put on my shoe the film staff arrived a bit before 11:00 to view the house for a scene or two in a TV series.  Thanks to Cynthia for the referral.

I had made a telephone conference for 1:30 with a client on a new case, so at 11:30 I decided to eat lunch because there were lots of great PPIs.  I first poured the remaining bowl of gazpacho from last Tuesday’s dinner into a bowl and sliced ½ of a Persian cucumber into quarter rounds that I added as a garnish to the soup plus a generous sprinkle of Trader Joe’s fried onions.

I then spooned a pile of PPI Chard and basil Couscous onto a plate and set a cooked lamb chop on top, covered it with Saran, and re-heated it in the microwave.  When it was heated I added a squirt of harrisa sauce to it from a metal tube we keep in the fridge.  Voila, a lovely lunch.

I drank water.

At 5:00 I watched the business news, since it was a good day in the Market and began to pit a bag full of beautiful super colossal Washington cherries, the best I have seen in years and only $1.48/lb. at Sprouts.  I can only conclude that the availability of this superior cherry at this price is related to the Chinese tariff, which has dried up some of the demand for the best quality cherries in China.  The last time something like this happened was when the tsunami hit Fukushima and interrupted the fishing ports and markets in Japan.  I was served the best sashimi I had had in years, which made me think that the highest quality fish normally sent to Japan was being shipped to the US instead.

Suzette came home as I was pitting cherries and I told her I intended to bake a casserole of Brussels sprouts, onion, fresh garlic from the garden, and carrots.  She suggested that I stop pitting cherries and start prepping the casserole because it required an hour to bake, so I did.  She pre-heated the oven and then prepped the Brussels sprouts by cutting off the tough ends and slicing them in half, while I peeled seven or eight nice sized cloves of garlic, peeled and diced two onions and two carrots.  We decided to flavor the vegetables with rosemary, so Suzette went to the garden and cut a stem of rosemary and picked the leaves off it and added them to the casserole dish filled with the vegetables.  She then tossed the vegetables with a generous drizzle of olive oil and dash of salt, covered the casserole dish with aluminum foil, and placed it in the oven to bake.

I then finished pitting the cherries.  Suzette suggested soaking the cherries in mint syrup instead of cognac, which is what we did.

We then discussed the entrée.  I suggested PPI lamb, put Suzette looked in the meat drawer and suggested that we cook the rest of the uncooked ground beef.  Suzette shaped patties and in about 45 minutes sautéed them in a skillet.  I asked if she wanted to add onions to the hamburger sauté and she suggested mushrooms, so I sliced three large white mushrooms and added them to the skillet with two more T. of butter.

I suggested drinking the new bottle of Gigondas I had bought at Trader Joe’s for$14.99.  I had put it in the wine fridge, so it was slightly chilled and accessible. While we were watching the news while the casserole baked, I opened the bottle and poured a small taste for each of us.  The Gigondas did

have a special syrupy and slightly acidic flavor, but it did not set off any bells in my head.  Cynthia had told me earlier in the day that that particular bottle at Trader Joe’s was good but there are much better bottles of Gigondas at Total Wine for $20.00.  Perhaps I will pursue that.

Suzette wanted cheese on her hamburger so I sliced several slices of Manchego.

After 1 ¼ hours everything was ready and Suzette plated and I filled the glasses.

Some of the Brussels sprouts and carrots were still quite firm, so Suzette returned the casserole to the oven and turned off the heat, so the vegetables would cook more. We left them in the oven overnight and when I placed them in a freezer bag at 5:00 a.m.they were crisp on the outside and soft inside and the olive oil had become delightfully rosemary flavored.  I tossed the vegetables in the flavored oil as
I scooped them into the freezer bag.  This was a major discovery.  It implies a new two step cooking
method for vegetable casseroles. First the regular baking and then a slow period at a lower temperature to allow the flavors of the herbs to mix with the oil to flavor the dish.

                                             The vegetable casserole after double baking

After dinner Suzette decided to make dessert. She combined small slices of the peach cake Mickie made for the cocktail party with a scoop of Bluebell vanilla ice cream and garnished the dish with three or four cherry halves.  I ate a few bites of Port Salut and Saint Andre cheese with the Gigondas to see how it tasted with cheese and it was not great.  Then I enjoyed immensely the peach cake and ice cream dessert Suzette made.

Suzette’s lovely and tasty dessert

The other thing I really liked about this meal was the flavor of combining sautéed mushroom slices with a baked Brussels sprout and onion.  We both liked the combination of the baked garlic with bites of hamburger. This year’s baked fresh garlic from the garden is really wonderful.

Bon Appetit