October 7, 2019 Lunch - Amerasia. Dinner - Bobby Flay Chicken with Mint Sauce and Vegetable Couscous

October 7, 2019 Lunch – Amerasia. Dinner – Bobby Flay Chicken and mint sauce with cauliflower Couscous

I had a busy morning at my desk and then showered and dressed at 10:00 and ate one of the lovely ripe pears I picked out of the discards at El Super as the produce man was adding new hard unripe pears to the pile of pears for $.67/lb. the other day.

After my appointment I went to Costco to deliver my prescription to the pharmacy and while it was being filled I shopped for a few things we needed such as toilet paper and Kleenex and saw a few specials that seemed appealing, such as the six pack of Dare French crackers on sale.  I also chose three cheeses, a brie, a semi-soft German beer cheese and a wedge of German Cambozola brie style blue cheese.

I then became interested in liquor and wine and went to the liquor department and found a special holiday pack of Grand Marnier with two sniffers for $29.99 while the bottle alone was priced at $31.99.  I looked around and found several bottles of red that had garnered ratings of 93 or 94 points in Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast, such as Primus’ The Blend and bought three bottles plus a bottle of Gruet Brut for $10.99. I also bought a package of Parma Prosciutto for the melon and 1 lb. of white lump crab meat for $21.99 for a crab soufflé for a grand total of $204.

I then drove to the closest Smith’s to Costco on 4th St. just north of Osuna, but it was closed due to some incident for which the police had barricaded it,  I drove toward home but was diverted to 12th St., so I drove to Aaron’s house and drove him to lunch at Amerasia.  We ordered five small dishes of dim sun, spicy rice for Aaron, stuffed tofu for me, and three plates with three dumplings each, one of fried dumplings stuffed with beef and ginger, one steamed stuffed with pork, and one of rice paper steamed and stuffed with chicken and water chestnut.

We both loved our lunch and celebrated the current success of Earn re, the new company Aaron is starting for which I am serving as corporate counsel.

After lunch I drove to Smith’s at University and Lead and bought, 18 eggs for $1.89, Dreyer’s ice cream 2 1 ½ quarts containers for $5.00, milk, Blueberries for $1.25 for 6 oz., and bananas for $.49/lb.

I finally returned home at around 3:30.   I checked my mail and then listened to Cramer on Mad Money.  It sounds like the Market has the jitters and is moving almost daily based on news of the Chinese trade talks and tariffs and other destabilizing news of U.S. foreign policy, such as what will surely be an aborted attempt by Trump to pull troops out of Syria, which will open the gates of hell for the Turks, the Syrians, and Russians to attack the Kurds using the noble cover of freeing Syria from Kurdish control.  Surely no one has forgotten that the Kurds with support from the US drove ISIS out of Raqqa. It seems like you can predict every Trump diplomatic move by simply answering the question, “What would the Russians want?”.

We decided to cook the six chicken thighs by the Bobby Flay method, which is a three step process of first rubbing the thighs with a spice combination of paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, and salt and pepper.  Luckily, Suzette had received a bottle of spices with that exact combination of spices from Southwest capital bank when she got her last loan, so she simply dumped some spice into a freezer bag with some extra smoked paprika and shook the bag to coat the thighs after we had rinsed and dried and butchered the excess skin and fat from the thighs.

Suzette then performed the second and third steps. She pan seared the thighs in some canola oil

weighted down with a pan of water for about fifteen minutes and then placed them in the oven to roast for about 20 minutes until done.

While the chicken was cooking Suzette gathered the last of the string beans, some asparagus, and the small cauliflower I bought at El Super last week.  She cut the asparagus and beans into 1 inch sections and deflowered and then pulverized the cauliflower into small pieces about the side of cooked Couscous and the sautéed all three vegetables in a large skillet with olive oil and butter.

Mint sauce – we could not find the Bobby Flay recipe for mint sauce but we found a recipe that was similar on the internet that combined a green chili, mint, parsley, honey and olive oil.  I went to the garden and picked a handful of mint and rinsed them and stripped about a cup of the leaves from the stalks and chopped them.  I then chopped ½ cup of parsley tops and Suzette puréed them with a diced green chili and some honey in the Cuisinart. We discussed a wine and finally decided upon a sweet white because of the spice in the chicken and the chili in the mint sauce. I picked the bottle of 2016 Chateau de La Roulerie Coteaux de Layon that Pierre has given us.  Coteaux de Layon is typically a sweet wine made in the Loire Valley with Chenin Blanc grapes and this bottle was no exception.  It was a smooth balance of sweetness and acidity.  Thank you Pierre. The wine was perfect for our doubly spicy dinner.

Here are the pictures of the dishes.

The mint sauce 

Since I picked a lot of mint,  Suzette also made mint infused simple syrup by heating equal parts of sugar and water and when it came to a boil and the sugar dissolved, turning off the heat and adding fresh mint.

We watched the Antiques  Roadshow and Rachel Maddow and then Lawrence O’Donald’s Last Word.  The federal court decision rendered today ordering the President to turn over his tax returns and the House Committees’ interviewing the two whistleblowers appears to be the beginning of the end of Trump’s  cover ups and collusion and the real beginning of his impeachment.  He is calling it a coup, but is one sanctioned by the Constitution for high crimes and misdemeanors.  His surrogates are saying that there were no crimes, but that is not true.  Lining one’s own pocket by ordering VP Pence to stay at one’s resort in Ireland at the taxpayers’ cost, ordering US planes to refuel at the small airport near one’s resort and the airmen to stay at one’s resort at a much higher cost to the taxpayers than staying at a U.S. airbase in Europe are violations of the emolument clause of the Constitution and withholding funds voted for Ukraine until they agree to dig up dirt on a political opponent is a violation of the election law. Abuse of power, refusing to honor a subpoena issued by Congress, covering up facts, such as conversations with foreign leaders, and collusion are all high crimes and misdemeanors.

The writing is on the wall and it is plain to see and it does not look like Trump will be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat to make these facts go away. This is what happened to Nixon in 1973.  Trump is correct about a deep state.  There is a broad swatch of civil servants who have devoted their lives to upholding the Constitution and laws of the US and they are blowing the whistle of Trump’s illegal behavior.   His only hope is to divert attention, such as starting a war, which scares people in a Washington to death.  That is why today’s top story was the senators’ reaction to Trump agreeing to Erdogan’s request to remove troops from Syria.

After dinner Suzette and I ate bowls of ice cream with chocolate syrup and said goodnight to Willy.

We went to bed a bit after 9:00.

Bon Appetit