March 21, 2020 Lunch – Artichoke, tabouli, and whole wheat roll. Dinner – Steamed Salmon with tarragon and lemon slices, Sautéed Rice with asparagus and Portobello mushrooms and grilled Artichoke

I did not eat breakfast and did not eat lunch until 1:30 which threw my schedule off a bit.

At 11:00 I drove to the Court of Appeals to pick up a Record Proper for an appeal.  Then drove to Talin to replenish our pickled ginger supply.  I bought two 16 oz. bottles for $4.99 each and then went crazy.  I wanted to stock up on essential items and canned goods that will keep.  I bought a package of deep fried tofu, a large can of baby clams, two 1.5 liter bottles of sake, fresh cryovaced  udon noodles and egg noodles, dry bean thread noodles, dry rice noodles, a container of tofu, a lb. of fresh shallots, a bag of baby bok Choy, two cans of pickled shallots, a piece of ginger, and a container of beech mushrooms for a total of  $70.00.

I returned home after 1:00 and took a shower and changed clothing and then prepared an Artichoke dipping sauce by combining ½ cup of mayonnaise, a dash of salsa verde and olive oil, and lemon juice. I put a couple of scoops of tabouli on a plate and sliced and toasted a whole wheat dinner roll and ate a light lunch.

After lunch I checked the market and recorded another crushing day of declines in the market.

I was tired or depressed or both so I lay down for a nap and slept until Suzette arrived around 6:00.

I got up and we watched the news for an hour and decided to grill artichokes and steam salmon fillets and serve that with rice.

Chicken and corn Soup

Suzette also wanted to make chicken corn soup with rivlets.  I finely diced 1 cup each of celery and onion, which Suzette sautéed in a large pot.  Suzette cut the kernels from the ears of corn we had boiled several days ago.  After the vegetables softened she added the three quarts of chicken stock with the diced dark meat from that we had prepared last week.  After the soup cooked for a bit Suzette made rivlets with ¾ cup of flour, water and an egg. She then spooned the mixture into the soup, which cooked the rivlets instantly into tiny dumplings. They are similar to German spaetzle..

 

Steamed salmon fillets - After the Soup was cooking Willy called and came by.  We went to the garden and picked some tarragon sprigs and Willy minced the tarragon.  I sliced three fillets from the fillet Suzette bought yesterday at Sprouts for $7.00/lb. Suzette sliced a lemon and lay the fillets on the lemon slices on the steaming pan and laid pads of butter on the fillets and sprinkled the tarragon onto them. She then set the steaming oven controls to steam fish fillets and steamed the salmon fillets.

The Sautéed Mushrooms, Asparagus and rice.

I cut ten asparagus into 1 inch pieces and sliced four portobello mushrooms and sautéed them in a medium skillet with two T. of butter and 1 T. of olive oil.  After a few minutes I added 1 clove of garlic and a ½ oz.of onion slices.  I then added a heaping spoon full of PPI rice from last night.  I broke apart the clumps of rice and cooked the vegetables until they were cooked.  I then added 2T. of Amontillado sherry and a dash of salt and white pepper and turned down the heat to conserve the liquid.

The grilled Artichokes

The benefit of how Suzette and I cook is we have a carefully developed team effort to our cooking.  We each prepare our own dishes, but use our special skills to assist each other.  Suzette’s skill sets include, stove top cooking, oven cooking, and grilling, plus baking and mine are chopping, butchering, making sauces, and dealing with the wines. For example, tonight I diced the ingredients for the soup and my sautéed rice, asparagus and mushroom dish and sautéed it.  Suzette grilled the Artichokes and steamed the salmon.

We both worked together to make the chicken and corn soup.

The result is a two to three dish dinner usually,  not including a dessert.

I had previously boiled the Artichokes and for lunch made the simple dipping sauce, so that dish was already prepped and was ready as soon as Suzette grilled the Artichokes, except that I added a few extra drops of lemon juice to brighten the sauce’s acidity and bite.

I chilled a bottle of Pinot Grigio de Venezia bought at TraderJoe’s for $5.99 when we started cooking so by the time we ate it was chilled.

We had a lovely dinner.  Everything was interesting and beautifully prepared.

After dinner we each drank an extra glass of wine and talked until about 10:00 when Willy left and Suzette and I went to bed.  I blogged. She slept.

Bon Appetit