March 9, 2020 Lunch – a Tabouli filled Pita. Dinner – Roasted Whole Chicken with Caesar Salad and Tabouli

March 9, 2020 Lunch – a Tabouli filled Pita. Dinner – Roasted Whole Chicken with Caesar Salad and Tabouli

I tried to reduce my food intake today. For breakfast we made bagels with cream cheese, Sliced red onion, sliced Gravad Lax, and capers. I ate ½ of a bagel with all the ingredients added and YoYo and Marty ate whole bagels with all those ingredients.

I ate a late lunch. I heated a pita on the gas stove and heated tabouli and stuffed the pita with tabouli.

I went walking at 5:00.  I intended to walk a mile but ended up walking ½ mile because I started to tighten up. I guess I had not eaten enough food to fuel my muscles.

When I returned home I made a cup of tea with milk and a bit of sugar.  Soon Marty and YoYo arrived and then Suzette with lots of new groceries.

Suzette brought home two chickens from Costco plus butter, a wedge of fresh Parmesan cheese, and a bag of artisanal Romaine hearts.

We picked fresh tarragon and chives in the garden.  Then we washed and stuffed the chickens and slid slices of lemon and fresh tarragon and chives under the skin of the chicken. In deference to the Julia Child “The French Chef” episode I saw on PBS this week, I rubbed the chicken’s skin with softened butter. Suzette Seared the chicken at 425 degrees for 15 minutes and then roasted the chicken for 1 hour at 350 degrees: which cooked the chicken to perfection and the desired internal temperature of 165 degrees.

I made a Caesar Salad dressing with two egg yolks, five anchovies, two cloves of garlic, 2 T. of lemon juice, a dash of salt, ½ cup of Spanish olive oil, ¾ tsp. of Dijon mustard, and 3 T. of finely grated Parmesan cheese.  I followed the standard Bon Appetit Internet recipe.  I chopped and mashed the anchovies and garlic.  Then I added and whisked the egg, lemon juice, and mustard.  Then Suzette slowly added the olive oil as I whisked the dressing to keep it from separating.

Here is the recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 3 oil-packed anchovy fillets, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, chopped
• ¾ teaspoon (or more) kosher salt
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• ¾ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons Parmesan, finely grated

1

I cut  ½ of a French Baguette into croutons and Suzette tossed them with olive oil and toasted them in the oven.

She also chopped two mini heads of artisanal Romaine and sliced slices of fresh Parmesan cheese and tossed the salad ingredients.  The salad  had a fresh neutral flavor due to all the fresh ingredients, which was very appealing in a California Cuisine way.

The tabouli had become quite liquified because it had thrown off some cucumber juice from the salt’s action on the cucumbers, which is either a problem or not depending upon your like or dislike of cucumber juice.  It looks and is soggy, but its flavor is enhanced in my opinion.

I sliced the chicken apart and Marty sliced the two breasts.  We each served ourselves chicken.  Suzette put bowls of tabouli and salad on the table and we served ourselves each of those for a wonderful meal.

I had chilled a bottle of 2017 Sainte-Celine Chablis (Total Wine $12.99?). Its flavors were a mixture of sweet, slightly acidic, and pears.  I did not like it as much as the great premier cru Chablis with their powerful acidity I have drunk but at 1/3 of their price it was an adequate wine for the meal and the only Chardonnay we will drink.  It went well with the light clean flavors of the meal.

Marty kept saying, “The best food we have had on the trip has been at the Simon house.”

After dinner we watched TV and talked. Marty told me some of his experiences of growing up in Union City living around the corner from Grandmother Rose, which made her more real and charming to me.

After YoYo and Suzette retired i made tea for each of us and poured Marty an Armagnac and I took a snippet of Calvados. Yoyo came in with the news that she had just been called from a gallery in Hong Kong that wants to show her art.  She showed us lovely and provocative portraits of women, several of whom had long necks in the mannerist style.

We went to bed at 11:00 after Rachel Maddow.

Bon Appetit