There were two things more exciting today than the food I ate and I ate great food.
The first was going food shopping at Lowe’s. We were running out of green vegetables and tonic water. I awakened at 4:30 and when I checked the Internet I thought it said Lowe’s opened at 7:00 so I drove over with my mask and rubber gloves on at 6:50. When I arrived I was the only one in the parking lot, so I thought I had found the secret to food shopping. As I got out of the car one of the workers who was removing the steel grated on the front of the store said, “We do not open until 8:00. Next week we start opening at 7:00.”
So I returned home and edited the brief I am writing. When I returned to Lowe’s at 7:55 there was a line with about nine or ten persons waiting for entry into the store. I took a basket and went in. I was able to find everything I wanted except the most important item, the tonic water. It was completely gone. I guess several other persons are trying to get through this trying time on gin and tonics, as we are. I bought a pork butt, some country style pork chops, sugar snap peas, asparagus, onion, limes, avocados, eggs, Silk soy milk for Willy, cream cheese, foie gras, baking soda, baking powder, green onions, anode ten pounds of chicken legs for $5.90. It was quite exciting scurrying around the store trying to socially distance while shopping. Then I had to get into a long queue to check out and pay for the $68.00 of groceries.
I was tired from all the shopping so I drove home. Suzette was waiting for me a helped me unload.i then wondered into the house from no food, so I sautéed a sausage patty and fried two eggs and toasted two slices of bread and buttered them and spread marmalade on them and made a cup of tea and had a decent breakfast. I soon gathered my strength and went back to the computer to edit the brief.
The second exciting thing was the completion of a brief for the Court of Appeals.
Suzette worked in the garden and became hungry by noon so she heated the pot roast and lay some on a toasted flour tortilla to made a pot roast burrito for each of us p. I took a break and joined her for lunch in the gazebo as I watched the fish swimming in the pond. We drank Negra Modelo beers with lunch.
I then returned to the brief and finished editing it by 3:30 and then walked ½ mile.
Suzette went to Walmart after lunch for a curb side pick up and to work to make sure everything was ready for the big Easter dinner of ham, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and carrot cake.
I talked to Luke and Willy and we planned to have a teleconference at 11:00 tomorrow with them and Amy and Vahl, our usual Easter dinner family group. We were going to do a video conference, but Luke’s internet service has gone down, so we will teleconference.
I talked to Rebecca this afternoon. She is staying with Mickie and his folks at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, walking the beaches and fishing.
When Suzette returned she was carrying a bunch of lovely big asparagus. The best I have seen in years. We concluded that the restaurant quality asparagus are being diverted by U.S. Foods to institutional customers since the fine dining restaurants have closed. Here is a picture.
I thawed out two fillets for dinner and at 6:00 peeled and diced a turnip, a rutabaga, a parsnip, three potatoes, an onion, two carrots, and several cloves of garlic. Suzette then salted and peppered and tossed the vegetables with olive oil and covered them with aluminum foil and baked them for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
We discussed a green vegetable and Suzette reminded me that she had bought a large bag of spinach, so we decided to sauté the fillets and then sauté sliced mushrooms and spinach and add sherry and heavy cream to make creamed spinach.
I opened a bottle of 2015 Chateau Bouscasse’, a grand vin de Madiran that was 20% Cab Sauv, 60% Tannat, and 20% cab Franc.
Here is the highest rating I found,
11/29/2019 - SID_LOVES_WINE LIKES THIS WINE: 92 Points
Liked this considerably more than last year, which felt well-made but nondescript. This has very nicely peppery purple fruit, both fairly fresh/aromatic and light on its feet, with an excellent subtle funky note that held for quite a while before blowing off (was never so much as to overwhelm the fruit.) Delicious for $15 ish.
I bought it at Costco for between $10.00 and $15.00.
“Tannat is a red wine grape, historically grown in South West France in the Madiran AOC, and is
now one of the most prominent grapes in Uruguay, where it is considered the "national grape".” Wikipedia
I liked the wine. What I noticed was a chalkiness that fit into a clean somewhat astringent structure that complemented the beef. This would be a good hamburger wine.
Creamed Spinach
I diced 3 oz. of yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, and sliced 5 large white mushrooms that Suzette sautéed in the skillet she had cooked the fillets in. I then de-stemmed a colander full of fresh spinach that Suzette added to the skillet after the onions and mushrooms had softened. After the spinach softened we added Amontillado sherry, salt, pepper, and heavy cream. In a minute or two the sauce began to thicken and we were ready to plate dinner.
I opened the Chateau Bouscasse and Suzette poured glasses of it.
I sliced the steaks and divided the steak slices, putting the more rare slices on Suzette’s plate. We each then served ourselves roasted vegetables and creamed spinach and ate a great dinner.
After dinner I drank a sip of Calvados with a chocolate covered cherry, a dark chocolate truffle, and two chocolate filled wafers with a cup of tea.
We watched The Duchess with Ralph Fiennes and Keira Knightley until Suzette said, “I remember this movie and it ends badly.” So, we decided to turn it off a bit after 10:00.
Suzette went to bed and I blogged a bit.
Bon Appetit
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