June 8, 2020 Lunch – Posole. Dinner – Roasted Chicken with Steamed Asparagus with cooked corn kernels on bread points with milk and butter.

June 8, 2020 Lunch – Posole. Dinner – Roasted Chicken with Steamed Asparagus with cooked corn kernels on bread points with milk and butter.

Before she left this morning Suzette fetched a whole chicken from the freezer in the garage.

I opened the new package of smoked whitefish and spread it on two slices of toasted bagel spread with cream cheese and garnished with thin onion slices, which I ate with a mug of strong green tea.

For lunch I defrosted and heated a 32 oz. container of Posole. I went t the garden and picked four chives and four sprigs of oregano and chopped them with about a T. of white onion and added those ingredients to the Posole.  The flavor was wonderful, although I added ½ tsp of salt to intensify the flavor.

I quit work today at 5:00 to prepare the chicken.  I called Suzette and asked her if she wanted tarragon and lemon or tandoori flavored Chicken. She said Tarragon and lemon, so I walked to the garden and picked a handful of tarragon sprigs, four sprigs of lavender and one drying stalk of garlic that we picked a week ago.

I fetched a lemon and removed the chicken from its cryovac plastic wrapper.  After I washed it I sliced three cloves of garlic and slid it and the destemmed leaves of tarragon, pads of butter, wedges of lemon, and the lavender sprigs under the skin of the chicken onto the breast from the neck and into the cavity where the leg joins the body from the back, trussed the chicken on a Spandex metal vertical rack, lay large wedges of lemon and butter in the neck opening above the top of the spandex rack,  and put the rack int a 9 X 9 inch Pyrex baking dish filled with 2 cups of water and put the dish into the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then reduced the heat to 350 degrees.

It was now 5:30 and I was hungry for a snack so I plated the PPI raw salmon and scallops and fetched the wasabi and soy mixture left from Sunday lunch and pickled ginger and heated a cup of green tea and ate a lovely Sashimi snack.

This was turning into a big food day.

When Suzette arrived 45 minutes later she checked the chicken and turned up the heat so the chicken skin would brown.

Pennsylvania Dutch Asparagus, corn, bread, milk and butter Pudding

 I asked Suzette what she wanted as a vegetable and she said corn and asparagus toast points cooked in butter and milk.  That was a new one on me, so she took over in the kitchen.  I cut the kernels off the three ears of cooked corn while she snapped the stalks and diced a lb. of asparagus and sliced six pieces of French bread and toasted them.

She then diced the bread and added it to the steamed asparagus and corn and added cream, salt, and butter and heated the combination in the microwave. I threw in a small handful of basil leaves and the dish was done.  I asked if this was a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe and she said it was one of her mother’s recipes, so I assumed it was.  When I asked her, Suzette said, “It is Peasant Food.”

While Suzette cooked I asked her what white wine she wanted to drink and she indicated a Gruner Vetliner, so I took a bottle from the rack to the garage and replaced the chilled one and put the chilled bottle into the freezer in the inside fridge.

In another 45 minutes, at about 7:30 Suzette took the chicken from the oven.  It was a beautiful golden brown. I sliced off the wings and then the leg quarters.  I put a leg quarter on each plate and Suzette heated the corn and Asparagus dish and we ladled scoops of it onto our plates.

Here is a picture.

Suzette poured glasses of Gruner Vetliner and we had a truly delicious meal.  I found the flavor of both dishes to be truly devoid of any flavor of the separate ingredients, but having its own unique flavor.  The juices of the corn and asparagus combined with the cream and butter to make a sauce and the separate flavors of the lavender, garlic, tarragon, and lemon seemed to been absorbed into and combined with the juices of the chicken.  I found this to be a uniquely interesting meal because both dishes were amalgams of all their ingredients flavors.

The Gruner Vetliner (Trader Joe’s $6.99) is one of Suzette’s  favorites.  She must have loved the meal because she hugged me after the meal and later made us a lovely dessert of a parfait of vanilla ice cream, warm toasted sliced almonds, and several of the Rainier maraschino cherries she made yesterday.

Again, the dessert flavors and textures seemed blend into a Total experience.  Suzette’s Rainier maraschino cherries were devine.  They were rather tart and when combined with her blend of liquors and sugar syrup they were perfect, crisp and not too sweet as their sauce mixed with the warm toasted almonds, and melting ice cream.

After this meal I have a better understanding of what the great French chefs mean when asked what is their favorite meal and they answer, “A simple roast chicken.”

I think after all these years and with the help of a very cooperative kitchen garden, I can approximate the ideal of “A good roast chicken”. I even remember seeing Julia Child massaging her chicken with butter just like I did when I pushed soft butter under the skin and around the neck and onto the wings of this chicken.

Some days are better than others when slightly better ingredients and cooking techniques elevate the result above the common denominator of simply eating to live.  Sometimes peasants can eat like kings.

Bon Appetit