I ate a bowl of granola with milk, yogurt, and tropical fruit salad.
After a telephone conference I drove to Suzette’s bank to make a deposit for her, then to the Apple store to have them look at my malfunctioning I Pad. But as I stood in line waiting for the store to open, my I Pad started working properly. I believe the miraculous recovery of my I Pad was due to its proximity to the Apple store.
I called Willy and asked him if he wanted to join me for lunch and he accepted.
I then drove to Smith’s to pick up my order and drove home. When I got home I discovered two glaring errors in the order in the meat category. Instead of a whole 2 ½ lb. salmon fillet they gave me a 1 lb. package with four small tail ends. Instead of four packages of rib steaks for $5.99/lb. they gave me one package of seasoned steaks. I was pissed so I drove back to the store and corrected the errors, but had to wait twenty minutes while the butchers cut and packaged rib steaks. I was able to pick a lovely large whole salmon fillet at the butcher counter and was given a discount price of $6.49/lb. and was given a full refund for the prior order. I bought five packages of steaks, a bottle of tonic water, and five packages of steaks for $90.00. Let’s hope I did not also get corona virus.
I then drove to 2000 Vietnam and picked up the order I had called in for 2 No. 21s for $20.00 and then called Willy to tell him I was on the way home with lunch.
I took everything home and Willy came over for lunch. We ate outside and it was much cooler than the 98 degrees the thermometer indicated.
After lunch we watched a bit of the Liverpool vs Man City match until jus after half time wi the score sitting at 3 – 0 in favor of Man. City. The full time score was 4 – 0, which in English soccer is often described as a thrashing.
I worked with Carolyn telephonically on the brief beginning at 1:30 and finished around 3:00. Carolyn sent back the final edited brief and I filed it at 4:40.
Suzette arrived at 5:00 and immediately helped me rinse off the salmon and dry it on paper towels.
I then made teriyaki sauce by heating 1/3 cup each of soy sauce, sake, and Mirin and 1 T. of sugar. Suzette and I discussed how to slice the salmon so that there would be enough to marinate and cook for dinner with Willy and enough to take on our trip to Ruidoso and how much to freeze for sushi later. As it turned out the piece we cut to cook just filled a gallon freezer bag so the salmon lay flat for maximum exposure to the marinade. I placed the tail section we cut off the fillet in a sandwich bag and froze it.
I lay the marinating salmon in the fridge.
It was about at this time that it occurred to me that this was to be my 74th birthday family dinner with Willy and it occurred to me that that was why I went back to Smith’s to exchange the four small tail sections for a whole salmon fillet.
We then cut a section of 1 x 6 inch cedar plank long enough to hold the salmon fillet we had cut and Suzette soaked it in water.
We next made the Couscous. We went to the garden and Suzette cut about a dozen leaves of Chard and. Picked about six or seven chive stalks. I de-stemmed the Chard leaves and cut them into bite-sized pieces and thinly sliced the chives.
I then diced a small ripe Roma tomato and about ¼ cup of red onion.
Before cooking the Couscous I cleaned and snapped the rest of the green beans. Several were starting
to get slimy and lose their snap. I discarded those that did not snap or were slimy and steamed the rest and then put the steamed green beans into the bowl of Japanese pickled vegetables I keep in the
fridge to preserve them.
Couscous
I put the diced onion into a 2 quart sauce pan with 4 oz. of butter and sautéed the onion about ten minutes until it began to softer. Then I heated water in the tea kettle and added the diced tomato and continued sautéing for several more minutes. Then I added 2 cups of Couscous and stirred that in to try to coat as much of it with butter as possible and reduced the heat a bit to prevent scorching the Couscous. After another minute or two I added between four and five cups of water until it looked like the Couscous had fully absorbed water and would still develop steam.
I usually do not cook more the 1 ½ cups of Couscous, so cooking 2 cups was a challenge. It almost filled the 2 quart pot.
I let the Couscous cook on low heat for several minutes while I fetched a bolt of 2018 German Reichart 100% Pinot Noir rose ($4.99 at Trader Joe’s) from the garage fridge. It is a light fruity rose, not as dry and acidic as those from Cotes du Provence with Cinsault, so it has a broader softer more Pinot Noir like flavor profile that complements grilled salmon.
While I was pickling green beans and making Couscous and fetching the wine, Suzette snapped about 18 stalks of asparagus and tossed them in a gallon freezer bag with olive oil and salt and pepper and fetched the salmon and placed it on the water soaked board and grilled the salmon and asparagus in the pre-heated propane grill.
Suzette’s cooking technique for asparagus is similar to cooking a steak. She grills it and then she wraps the asparagus in aluminum and puts the aluminum package in a spot away from the open flame to continue to steam and cook slowly but not burn. Like covering a steak with aluminum foil after removing it from the grill so it will continue to cook and coalesce flavor but not burn.
Everything was ready by 7:30 and Willy had still not come, so Suzette took the salmon and asparagus off the grill and plated three plates with a pile of Couscous, then six stalks each of asparagus and finally a square of grilled salmon. I poured three glasses of wine and added ice cubes to Suzette and my glasses so they would stay chilled while we ate and added a spoonful of Japanese pickled vegetables to my plate and carried it to the garden table that Suzette had set with a green tablecloth and silverware and napkins.
Willy arrived just as we were seated and ready to eat as he often does, so we waited a few moments while he fetched his plate and glass of wine. He had not put ice in his wine so he took a couple of cubes from my glass and we ate a lovely dinner. Everything was perfect and the wine cloaked the flavors of the food with a soft blanket of fruitiness.
Meals like this make me appreciate the skills that Suzette and I gained while helping each of our respective mothers in the kitchen those long years ago when we were young. It takes skill to work independently to coordinate the preparation and cooking of a meal so that everything is ready and at its peak flavor at the same moment. That moment tonight was 7:30.
At dinner Suzette advocated that we take the best bottle of wine that we have on the trip to Ruidoso. There is only one bottle that fits that description, it is the bottle of 1995 Chateau Y’quem, the Premier Grand Cru Sauternes we bought at the Maison du Vin in Sauternes about 20 tears ago for $400 dollars that is probably an $800 bottle now. I argued against it for a minute, but Suzette won me over with one question joined to a comment, “When are you going to drink it, when you are dead. And we have another bottle for a special occasion anyway.
She asked what do you drink it with and I said foie gras. Suzette said we have tins of foie gras. We can take some.
After the wine selection for the trip was resolved. Suzette turned her attention to the matter of my birthday gift. She and Willy went to fetch my birthday gift. After a few minutes I hear a discussion about a mallet and heard banging sounds on the other side of the thick privet that stands between the garden from the garage and street.
In a few more moments Suzette returned to the table and asked, “Do you know what your gift is?
I had had a bit of time to think about it and I had a thought of what the gift was. Of course the banging helped confirm my thought due to the assembly needed for my choice. I answered, “A red Radio Flyer Wagon.”
Suzette was amazed and asked me, “How did you know?
I answered her honestly and directly, “I am psychic when I want to be.”
Actually it was as much deductive as psychic. We have been looking for a red wagon for years and need one desperately at times such as when we place the hundreds of luminarias around the house at Christmas and I figured a large bulky wagon would require some assembly. It occurred to me that that assembly was what delayed Willy’s arrival for dinner as it did the presentation of my birthday gift from Suzette.
I loved the wagon as soon as I saw it, all bright and shiny with its thick coat of metallic red paint. It looked like every other original Radio Flyer wagon you would ever find under a Christmas tree. I was United with my childhood in a flash. I loved the gift and my family and my life in that moment.
I than broke the spell. I thanked Suzette and Willy for their thoughtfulness and effort and the asked the time. It was 8:25. I wished to watch Midsomer Mystery, so we said goodnight to Willy and turned on the TV. Soon Suzette asked me if I wanted some chocolate ice cream to which I answered, “Yes.”
The birthday party continued until 10:00 when the episode ended and we went to bed.
I write this blog entry on July 3, my 74th birthday, and am happy to confirm that I feel healthier and happier than at any time in the last 2 years.
I feel some guilt that I am so healthy and happy when so many others are suffering so terribly, but am comforted by the knowledge that I am connected to many others with whom I share love and happiness.
That is why I risked catching the virus to fetch a whole salmon fillet this morning,
Bon Appetit
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