November 19, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21 Dinner – Cream of Mushroom Soup and Cheese Sandwiches

 November 19, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21  Dinner – Cream of Mushroom Soup and Cheese Sandwiches

Some days no plan is a plan and today was one of those days.

I had no plan for breakfast. Finally, around 9:00 I toasted several slices of Bosque Rustic baguette and the last slice of bagel.  I spread cream cheese on the bagel and the last of the Whitefish and butter and Coarse Cut marmalade on the baguette slices and made a cup of Earl Grey tea for a multi-cultural or schizophrenic French Russian English breakfast.

Lunch was the same.  I had invited Peter over for Book Club and he had offered to bring lunch.  He had initially suggested Jean Pierre’s Pate’ appetizer, so I was prepared for a glass of red wine and Pate salad plate but then around 11:00 Peter sent an e mail informing me that Le Troquet was not open for lunch until the 29th. Those temperamental Frenchmen.  Peter called and suggested Vietnamese food instead.  I gave him instructions for ordering No. 21s from 2000 Vietnam and shortly after 1:00 Peter appeared at my door with a bag filled with two styrofoam boxes embossed with that now familiar smiling face and slogan, “Have a Nice Day”  

  Before he had arrived I set up the computer outside on the patio and checked to make sure it was connected to the Internet network and made The base for an iced coffee for Peter by mixing condensed milk with the last of Suzette’s morning coffee.  

When Peter arrived I unpacked the boxes and fetched cilantro, silverware and chop sticks and the drinks.  We dug into the boxes three levels of ingredients; warm egg rolls and grilled marinated pork on top, room temperature boiled fluffy rice vermicelli noodles in the middle, and sliced lettuce and cucumber sticks and mung bean sprouts on the bottom.  We drizzled the two small containers of chili flavored sweetened fish sauce over the three layers and dug in.  I ate ½ of mine and Peter ate all of the egg rolls and grilled pork and some of the rest by 2:00 when it was time to connect to the book club’s monthly Zoom meeting.  This month’s book was Shelby Steele’s Non-fiction long essay on his experiences as a black man from the 60’s , through the Great Society to 2006.  Our discussion extended to the present and covered a range of topics mostly centered on the two themes in the book of culture and education.

  What I noticed was that those members who had rebelled against the strictures of a rigid traditional religious upbringing tended to be more liberal and willing to support cultural changes and those who had been raised in families who had strong military ties and attended military academies tended to be more culturally conservative.  For example, the liberals tended to see BLM demonstrations as indications of cultural shifts in society and the conservatives saw the BLM demonstrations as rioting by terrorists.  The   discussion at times turned heated but retained an overall friendly atmosphere.

Amazingly with lots of members having lots to say the meeting lasted until 4:00.

After Peter left I caught up on mail and Houston’s after a Suzette arrived I joined my meditation group by Zoom at 5:00until 5:30. After meditation I discussed dinner with Suzette and out of no plan we quickly assessed our PPIs and decided to heat the last of the Cream of Mushroom Suzette had made earlier this week and make cheese sandwiches to eat with the soup. 

Suzette heated the soup in a sauce pan to just under a boil to prevent the cream from curdling and I sliced and toasted four slices of French baguette, garnished them with slices of Jarlsberg cheese, and melted the cheese in the microwave at high heat for 22 seconds. 

   

We enjoyed our simple meal, but ate a couple of chocolate chip cookies after dinner as we watched Rachel’s return and Midsomer Mysteries.  We went to bed at 9:30.

 It is exciting to not know or plan a meal and be pleasantly surprised.

Bon Appetit