November 8, 2020 Brunch – Lobster and foie gras mini-souffles. Dinner – Roasted Leg of Lamb with Roasted Potatoes and steamed green beans

 November 8, 2020 Brunch – Lobster and foie gras mini-souffles. Dinner – Roasted Leg of Lamb with Roasted Potatoes and steamed green beans 

It was a beautiful warm day today.  I watched Leicester win its match, which gained it the top position in the PL standings and watched the news until 10:00. Then watched Man City tie Liverpool 1 to 1.

At 10:00 Suzette made a dish we had eaten last time we were in Paris. It is a very simple but delicious dish.  She placed 1 or 2 T. of heavy cream in a ramekin depending on its size.  She used 3 inch ramekins today so she doubled the recipe.  2 T. of cream, 2 eggs, plus foie gras and today pieces of lobster claw.  She whisked the egg and baked the ramekins in the steamer oven like soufflés for approximately 25 minutes.  That turned out to be too long because the egg toughened a bit, but that did not affect the flavor of the three main ingredients.

It was a superb dish.  I opened a bottle of white 2018 Calliers du Cotes Du Rhone for that Marsanne and Roussanne grape flavor that is a bit heavier and richer than some other grapes (Trader Joe’s $5.99).

I thawed a rib steak for dinner after brunch.

After the second soccer match around noon we grabbed our binoculars, drove to Kit Carson Park and walked into the Bosque and around the two lakes, a distance of 1.2 miles, which set a new record for me post operation.  The warm weather made it easy to walk and we stopped frequently to eye the waterfowl.  Today, it was the usual suspects: green teal, mallard, Canadian geese, and ringneck ducks. We did discover what seemed like a new beaver lodge in the northern lake next to the small island in the middle of the  lots of beaver sign of tree harvesting around the north side of the northern lake.

When we returned home aa bit after 1:00 I ate a bowl of Posole with a dab of sour cream and then lay down until 2:00 when we had our family weekly Zoom meeting until 2:45. Much of the discussion during the meeting was about marinated meat dishes.  Billy was marinating chicken for Coq at Vin and Mickie and Rebecca were marinating rabbit.  When I said I had been marinating a leg of lamb for two days, everyone suggested that we should roast the lamb, so we changed our dinner menu to lamb.  We will eat steak and Lobster Mac and cheese tomorrow evening.

 So after the Zoom meeting I peeled and rough cut four russet and 1 sweet potato and doused them with olive oil and salt and put them into a 350 degree oven to bake.

I then lay down until 4:30 after Suzette had cut the leg of lamb in half and lay it in a roasting pan and started roasting it when the potatoes were finished at around 4:00.

I then snapped about ½ lb. of green beans and put them in the steamer with water and started them steaming.

We then replaced the batteries in our favorite meat thermometer and tested the lamb, which was at 111 degrees internal.  We waited until the lamb’s internal temperature was 145 degrees to take it out of the oven.  I sliced some of it. The edges were pinkish gray and the interior was red rare. I gave Suzette the two rare pieces, which she likes best and I took several slices off the edge that were light pink in the interior.

 I fetched a bottle of 2017 Murphy Goode Pinot Noir and opened it and poured us glasses of it while Suzette piled our plates with green beans and roasted potatoes.  I the lay the slices of lamb on the plates and we were ready to eat.

We watched Pittsburgh come back to beat the Cowboys in the 4th quarter of their game and then 60 Minutes.

Then we watched an interesting Nature show on Primates around the world and the Trouble with Maggie, an English series on PBS.

At 8:00 I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies.  I added cocoa, raisins, toasted pecans, and chocolate chips to the standard batter recipe. After that we watched three episodes of Emily in Paris and went to bed.

 I am blogging at 5:00 on November 9, shortly after Pfizer announced that its 44,000 person 3rd phase test has preliminarily indicated a 90% efficacy for its corona virus vaccine.

The Dow futures were up 380 points in response to Biden’s victory until 4:50 a.m. when Pfizer made its announcement the Dow immediately rose to over 1400 points. 

A great day in America.

Bon Appetit