December 6, 2020 Brunch – BLT with Egg sandwich. Dinner – Boeuf Bourguignon with Mashed Potatoes and green beans

 December 6, 2020 Brunch – BLT with Egg sandwich.  Dinner – Boeuf Bourguignon with Mashed Potatoes and green beans

I watched the news programs until 9:30 and then we drove to Costco because we thought it opened at 10:00 on Sunday. When we arrived it did not look promising.  The parking lot was full and folks were loading and leaving.  Suzette went to talk to an employee who told her the store had opened at 8:00.  The employee said that Costco stayed open until 8:30 during the week and few persons came after 7:00.  The line looked like an hour wait, so we decided to return Monday night at 7:00.

We drove back home and decided to make a BLT sandwich with an egg.

I sliced a slicing tomato, an avocado, and fried 4 slices of thick bacon.  Suzette toasted four slices of wheat sandwich bread, tore a pile of Romaine lettuce, and cooked two or three eggs scrambled.  I made a cup of tea and Suzette made a Bloody Mary.  We spread mayo on the toast and lay tomatoes, lettuce , avocado, bacon, and egg. We each had a semi circle of fried scrambled egg that I cut in half to create triangles of egg that fit a slice of bread.  I usually eat sandwiches open faced but the stack was so high on these sandwiches that I needed to add a top  layer of bread.  I toasted two more slices of bread and spread mayo on them and put them on top of each sandwich to make two full sandwiches.   

    

                                                              Suzette's Sandwich

I rested and talked to Billy and Elaine who, are driving through the Hill country for a while. Suzette 

worked in her office and I watched Mayfield guide Cleveland to a victory and Rogers guide Green Bay to a victory over Philadelphia.

At 1:30 I decided to make Julia Child’s recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Boeuf Bourguignon. It is a little complicated but we had all the ingredients. I cut six slices of bacon into lardettes and boiled them in water for 10 minutes and then dried them.  While the lardettes were boiling I cubed 2  Rib steaks and then an onion and a carrot.  

I then sautéed the bacon in a Le Creuset casserole with 1 T. of olive oil. I the removed the bacon and fried the steak cubes, and then removed the sautéed steak cubes and sautéed the carrots and onion and returned the bacon and beef back to the casserole.  I then sprinkled 2 T. of flour on the ingredients and stirred it into the ingredients and cooked it for 6 to 8 minutes uncovered in a 450 degree oven. I then turned down the heat to 325 degrees and as the temp in the oven was reducing I added 3 cups each of 2018 Trader Joe’s God Reserve Pinot Noir and beef bouillon plus a crumbled bay leaf, 1 tsp.of salt, ½ tsp. of thyme, and 1/8 tsp. of white pepper.covered the casserole and put it in the oven around 2:30 and lay down the rest and  read. 

    Suzette fetched me a few minutes before 4:00 to Zoom with Melissa.  It was fun talking to her, because there is so much stuff going on in her life currently. She is a writer and is writing movie scripts for  Hallmark mainly.  

  We decided to try to set up another Zoom meeting with TR and Linda and other zoom meetings with those we are missing not seeing in the coming weeks. 

After the meeting ended around 5:00 Suzette checked the casserole and thought there was too much liquid and decided to cook the casserole uncovered for a while.

   I then cubed a lb. ofportobello mushrooms while Suzette sautéed the bag of pearl onions that had been frozen in olive oil and butter.  When the mushrooms were cubed, I minced a small section of shallot and added those two ingredients to the skillet and we covered the casserole and put it back into the oven.

  Suzette then peeled and boiled two russet and two sweet potatoes and boiled them until cooked and then 

 then Creamed then with heated milk and butter in the Kitchenaid mixer. I told Suzette that Beaujolais was the first choice of wines to drink with the dish and that we had a bottle of Drouhin 2015 Beaujolais-Village.  Suzette said, “Perfect.” So I opened it and poured glasses of it. I fetched the sandwich bag of PPI Steamed Green Beans from last night’s meal and we heated them in the microwave.

  Suzette then assembled dinner in Pasta bowls, first a scoop of Creamed potatoes covered with spoonfuls of Boeuf and finally green beans stacked on top. We watched 60 Minutes while we ate and soon decided that this was among the best Boeuf Bourguignon we had ever eaten.  The meat was tender, the sauce was thick enough to have enough body to hold the ingredients, and the flavors melded into a unique flavor that did not express any of its ingredients’ individual flavors. 

  The wine was not perfect.  A younger Beaujolais might have gone better with a slightly tougher steak but this was smooth with smooth and the smoothness of the Beaujolais got lost in the richness of the Boeuf.  A wine with more character would have been better.

  We ate the last pecan dreams from Thanksgiving for dessert with a sip of cognac for a very pleasant hearty dinner.

  Bon Appetit