May 22, 2021 Dinner at Diane and Jim’s house

 May 22, 2021 Dinner at Diane and Jim’s house

Today was rather disjointed in a good way, food-wise.

I awakened around 7:00 and made myself two bagels with cream cheese and Jarlsberg cheese and a heated slice of Lebanon Salami.

Then we walked to the Farmer’s Market where we bought lion’s mane mushrooms, quail eggs, a French baguette, tomato plants, and two chocolate and almond croissants.  I made it without much pain by walking slowly.

                                  Some of the French baguette and the box of lion’s mane mushrooms 

When we returned home, Suzette made coffee, I made tea, we heated one of the croissants, and and ate it in our garden, which is in full bloom.

Then I lay down to rest.  When I got up at 12:30 I chopped chives, parsley, sweet onion, and celery for Suzette’s potato salad. She sautéed four pieces of bacon and then used the bacon grease to sauté the onion and celery.  Then Suzette added chopped 2 hard boiled eggs and the sautéed onions and celery to the boiled diced potatoes.  Then she made a dressing of apple cider vinegar, sugar, and olive oil and mixed that into the potato salad.

After we finished making the potato salad, I made Tabouli.  I washed and soaked 1 cup of No. 1 Bulgur wheat in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes and then drained it.  I chopped the rest of the bunch of parsley, 6 green onions, 4 Roma tomatoes, 3/4 cucumber, 1/2 cup of fresh mint and 1/2 cup of chives.  Then I added juice of 2 1/2 limes, and 5 T. of olive oil, plus 1 1/2 tsp. of salt.

Here is the recipe I followed.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup extra fine bulgur wheat
• 8 firm Roma tomatoes, very finely chopped
• 2 English cucumber (hothouse cucumber), very finely chopped
• 4 bunches parsley, part of the stems removed, washed and well-dried, very finely chopped
• 24-30 fresh mint leaves, stems removed, washed, well-dried, very finely chopped
• 8 green onions, white and green parts, very finely chopped
• Salt
• 6-8 tbsp lime juice (lemon juice, if you prefer)
• 6-8 tbsp Early Harvest extra virgin olive oil
• Romaine lettuce leaves to serve, optional  

I went to the garden and picked a handful of mint and snapped a handful of garlic scapes.

So, since I tasted the Tabouli when it was made as I adjusted the ingredients, I guess you could say that I ate Tabouli for lunch.

It was 4:30. Since we were due at the Souder Grafs at 5:00, we gathered the potato salad, a bottle of Riechard Rose of Pinot Noir, the garlic scapes, and three bottles Negra Modelo and drove the few blocks to their house on Kit Carson.

When we arrived we were greeted and seated at a table under the portal in the back yard that was largely out of the wind, which was fierce this evening.

Dinner started with appetizers: green olives, Frito bowls filled with guacamole and Sautéed shrimp, and slices of radish and daikon.  Suzette and I drank glasses of the Reichart Rose we brought and Jim had a bottle of Negra Modelo.

After we talked and nibbled and sipped for a while, prep of dinner began.  Jim heated the grill and grilled a marinated tri-tip roast on a bed of the scapes we brought and a tray of asparagus. Diane fetched a large salad, the sauce bowl filled with Chimichurri sauce for the meat, and Suzette’s potato salad while Jim roasted and basted the meat and asparagus.

The chimichurri sauce was made with mostly cilantro plus the other normal ingredients, except for the omission of red pepper, which we preferred.

Here are the normal ingredients.  

What Ingredients go into Chimichurri?

• Fresh parsley, cilantro and oregano – this trio of herbs makes this incredibly flavorful!
• Red onion – mince these up itty bitty if going the method by hand.
• Garlic – use fresh garlic for the most flavor.
• Red wine vinegar – if you don’t have red wine vinegar on hand white wine vinegar could be substituted.
• Lemon juice – use fresh lemon juice for best flavor.
• Salt – kosher salt, table salt or sea salt works great.
• Red pepper flakes – if you don’t like spicy food just omit this, if you love spicy food add more to taste.
• Olive oil – I like to use a blend of half extra virgin olive oil and half regular olive oil for a more mild oil flavor but feel free to use either or.

When the asparagus were cooked Jim took them to the kitchen and wrapped each stalk with a piece of prosciutto and brought them to the table.  Jim then poured Spanish Plata Puerta Tempranillo Reserva and then sliced and served the roast.  The meat was incredibly tender because Jim cooked it to medium rare. Later Jim opened a bottle of Campo Viejo Crianza Tempranillo as we ate and talked.  Our children are similar ages and grew up together so we were interested in how their two girls, Emily and Rachel, were doing and we told them about Luke and Willy.

After the delicious extended dinner, Diane brought out a box of pecan tarts that were her Grandmother’s recipe.  They were sort of like a small pecan pie or soft praline in a pastry shell formed and baked in a cupcake mold.  Gooey and sweet and crunchy.  We each ate 1 1/2 of them.

                                 The happy cooks with the box of pecan tarts

Finally, after a lively evening of conversation during the lovely extended dinner, we said goodnight a bit after 10:00.

It was a fun day of food and getting reacquainted with our neighbors.

Bon Appetit