May 25, 2021 Lunch - Tabouli Salad. Dinner - Chard, Mushroom, and scallop Lasagna
Today I again ate granola, yogurt, blueberries, 1/2 sliced banana, and milk for breakfast. I worked until 1:00 and decided to see whether the lettuce in the garden was still edible. Surprisingly, lots was, so I picked a basket full and rinsed it and washed it and put it in a pasta bowl. I added about six spoonfuls of Tabouli, which has all the things I love, green onion, parsley, tomatoes, cucumber, and bulgur wheat plus lime juice and olive oil.
I also toasted a slice of Neighbor’s Mill multigrain bread and lay slices of Jarlsberg cheese on it and melted the cheese in the microwave for 23 seconds.
I filled a glass with ice water and took the salad, bread, and water out to the gazebo where I enjoyed a lovely lunch in the afternoon warmth.
I came in and checked my portfolio and was pleased that it was up .2% after a very up and down day in the market. A gain is always better than a loss.
I then drove to my 3:00 dental appointment and returned home at 4:30.
When I returned Suzette was at home and ready to cook dinner because she had not eaten anything all day. We decided to switch from a traditional lasagna made with a red sauce to a scallop lasagna with a white sauce because we wanted to use the scallops we had thawed.
She gathered up the ingredients she wanted me to slice and a board and my knife. I sliced and diced 1/3 sweet onion, the remaking 1/4 lb. of lion’s mane mushroom, about 10 mushrooms, and a canned pimiento.
While I was slicing Suzette had fetched the bags of thawed scallops, grated mozzarella cheese, and ricotta cheese from the garage and spun a basket full of the chard we processed last Sunday when we returned home from our long road trip.
I then went to the garden and picked a small clump of thyme and Suzette picked a big handful of chives that I minced finely and added to the skillet in which she was sautéing the scallops. She was simultaneously sautéing the vegetables in another large The scallops, thyme, and chives.
The scallops, thyme, and chives
She had softened about 1/2 lb. of lasagna noodles in a point of boiling water and soon was ready to construct the lasagna. The last step was to make a cheese sauce to spread over the second layer of lasagna.
She had placed a layer of cooked lasagna noodle sheets on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex baking dish and then lay a layer of fresh chard and then on it a layer of ricotta cheese, and then another of cooked noodle sheets, then then the sautéed scallops and vegetables, then a layer of noodles and finally Mornay sauce and a dusting of grated Pecorino Romano cheese.
I grated a cup of Pecorino Romano cheese while Suzette made a roux with flour and butter I fetched from the garage fridge. I then poured milk into the roux while Suzette stirred and whisked the sauce to eliminate any lumps of roux. When the sauce was smooth we added three or four handfuls of the grated mozzarella while Suzette stirred to complete the mornay sauce, which she spread on top of the third layer of noodles and we then dusted the top of the mornay sauce with the Pecorino - Romano cheese and baked the lasagna on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes until it bubbled at the edges.
When the shipment of white wine arrived from Konstantin Frank yesterday we chilled a bottle of Salmon Run Riesling, which is their lower end Riesling that sells for $11.99/ bottle.
Here is a description of the wine from the vineyard’s website.
Profile
TASTING NOTES
Bright fresh fruit with dominant characters of fresh pineapple and lemon sorbet. The light sweetness is well balanced by a refreshing acidity and a soft mouth feel.
VINEYARD NOTES
Grapes for Salmon Run wines come from local Finger Lakes growers and from younger Dr. Konstantin Frank estate vines.
WINEMAKER NOTES
The 2018 vintage showed how much weather conditions can change during the growing season. Budbreak and flowering were a bit late, beginning in June. July recorded some of the hottest and driest days in the Finger Lakes, perfect conditions for ripening. Several weeks of rain in September forced us to be very selective in the vineyard. Several tries through the vineyard dropping poor fruit before harvesting only the best quality bunches. Harvest finished earlier than normal.
VINEYARD
Grapes for Salmon Run wines come from local Finger Lakes growers and from younger Dr. Konstantin Frank estate vines.
WINEMAKING
Immediately after harvest, the grapes are de-stemmed and pressed. The juice is fermented at low temperatures in stainless steel to preserve the more delicate flavors. The wine is aged in stainless steel until the following Spring, blended, and bottled without oak aging.
We poured glasses of the Salmon Riesling and tasted it. It had acidity and a slight sweetness but the two did not seem to balance very well together, perhaps because it was a monopole of grapes from many different vineyards and many immature plants. Suzette’s critique, which I shared, was, “It is a good wine, not a great wine.”
When the lasagna had baked for 45 minutes Suzette cut squares of it and plated them and we enjoyed the lovely scallop lasagna with its creamy white sauce.
Every bite of lasagna seemed so light and creamy, bathed in the sweet wine.
Later, during Rachel Maddow’s show, Suzette served us scoops of chocolate ice cream bathed with her homemade maraschino cherries and juice for a nice finish to a lovely meal.
We soaked in the hot tub at 8:30 and went to bed at 9:00 so we could awaken at 4:30 to view the lunar eclipse.
I actually awakened around 2:30 and read the rest of the May 10, 2021 New Yorker UFO article and blogged checked the Market futures, which were up and then went out at 3:30 and did not see any evidence of an eclipse, but by 4:00 as I finish this blog edition 1/4 of the moon’s visible surface is eclipsed.
We are going to set up Suzette’s new telescope and watch the eclipse as one day of good food and activity seems to be seamlessly flowing into another.
Bon Appetit
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