May 27, 2021 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam takeout. Dinner - Sautéed Duck Breasts with a Maraschino Cherry Cream Sauce and a Brussels Sprouts, onion, Potato, and garlic scape casserole

May 27, 2021 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam takeout. Dinner - Sautéed Duck Breasts with a Maraschino Cherry Cream Sauce and a Brussels Sprouts, onion, Potato, and garlic scape casserole 

Some days I eat to live but most days I live to eat.  Today was of the latter variety. Thank god.

I remembered when we visited the Cro Magnon decorated caves in the Vezeres region of the Dordogne River Valley in France being told that the inhabitants had awful tooth decay because the main part of their diet was the abundant black walnuts that had high concentrations of acid.  When the dentist told me I had several cavities two days ago I realized they were caused by the huge amount of nuts and granola I have been eating,  so as of yesterday I gave up granola and nuts and started gargling with a fluoride mouth wash.

My teeth feel cleaner and better after two days.

So this morning I ate blueberry yogurt with blueberries and sliced banana without granola.

I went to an appointment at 10:15 and then a podiatry appointment at 11:30, after which I drove to Trader Joe’s and bought two bottles of cognac and nine bottles of wine and a container of artichokes.

I drove home and arrived at 12:50, just 10 minutes before Peter arrived with lunch.  To my surprise he had bought two excellent entrees, a pho soup with noodles and a grilled duck leg quarter and one of 2000 Vietnam’s signature dishes, grilled marinated beef wrapped shrimp on rice.

Since I knew we would cook duck breasts for dinner, when Peter offered me the choice of dishes I chose the beef wrapped shrimp.

Peter loved his duck and noodles with soup and I loved the beef wrapped shrimp.  I made us glasses of Vietnamese iced coffee and after lunch I set up the computer and fetched the almond cookies and chocolate cookies and refreshed our iced coffees before we zoomed with the book club at 2:00 to discuss Washington Square by Henry James. 

The meeting was an engaging and lively discussion with many interesting critiques expressed.  It was the book club’s first Henry James novel and almost everyone was impressed by this work by one of America’s greatest authors.

After the club ended at 4:00 and Peter left I checked my portfolio and was pleasantly surprised that it increased .23% ion a day when there was pressure on the big tech stocks.  The increase was helped by gains by Moderna and AirBNB.

Then I tried unsuccessfully to host a zoom meeting for the zen Group, but thankfully Sandi was able to connect us through a prior meeting log in and Dennis, she, and I were able to meditate.

Suzette arrived while I was meditating and after we finished I removed the package of four duck breasts from the fridge and put a bottle 2012 Signaroues Cotes du Rhone produced by Pierre Henri Morel (Total Wine $14.99 less 20% in 2015).

This is the smoothest Cotes du Rhone I usually drink. If I had unlimited resources I would buy Chateau Beaucastel for $110./bottle with a blend of all 13 approved blending grapes, but for me this $15.00 bottle with a blend of four or five grapes is good enough to give an indication of the complexity of good Southern Rhone reds.

We agreed to roast Brussels Sprouts, onion, potato, rosemary, and garlic scapes.

I cubed the potatoes and onion and de stemmed the tough end from each Brussels sprout and sliced each in half and lay those ingredients on a bed of garlic scapes and rosemary sprigs in a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex baking dish.  Suzette pre-heated the oven and then tossed the vegetables with salt, pepper, and olive oil, covered them with a sheet of aluminum foil and placed them in a 350 degree oven and baked them for 45 minutes covered and then 15 minutes uncovered.

Suzette then sautéed both sides of the four duck breasts Bobby Flay style weighed down with a skillet filled with water.  

She then poured off all the duck fat except for two T. of fat and added two T. of flour and whisked it for three minutes to make a roux.  We then added port, maraschino Cherry juice and a dozen maraschino cherries, wine, honey, and finally water to create a Cherry cream sauce.

I opened the wine and when the vegetable casserole was cooked I sliced 1 1/2 breasts and plated 5 slices of breast on each plate and we served ourselves spoonfuls of the roasted vegetable casserole and cherry cream sauce, and Suzette poured the wine.

We took our plates and glasses of wine out to the table under the gazebo to enjoy an al fresco dinner.

Soon we noticed that the Coopers Hawk was sitting on the top of a telephone pole by our yard waiting for us to finish dinner and leave the garden so it could drink from the bird bath.

At 8:00 we returned to the house as the sun set in a golden glow to watch a new episode of Midsomer Mystery.  We sipped the rest of the wine and then cognac and cookies.

At 9:30 Suzette went to sleep and I stayed up to see one of my favorite episodes of Endeavour, a PBS Masterpiece Theater Mystery presentation.

This one is a favorite because the plot tracks the libretto of an Italian opera, but within the framework of a British police mystery.  The production quality is also first rate.

At 11:00 I blogged until 12:30 under a sugar, food, and alcohol induced head of steam.

I love days like this.

Bon Appetit