May 8, 2021 Brunch - Egg Sandwich with Sausage and cheese at Arabica. Dinner at Cathy and Jeff’s

 May 8, 2021 Brunch - Egg Sandwich with Sausage and cheese at Arabica. Dinner at Cathy and Jeff’s 

The day was dominated by a van issue.  We heard a whining sound last night in the van.  This morning we took the van to a mechanic and he tightened the belts and we drove the van to a farmer’s market in Willoughby at the village square.  It was cold, about 40 degrees and not many people but all the stores were open.  We bought three items at the booths: we bought a lovely bag of specialty mushrooms, three kinds of oyster mushrooms and a lion’s mane mushroom; a bottle of maple syrup and a sympathy card to send to Penny Rembe upon the death of Armin.

Half way through the booths we walked across the street to the open shops.  We went into a coffee shop named Arabica and were pleased to see they served egg sandwiches because we were hungry.

We ordered egg sandwiches with sausage and cheese. Suzette had hers on sour dough and I had mine on an everything bagel.  I ordered a chai latte and Suzette ordered a coffee with steamed milk.

This was the best egg sandwich I have ever eaten.  The bagel was toasted in a panini machine and the two eggs were baked in the oven which puffed them up to over an inch thick and made for a lovely thick sandwich.

This was my first egg sandwich with a bagel and the first panini style egg sandwich and the first made with a panini press with a thick slice of egg.

After breakfast we drove to Columbus and took the van to a Firestone shop to have a new belt replace the old belt that was stripped of its teeth.

Jeff and Cathy picked us up at 3:00 and took us to their house in Galena.

When we arrived Cathy prepared appetizers for a late afternoon snack that included salami, Stilton cheese, an interesting Herbs de Provence coated cheese, pimento stuffed olives, guacamole with dipping chips and crackers.

We drank the rest of the Red Newt Cabernet Franc and then Jeff fetched a bottle of Ruffino Chianti Superiore and we drank that also.

We had brought a bottle of Herman J. Wiemer Field Blend white, a blend of Gruner Vitliner, Riesling, and Chardonnay grapes bought from other vineyards. 

 Here are Wiemer’s note on their field blend:

Field White

Young-vine Grüner Veltliner sets the foundation for our Field White. Regional staples Riesling and Chardonnay fill its aromatic and fruit profile. With texture, length, and a lithe structure, we think it’s what an everyday Finger Lakes white should be.

Ripeness was a given in 2016. We organized thirty-four hand picks in our Riesling blocks alone. To underpin that weight, without losing texture, we blended pressed juice from a Chardonnay vin clair (sparkling base wine) picked in 2015.

VARIETAL COMPOSITION:

40% Gruner Veltliner, 40% Riesling, 20% Chardonnay

VINTAGES:

2015-2018

VINEYARD:

Seneca Lake AVA

VINIFICATION:

Hand-sorted, stainless steel fermentation with indigenous yeasts

Wiemer is as close to a family owned wine conglomerate as I have ever seen.  It owns vineyard. it manages other owner’s vineyards.  It buys other’s grapes to make its own wines.  It operates a nursery that produces over 400,000 bare root grape vines per year that it sells all over the country. We had 

It is evolving into a wholly biodynamic vineyard.  We bought 15 bottles of wine.  Among them was a bottle of their super delicious bio Riesling that garnered 93 points from Robert Parker.

I can not think of anything related to wine Wiemer does not do.  It is the Apple of Finger Lake wine making and we were thrilled to see its operation, learn its history, and taste its wines.

We chilled the field blend white and watched some news as Cathy started preparing dinner at 6:30.

The dinner was simple and healthy and interesting. Cathy seared four 6 oz. salmon fillets for 1 minute on each side and then baked them in the oven for five minutes.  The result was an incredibly tender piece of fish that melted in your mouth.

The other dish was a medley of broccolini, grape tomatoes, red onion slices, and thick slices of feta cheese drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Italian seasoning and baked in the oven for fifteen minutes.  Cathy and Jeff said the vegetable medley was a New York Times recipe. The salmon and broccolini were purchased at Whole Foods, so of top quality.

I poured the chilled white field blend and we had a lovely meal.

Jeff and Kathy, being from Pennsylvania, are Phillies fans, so we watched the Phillies play the Atlanta Braves until the end of the 11th inning when the game was tied 4 to 4 and we went to bed at 11:30. 

During the game Jeff drank a scotch and Suzette and I drank lemincello. At the 7th inning stretch Cathy served us bowls filled with a soft custard ice cream, with a dollop of whipped cream and a fresh berry compote.  This was a really nice dessert.

Sunday morning Jeff told me that Philly scored 3 runs in the 12th inning and then the Braves scored 4 runs to win the game.

Bon Appetit