July 19, 2021 Lunch - No. 30 from 2000 Vietnamese Restaurant. Dinner - Artichokes Provencal with Chicken and Couscous

July 19, 2021 Lunch - No. 30 from 2000 Vietnamese Restaurant. Dinner - Artichokes Provencal with Chicken and Couscous 

I woke up at 7:30 as Suzette was leaving for work.

The Market was plunging so at 8:20 I walked 3/4 mile on 1 sugar pill.

I became tired toward the end of the walk so when I returned I ate a bowl of granola with milk, yogurt, banana, and blueberries.

I rested until 10:00 and then showered and dressed and drove to my first private yoga session that Luke gave me for my birthday.

I really liked the session and how helpful Avery was in getting into the positions and intensifying the stretch. I felt better after the session as I drove to the bank, and then picked up a No. 30 at 2000 Vietnamese Restaurant.  They know my taste because they added two extra containers of fish sauce.  

I then drove to Sprouts where I bought tuna, salmon, and scallops for sushi plus milk and yogurt.

Then I stopped at Lowe’s on the way home and bought tonic water and club soda.

When I returned home and unpacked groceries, I ate a wonderful No. 30 with extra basil and cilantro.  

After lunch I revised a contract and then lay down for a nap.  I must have been tired because I slept until Suzette arrived at 6:15.

Suzette did not want to cook, but suggested I cook the artichoke Provencal dish.

I checked the recipe.  It is simple.  Here it is.

1. Cook 1/2 chopped onion, 2 chopped garlic cloves and a pinch of salt in a skillet with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 5 minutes. Pour in 1/2 cup white wine and reduce by half. Add 2 chopped tomatoes, two 9-ounce packages frozen artichoke hearts, 3 tablespoons water, 1 strip lemon zest and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 6 minutes. Stir in chopped olives, basil and salt and pepper.

I diced 1/2 onion, 3 small cloves of garlic, 1 1/2 carrots, 1/4 golden zucchini, 1/2 of a chicken breast that I sautéed for about 10 minutes in 2 T. of olive oil and cvered the skillet to steam and cook the ingredients.  Then I added 1 can of artichoke hearts cut in half, 2 tomatoes diced, and about 12 Kalamata olives cut in half and 1 tsp. of salt. 

In another sauce pan I melted 2 T. of butter and added 3/4 cup of couscous and sautéed the couscous for several minutes and added about 1 1/4 cup of hot water and reduced the heat and covered the pan.

In about five minutes the couscous was cooked so we served ourselves bowls of couscous and the artichoke dish.  

It was delicious and there was enough left of both dishes to achieve what I had suggested for the meal Sunday; to serve the couscous and artichokes Provençal with the PPI salmon from last night’s dinner, which we will eat tomorrow night.

After dinner and after Suzette went to bed at 9:00, I made 

Chicken Salad.

I chopped finely celery, 1 chicken breast, 1/2 red onion, an apple, and 4 hard boiled eggs and added them.  I added about 1 1/2 cup of Mayo, about. 1 T. of Moderna white vinegar, and 1 T. of Dijon mustard.

I ate some clafoutis with a cup of chai and then refrigerated the chicken salad and clafoutis and wrote this blog.

Let me repeat that Elaine’s salad and Nancy’s grilled salmon were as good as any I have ever eaten.  Elaine’s salad featured baby Lima beans and sugar snap peas with strawberries, blue cheese, baby arugula, and micro greens.  Wonderfully delicious and as good or better than the bean salad I ate at Blue Hill in NYC 20 years ago.

Nancy’s grilled salmon was equally memorable.  It equaled or exceeded the freshness and tenderness because she bought it at Whole Foods and grilled it to just beyond seared.  The center was hot and just beyond gelatinous, where the flakes flaked but contained all their internal natural oils.

This salmon matched the best I have ever tasted in Philo, CA.  We were visiting Philo and Booneville for the Annual Pinot festival in May several years ago.  The grocery store in Philo owns its own fishing trawler that goes out at night and fishes for salmon that it brings back to Mendocino and is then trucked the twenty miles to Philo.  We bought the salmon fillet in the morning and seared it for dinner in a manner similar to the way Nancy grilled it, so that the flakes fell apart when touched by a fork and expressed the full flavor of the salmon.  I liked it better than raw salmon.

Bon Appetit