July 21, 2021 Lunch - chicken Salad salad Dinner - Grilled Rib Steak and Asparagus with a baked potato
Days like this make me very happy. I spent the morning and part of the afternoon doing legal work as my Portfolio marched to a new high. It started out slowly and then by the afternoon every stock except Apple seemed to go higher, ratcheting a 1.46% gain.
I awakened at 6:45 and received a call from a client at 7:15. I then ate my usual bowl
of granola, yogurt, milk, and blueberries and 1/2 of a sliced banana.
I worked on a case until 10:00 when I rode to the Nature Center and back. It took over and hour and I was tired when I returned, so I rested until Suzette made us lunch at 11:30. She made a simple salad like yesterday’s of a bed of Romaine lettuce with some diced tomato and a scoop of chicken salad, except today she laid the chicken salad in a peeled and seeded avocado half, which made for a much more elegant and creamy salad.
I drizzled a bit of olive oil and Moderna white vinegar on my salad for a light dressing.
We ate outside in the garden. It was a cool day with a slight breeze, so very relaxing.
After lunch I took one of the big 2 1/2 lb. rib steaks we had hand cut with zsuzette’s power saw out of the freezer to thaw and then rested and then enjoyed watching the Market power to a new high for me until 2:00. I then filed my first monthly gross receipt tax return using the State’s new on line system. It proved to be surprisingly easy, so I guess I am acculturated to manipulating forms on the Internet, although I did study the tutorial.
Then I received a call from a client regarding a purchase of real estate that required a revised purchase agreement that took me until after 4:00 to complete.
At 4:30 I put 4 russet potatoes into the oven to bake at 375 degrees for one hour.
A bit after 5:00 Suzette came home from running errands all afternoon. She was hot and took a shower and relaxed for a few minutes and then we started preparing dinner.
Grilled steak and Asparagus
I had bought a 2.25 lb. bag of lovely medium sized asparagus at Costco yesterday for $4.99.
Suzette snapped the tough ends off about 14 asparagus stalks and then tossed the asparagus in a 1 gallon freezer bag with salt, pepper and olive oil. The steak was still quite frozen so Suzette defrosted the steak in the microwave and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
She then heated the grill and when she put the steak and asparaguses on the grill I went to the garden and harvested about a dozen chives and sliced then thinly and put the slices in a shallow bowl and fetched the new container of crema natural (sour cream) I bought at El Super.
As you can see this is a meal we prepare so often that we can prepare it on auto-pilot.
Although this meal was different because we made a new sauce to serve with the steak triggered by Suzette saying the magic word, “I think horseradish might be good with the steak.”
I call the sauce Delice Sauce. It is a sauce I used to make in Texas to serve when we would grill a whole tenderloin. It is easy to make, simply whip some heavy cream and add horseradish and salt to taste. Suzette whipped it up in a minute or two as I was slicing the steak.
The wine
The only issue to be decided was the wine. We decided to drink a good wine and then when I saw the new bottle of 2018 Calstar Cellars Petit Meunier red we decided to try it. Neither of us had ever drunk a bottle of Petit Meunier red, so this was new territory for us.
I opened the bottle while the steak and asparaguses were grilling and we tried it. It had a slightly harsh flavor, but Suzette said, “It needs to open. Let’s pour it into a carafe.”
She was correct because in just a few minutes after she poured the wine into a ceramic carafe its bitterness disappeared and it became a delightfully fruity bright berry flavored light red wine. We loved it and drank the entire bottle, so it met the excellent bottle test. In fact I will buy more bottles of Petit Meunier and thank Rick of Calstar for making it and suggesting I try it.
Perhaps part of the enjoyment of the wine was due to the fact that Suzette cooked the steak and asparaguses perfectly. The asparagus were tender but not too tough or too limp and the steak was cooked from medium well one one end to rare in the middle depending on which part of it one ate. There was lots of steak left so I am thinking about making French onion soup. Also I saw the leeks I bought at El Super in the fridge outside, so I think I will make Vichyssoises.
As we ate we watched the President’s Town Hall with Don Lemon until we were tired of him telling people to get vaccinated and turned the TV to Rachel Maddow. We each ate a bowl of chocolate ice cream with a glass of cognac to celebrate a successful meal and then we went to bed before 9:00. Suzette made a more elaborate sundae with freshly whipped cream, 1/2 of a banana sliced, and several of her homemade maraschino cherries.
I woke up around 12:30 and blogged this blog as I often do after a big meal of steak.
Then I pitted several cherries and put them in the maraschino Cherry liquid to refresh the maraschino cherries.
Bon Appetit
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