September 12, 2021 Brunch - BST Sandwich Dinner - Oyster Stew

 September 12, 2021 Brunch - BST Sandwich   Dinner - Oyster Stew

I awakened at 5:30 and finished yesterday’s blog and then walked 2/3 mile at a good pace without pain in about twenty minutes and returned home at 8:00 just in time to see the beginning of Fareed Zacharia GPS in its entirety.

I then watched the Leeds vs. Liverpool PLMatch and the news shows.  Today was the day Chris Christy broke ranks with Trump.

Let’s hope he is the first of many more Republicans. His great quote was something like, “I have the right to change my mind when I see he was wrong about the election and insurrection.”

At 10:00 Suzette started frying bacon for BLT sandwiches.  I watched the bacon as she talked on the phone and we fetched the last of the spinach, since we had no lettuce and she fetched and sliced the large ripe Brandywine red and yellow tomato we raised in our garden.

I tasted four slices of whole wheat sandwich loaf bread and spread Mayo on each of the slices.  Then I lay spinach leaves on one slice of bread.

Suzette whisked and fried two eggs in some of the remaining bacon grease after she removed the fried bacon from the skillet to a paper towel.

Suzette made her usual Sunday Bloody Mary and I filled a glass with Clamato and juice of 1/2 lime and we then constructed our sandwiches with a fried egg, fried bacon, and slices of tomato and enjoyed a lovely brunch.

After Liverpool beat Leeds 3 to 0 we left to go shopping.  We first went to Talin, where Suzette bought teas for the spa and Vietnamese rice vermicelli noodles for a client and three packages of macaroni in the shape of a scallop shell for the center.  She bought canned pimientos, fresh beech mushrooms, shallots, Vietnamese fresh flat rice noodles, snow peas, medium tofu, egg noodles, and Shanghai baby Bok Choy for us.

We then drove to a Trader Joe’s where I bought a baguette, bagels, mission figs, Iberico cheese, a bottle of Chevalier VS cognac, an acorn squash, a delicata squash, and 12 bottles of wine, including three bottles of reserva chianti Aquino, a bottle of Aquino Pinot Grigio and one other bottle of Pinot Grigio, a Barolo, a Chateauneuf du Pape, a French Sauvignon Blanc, an Italian Rose of Pinot Grigio, a Riechard rose, a Barolo, and a wine de Assisi.

We loaded everything in the car and drove to Smith’s to buy salmon.  We were lucky. The meat department has gotten 100 lb.s extra and had marked it down from the sale price of $7.99/lb. to $5.99/lb.  The fillets were approximately 2.5 lb. each. Suzette bought two fillets and we bought two fillets for Gravad lax.  I also bought a lb. of 80% fat free ground beef for $2.99/lb. and three bottles of oysters marked down from $7.00 to $2.99/bottle because they were due to expire in two more days.

We also bought a bag of spinach and cream cheese, mushrooms, pearl onions, club soda, tonic water, and 18 eggs.

As soon as we unloaded the car, we made a gin and tonic and sat down to watch the men’s final of the US. Open at 2:20.

The No. 2 Russian Medvedev beat No.1 Djokovic in three straight sets to keep Djokovic from setting a new record of having won 21 major tournaments.

After the match we watched the 5:00 news and then made dinner.

Oyster Stew

 

We thought we better eat the oysters before their expiration date.  I diced a shallot, 1 stalk of celery, five green onions, and five small potatoes into 1/8 inch squares.  It was my best diving prep in quite a while.  Suzette went to the garden and plucked a small handful of fresh thyme, from which we de-stemmed the leaves.  Suzette then sautéed the vegetables in butter and then added milk to make the stew broth. 

While the vegetables were cooking in the broth I opened the jars?  There were three large oysters in each jar. I cut each into three or four pieces and we added them to the broth to cook.

Suzette covered the enamel casserole and cooked the oyster stew for about ten minutes to fully cook the oysters and vegetables.  

We opened one of the bottles of Pinot Grigio we bought today that I had chilled and poured glasses and added ice to chill the wine fully.

We ate the rich oyster stew with relish for our dinner.

After dinner we drank another glass of wine and watched an Agatha Christie mystery movie titled “The Crooked House.”

I poured a sniffer of cognac for Suzette and a sniffer of Calvados for me and we read in bed and I blogged this blog.

This was a day of unexpectedly exciting food and shopping for food.

Bon Appetit