July 25, 2022 Lunch - Chicken Noodle Soup with Ribbles. Dinner - Sautéed Salmon fillets with Hollandaise Sauce, Salad, and New Recipe: Sautéed Beets, couscous, and asparagus tips

July 25, 2022  Lunch - Chicken Noodle Soup with Ribbles. Dinner - Sautéed Salmon fillets with Hollandaise Sauce, Salad, and New Recipe: Sautéed Beets, couscous, and asparagus tips

Finally a day with three meals.

Suzette left around 7:30.

I dressed early for a meeting I did not need to attend at 9:00, so I made breakfast instead. I fried two slices of bacon and two eggs over easy with a piece of toasted Russian rye spread with butter and apricot preserves.

I worked until noon and then looked in the fridge and found a 32 oz. container of Chicken Noodle Soup with Ribbles.  I was still good so I enjoyed it for lunch and made some room.

At 2:00 I drove to the bank and then to Smith’s.  As I was walking in I ran into Mike Verhagen and invited him to dinner.  We went to the cheese section as an employee threw several cheeses into the discount section, so I bought a wedge of Point Reyes Blue cheese.  I then said goodbye to Mike and  bought milk, sour cream, Pecan Sandies and Fudge Stick cookies, a chocolate and a vanilla ice cream, bagels, a 1.6 lb. Salmon fillet, asparagus, blueberries, shallots, a red, a yellow, and an orange bell pepper, 2 avocados, a cluster of tomatoes, and bananas. 

When I returned home a bit before 4:00 I called Willy and invited him to dinner and unloaded the car and put a bottle of Picton Bay Sauvignon Blanc wine in the fridge to chill and then lay down for an hour until Suzette arrived from a hard day at work.

She rested until 6:00 and then we began cooking. I peeled and diced two medium sized beets grown in the Center’s garden.

Mike arrived at 6:30 with asparagus and a lovely broccoli, radish, and lettuce salad.  I took the dressing out of the fridge and added 1 tsp. of lemon juice and some olive oil to the dressing.

I then made Hollandaise Sauce using the Mastering the Art of French cooking recipe. I whisked three egg yolks in an enameled sauce pan and  added 2 T. of water and 1 1/2 T. of lemon juice and about 1/8 tsp. of salt and a dash pepper of white pepper.

I then put the pan on the stove at low heat and added 1/2 lb. of butter in 1 T. slices until all the butter had melted. l then turned the heat off and stirred until the sauce thickened.  It was perfect. I poured it into a pitcher.

Willy arrived a bit before 7:00 and poured the wine and helped set the table on the patio.

The most interesting dish was a sautéed medley of boiled cubed beets Raised in The garden at the Center that I finely cubed, the PPI couscous and asparagus tips Mike cut. The medley was a brilliant way to combine the vegetable and carb dish int one lovely soft red colored medley that took on its own flavor characteristics.  Mike’s salad was great also.with lots of fresh broccoli, radishes and several types of lettuce.

Mike cut the salmon into four fillets and Suzette salted and peppered them and sautéed them in peanut oil on the stove, which we have discovered is the quickest way to cook in the summer.

Suzette divided the vegetable medley into four equal piles and lay a salmon fillet on or next to each pile.  We served ourselves salad and dressing and Hollandaise Sauce and we took our plates out to the patio table.

I enjoyed the meal and was impressed with how well it went with the grapefruit flavored New Zealand Picton Bay (Trader Joe’s $6.99).

After the meal we went back inside and we watched Antiques Roadshow at Sarasota, Florida at the Ringling Mansion, after which Willy left and we ate bowls of the two new ice creams with maraschino cherries, a lovely vanilla called Vividly Vanilla with a little extra vanilla flavoring and a weird and wonderful conglomeration of chunks of chocolate truffle, nuts, and cherries in chocolate ice cream called cherries and Chocolate Truffle. 

We watched the season four episode of Somebody Feed Phil on Hawaii and at 9:45 said goodnight to Mike and fell into bed.

Bon Appetit