August 28, 2022 Breakfast - Serrano Ham and Cabot Cheddar Cheese Omelet. Lunch -Sautéed Pesto Pasta Dinner -Rib Steak with Corn and Caprese Salad

August 28, 2022  Breakfast - Serrano Ham and Cabot Cheddar Cheese Omelet. Lunch -Sautéed Pesto Pasta Dinner -Rib Steak with Corn and Caprese Salad

I woke up at 5:30 and started watching the news programs at 6:00 and PL soccer came on at 7:00. There were several terrific speakers on Fareed Zacharia.  One was the former safety director for NYC talking about how cities are reducing parking spaces and streets for car traffic and converting them to pedestrian and bike friendly areas. The most interesting fact was that Oslo has had no pedestrian or car deaths this year. The other was a British professor who talked about inflation.

The other things happening are a build up of Russian troops in the war in Ukraine and a new heavy lift rocket test planned for tomorrow that will take astronauts back to the moon.

I chopped 3 slices of Serrano ham and Suzette sliced Cabot cheddar cheese and made a hammer and cheese omelet. It is fun integrating the wonderful ingredients that are leftover from our parties into new dishes.

I then watched Tottenham beat Fulham on 2 Kane goals to go into 3rd place in the PL

 

I rested for much of the afternoon while Suzette watched remodeling shows.

At 2:00 Suzette came to ask me if I wanted some pasta.  I asked and found out it was the leftover pesto pasta shells from the party.  I requested that she add some slices of Stuffed green olives.  Soon she called and said the dish was ready. We quickly decided to open a bottle of Chianti Classico (Trader Joe’s $5.99).

The sautéed pasta was delicious, especially with the green olive slices.

I lay down after lunch and rested and read the Mammoth Hunters until 5:00. We went to the garden and Picked basil leaves and thyme.

At 5:30 I made the Caprese Salad by alternating slices of ripe tomatoes from our garden, red onion, fresh mozzarella, and basil leaves.  Suzette made a lovely dressing with the fancy olive oil and balsamic vinegar we bought on our last trip to California.

Suzette asked me to find the jiffy cobbler recipe so she could make a each and blueberry cobbler for dessert.

Here is the recipe.

I then de-stemmed and quartered about 3 oz. of lovely shiitake mushrooms Suzette had bought at the Farmers’ Market and stripped and added the leaves off the sprigs of thyme we picked in the garden.

At 6:30 Monika, Alexi, and Aaron arrived with a round of Hadiston spruce wrapped cheese from Vermont, which I had bought a smaller wheel of at Smith’s ad a bottle of 2019 Tinto from Chile. I had chilled what is probably the last bottle of La Dans rose on the planet, one of the wines we bought in our Ill-fated Romanian wine venture.

Suzette suggested we eat outside at the gazebo, but soon after we went outside we were attacked by mosquitoes.  I learned something interesting when Monika asked, “Do you know what blood type you are?”

She told me that mosquitoes will not seek blood from persons of that type of blood.

When Suzette went to prep dinner we took a vote and it was unanimous that Suzette was of the zero exposure blood type and we were not of that blood type and we would go back inside to eat dinner.

We arranged ourselves around the table in

Suzette was boiling ears of fresh white corn she bought at the a farmers’ market and grilling the two steaks and sautéing Shishito peppers and shiitake mushrooms with fresh thyme.  Aaron opened the bottle of Tinto and we poured glasses of it. Suzette had made a Delice Sauce by whipping horseradish and heavy cream.

When Suzette brought in the steaks. I sliced them both while Suzette placed an ear of corn on each plate.  Aaron stripped the kernels off Alexi’s 1/2 ear of corn and cut her steak into bite-sized pieces.  Soon we began serving ourselves and rolling the ears on a stick of butter.

The rib steak was a little over cooked and tough but the tomahawk rib steak was perfectly grilled to medium rare uniformly throughout the steak.

I took three slices of rib steak and two small pieces of tomahawk but after I tasted the tomahawk I asked for two more pieces of it.

The heavier Tinto was perfect with the steaks.  It was fruity and also had some fruitiness but without a lot of acidity.  I did not discern any youthful acidity.

After dinner we opened we opened a bottle of Calstar 2013 Sangiacomo Pinot Noir, my favorite Pinot at this time, and ate most of the creamy Muenster style Hadiston cheese with crackers.

Monika mentioned kefir, a liquid form of yogurt, and I poured us each a glass of mint flavored kefir I had bought at Istanbul Market.

Finally Suzette fetched the vanilla ice cream and served cobbler with a scoop of ice cream.

We finished dessert at a bit before 9:00.  Since that was close to Alexi and our bed time when we said goodnight and I gave Monika a wheel of Hadiston spruce wrapped cheese.

What a wonderful meal and so simply prepared.

Bon Appetit