May 19, 2023 Lunch with Mike, Dinner - Chicken Cacciatore with Pasta in a Burrata Cream Sauce and Steamed Broccoli

May 19, 2023 Lunch with Mike Dinner - Chicken Cacciatore with Pasta in a Burrata Cream Sauce and Steamed Broccoli 

I ate granola with milk and strawberries and yogurt and blueberries for breakfast.

Mike called and I invited him to come for lunch.

I researched a case in the morning and think I resolved an issue and sent the research to my client.

Mike came at 12:45 after took three leftovers out of the fridge; a chili Relleno burrito, the PPI smoked trout and rice and orzo and the Eggplant in garlic sauce.

He drank a glass of the Puccini Chianti and I heated the Eggplant and the trout in the microwave and opened the chilled bottle of French Palantir Sauvignon Blanc and poured myself a glass. When the food was heated I spooned 1/2 into each of two bowls and we ate.  

Then I wrapped the burrito in Saran and heated it and then cut in half and we each ate one half.

I l let Mike taste the Sauvignon Blanc and he liked it so I poured him a glass of it with the burrito.

Suzette came home at this point and heated the PPI rice and orzo with zucchini and drank a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.  We had a lively discussion about Mike’s new friend who he is living with who has MS and Suzette gave him lots of advice about care options.

I then peeled and sectioned an orange and cut slices of cloud cake and doused them with creme anglais and orange sections for dessert.

                                            The scraped dessert plate

Then I fetched and poured sips of Maison Serene cognac.

Suzette was making beef stock and seasoned it with lovage that we tasted when we tasted the broth.

When we were finished with our cognacs we took a tour of the garden and finally stuffed sandwich bags full of oregano, sage, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, and mint for Mike.

At 3:00 Mike left and I drove to Smith’s to shop.  I bought strawberries, a beautiful bunch of large asparagus, two lovely filet Mignon steaks, bagels, cream cheese, Roma tomatoes, two cartons of ice cream, a package of chocolate cookies, and a La Brea baguette.

When I returned Suzette started cooking dinner.  She began by sautéing the four large chicken leg quarters I bought at El Super in a skillet weighed down with a skillet filled with water. Then she added Ragu spaghetti sauce to the PPI shrimp scampi in red sauce and coated the sautéed chicken in a Pyrex baking dish with the sauce.  She then covered the partially cooked chicken quarters with the red sauce and baked the chicken covered with aluminum foil in the oven for an hour.

I de-flowered flowerets from a head of broccoli and suzette steam them.

When the chicken was fully cooked Suzette heated some of the PPI Pasta in a Burrata Cream Sauce that she spooned a pile of into a pasta bowl and lay a cooked chicken quarter on it and lay steamed broccoli beside the pasta.

I fetched a bottle of Vi di Flor Chianti Classico (Trader Joe’s $6.99?) and Suzette opened it and poured glasses.

We watched the news and then game 1 of the Western Finals of the Stanley Cup between Dallas and Las Vegas.

We switched from the game to news during intermissions.  Dallas tied in the last minute of regulation but lost during the first overtime period 4 to 3.

We went to bed after regulation so the game ended shortly after we got into bed.

Suzette went sleep and I stayed up to blog.

Te best part of the day was the leisurely long lunch of leftovers with Mike.

Bon Appetit