July 29, 2023 Smoked Pork cutlet, Mushroom, Onion, Feta, and tomato Omelette, Dinner Party at Blaugrunds.

July 29, 2023 Smoked Pork cutlet, Mushroom, Onion, Feta, and tomato Omelette, Dinner Party at Blaugrunds.

I watched soccer while the plumbers continued for the second day to dig  out the leaking pipe in the basement (they had to tunnel from the crawl space under the house through the dirt under the front porch like the Great Escape to reach the leak and replace the leaking pipe).

Then around 10:00 as soon as we had water again we flushed all the toilets that would flush (my toilet would not flush) and took showers.

Then around 11:00 we made breakfast.

 Suzette chopped and sautéed a smoked Pork chop and sliced some double Danish feta while I diced onion and mushrooms, three red cherry and three small red tomatoes. 

I added the diced vegetables to the sauté pan and stirred them and whisked three eggs while Suzette talked on the phone.

I then added some olive oil and then the egg to the pan and Suzette crumbled and added the feta cheese.

After a few minutes the egg began to set and stick to the pan, so I could not flip the entire half and tore only as much as would fit on my spatula.

The result was a stuck together patchwork of pieces like a Rick Dillingham pot.

I toasted two slices of bread and spread them with butter and French Bonne Marie cherry preserves and made a cup of Earl Grey tea.  Suzette drank coffee.

After lunch I went to the cellar and replaced the wooden door to the crawl space and selected a 2020 Dr. Konstantin Pinot Blanc and a 2019 De Ponte Dundee Hills Pinot Noir and chilled them. I also carried the rest of my short sleeve shirts stored in the cedar closet in the basement to my closet upstairs and carried some long sleeved shirts down to the closet. 

I had to lie down after that and to try to catch up on my soccer watching induced lack of sleep and then at 1:30 I drove to Kaufman’s and bought an assortment of tomato and basil, plain, rye, and everything bagels and three 8 oz. tubs of scallion cream cheese smear.

At 5:30 we started getting ready for the Blaugrund’s dinner party.  Suzette made two gift bags with four bagels, a tub of cream cheese smear, a red onion, and I sliced a slab of Gravad lax in half and wrapped them in Saran and put a 1/2 slab in each bag.

We then fetched the chilled white and red bottles of wine and the fresh Bosque Bakery Rustic baguette and drove to the Blaugrunds, arriving at 6:20. Suzette took a scotch and Nancy mixed herself a drink, when I saw that Nancy had set the round table in the TV room with three cheeses, olives, and crackers for appetizers I suggested we open the bottle of Pinot noir. Clift followed my lead and took a glass of Pinot.  It was a little tight and had a slightly musty after taste that diminished as it opened up but it did not achieve the fruitiness of the De Ponte 2016s I have drunk.

The cheeses were lovely.  Nancy had the cheese guy at Whole Foods select them. One was probably a Stilton, one was a soft French cheese like St. Andre, but not as dense, and the other appeared to be a farm house cheddar.  When the Chews arrived we all sat and chatted around the table as we nibbled on cheese and crackers.

Then around 7:30 when Nancy had prepared supper we moved to the dining room. I opened and poured the 2020 Dr. Konstantin Frank Pinot Blanc that we bought at the winery for those who wanted. Sat and talked with Clift while everyone else helped in the kitchen. 

The first course was a Ecuadorean ceviche soup that Nancy had had on their recent trip to the Galápagos Islands.  It was a lovely cool pink shrimp, diced bell pepper, and onion limey soup that was served with fried plantain chips and pop corn as garnishments.

I loved the additional texture of the oily plantain chips and fluffy popcorn to the light citrusy broth of the soup. Wayne liked my comment that the plantain chips, “added a greasy wonderfulness,” to the soup.

The next course was Elaine’s salad of fresh greens with som escarole, blackberries, feta crumbles, and toasted almond slivers.  Yet another wonderful salad by Elaine served with toasted rounds of the Rustic baguette and butter.

I loved the fresh salad and baguette and told the group that it reminded me of the lunch we ate in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil in the Dordogne départment of south-west France where we visited the Cave of Font de Gaume.  We ate on the back patio of a small restaurant across the street from the museum near the cave. I ordered salad and shortly after I watched the chef walk past the patio to the garden and pick a basket of lettuce for my salad.  I told the group that was how fresh Elaine’s lettuce tasted and Elaine said, “Yes, we bought the lettuce at the Farmer’s Market this morning.”  Alas, it is hard to beat “fresh”.

I ate two buttered rounds of baguette, so I finished last as the plates of entrees of a sautéed breaded salmon steak, two small new potatoes garnished with dollops of sour cream and sautéed asparagus were being served. 

I poured more glasses of the Pinot Blanc and we heard more about the round the world bucket list tour that the Chews and Blaugrunds took just before the Blaugrund’s Galapagos trip.

The trip was a flying tour that stopped at at least Angkor Wat, the Taj Mahal in Agra, and Petra in Jordan.

Clift showed us a photo he bought of Angkor Wat taken by a National Geographic photographer in which the atmospheric luminescence and clarity of detail of the visual elements were enhanced by use of ultraviolet light. It was quite remarkable.

Finally it was time for dessert and I was completely surprised when Elaine and Nancy places a huge nine or ten inch round birthday cake in front of me. It was an act of love that made me feel great to the point of shedding several layers of my innate shyness instantly.

The chews left around 9:00 and we left around 10:00 at the end of a wonderful evening.

Bon Appetit