October 1, 2023 Lunch Grilled Lamb chop salad. Dinner - Pasta with mussels, zucchini, and onion in Cream sauce

October 1, 2023 Lunch Grilled Lamb chop salad. Dinner - Pasta with mussels, zucchini, and onion in Cream sauce

Another two meal day.

I watched the Europeans win the Ryder Cup and news in the morning while Suzette worked in the garden. 

Things have gone a little wild in the vegetable beds but the new plantings are doing well, especially the peonies.

Suzette also gathered a handful of orange and red cherry tomatoes and one or two larger ones and a small bunch of carrots.

I started peeling and sectioning quinces today.  By dinner I judge that I had processed 10 lb.  Of the 50 lb. of quince Suzette harvested from her quince tree at the Center. Suzette then poached the slices in a medium of sugar water and lemon and bagged them in freezer bags and stored them in the garage freezer.  They are delicious and ready for making into pies.

                                                After having peeled 10 lb. of quince

For a few days we will have quince everywhere in the TV room.

Lunch 

We decided to make a salad for lunch by grilling the two lamb chops and beets and using the cherry tomatoes, plus a green onion sliced thinly several of the carrots sliced, and a mixture of bibb and romaine lettuce.

I also peeled and sliced the three red beets I bought at El Super and Suzette grilled them with the lamb chops.

While Suzette grilled the lamb chops, I made the salad.

I had also thawed the goat cheese, so i garnished each salad with two wedges of goat cheese and made a dressing with a few crumbles of goat cheese, the new Spanish olive oil, and a drizzle of Italian Kirkland Balsamic  vinegar.

We poured glasses off chilled Carayon Rose (Trader Joe’s).

It was wonderful to be back home where we could eat fresh vegetables and herbs grown in our garden.

During the day we also snacked on a few bites of Vita pickled herring with the herring salad made by the Greenhouse Bistro crew. 

After lunch Suzette worked at her desk and I watch NFL football and Joe Biden wish Jimmy Carter a Happy 99th Birthday by zoom.

Then at 6:00 we started dinner.

Dinner 

We needed to use the 32 oz. of mussels we had steamed and shucked yesterday, so we decided to combine them into a cream sauce with onion, garlic, and diced zucchini to serve over a bowl of linguine.

I sliced 1/3 onion, three cloves of garlic, five Portobello mushrooms, and a zucchini while Suzette boiled the linguine.

Suzette then made a cream sauce and sautéed the onion, garlic, mushrooms, and zucchini.

She then folded the sautéed vegetables and mussels into the cream sauce and added some Arack to give the sauce a slightly licorice flavor.

She then plated the linguine in pasta bowls and covered it with the mussel cream sauce.

Willy came over at 7:00 to join us for dinner.

And Rahim came by to check the downloading of a document and talked to Willy for a minute or two.

I fetched a bottle of chilled Picton Bay Sauvignon Blanc (Trader Joe’s) from the garage and poured three glasses.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner, probably because a mushroom and garlic cream sauce is one our favorite sauces with seafood.

Here is a picture of the sauce and pasta left after the meal, which will be enough for another meal.

After dinner we ate a few slices of the poached quince and then Willy left.

We watched some TV but we were tired and Suzette went to bed at 9:00.

I tried to watch Astrid, but fell asleep in front of the TV and went to bed at 11:20.

I feel very lucky that we can enjoy the produce grown at the Center, in our garden, and food tastings from the Greenhouse Bistro.

Suzette and I are interactive with the kitchen crew at the Bistro when a new menu is being developed to perfect the menu and helping source ingredients, such as the current German Journey menu 

We also support the Bistro kitchen staff sometimes, like processing the large quantity of quince this year.

Bon Appetit