February 28, 2024 Lunch - Pita pocket sandwiches. Dinner - BBQ pork ribs with corn on the cob and sautéed baked potato wedges.

February 28, 2024 Lunch - Pita pocket sandwiches. Dinner - BBQ pork ribs with corn on the cob and sautéed baked potato wedges.

I finished cleaning the latest Gravad lax cure last night at 10:00, so the obvious breakfast this morning was lax on bagel.

                                The finished cure still lying in the curing medium

                            The rinsed, dried, wrapped and bagged Gravad lax

In the morning Suzette selected an Kaufman”s everything bagel that I cut into three slices and toasted and then spread with cream cheese. Suzette sliced slices of tomato and I sliced slices of yellow onion and Gravad lax.  Suzette garnished one slice and I took two and we both added capers.

Then at 1:30 I toasted two halves of a pita and stuffed each with slices of PPI cold grilled lamb, tomato, feta, and tzatziki plus several black olives 'for a tasty lunch.

At 3:00 I drove to Old Town for the monthly meeting of the Historic Old Town Property owners association.

When I returned home I was pleased that Suzette had arrived and had started the slab of pork ribs I bought at Smith’s yesterday cooking at 300 degrees.

She told me it would take 3 to 4 hours to cook, so I snacked on two slices of toasted baguette spread with herbed Boursin and a glass of red wine.

We watched the news and at 8:00 we boiled two ears of corn and I cut the two PPI baked potatoes into six wedges each and we sautéed the potato wedges in 2 T. of olive oil and 2 T. of butter until they were lightly browned on all 3 sides.

Suzette coated the ribs with BBQ sauce for the last hour of cooking.

When the ribs were almost ready we boiled the two ears of corn.

We carved a couple of ribs for each plate and buttered the warm cooked corn and opened a bottle of 2021 Embroidery Monterrey County Pinot Noir.

Another super filling dinner.

We went to bed shortly after dinner.

Bon Appetit

February 27, 2024. Brunch - Smoked Pork Chop and Mushroom and cheese omelet Dinner - Teriyaki Salmon with rice and Sautéd snow peas with almond slivers

February 27, 2024. Brunch - Smoked Pork Chop and Mushroom and cheese omelet  Dinner - Teriyaki Salmon with rice and Sautéd snow peas with almond slivers

I awakened to the alarm at 6:00 and showered and dressed and grabbed a fig bar and drove to my doctor’s appointment at 7:05.

After my appointment I drove home arriving about 8:30.

We decided to make breakfast.  We were in a quandary about the meat until Suzette pulled the last smoked pork chop out of the meat drawer.

I diced the smoked pork chop and minced 1/2 shallot, sliced three mushrooms and minced a clove of garlic and diced the four cold stalks of asparagus left from dinner.

Suzette began sautéing the shallot and garlic while I whisked three eggs.

We then added the asparagus and mushrooms and lay slices of the Murray’s Gruyere cheese I had bought last night at Smith’s. When everything was browned I added the egg and we cooked the egg until brown on the bottom, at which point I flipped one half onto the other half and turned off the heat and the omelet was ready.

While the omelet cooked I sliced a Kaufman’s dried tomato bagel and toasted the two halves and then spread cream cheese on each half and then lay slices of Gruyere cheese on each.

I made tea and we ate a lovely breakfast.

After breakfast we flipped the salmon to allow it  cure the other fillet.

Then Suzette went to work and I worked at my desk, including on two wills until 3:30 when i made a sandwich of salami and Gruyere cheese slices  on a slice of toasted baguette.

Suzette arrived as I was trying to back out of the garage. 

After she realized I was trying to leave she moved her car and I was able to drive to Smith’s to pick up the cane I left in the cart yesterday and buy a rack of pork ribs for $1.49/lb., the least expensive I have seen in years.

I drove home and we called a Willy to confirm dinner plans to finish preparing diner around 6:30

Dinner - I made a cup of rice at 6:00. I heated two cups of water and added 1/2 tsp. of dehydrated dashi and a few pieces of dried plaice seaweed and when the water came to a boil I stirred into the water 1 cup of rice and put the lid on the sauce pan and reduced the heat to low and simmered the rice for 30 minutes.

We snapped a handful of snow peas and Suzette sautéed them with slivered almonds in butter with a dash of salt.

Suzette put the teriyaki marinated salmon on 1 x 6 inch cedar planks she had soaked in water for about 30 minutes on the propane grill and cooked the fillets about 20 minutes.

When Willy arrived around 6:30 we decided to drink warm sake, so we heated water in an enamel sauce pan and then placed a small pitcher filled with sake into the sauce pan to heat in the simmering water.

Dinner was fabulous. I particularly liked the soft rice delicately seasoned with dashi and seaweed.

Everyone agreed that we needed to heat a second pitcher of sake.

After dinner Willy put on an episode of documentaries made documenting the  last World Cup left and then left. We watched some of the returns from the Michigan primaries and then around 9:00 Suzette went to bed.

At 10:00 I removed and rinsed clean the Gravad lax and dried it and wrapped it in Saran and bagged it and put it in the fridge.  It will stay in this cured condition for several months.

I ate a bowl of spumoni ice cream and blogged this entry and finished yesterday’s entry.

I went to bed around midnight.

Bon Appetit

February 26, 2024 Lunch - Super steak Salad. Dinner - Little neck clams with a Butter Bean Fabada style stew.

February 26, 2024 Lunch - Super steak Salad. Dinner - Little neck clams with a Butter Bean Fabada style stew. 

I ate granola with blueberries, milk, and  for breakfast.

Then I worked until 1:00 to prepare a mineral deed.

Then I made a super steak salad for lunch.  Besides about 2 oz. of PPI rib steak, I filled pasta bowl with chopped romaine lettuce, 1 1/2 diced tomato, 1/4 cucumber peeled, seeded, and diced, a hard boiled egg diced, two radishes sliced, croutons, slices of feta cheese, and thinly sliced slices of yellow onion and dressed wit Cesar salad dressing. It was a really satisfying salad.

After lunch I worked with clients until 4:00 and then drove to Smith’s to buy salmon for Gravad lax.  I was lucky that two whole 2.5 lb. filets had been marked down from $9.99 to $7.49. I also bought 8 little neck clams to make Jose Andreas’ recipe for fabes and clams, since Suzette had brought home a bag of large butter beans.

I also bought eggs, milk, bagels, a discounted wedge of Murray’s Gruyere, a plastic container of blueberries, and two bunches of large asparagus for $.99/ lb.

I was tired and left my cane in the shopping cart when I loaded my groceries into Suzette’s SUV.

When I unloaded and Suzette saw that I had bought clams she checked the Jose Andreas Tapa cookbook and prepared the Asturian bean and clam dish, but with Little neck clams substituted for River clams and butter beans substituted for Asturian beans.  The good news was that those two ingredients were available and ready to use without any extra preparation.

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What did require preparation was the sauce for the dish.

I diced 1 carrot, 5 sprigs of parsley, 2/3 of an onion, and 1 tomato that Suzette blended into a sauce in the blender.

We also steamed about 1/2 of a bundle of smaller asparagus I bought last week. This is the height of the asparagus season and I love it.

Suzette then steamed the little neck clams open and combined the sauce with the clams and beans and heated the mixture.  I toasted and buttered a few slices of baguette that we dipped and ate with the soup. It was a hearty and filling dinner that we accompanied with glasses of German dry Riesling wine (Trader Joe’s Reichart Dry Riesling $5.99).

The Antiques Roadshow was not on PBS tonight so after dinner we made Gravad lax and started marinating teriyaki salmon with the two filets of fresh salmon.

Gravad Lax - We had two bunches of fresh dill. We mixed 1 cup of salt withthe 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp. of crushed black pepper corns and lay layers of dill, and then the dry mixture on each side of the two salmon filets and I added strips of salmon to fill the edges of the 9 x 9 Pyrex baking dish. Then we weighed the fish down with a brick and refrigerated it.

Teriyaki Salmon - I made a teriyaki marinade by combining and heating 1/3 cup of sake, mirin, and soy sauce with 1 T. of sugar. We then placed the remaining pieces of salmon in a freezer bag and poured the teriyaki sauce into the bag and sealed in the sauce and placed it in a flat spot in the meat drawer of the fridge to marinate. 

We went to bed at 9:30;so I could get up at 6:00 to make my 7:15 doctor’s appointment.

Bon Appetit

February 25, 2024 Brunch - Chicken Liver and Mushroom Omelet snack - Pita pocket sandwich with steak and tomato. Dinner - Leftover Lamb Shank with broccoli , couscous, and sautéed butternut Squash sticks

February 25, 2024 Brunch - Chicken Liver and Mushroom Omelet snack - Pita pocket sandwich with steak and tomato. Dinner - Leftover Lamb Shank with broccoli , couscous, and sautéed butternut Squash sticks

Today was full of activity and good food.

I started at 7:00 watching PL soccer, the Sunday news programs, and rode a mile on the exercise bike and marinated the fresh chicken livers in sherry

Then at 10:30 I prepped a dish that my mother made for me when I was little that I loved because there were two chicken livers in the chicken we cooked last week.

I minced 1/2 of a shallot, a clove of garlic, and 1/4 cup of parsley and also sliced four mushrooms.

Then we sautéed the shallots, garlic, and mushrooms in 2 T. Each of butter and Spanish olive oil. While the vegetables sautéd, I whisked four eggs and added a dash of salt and some timur pepper on the eggs.

I then added the drained chicken livers that I had roughly diced and the parsley and in a couple of minutes when the livers were no longer red, I added the eggs.

Suzette fetched a bottle of Juve and Camps Cava from the garage fridge and we poured glasses.

When the eggs cooked to just to lightly firm, Suzette turned the heat off and served the omelet.

It was perfect, firm but soft and very flavorful as we picked bites of mushroom, egg, and liver.

Also, the light cava. Helped make it a special dish.

 

My reaction to the dish was that it was remarkably similar to the dish Mother used to cook

After brunch I lay down for a nap until 1:30, at which time I went outside and trimmed the rest of the roses and the fruit trees with Suzette whip o had covered  the raspberry and blueberry bushes with paper and straw to kill intrusive grass.

I then went in and rested until 3:30 when I cut a pita in half and toasted the two halves and filled each  with slices feta cheese, tomato, and PPI steak and then added several spoonfuls of tzatziki to each.

 I called Suzette and we each ate one half sandwich with some green olives.

I then rested until 5:00 and when I walked outside, Willy arrived and walked with me to the end of the block and back

Willy started his laundry and then Suzette heated dinner of leftovers lamb shank, couscous and snow peas and steamed broccoli.

I opened and poured glasses of Kirkland Malbec and we ate a lovely dinner.

Willy left after dinner and we watched a great 2006 movie titled Holiday starring Kate Winslet, Carmen Diaz, Jude Law, and Jack Black with some Maison Serene cognac and chocolate truffle and went to bed at 10:20.

Bon Appetit