July 27, 2024 Breakfast - 2 Pain au Chocolates and a latte, Lunch - a Lamb-burger Pita Sandwich, Dinner - BBQ Shrimp and Dirty Rice and Clafoutis

July 27, 2024 Breakfast - 2 Pain au Chocolates and a latte, Lunch - a Lamb-burger Pita Sandwich, Dinner - BBQ Shrimp and Dirty Rice and Clafoutis

 I awakened around 6:30 and began watching Olympic coverage and did so much of the day.

I ate 2 pain au Chocolate with a latte for breakfast, at 11:00 we drove to REI where we bought a pack for our trip to Spain. We then drove to Goodwill and shopped but did not find anything.

When we returned honey around 1:30 I sliced the PPI lamb-burger and heated it in the microwave . We filled pita pocket with lamb-burger shredded lettuce, tzatziki, and labni. We drank white wine with the meal.

After lunch I pitted and sliced in half about four cups of bing cherries and doused them with Grand Marnier and put them in the fridge.

 Then I drank a glass of yogurt milk and rested until 4:30 when we started preparing dinner.

I diced an onion and three stalks of celery for the dirty rice while Suzette read the recipe and measured the spices.  I then diced 3/4 cup of chicken livers and Suzette measured 3/4 cup of rice and added 2 cups of chicken stock and the spices and ingredients and cooked the dirty rice.

Hen we made the clafoutis. I scalded 1 1/2 cups each of milk and heavy cream. Then I minced 7 T. of flour and 10 T. of powdered sugar and 1/2 Tsp. of salt to which stirred in 3 eggs and then the scalded milk . Suzette had buttered a ceramic baking dish and coated the butter with granulated sugar. I stirred in the cherries and poured the batter into the ceramic baking dish and we baked it at 350 degrees for an hour.

Mike arrived at 7:00 with Sauternes, duck pate mousse, a loaf of French bread, crackers, and Roquefort cheese.

Then a few minutes later Aaron and Alex arrived. 

We put the pate and cheese on the table in he TV room and I sliced and toasted slices of French bread while Suzette prepared the BBQ shrimp.

Mike wanted a white wine so I fetched a bottle of Acrobat Pinot Gris from the garage fridge (Costco $ 11.00). Aaron and I drank Carlsberg beer and Suzette and Mike drank wine.

The shrimp had gotten terrible freezer burn and collapsed so that they were essentially mush, which made the dish fail. Suzette served the dish in the traditional manner of spoonfuls of BBQ shrimp on a pile of dirty rice.  The rice was fabulous but the only way to eat the combined dish of shrimp and rice was to peel the shrimp and combine the clumps of mealy shrimp with the rice.  The Shrimp had complete lost their structural integrity as shrimp and collapsed into clumps of shrimp pulp.

Suzette made the best comments, “We can make great shrimp burgers;” meaning an elegant egg foo young or fried rice combining Shrimp pulp and dirty rice.

Aaron did not eat any of his meal and I was too busy trying to strip shrimp pulp from the shells to notice the others.

We ate under the Gazebo and the mosquitoes were not very noticeable.

After the man course was over we went back inside and we put the warm clafoutis and bowls and spoons on the table in the TV room and each of us filled bowls with clafoutis. I fetched a bottle of Maison Serene and poured tasted for us and refilled Mike’s glass.

Aaron and Alexi left around 9:00 and Mike left around 10:00 after several calls with Joy about trying to get her medication correct at the rehab hospital she was moved to today.

A weird failed meal with a lovely dessert was had by all.

Bon Appetit