March 23, 2025 Brunch - Mushroom, Mozzarella, and Red onion omelet with achiote. Lunch - Mr. Pho with Etienne Dinner - Roast Duck with Sautéed Red Cabbage, Leek, Apple, and Chestnut

 March 23, 2025 Brunch - Mushroom, Mozzarella, and Red onion omelet with achiote. Lunch - Mr. Pho with Etienne  Dinner - Roast Duck with Sautéed Red Cabbage, Leek, Apple, and Chestnut 

I watched the news until 11:00 then we made Brunch, an omelet contains mushrooms, red onion, grated mozzarella cheese, eggs with parsley and achiote.  I toasted three slices of baguette and buttered them and spread them with French cherry preserves.

Then Suzette went to work and I watched TV until 12:00 and got ready and drove to Mr. Pho at 6205 Montgomery to meet Etienne and Peter for lunch at 1:00.

Peter did not make it but Etienne and I had a pleasant lunch of a fried egg roll and bowls of bun. Etienne had grilled shrimp and I had marinated grill strips of thinly cut pork on our vermicelli rice noodles and lots of lettuce and bean sprouts in our bowls flavored with one of my favorite fish sauces.

At 2:15 I said goodbye to Etienne and drove to Shahin’s office and completed several tax returns by 5:30.

Dinner - When I returned home Suzette wanted to watch Wicked so we did until 7:00 when I started cooking dinner. 

I sliced the remaining 1/2 head of red cabbage into 1/4 inch wide strips, then I cut the white portion of a leek into thin slices and sautéed those in olive oil about 1/2 hour until they were cooked. Then I added about a dozen prepared chestnuts quarter and a tsp. of salt and 2 tsp. of sugar and then the PPI red cabbage and chestnuts and sweated that mixture for an additional 20 minutes with a couple of T. of red wine to further mimic the Julia Child recipe.

The Suzette put the roast duck into a heated oven to heat and in another 20 minutes we ate another roast duck and red cabbage and chestnuts dinner with a new bottle of Joseph Castan Cotes Du Rhone we bought at Costco that was a reasonably good bottle of wine.

Starting at 7:30 afteri finished cooking the reconstituted red cabbage I watched New Mexico lose in the second round of the NCAA men’s Basketball tournament Tournament Michigan State.

Then I watched Arizona beat Oregon in a lively match up.

At 10:00 I watched Paris Murders and went to bed at 11:00.

It was a good day of food where we are creating new dishes with the remaining ingredients available as we try to use up all our ingredients by the time we leave next Tuesday, such as braising red cabbage and chestnuts to add to the baked cabbage and chestnut dish

Bon Appetit