June 21, 2025 Midsommer Breakfast - Egg Sandwich Lunch - 1/4 hamburger. Dinner - Midsommer Smorgasbord

June 21, 2025 Midsommer Breakfast - Egg Sandwich   Lunch - 1/4 hamburger. Dinner - Midsommer Smorgasbord 

We invited 7 of our neighbors, Dale and Jennifer, Doug and Crystal, Dan and Cyndy, and Kylene. Barry was working as a cameraman on a UNM project and unavailable.

We spent most of the day preparing the meal. We made an egg sandwich for breakfast. Suzette scrambled two eggs into a pancake that filled the bottom of an iron skillet. Then she put slices of Jarlsberg cheese on half of the egg and flipped 1/2 onto the other 1/2. We drank orange juice with our sandwich.

 Then I picked lettuce and Suzette picked peas in the morning in our garden. 

I fetched and thawed two rib steaks from the freezer and fetched two bottles of Jubileums Aquavit and put them in the freezer to chill. I also put our bottle of Cheverny in the fridge to chill.

Suzette removed the peas from the pod and destemmed a handful of snow peas I had bought at El Super and blanched them while I diced two Roma tomatoes and 2/3 of a cucumber and we spun some of the lettuce to prepare a salad.

We then rested and split Suzette’s 1/2 hamburger leftover from our lunch on Friday at Harvest Restaurant at the Indian Pueblo Center.

Then we set up two six foot long folding tables beside the baguettes in the back yard and Suzette set the tables table clothes with Franconia plates, wine glasses, shot glasses for aquavit, and small juice Franconia glasses for beer while I sliced thinly 1 1/2 pieces of Gravad lax. 

Then Suzette grilled the two rib steaks to medium rare and I sliced them and then made a cream and horseradish sauce for the steak.

Then at 4:30 Suzette went to buy ice and we iced the Pellegrino bottles in the ice chest.

At 6:00 Crystal and Doug brought a watermelon and arugula salad with a dressing and soon after Dale delivered Jennifer’s amazing Swedish creamy shrimp and salmon roe salad, Skagenröra. 

At 7:00 Dan and Cyndy arrived with a loaf of German pumpernickel and a bottle of Alsace Pinot Gris.

We opened the Pinot Gris and began drinking glasses of the deep pinkish red wine that was slightly effervescent with a lively balance between acid and sugars.

Then a few minutes later Kylene arrived and joined us.

We began bringing out bread, herring, Gravad lax, and steak.

Around 8:00 Crystal and Doug and Dale and Jennifer arrived and I poured Jubileums Aquavit and Carlsberg beer and we brought out the three salads, shrimp, watemelon, and garden lettuce and fetched the loafs of baguette from the grill.

I then led a series of toasts where each person ate a piece of fish and then we offered a collective toast with aquavit followed by a beer chaser.

After three or four toasts I opened and served the Spanish Mar de Fondo white blend and after that we opened the two bottles of 2023 Cheverny and we drank white wine with the meal.

After we finished the Cheverny around 9:30 I opened a bottle of Calstar 2013 Sangiacomo Pinot Noir because Dan said he did not have a very high regard for American Pinots and I felt compelled to try to alter his opinion.

Everyone agreed that it was a wonderful wine.

Finally I brought out the Clafoutis and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

Suzette fetched dessert plates and spoons and we passed the dessert around and filled glasses for those drinking champagne.

Everyone left by 10:15 after helping clear the tables.  I settled into Ann easy chair with a small shot of Kelt cognac and we watched a few minutes of a SNL rerun from April and then went to sleep.

It was a wonderful day of food and friends. A perfect Midsommer celebration.

Bon Appetit