Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Hello Monday, Are You Ready For Us?

My Dearest Sue, my gratitude for having met you is surpassed only by my amazement at the joy you brought to my life and the lives of my family and friends!

We both liked food, me more than her obviously.  Every year Disneyland put on their “Food & Wine Festival” and we would go ten times while it was running.  We got to know Mary, the President of California Adventure and we expressed our opinions about the festival.  The event was amazing and Sue just loved the tastings and of course, the wine. 

We signed up for the grand finale every year and got all dressed up and enjoyed the amazing foods and wines being offered.  We had so much fun together just being us and doing the simplest of things, like eating!  I miss her companionship and soft smile and loving remarks.  I miss her so much!

Always the million-dollar smile!

Sue would not have believed this possibility as we went together for 35+ years!

Oh My! Hard to believe!

Robin and I got up about the same time although I think this morning I may have beat her by fifteen minutes.  We had our coffee and then decided we had better walk before the car ride.  We changed into our walking duds and headed out for another adventure.  We only did two miles today as we needed to be in the car by 9:45 AM to hit South Coast Winery in Temecula by 11:15 AM.

Robin and I walked almost two miles before getting in the car and driving to Temecula

The ride was easy considering there was no traffic.  I had to keep my eye on the Grey Ghost as he wanted to get up and gallop and in fact, on three occasions, I had to pull in the reigns as the velocity indicator was showing 90 MPH.

The weather was perfect, the high was in the low 80s and blue skies!

We picked up the wine from South Coast and also got the Z’s wine.  We were hungry and I was wanting a Subway veggie sandwich.  We found a Subway and dined there before heading to Lee’s abode. 

There was a market next door so I slipped in and both a couple of bottles of wine to take to Lee’s.  While I was there I asked if they had Yeast!  The guys said, “We just got some I’m!”  I was static so I bought it immediately.  Well, after getting home, I was disappointed as it was “Nutritional Yeast”, not the kind needed for making bread. 

Nutritional yeast is not a substitute for active dry yeast, often referred to simply as yeast or baker’s yeast in recipes. Unlike nutritional yeast, active dry yeast is activated. It’s the ingredient in bread and other bakery products that make them rise. Poof!  Foiled again!

We arrived at Lee’s home at 1:00 PM and broke open a Reisling wine.  We all enjoyed the wine and talked about the world and to solve its problems, you know, the standard jabber. 

Here are five facts about this beloved white wine:

  • A white grape originating in Germany’s Rhineland, Riesling’s origins date back to 1435 when a German count bought six wine vines – making it the first documented varietal sale.
  • Considered one of the very best food-pairing wines, Riesling goes with a variety of dishes depending upon the level of sweetness and acidity. It’s also famous for cooling off the palate during a spicy meal.
  • Riesling is especially well-known for its ability to show a sense of place. Many areas in the old and new world have the climate and soil capable of producing complex Rieslings – like Austria, northern Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Finger Lakes, Washington State, and Temecula, California.
  • Seldom oaked, Riesling grapes can be used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling white wines. Riesling makes excellent dessert wines and is typically thought of in the US as a sweeter white wine. But that there are many “dry Rieslings” that are in fact very crisp and food-friendly, similar in body and style to a light, aromatic Sauvignon Blanc.
  • The characteristics of quality Riesling are reminiscent of peaches or, when young, apples. It has a unique acidity, minerality, and fruit flavor with aromas of wet stones, smoke, or even petroleum (a highly prized note in aged Riesling).
  • Bonus! Riesling has universally low alcohol content.

Lee, Robin, and I yakked for an hour and a half and did some serious damage to a nice bottle of Reisling wine!

We got to meet Lee’s cat at a distance!  The girls talked about their respective cats for a while.  I checked the traffic reports on the way home, there were no reports, clear sailing was predicted.

All smiles!

Robin lives just a hop, skip, and a jump from Lee.  Lee’s daughter lives close to Robin.  It is indeed a small world.  At 3:30 PM, we departed for Robin’s place where I dropped her off before heading home.

Arriving home it was decision time.  Do I eat or not!  I felt like I needed to cook the dinner kit I had tonight so I made a command decision, pull out the cooking costume.  The meal looked great on the instruction sheet and the meat had to be used.

This meal was exceptionally simple but also quite good!

The made everything and the last item was the steak!  By the look of the kitchen, one would think I was making dinner for thirty people!  I am learning how NOt to make a mess but right not, I concentrate on not burning dinner!  The Tzatziki sauce was amazing. 

Did You Know? Tzatziki is made of strained yogurt (usually from sheep or goat milk) mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, and sometimes lemon juice, and dill or mint or parsley. Some variations are made with cattails or purslane, tofu, dill, and seasoned with Vege-Sal and either whole allspice or spicebush berries

I made dinner after getting home, another success! The beef cooked up quickly.

I have to remember to adjust their recommended heat because the Viking puts out a lot more heat than a standard run-of-the-mill kitchen stove.   Normal kitchen stoves can put out about 9,000 BTU’s when the setting on high.  The ol’ Viking signs in at 23,000 BTU’s on all six burners.  When the recipe says Medium-High that translates to somewhere between medium and low on ours.  Now I understand why Sue wold ask me to “turn down the heat” several times when she was busy doing other stuff. 

We bought this stove when we remodeled twenty years ago because we cooked so much and we have had all six burners going and the ovens blasting away during the holidays. 

The Viking front burners heat up to 23,000 BTUs and a simmer burner in the back reaches a low of 8,000 BTUs.

The Viking front burners heat up to 23,000 BTUs and a simmer burner in the back reaches a low of 8,000 BTUs.

Dinner was served and it was pretty darn good!  You can see my reading material is always available for getting new ideas.  I mark recipes I want to try and the go back to them later. 

Fit for a king!

I always prop up the picture they send me and do a comparison and tonight, I was close! The paprika really made the squash and carrots stand out.  I am now tasting the various spices Sue kept on hand to understand when and why they are used.  Note to self: Paprika provides a smokey taste.

Kind of looks like the advertisement/instruction book!

I did NOT order from HelloFresh this week so I am going to be off-roading with respect to cooking.  This ought to be interesting!  The freezer said, “No more Big Guy!  You have to eat what is already here!”.

I had my light reading at the table, decisions, decisions!

See! See!  I was not kidding.  While I was dining three little kids form own the street cam in and had a food fight in my kitchen!  How could one little plate of food cause this big a mess to be made?

Of course, after dinner, the mess awaited the Master Chef! Well, someone has to do it and I looked around and it was only me.

By the time I did the daily diary it was 9:30 PM and I was ready to hit the sack but I did look at my email and found the cutest one yet!  Take a gander!

 

About Paul

Just an old retired guy trying to finish out my last years on this planet. I lost my best friend and wife in early 2020. I was blessed again by reconnecting with Dr. Mary Côté, a long-time friend. Mary and I got married July 28th, 2021, and are enjoying life together and plan to spend the rest of our lives being a blessing to our friends and family.
This entry was posted in Adventures, Cooking, Family, Friends, Walking. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Hello Monday, Are You Ready For Us?

  1. Marianne says:

    You are so blessed. Not many people get to have that. Wish I did!

Comments are closed.