Food items Diary: What a 64-Yr-Old Retired Novelist Eats With $3.5 Million in Financial savings in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley
5:30 p.m. Straightforward fare tonight: buttermilk-poached salmon salad with leek-and-caper dressing, recipe courtesy of Aran Goyoaga. I put seasoned salmon fillets and leeks in a skillet with buttermilk and lemon juice, bring it to a simmer, then leave it protected off the heat for 15 minutes. I make a dressing with a little bit of the poaching liquid, the leeks, olive oil, capers, chives, dill, mustard, and lemon zest. I arrange back garden lettuces, inexperienced olives, and avocado on our plates, best with the salmon, and sprinkle with toasted pecans. It appears to be like the two very and virtuous.
The recipe is a keeper. Taking into consideration the modest effort, the salad is delicious, and the poaching process labored like a appeal.
7:32 p.m. We have a handful of roasted almonds from a bag given by a close friend. (All the things else these days was formerly procured.)
Wednesday overall: $
Thursday
5:54 a.m. Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee. There is nevertheless some pasta salad for P’s lunch, but he’s not a lot of a noodle dude and he’s experienced it two times. I make him a sandwich, pack the relaxation, and blend up a smoothie. He’s out the door by 7.
8:03 a.m. I make a smoothie for myself with yogurt, almond milk, cantaloupe (frozen from final summer’s garden), vanilla, hemp hearts, and protein powder. I mainly taste vanilla, which is fine. The cantaloupe was not the taste sensation homegrown melon typically is, which is how it ended up in the freezer.
9:05 a.m. I head into town to store at Kroger. I get Applegate ham ($7.49) and turkey ($5.39), Siggi’s yogurts ($1.50 each and every), broccoli ($2.11), avocados ($.89 each individual), brussels sprouts ($2.20), Cara Cara oranges ($1.25 each), a bag of Honeycrisp apples ($5.89), espresso ($9.99), potatoes ($2.89), strawberries ($2.00), purple onions ($2.15), shallots ($1.93), mangoes ($1.25 each individual), asparagus ($2.25) and a couple of other products for $115.49 total.
12:21 p.m. I dispatch the last of the pasta salad, together with roasted asparagus from Monday—a satisfying combo—and end with…drum roll…yogurt with apricot unfold.
2:40 p.m. P calls to say we handed the inspection! Seems like an justification to rejoice, so I prep a blueberry galette. I make a pastry dough (almond and tapioca flours, butter, salt, a bit of sugar and rosemary, and an egg) and slip it into the fridge. I blend frozen blueberries with sugar, lemon, and cornstarch for the filling and place it in the freezer till I’m completely ready to bake.
4:46 p.m. P heats the grill for the rooster I prepped yesterday (spatchcocked and marinated in lemon, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and lemon thyme), then would make us cocktails. I open a great bottle of Pinot Noir (Buena Vista Vineyard, $46) to give it some air, then put alongside one another a rapid salad of fennel, celery, oranges, herbs, and Parmesan. I assemble the galette and stick it again in the freezer. Really do not want those people frozen berries to make a juicy mess! It’s festive in our kitchen area.
P grills slices of community bread (Seasons Produce Farm, $9) and commences the hen. We top rated the toasts with olive oil, goat cheese, lemon thyme, honey, and prosciutto, and devour them. So very good.
At 6 the galette goes in. P delivers the chicken inside. It smells wonderful and tastes even superior. The salad is refreshing I adore fennel.