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Jim’s Valentine steak

Another easy meal.  We have salmon burgers, French fries and broccoli, probably frozen if a Jim meal.  

I wanted to swim again and we had leftover potato soup.  Ina had these sandwiches in her cookbook.  For some reason she wanted you to mix the cheese with the milk.  I took the easy way out.  So here is what I did and this was a great accompaniment to the potato soup.  Plus it was easy.

Ingredients:

4 large Croissants

8.8 oz Italian mascarpone

1 1/2 T whole milk

1 1/2 T minced chives

Kosher salt and black pepper

1 1/2 # thinly sliced smoked salmon, preferably Scottish

Very thinly sliced red onions (optional)

1-2 oz. baby arugula

Directions:

1. Turn on the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Bake on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 8 minutes.  Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
3. Slice each croissant in half horizontally with a serrated knife.  
4. Spread both halves with mascarpone.  
5. Sprinkle with chives, capers, and pepper
6. If using red onion put that on the bottom half now.  
7. Lay the salmon evenly on top.
8. Top with a generous handful of arugula and replace tops of the croissants.  
9. Serve while slightly warm.  

 

OK, it is that next day I was talking about.  When the day warmed up, I was in the pool.  It was wonderful.  Jim sat in a chair next to the pool so the former lifeguard did not drown.  However he wants wasters time is up to him. I wasn’t allowed to really swim as he didn’t want me to get my hair wet.  I was so mad Tuesday I made myself sick with a cold.  I walked in circles and did my other pool exercises.  I did this for 2 days and then the weather turned on me again.  (I could have had 3 days.)  When we went in, I said, “Why don’t you peal the potatoes while I dry off.” “Is there any recipe you make that doesn’t have preparation?”,he asked.  I thought that was a pretty funny question, but just answered I will do the rest when I get dressed.  Grumble, grumble off he went.

Ingredients:

3T EVOO

2 T unsalted butter

5 C sliced fennel, tops and cores removed (2 bulbs), fronds reserved

4 C sliced yellow onions (2 onions)

1 1/2 #Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, 1” diced (I only asked him to peel them.)

Kosher salt and black pepper

2 T Pernod liqueur

1 C half-and-half

Garnishes: goat cheese, croutons, fennel fronds

Directions:

1. Heat oil and the butter in an 11” pot or Dutch oven, over medium-low heat.  Add the fennel and onions and sauté for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until they begin to brown.
2. Add the potatoes, chicken stock, 1 t salt and 1 t pepper and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are very tender.
3. Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth.  Stir in the Pernod and half-and-half, and taste for seasonings.  Reheat over medium-low heat.
4. Serve the soup hot with a drizzle of EVOO and the garnishes of your choice.  (She also mentions crumbled bacon.  I’m not fond of bacon.)

Next, still in Ina’s Go TO Dinner cookbook.  Tuesday I told the wound care person that my GP saw nothing wrong with me swimming in my own pool, professionally maintained, that no one else swims in.  (Well there was a raccoon that thought he’d join me once, but Lucy said not on her turf.)  Jim heard him say that.  In fact when he said it, I specifically turned to Jim and said did you hear that?  Well Tuesday was supposed to be Sunny and warm.  It was, but as Jim had refused to turn on the pool heater, I couldn’t swim.  The wound care specialist kept me out of my pool all last year.  I waited 70 some years to get my own pool.  How many years do I have left to enjoy it?  So needless to say my attitude at the wound care center was so bad you could see fire coming out of my ears, mouth and eyes.  So there was a long discussion and I went swimming the next day and the next.  Then we had thunder and lighting day to be followed by cold.  But I got in 2 days, could have been 3 if not for guard dog Jim.  My ankle looks the same as it always does.

We had leftover beans and hot dogs again.