The Late Sunday Post

I woke up early on Sunday. I didn’t want to bother anybody, so I read in bed until I heard movement in the other room. Then I got some coffee, and eventually shaved and showered.

Now, I hadn’t quite gotten the Triumph stripped to the bare frame. So, I pulled the truck outside, moved the Enfield and generally made some room.

Jake and Carla had determined the correct amount of tubs needed for the parts they were taking, so they went to Meijer’s and bought them, along with a tarp. They didn’t want to mess up the trunk and/or backseat of Carla’s car.

Meanwhile, I started making brunch. So, here’s how I made a simple broccoli-cheddar cheese quiche.

Note: When you buy frozen pie shells, they come two to a package. So, I doubled the recipe. But, I’ll give you the recipe I tweaked as though I was just making one.

The recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. But I mixed together 1 1/4 cups of sharp cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella and 1/8 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese.

Sidebar: I was going to grate the rest of the Gouda cheese, but Carla noticed it had mold on it.

I poked some holes in the frozen crust with a fork and then spread half of the cheese mixture evenly in the pie crust. I topped that with one box of frozen, thawed and drained chopped broccoli. I spread the rest of the cheese mixture on top.

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees F. I beat four eggs and added 1 1/2 cups of half-and-half. Varying from the recipe again, I added a good handful of stripped fresh thyme leaves. I poured the egg mixture over top of the broccoli and cheese.

Sidebar: The recipe did not call for any salt, so I didn’t add any. Again, I am always leery about adding salt to something with a lot of cheese in it as cheese has a lot of salt on its own.

I put the two pies into the oven on a half sheet tray (to catch any drips or splashes).

When they returned, Jake started wrenching and Carla and I helped. It was chilly in the garage, so I lit the propane heater.

The timer went off and Carla checked on the quiche. It hadn’t set yet, so she turned the heat up to 400 degrees while I made crust protectors (badly) from aluminum foil. This time we used the convection oven, BTW.

Jake got everything but the frame and the swing arms off.  I pulled off wiring and oil lines. Then I struggled taking off the rear fender and the tail light, as those bolts were particularly rusty.

The quiche was done, so we took a break and ate the quiche and the rest of the bacon from yesterday. It was very good but, quite frankly, it needed more salt. My trusty salt shaker fixed that small glitch.

We cleaned up and went back in the garage.

When everything was bare, Jake carried the frame, the gas tank, the front forks and the two fenders out back while I hooked up the little power washer.

He spent a long time getting as much of the crud off everything as he could, while Carla and I sat on the patio chairs, cheering him on.

He finally set everything on the sunny side of the patio to dry and we disassembled and put away the power washer.

We took a well-deserved break at that point. We had about three hours before our early dinner reservations, so we sat in the living room and chatted. Jake was playing my guitar and I asked him if he would restring it for me so he did.

Well, almost. It turned out that one of the tuning pegs was missing a little screw and when he released the tension off the old string, it all fell apart. I checked in the garage, but didn’t have a screw that small. I’ll have to see if I can get one at Anderson's next Saturday. Until then, I have a five string acoustic guitar!

Then we all took showers and got dressed for dinner.

By way of explanation, long time readers of this Blog know that when I go down to visit in South Carolina, they always have some really unique restaurant to take me to. So, I determined this time I would find one up here. And, I did!

I had heard a news story about a Coney Island in Plymouth that the owner and the head chef decided to turn into a 5-star restaurant. And, they did it! It opened on June 24, 2014

It’s now called Aqua and the old Coney Island has been transformed into a fine dining restaurant, with an interesting industrial and neon look, but with cloth tablecloths and napkins, etc.

There are no printed menus; you order your food from I-pads that are handed out like menus to each diner. The water had big cucumber slices in each glass and in the carafe. It was quite refreshing!

For appetizers, we chose the mussels (Albarino Mussels with smoked tomato / garlic herb chop / natural broth /pink sea salt / albarino white wine) and the baked brie (Oven Baked Brie, wrapped in phyllo dough / fresh berries / slivered almonds / balsamic fig essence). Naturally, ours came without the slivered almonds because of Carla’s nut allergy.

 We all got side salads with our entrees, which were mesclun greens with a mustard vinaigrette, and was excellent.

Carla and I had the same entrée, Sautéed Lobster & Shrimp over Saffron Angel Hair (roasted garlic / oven roasted tomatoes / sautéed spinach / white wine butter sauce). Trust me, it was fantastic!

Jake had the 7 Hour Slow Braised Short Rib (Angus beef / butternut squash / spinach / crispy onions / opus one reduction). I did get a taste of that and it was melt-in-your-mouth perfect!

We were all too stuffed to even think about any dessert.

Back home, we changed out of our dress clothes. We sat and chatted in the living room for a bit until Carla said I looked tired. I thought about and decided I was. It ended up that we were all bushed for the day’s workout. So, we all turned in.

I read for a bit, but ended up falling asleep over my book.