Three Beautiful Things 02-20-2023: Debut of Hello Fresh, Surprise Zinc Plant Talk, Jim Rockford and the Real Peter Falk

1. Monday, our first order from Hello Fresh arrived. Debbie decided it would be fun to give this service a try. Two meals were in our first box. One centered on ravioli. The other dinner, which I prepared late this afternoon, is called Beef Au Poivre and Cheesy Potato Gratin with Pear and Pecan Salad.

I'm happy to report that if I wanted to, I now know I could prepare this meal by buying the ingredients at the store myself, but having everything I needed in the Hello Fresh box along with the recipe on a good sized card was convenient and fun. 

I started by cutting the potatoes in quarter inch thick pieces and boiling them for about ten minutes in salted water. While they boiled, I cut a pear in half, lengthwise, cored it, and cut it into this slices. I also chopped up the packet of chives and ground the peppercorns.

I fried the bacon that came in the box and set the pieces on a paper towel to cool and broke the pieces into bits. 

I boiled the potatoes until tender and scooped the pieces out with a slotted spoon and put them in a layer at the bottom of a baking pan. I topped the potatoes with bacon bits, sour cream, garlic powder, and cheddar cheese. On top of this I created a second layer of potatoes with more bacon bits, sour cream, garlic powder, cheddar cheese, and Parmesan cheese. 

It was ready to bake.

In the midst of these efforts I tossed mixed greens with the pear slices with the packet of honey Dijon mustard and topped it with crushed pecans and chives.

As the Cheesy Potato Gratin cooled, I heated up oil in the cast iron skillet and cooked the beef tenderloin, doing my best to make it medium rare. 

As the beef tenderloin rested, I combined the packet of poivre sauce concentrate with some water, let it simmer until it thickened and then added a chunk of butter. 

I cut the beef into slices and poured the sauce over it.

Debbie and brought the salad, potatoes, and beef a poivre to the table and dug in.

2.  The All-Class Reunion committee met this evening. Things seem to be coming together. After the meeting I conversed with Tony Teske who was a boss at the Zinc Plant as a young man and remembered details of the accident I survived in one of the flash roasters.

3. Back home, I joined Debbie to watch episodes of The Rockford Files and after she went to bed, I watched two interviews with Peter Falk, the first with Charlie Rose, the second with James Lipton (Inside the Actors Studio). I thoroughly enjoyed how authentic and unpretentiously Falk shared his vigorous intellect, sharp wit, kindness, appreciation, and splendid stories.