Sundays for the last year have been quiet stay at home days, of course for the last almost a year, every day has been a stay-at-home day.  Sundays have become rather structured, regardless if it is a holiday or not and I guess that maintains a certain modicum of sanity in our life. We have a fancier and relaxed breakfast, and then a nice early dinner, because we have the weekly Zoom session and one never knows the size or the extent of the meeting.  I am sure, because of the lockdowns, I would venture to say that most people have done them either with family or for business.  I have seen where people liken them to watching Hollywood Squares or parts of a Muppets episode.  The sessions can either be very lively or sometimes very quiet, which is hard to believe, but it has happened.

My Bride started the day off with Eggs Benedict, which is one of my favorite breakfast treats, in fact it is probably the only time that I really get excited about a Hollandaise Sauce.  With Canada just south of the border for us, we both grew up with real Canadian bacon, which is called is referred to as Peameal Bacon, which is a wet-cured, unsmoked back bacon made from a trimmed pork loin that is rolled in corn, it was originally rolled in ground peas (hence the name) and the bacon is moist with a crispy crust.  Here in the States, Canadian bacon is a form of back bacon that is cured, smoked and fully cooked and then trimmed into a cylindrical shape to be served in round medallions.  Nowadays, the American version is mostly found in the States and what is usually encountered at most restaurants.  If you truly want the most decadent you must at least once have Breakfast at Brennan’s in the French Quarter.  As the old saying goes, a meal without wine is breakfast, but not if one has Mimosas.  Mimosas are designed to be made with a bulk-style bubbly, not with a lauded vintage cru, and over the years we have discovered that a tincture of orange juice is all that is necessary for the drink.  Though we actually went big-time and had Korbel California Champagne, which is produced in the time-honored way of “Methode Champenoise” and it is a blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, French Colombard and Pinot Noir.  A perfect way to start the day, and Korbel is one of those houses that have been grandfathered in using the term “California Champagne.” Korbel Champagne Cellars was established in 1882 in Sonoma by three Korbel brothers, who came from Bohemia.  The winery was bought by Adolph Heck in 1954 and is now under the ownership of his son Gary and production has grown that they are now the twelfth largest producer in the United State of America.  It has been served at six different presidential inaugurations and they are also known for their Korbel Brandy.

With an early dinner my Bride made her Breaded Chicken Breasts with a gravy that evolves from her making of the dish.  She also made Green Beans and Garlic Mashed Potatoes for a good old “comfort” dinner.  She also made Lemon Pudding for dessert, which she knows is a favorite of mine, because I have to always mention that my Mother until her untimely death, made the greatest Lemon Meringue Pies known to man. I could have gone with a bigger wine for the dinner, but since I knew that we were going to be enjoying the wine during the Zoom session, I went with something lighter, and it was a bottle that we were touted to get at our local wine shop as they were one bottle short of another wine that I was buying a case of.  I opened up a bottle of Broadbent Selection, Inc. Vinho Verde Minho NV.  Bartholomew Broadbent is a lively, witty and informative wine lecturer and one of the foremost authorities on Port and Madeira.  “He is credited for being responsible for the growth of Port consumption in North America during the mid-1980’s and was responsible for the reintroduction of Madeira to America in 1989” and this was taken directly from his website.  He owns several wine labels and is the importer to the United States of several notable wineries.  Broadbent Selections, Inc. was founded in 1996.  Broadbent Vinho Verde in Portugal was founded in 2004, using contract wine growers and the grounds are basically acid-rich and granite based with areas of schist or slate and clay.  The wine is a blend of fifty percent Loureiro, forty percent Trajadura and ten percent Pederna (Arinto).  The wine is made by suppressing the malolactic fermentation and injecting some carbon dioxide at bottling, which gives the wine its characteristic spritz.  A very easy drinking and crisp light wine with notes of green apples, peaches and melon with a touch of lemon. When the Zoom session ended, so did the bottle.