March 8, 2015 Breakfast (new Recipe) Avocado and Tomato Omelet Dinner Eggplant Parmigiana and spaghetti

March 8, 2015  Breakfast Omelet  Dinner  Eggplant Parmigiana and spaghetti

I bought 28 avocados at Los Altos Ranch Market at their Lenten Produce Sale on Friday.

Small avocados were on sale for 7 for $.99.  I also bought a lovely large eggplant for $.99 and a few other items, such as 7 lb. of onions for $.99, corn chips for $1.69 for 15 oz. and cluster vine-ripened tomatoes and a few serrano peppers each for $.99/lb.  I looks like the new owners of the Ranch 

Market are finally re-grooving the produce section.  There were fresh bunches of dill for $1.29 per bunch, for example.

We took several avocados to Cynthia and Ricardo’s last night, but we still had a couple of dozen this morning, so I remembered my Mother’s wonderful avocado and tomato omelet.  When Suzette asked me what I wanted for Breakfast I said, “An avocado and tomato omelet."

So I sliced Manchego cheese and cubed 2 avocados and minced 1/3 of a large shallot and a tomato.  Suzette sautéed the shallot and added the eggs and then the tomatoes and made the omelet.  As it cooked on the top of the stove I added the slices of Manchego cheese and then the avocado and flipped one side of it onto the other side, a little before it completely set up and broke the edge at the middle of the omelet, which did not bother me at all but received a bit of criticism from Suzette.

We ate a lovely breakfast and then went back to bed for a nap until 3:00 and then rode the tandem to the Nature Center at Candelaria on the river side bike trail.

When we returned I made guacamole with eight or nine avocados, ½ onion, 1 serrano chili pepper a dash of salt and Cholulu hot sauce, a clove of garlic and lime juice.  We ate guadamole with the chips and drank Mexican cokes.

Then at 6:00 Suzette started planning dinner and discovered the eggplant and suggested that she make Eggplant Parmigiana because we had PPI Italian spaghetti sauce with mushrooms and Italian sausage and spaghetti.

So I sliced the eggplant into ½ inch thick slices and Suzette made bread crumbs with the PPI oyster crackers that Debbie had brought for the Valentine’s Day dinner of oyster soup, dipped the slices of eggplant into an egg wash and then the breadcrumbs and soon was frying them in olive oil.  When the eggplant slices were fried to soft, Suzette arranged them in a ceramic baking dish and laid a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese on each and coated them with the tomato sauce and I then grated Parmesan cheese on top of the dish and she baked them in a 350˚oven for 45 minutes. 

I fetched a loaf of Fano French baguette from the garage freezer and put ½ of it in the oven with the Eggplant dish to toast and fetched a bottle of Griffone Primativo (Trader Joe’s $4.99) and opened it to allow it to breath.

We decided to steam broccoli, so I cut the flowerts from a stalk of broccoli I had bought at Sprout’s Farm Market on Saturday for $.99/lb. and we steamed them.

In about another ten minutes everything was ready.  The Eggplant Parmigiana was bubbling merrily and the bread was warm to the middle, so Suzette heated the pasta in the microwave and then ladled slices of eggplant onto the pasta and I sliced the baguette and poured the red wine and we enjoyed dinner.  The freshness of the eggplant made the dinner delicious. Cutting ½ inch slices made kept it from being hardened when fried and gave it a more toothsome texture. The fresh mozzarella melted into puddles that coated the fried breaded eggplant slices in a creamy mass of flavorful cheese that complemented the firm yet tender fried eggplant.  This one of our favorite vegetarian dishes.

I did not like the peppery edginess of the Primativo, a relative of Zinfandel, but Suzette liked its assertiveness.

Joyously, we have enjoyed three really good dinners in the last three days.

Bon Appétit