December 6, 2015 Brunch – Bacon, lettuce, and tomato Sandwiches, Mexican - Three chili Salsa, Dinner – Spaghetti and New Recipe sautéed Chard, Green Olive, and fresh Mozzarella Bruschetta
Three big things dominated today. Suzette painted the basement floor and I made spaghetti sauce, I saw a great program about Jewish migration to America, and we created a new dish.
It started as a relatively relaxing day. I watched the news shows although I became depressed by the haggling over whether the President and our government was doing enough to deal with ISIS and domestic terrorism.
Yesterday I went to Albertson's to buy fresh oysters for $.79 each and was greeted by a cart of free food near the entrance to the store. I knew I had old tomatoes and mushrooms at home that needed to be used, so I decided instantly to make Marinara Sauce with mushrooms and meat. When I went to the butcher shop, I bought a lb. of 93% fat free ground beef for $3.99/lb. in addition to the oysters. I also bought vanilla ice cream ($2.88 for 1.5 quarts) and long wooden matches.
Before the news shows ended at 10:00 Suzette said she was hungry and asked if we had bacon. When I said, “Yes.”, she said, “I will make bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwiches.”
I suggested using the relatively new whole wheat bread.
Suzette made lovely sandwiches that we drank with tea.
Mexican three chili Salsa
After brunch, Suzette made a three chili salsa using the recipe we learned at our cooking class in PV last year.
She soaked mulatto, capable and red chilis in hot water for an hour then chopped two or three tomatoes and puréed those with garlic and salt in themCuisinart. Then Suzette cooked that mixture into a sauce. We both tried the salsa and loved it's interesting mild chili flavor.
Here is the three chili salsa
Suzette the finished painting the basement floor green, while I made spaghetti sauce.
Spaghetti Sauce (this is my basic spaghetti sauce.)
I diced 1 large onion and sautéed it in a large pot with the 1 lb. of ground beef and eight or ten cloves of garlic Suzette packed in olive oil last year.
I then sliced the three old portobello mushrooms and four newer white mushrooms and added them to the sauté. Then I cubed an old bola tomato and five or six of the free Roma tomatoes acquired yesterday.
I then added a 67 oz. jar of Prego Heart Smart Traditional Italian Sauce we bought at Costco, about 20 oz. of water, and about1 cup of red wine.
Then I went to the garden and picked 1 cup of fresh oregano, rinsed them to clean any dirt from the leaves, de-stemmed the leaves, chopped them and added the oregano to the sauce by now simmering at low heat on the stove.
While I made the sauce Suzette painted the cellar floor green.
She then went to Los Lunas to decorate the houses for Christmas and orchestrate craft projects like making reindeer out of clothes pins and pipe cleaners.
After Suzette left at 12:30 I rested on the couch, dozed off and awoke a little after 1:30 to discover a video being shown on PBS about Jewish Immigration to America. I missed the first part about Spanish immigration, but saw the rest of the show that lasted until 3:00 with wonderful historic photos and movies of immigrants and life in the Pale of Settlement in Eastern Europe and Russia. The show also had lots of Jewish historians who discussed Judaism in America. I loved the show.
At 3:00 I rode to Montano and back in the low gears, since my high gears were broken. It was an interesting ride, easy and rapid peddling but not as much speed. I took me almost 1 ½ hour to finish a ride that I usually finish in an hour or less, although it was an exceedingly pleasant ride.
I stopped to say hello to Crystal and Doug, who had just returned from New York setting up their Christmas tree in front of their house.
As I was getting dressed around 4:30 Suzette arrived from Los Lunas.
New Recipe: Sautéed Chard, Green Olive, and Mozzarella Bruschetta
When Suzette arrived from Los Lunas, she said she was hungry. I asked, “Do you want some garlic bread and what about a green vegetable?” Suzette said, “What about sautéing chard with garlic and serving it on garlic bread?”
We filled the pot we use to make spaghetti with water and heated it. I went to the garden and picked about 1 ½ cups of chard, about seven or eight stalks of garlic chives, and two stalks of dried thyme.
I de-stemmed and chopped the chard, de-stemmed the thyme, and thinly sliced the garlic chives, which have a rich garlic flavor. While I was chopping Suzette asked, “Do you want some olives on the Bruschettas?” My answer was, “Yes, do you want black Kalamatas or green olives?” We immediately agreed upon green olives, so I quartered about eight green olives.
While I was doing all this, Suzette asked me how much pasta to make and we decided to fix only ½ lb., in order to have none left. After putting the spaghetti into the boiling water, Suzette sliced six slices of French bread and drizzled them with the last of the gourmet Portuguese olive oil. She then sautéed 1 cup of chopped chard with the thyme, green olives, and garlic chives in olive oil and carefully laid the sautéed vegetables on the oil drizzled french bread and then laid a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese on top of each slice of vegetable covered bread.
Suzette laying the vegetables onto the bread
Suzette then placed the bread on a rack and baked the Bruschettas in a hot pre-heated oven set to turbo convect for a few minutes until the cheese began to melt and the bread became toasted.
We loved everything about the dish; the toasted bread, wonderful olive oil, almost creamy texture of the vegetables, and the soft melted cheese covering it all.
I opened a bottle of Romanian Cabernet Sauvignon that Aaron had bought me on Thursday. It was very smooth and drinkable and went well with the food but had very little character. We both liked the wine and drank the whole bottle.
We watched the President’s speech and then I made a cup of Earl Grey tea with milk and ate the last of the chocolate dessert and pouring custard while we watched a episode of Downtown Abbey.
After Downtown Abbey, we soaked in the hot tub for about ten to fifteen minutes and were in bed by 8:00.
Bon Appetit
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