September 12, 2019 Lunch – Capo’s Ristorante Dinner – BBQ Pork Spareribs, Roasted Vegetables, and Steamed Green beans

September 12, 2019 Lunch – Capo’s Ristorante   Dinner – BBQ Pork Spareribs, Roasted Vegetables, and Steamed Green beans

My attraction to Southern cooking manifested itself today.  I ate a very Southern Italian dish of Spaghetti and Marinara sauce for lunch and cooked Pork Spareribs and Green beans for dinner.

I had an appointment for new tires for the car at 9:00 so combined my walk with delivery of the car and walked home from the Firestone shop at 7^th and Central, a distance of about 8 blocks.

I worked on my new case until noon and then walked back to Capo’s Ristorante at 8^th and Central for lunch.  The daily special today was spaghetti with meat sauce for $6.99 served with a salad and a basket of warmed Italian bread.  Everything was delicious.  I was amazed how well Capo’s cooked its spaghetti.  I now know what is meant by al dente.  The spaghetti was firm, yet tender.  I guess the word is “toothsome”. The salad was also wonderful, fresh iceburg lettuce with a couple of grape tomatoes cut in half and garnished with a slice of pepperoni, red onion, and provolone cheese. Capo’s offers a wide selection of salad dressings.  I chose Balsamic vinegar and olive oil and was pleasantly surprised when carafes of each were brought to my table so I could dress my salad as I wished instead of having a food service dressing. I felt like I was in a real Italian restaurant. The spaghetti sauce was balanced between meat and tomato, so the freshness of the tomatoes was not overwhelmed by the meat flavor. Of course, everything was better with a generous shake of grated parmesan cheese.

After lunch I fetched my car with its two new tires and went home and talked to Amy at the Court of Appeals for a while about how to file my case, because it will need to be filed in both the District Court and the Court of Appeals.

I put a bottle of Emma Reichard 100% Pinot Noir Rose into the fridge to chill and then baked the 7 lb. slab of pork ribs I bought at Smith’s for $1.29/lb. The instructions said to bake it at 350 degrees for 1 ½ to 2 hours on foil in a baking pan.  I lowered the heat to 325 degrees and cooked it for 2 ½ hours until 4:15 and then slathered the ribs with BBQ sauce and cooked it for an additional 45 minutes.

                                                   the half slab left after dinner

 The bottom edge where the meat touched the aluminum foil had hardened but otherwise the meat was super tender.  I turned the oven off at 5;00 and went to meditate from 5:30 to 6:30.  It was a really good meditation, perhaps because both Dennis and I are rapidly recovering from operations and feeling much better.

When I returned Suzette asked what I wanted to eat with the ribs and I said, “Roasted Vegetables and Steamed Green Beans.”

We drank glasses of the 2017 Domaine de Touch Cotes du Gascogne white as an aperitif while we were cooking and then poured the 2017 Emma Reichard rose for dinner.  These are both trader Joe wines I believe.  The Reichard is an amazing value at $4.99 for a really good 100% Pinot Noir Rose. It has a little edge to it that is not great with seafood paella, but is wonderful with heavy sweetened meat like BBQ’s ribs.

While I was meditating and Suzette talked to Susan on the phone about tomorrow’s dinner at Susan’s house. The menu is two Cajun Seafood dishes, Gumbo and Crawfish Jambalya.  Suzette then made a pot of mint flavored simple syrup for mint juleps for the dinner party. 

Tomato and Basil Bread

Suzette had brought home a basket of fresh ripe tomatoes.  

She got really creative and adapted her zucchini bread recipe to utilize tomatoes and fresh basil.  She cored and baked about ten tomatoes and went to the garden and harvested a bunch of basil.  I chopped the basil finely while she peeled the roasted tomatoes and then she made her batter with all the ingredients and filled two loaf pans and baked them while we ate dinner.   

Here is a photo of her recipe and the finished breads.

While Suzette was baking her tomato bread, I snapped the stalky ends off about 1 lb. of Green Beans I bought as Sprouts last week and steamed them and then heated the PPI Roasted Vegetable medley of asparagus, eggplant, potato, garlic, Brussels sprouts, and onion.  I loaded two plates with four or five ribs each and we each served ourselves the vegetables and green beans.

We watched the Democratic debate starting at 6:45 and then the commentary and interviews after the debate and went to bed at 10:00 when that all ended.

We were so full of pork ribs we could not eat any peach cobbler, but I drank a White Russian made with Rum, Kahlua, and milk and Suzette drank a sip of cognac to settle our stomachs during the debate.

Bon Appetit