September 5, 2019 Lunch – Sausage Salad Dinner - Shrimp Scampi, Spaghetti Squash and Ratatouille

September 5, 2019 Lunch – Sausage Salad   Dinner - Shrimp Scampi, Spaghetti Squash and Ratatouille

I slept in.  When I arose I ate a bowl of granola with milk, yogurt, and blueberries and then rode with strength to Rio Bravo and back.  I have been riding most of the way in the 7^th gear and today I rode most of the way in the eight gear.

Also the pain in my right leg was gone today and my right toes point forward most of the time and I do not need a nap in the afternoon.  Let’s hope that I have reached a new plateau in my recovery.

I made a salad for lunch at noon with the new head of Romaine I bought yesterday at Sprouts, plus the PPI Sausage from last night, a pickled egg, 1/3 of a cucumber peeled and sliced, a cubed tomato, about a dozen thyme flavored cracked green olives, and two green onions sliced dressed with the tarragon vinaigrette.

I took the bag of shrimp out of the freezer at 4:00 to thaw.

At 5:00 Suzette returned tired and collapsed into her chair and I went to meditate at 5:50 Dennis did not show so I came home and started to prepare dinner buoyed by a monster day in the Market caused mainly by the setting of a schedule for trade talks between the Chinese and the U.S. The Dow went up 373 points and my portfolio gained over 1%.

The dinner menu we discussed in the middle of the night last night was Ratatouille, Spaghetti, and Shrimp Scampi. 

When Suzette arrived at 5:00 I mentioned that we had a Spaghetti Squash and would she like for me to roast it in the oven.  Suzette has stopped eating spaghetti so she would like to eat spaghetti squash and would not like eating pasta.  When she said, “Yeas,”, I put the whole squash in a pyrex baking dish with some of the water from the skillet that we sautéed the sausage in last night to liquefy the dish and keep the squash from scorching and put it in the oven at 350º at 5:10.

When I returned at 6:20 I turned off the oven and started slicing vegetables for the ratatouille and Suzette pulled the strands of squash out of the casing and put them into the pyrex baking dish for heating later.

I peeled and skinned two rosa eggplants Suzette picked from Dale’s garden on Sunday, I peeled and diced a yellow and a red onion, two yellow sweet peppers from Dale’s garden, a head of garlic from our garden, a green bell pepper from Sprouts and Suzette started  cooking those ingredients in a large enameled casserole. 

I then went to the garden and picked about ten stalks of oregano and rinsed the oregano stalks, stripped the leaves, chopped the leaves and added the cup of leaves to the casserole.  I then diced five tomatoes Suzette had cored several of which were grown in her garden at the Center for Ageless Living.  After we added the tomatoes, we covered the casserole and cooked the ratatouille for about 45 minutes.

While the Ratatouille was cooking I shelled 11 large 16-20 count shrimp and chopped three cloves of garlic from our garden and a medium shallot from Talin.  This year we have grown large heads of garlic because of better spacing.  We have not bought garlic in years.

I then went to the basement to find a wine for dinner.  We discussed a rose and I found a bottle of Spanish Albero Rose (Trader Joe’s $5.99???) that looked promising. When I opened it, it was smooth, perfect for the shrimp and Ratatouille. Sort of a paella style of rose.  It is 100% Bobal grape grown in Albero’s US. certified organic vineyard.  Here is some more info from the website.

ALBERO BOBAL ROSÉ

Made with Organically Grown Grapes

Location:  Organically grown grapes nurtured in the hills just west of Spain’s Mediterranean coast near Valencia. 

Classification: D.O. Utiel-Requena (Valencia) Spain - Superior

Tasting Notes: Fresh, balanced, fruity sensation. Acid notes. Intense fruity, strawberry nose; Authentic back taste. Medium persistence.

Enjoy with: Spicy dishes, paella, pork and seafood main courses.

Grape Varieties: 100% Certified Organic Spanish Bobal

Serve at: 40-45º F

Notes:  Some of the highest tested levels of the natural antioxidant Resveratrol can be found in monovarietal wines from southeast Spain’s Bobal grape.

ALBERO Spanish Bobal variety Rosé is produced by Spain’s Oldest Estate Bottled Winery. Spain’s finest – proudly made with hand-selected certified Organically Grown Grapes.  ALBERO Bobal Rosé is perfect when enjoying with friends or in giving the gift of wine. 

I filled wine glasses with five or six cubes of ice to chill it and poured the wine. Suzette covered  the squash with saran and heated it in the microwave and then sautéed the shrimp in a skillet with the garlic and butter with a generous dash of Spanish Alberino wine and after cooking the shrimp and garlic mixture for a few minutes until they turned pink and the edges curled we were ready to eat.

Suzette plated the dinner in pasta dishes with a pile of ratatouille, then some Spaghetti squash, and finally the sauce rich Shrimp Scampi.  The dish ended up being sort of a stew because of the sauce on the scampi, which I found delicious.

 The wine was wonderful with the dish also.  I shall buy more of this one.

We drank glasses of the Luc Pirlet rose before dinner.  It was also a lovely rose.

This was a very successful single dish menu and a wonderful way to return to our house after the film crews left and start cooking again.

 Willy called and came by around 8:00 and enjoyed a snack of ratatouille and spaghetti squash.  He does not like shrimp, so he was not upset with no shrimp.

I celebrated the success of the meal with a sniffer of cognac and a few pieces of Swedish chocolate with hazelnuts bought at IKEA in Dallas.

Willy left around 9:45 and we went to bed.

I felt like I had made it through another day of fairly heart healthy eating. 

Bon Appetit