December 18, 2012 – PPI Shish kebob filled pita pockets with Tzatziki Sauce and fresh tomatoes and bulgur pilaf

December 18, 2012 – PPI Shish kebob filled pita pockets with Tzatziki Sauce and fresh tomatoes and bulgur pilaf

At around 4:00 p.m. Suzette called from Costco and asked if she should pick up anything.  I mentioned that we could eat the PPI shish kebobs and bulgur pilaf and she suggested that she get some pita bread and we could make pita sandwiches.  I immediately said, “Yes.”

So after she went to Pro’s Ranch Market to pick up a piñata for her Christmas Party at the Center for Ageless Living in Los Lunas, she arrived home at around 5:45 p.m. with a bag of 10 or 12 square chia pockets made with both wheat and barley flour that were indented in the middle so they can be separated easily into two rectangular pockets.

I was hungry and so were Suzette and Willy, so, after a bit of watching the news and drinking a hot buttered rum while Suzette had a scotch, I began heating the PPI bulgur pilaf, shish kebobs and marinated string beans in the microwave oven and took the PPI tzatziki sauce and a couple of Roma tomatoes out of the fridge.

While the food was heating in the microwave, I sliced each of the two tomatoes lengthwise into thin 1/12 slices and began heating the chia pockets on an open gas flame to toast them and see if they would steam inside and several did rise from the trapped internal heat.  After I had toasted four pockets and heated the food in the microwave, Willy ran to the basement to fetch several more beers and I poured out the last of the Menage À Trois which was barely enough to fill a small glass for each of us.  So after a few sips, Suzette went to fetch a bottle of red wine and brought back a bottle of 1995 La Vielle Ferme from Appelation Côtes de Ventoux Controlée from Orange, France.  The wine combined Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, and Mouvèdre grapes. 

The cork was stuck in the bottle and I had to dig it out and then push the bottom of the cork into the bottle, so I then decanted it through a sieve into a wine pitcher so we could minimize the bits of cork and sediment.  The wine had a syrupy texture and flavor and still somewhat sedimented, but it tasted great; heavy, complex and full of flavor, very much like the complex wines from its neighboring Provencale region, Chateauneuf des Pape.

After dinner we immediately ate several chocolate chip cookies Willy had made the night before and they were delicious with the wine also.

We each took an additional glass of wine.   I sipped mine while finished my Book Club book, The Tennis Partner, while Suzette watched a Christmas movie on T.V.  

I learned something really interesting today from the Drink section of the Dec. 13, 2012 to January 2, 2013 edition of the Local IQ column by Sam Melada (page 10).  That Cabernet Savignon is the child of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc and its most important area of growth is Chinon in the Loire Valley in France.  We missed Chinon and the great Cabernet Francs of France on our trip to France this summer because we were focused on Chenin Blanc grape wines, although we did drink a lot of roses made with chenin blanc and cabernet franc grapes.   Alas, another reason to return to France and the Loire Valley.    

Bon Appètit