October 1, 2015 Lunch – Vietnam 2000, Dinner – Scallops with Cassarecce Pasta, PPI vegetables, mushrooms, and red bell pepper and Salad

October 1, 2015  Lunch – Vietnam 2000, Dinner – Scallops with Cassarecce Pasta, PPI vegetables, mushrooms, and red bell pepper and Salad 

Peter Eller went to lunch with me today.  I took him to Vietnam 2000 at the corner of San Mateo and Zuni and we both ordered No 21, which is Bun Cha Gio with grilled pork.  This dish is my favorite summer dish and perfect for one of the last warm days of the summer.  It combines in one bowl, fried egg rolls and grilled pork nestled on top of a mound of steamed rice vermicelli noodles on top of chopped lettuce, herbs and mung bean sprouts at the bottom of the bowl.  We each talked about our new medical issues and only ate ½ of the food.  I felt rather old, but thanked Peter for being my best art dealer and selling me the Birger Sanzen 1932 watercolor.

Suzette arrived home around 5:00 and we had drinks and went around the house with Roland to discuss alarm system issues and then began cooking at around 6:00.

I chopped ½ red bell pepper and 1 bird chili, sliced 3 brown mushrooms and 2 cloves of garlic, while Suzette heated a container of water and boiled Casarecce pasta on the Cajun Cooker.  Then she switched to a skillet and Sautéed the bell pepper and the mushrooms in butter and then added the PPI sauteed yellow squash, onions, and chard from yesterday's meal to the skillet, plus some white wine to make a light wine sauce.  While Suzette was sautéing I made a salad with a head of Bibb lettuce we bought at Costco last Sunday, plus chopped ½ half of a cucumber and a tomato, and four slices of fresh mozzarella cheese.

We dressed the salads with the Cesar salad dressing I made last week.

We poured glasses of a new bottle of H and H Cotes du Rhone Rose ($7.99 at Total Wine) that lacked flavor and character.  Neither of us liked it.

We ate in the garden in the half darkness of late evening, so Suzette fetched a candle and lit it so we could see to eat.  It is now getting dark by 7:30.

We talked of rearranging our schedule for Saturday so we can go to Santa Fe to see the new Modernist exhibits and Stephen’s Consignment’s Paris Sale. 

I ate Suzette’s uneaten salad instead of a dessert, but the pasta was so filling that we each had another glass of the Rose and then I had a glass of Trimbach pear brandy to wash down the food. 

Suzette said she would have liked to have added some cream to the dish.  I replied, “I loved the light sauce that combines the flavors of the butter, white wine, scallop liquid, and the juices from the cooked vegetables”.  

This is the first dish in a long time that combined PPIs from a prior meal as an active ingredient in a new dish and I loved it.  The PPI vegetables from last night not only added vegetables to the pasta dish, their cooking juices added a pleasant vegetable flavor to the sauce of tonight’s pasta dish.  

How I long to have a fully functional kitchen.  The installer came today and installed the hood for the stove, so things are beginning to take shape in our remodeled kitchen.

Bon Appetit