October 4, 2015 Brunch – Shrimp Omelet Open Faced Sandwich, Dinner – Pork Paprikesh

October 4, 2015 Brunch – Shrimp Omelet Open Faced Sandwich, Dinner – Pork Paprikesh

Suzette slept until 8:30, but I got up at 7:30 and heated a bowl of the menudo I bought yesterday in Santa Fe for breakfast.  We watched the news programs, but got boarded listening to Republican presidential candidates, especially Donald Trump, so I watched the Miami v. N.Y. Jets football game from Wembley Stadium and Arsenal beat Manchester Union 3 to 0.

We then covered three raised beds with plastic for winter and repaired and covered the fish pond with its screen covering to prevent the leaves from falling into it.  

We finished by 11:30 and Suzette made a shrimp omelet with chopped onion, potato, red bell pepper, two bird peppers, and garlic.  We did not have flour tortillas, so we substituted nan instead.  Suzette cooked the omelet on the Cajun cooker, so she is getting quite good at sautéing on it ,and she heated the nan on the grill until it softened and became warm.  I split my nan in half horizontally tp create a large flat surface and wrapped the omelet in it, but Suzette simply tore her nan in half and ate it like an egg sandwich. 

Mario arrived around 1:00 and we installed the cover for the whole house fan and I napped from 2:30 to 3:30 and then went for a ride to Rio Bravo into a fifteen MPH headwind.  The sky was overcast most of the day with intermittent drizzle.  Here is a photo of  of the clouds hanging low on the Sandias.  I saw a deer for the first time on the bike trail on my way back north. 

We were not very hungry for a big dinner.  We discussed the available ingredients, which included PPI casarecce pasta, red  bell pepper, onions, shrimp.  Then I mentioned that we had PPI pork chops from last Thursday, Suzette said, “Let’s make pork Paprikesh.”

I said, “Great, we can use pasta instead of spatsle.” 

Suzette got out the red bell peppers, the ¼ onion, the mushrooms, the freezer bag of pasta, the Vouvray white wine, the bottle of smoked paprika, a sweet potato, the container of Mexican crema, and the pork. 

I chopped the onion, ½ of a red bell pepper and the chives I had picked at lunch.  Suzette peeled the sweet potato and I sliced and diced it.  I then went to the garden and picked a hand ful of chard and washed it off and de-stemmed it.  I then told Suzette, “We have paprika peppers.”

She did not believe me until I fetched a bottle of Hungarian paprika quarters from the basement.  They were a few years old, but I chopped them and they went into the sauce to flavor and color it. 

Suzette fired up the Cajun cooker and sautéed the ingredients and made a credible Pork Paprikesh.  We then heated the pasta and put some into pasta bowls and then spooned the Paprikesh on top of the pasta.  I sliced the bolillo I got with the menudo yesterday and toasted it poured glasses of the George Dubouef Pinot Noir I bought at Quarters on Friday.  

The wine was a decent Pinot Noir but lacked character.  It was fine with the meal, but better with the brie cheese I ate on the buttered toast after dinner.

We watched the new Masterpiece Theater series called “Home Fires” about the role of Women in Wartime England and the “Indian Summer” about English controlled India in the 30’s.  Both shows were a study of how England moved toward modernity.

After the shows we watched Dallas tie and then lose to New Orleans in the Superdome.

Bon Appetit