February 11 and 12, 2016 salad, PPI enchiladas, East Ocean and ground beef steak with blue cheese, streamed vegetables and potato

February 11 and 12, 2016 salad, PPI enchiladas, East Ocean and ground beef steak with blue cheese, streamed vegetables and baked potato 

Thursday was a weird day of food.  I am trying to diet and my strategy is to skip breakfast, so I made a great salad for lunch with PPI Bobby Flay chicken, a diced tomato, slices of Palm heart and cucumber, and some olives.  I decided I ride to Rio Bravo in the afternoon and faced about a 10 mph breeze on the way back that weakened me.  

When I returned home aRound 5:00 I had to go shopping for our Sunday Valentine Day meal at Ranch Market.  I spent around 45 minutes buying corn husks, hibiscus leaves, dill weed, Crema, limes, Pasilla chiles, oranges, and shrimp.  When I get weak I immediately want to eat something to get energy into my body, so I bought a wedge of FUD panatela cheese and ate several pieces when I returned to my car.  When I returned home Suzette had nothing yet arrived.  I choose to make a quesadilla with sliced PPI roasted pork and sautéed shaved Brussels sprouts, grated mozzarella cheese, and slices of the panatela cheese.  There was a pan on the stove in which Suzette had sauteed the Bobby Flay chicken that still had about 1/16 inch of  reddish colored life oil and chicken fat.  For the sake of expediency I decided to toast the two flour tortillas in the paprika flavored oil.  I make my quesadillas by toasting one side of each of two flour tortillas and then layering the ingredients on their toasted sides which become the inside of the quesadilla.  I sliced the pork roast thinly and put it on one of the toasted tortillas, then lay the toasted side of the other tortilla on it and after a couple of minutes flipped the quesadilla and toasted the other side.  The result was a quesadilla filled with pork, Brussels sprouts, and cheese grilled to hot golden brown firmness.  I ate the quesadilla with a glass of water and my hunger andA much of my weakness evaporated.   Suzette arrived soon after I finished eating and I was not hungry or interested in cooking, so we decided to eat some of the PPI blue corn enchilada casserole and steam some of the Cauliflower and broccoli that I had bought at Sprouts the other day.  After dinner I ate some of the Shed Chocolate Mocha Cake.

With the onset of indigestion after having eaten a greasy quesadilla and some fiery red chile doused enchiladas and chocolate cake, I drank a ginger beer and went to bed. 

Bon Appetit 

Friday I was determined to build my strength by eating a good lunch.  I worked on my response in the water case until noon and then drove to East Ocean.  Instead of ordering my favorite dish, scallops in Lobster Sauce, I decided to lighten up and ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan, which is a pile of vegetables, including bamboo shoots, onion, snow peas, water chestnuts, carrots, and chicken cooked in a light chicken stock sauce thickened with corn starch.  The dish was served with fried rice and sweet and sour chicken.  After eating lunch I drove to Albertson's at the corner of San Mateo and Montgomery to buy the other items we needed for Sunday’s meal and because I had bought lovely dill weed at Ranch Market and wanted to make gravad lax and saw an ad for fresh Atlantic farm raised salmon for $4.88/lb.  I had the butcher cut two matching halves of large filets that totaled 3 lb.  I also bought 11/4 lb. of 93% lean ground beef, “made out of mostly sirloin,” according to the butcher.  I asked the butcher where to find veal Demi-glacé and he kindly went to find the Asst. Manager, who showed me to the shelf where the Better than Bouillon was displayed.  We discussed the red wine Demi-glacé sauce I intended make and collectively decided that the vegetable sauce concentrate was the best choice since there was no veal concentrate.  I the went to the ice cream section and found the Tillamock ice cream on sale for $2.88 for a 1.5 quart container and bought some vanilla bean ice cream.  On my way to the check out area I saw lots of pretty roses, so I bought a nice dozen of pink roses for $20.00.

I still wanted to find veal stock, so I drove to Fremont’s at the corner of San Mateo and Lomas, but discovered that it had gone out of business, so I went across the street to Sprouts because I still needed to buy red beets for Suzette’s duck enchilada dish. I soon found organic red and striped beets for $.98/lb. and bought two.  I then wandered over to the meat counter and was that there was a sale on sea scallops for $12.95/lb., so I told the butcher that I wanted ½ lb. of them.  There were none in the tray but he said there were some in the freezer and went to get them. It took him several minutes to return, in which time I noticed lovely 1 ¼ inch thick beautifully marbled rib eye steaks on sale for $7.98/lb., which was cheap for lovely USDA hand trimmed steaks.

When he returned and filled my scallop order, I asked him to cut me four rib eye steaks, after he helped another lady who had been waiting for service for some time and I went to the sauce area to search for veal stock.  There was no veal stock, but there was a beef concentrate that I bought.  Here are photos of the two sauce concentrates I selected and the rib eye steaks.  After selecting the four steaks, I stopped at the chocolate covered area, which is one of my favorites and was not surprised to see that most selections had been discounted for Valentine’s Day weekend.  I bought about 1 ¼ lb. of double dipped peanuts discounted to $3.74/lb.  I then drove home at 2:30 after making the big loop to East Ocean near Comanche and Carlisle, then Albertson’s at Montgomery and San Mateo, then south on San Mateo to Lomas to Sprouts, and then home. 

Suzette had to stay at the Greenhouse Bistro to be the hostess for its Valentine’s Day special meal, so at 5:30 I toasted three slices of Fano baguette in our new toaster and then melted slices of P’tit Basque cheese on them in the microwave.  I also made a gin and tonic with the juice of ½ of the new limes I bought yesterday at Ranch Market. 

At 7:00 I still had not heard from Suzette so I began dinner by baking four large Yukon Gold potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes on the high convection setting.  Suzette arrived around 7:45 with a portion of the Bistro’s Valentine Day special: Breaded Chicken Schnitzel with Speatzle garnished with caramelized red onions.  I had cut the flowers from the cauliflower and other stalk of broccoli and put them in the steamer and when Suzette arrived we decided that the portion of schnitzel was not enough for two so I made a ground beef patty and we sautéed it and I garnished it with slices of Stilton cheese after the first flip.  So we ended up with plates filled with a medley of two meats (schnitzel and beef ), two starches (1/2 of a baked potato garnished with butter and sour cream and some Speatzle), and two vegetables (broccoli and cauliflower).

What a fun dinner.  I opened a bottle of Famille Perrin Reserve Cotes du Rhone and drank a glass with dinner.  We watched Washington Week and then a very lovely documentary on B. B. King until Willy called from Thailand.  Finally, at around 10:30 we turned in after full days of activity.

Bon Appetit