April 13, 2016 Lunch – PPI Pasta and Pork Confit, Dinner – Papa Murphy’s Gourmet Pizza

April 13, 2016 Lunch – PPI Pasta and Pork Confit, Dinner – Papa Murphy’s Gourmet Pizza

Today is a good example of what happens to our diets when we get busy.  I worked all day and had a 1:00 appointment to sign a will, so at noon I simply filled and heated a bowl of PPI Pork Confit, Penne Pasta, and some brown sauce., which I ate with the last of the Beaujolais.  It was quick and delicious and I made enough for Willy to eat for his lunch.

After the will signing I went to Ranch Market to shop.  I was attracted by the 7 avocados for $.99, and also bought three large leeks for $1.99, a bunch of fresh Basil for $1.29, several Serrano chilis for $.99/lb. and a rain check for 10 lb. of Russet Potatoes for $.99.  I also bought a cucumber for $.50 and a bottle of Goya capers for $3.29.

I then went to Lowe’s for chicken breasts for &1.19/lb. and since they were frozen, I also bought five chicken thighs for $1.89/lb. and a 1.5 quart container of vanilla ice cream for $2.00. 

When I got home at 4:00 I rode to Rio Bravo and then drank a Henry’s Hard Soda (Costco) and toasted three slices of baguette and smeared them with butter and duck foie gras and had a lovely appetizer and more importantly got some sugar into my system to rejuvenate my sore muscles.  The Hard Soda is at least the equivalent of a six punt Tokay in terms of its suspended sugar, so the snack was the equivalent of a Pate appetizer with either a sweet Sauternes or a sweet tokay.

Suzette arrived home completely spent by her day of work and lay down for a nap.  She did not wake up until when I left for meditation around 6:45.  Suzette is working extra hard because this week's he Spa is closed for remodeling and Suzette has dozens of projects in motion that she needs to manage and buy things for, plus her normal assortment of business activities, such as attending an all day course yesterday to become certified as a restaurant manager and running her other businesses.  In fact I had anticipated this situation and had asked Suzette to bring home a roasted chicken from the Greenhouse Bistro, but she was running around shopping for stuff to use in the remodel and did not want to have the chicken sitting in the car all afternoon.

When I arrived home after meditating a little bit after 8:00 I saw that Suzette was watching TV and realized that we should not try to cook dinner, so I suggested we order a pizza.  Suzette and I enjoyed the thin crust Gourmet pizza made by Papa Murphy’s so we asked Willy to go on line and see where the stores were and the selections.  We soon chose a pizza with Italian spicy sausage, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, and spinach for $16.00 for a large pizza.  Willy graciously volunteered to drive to the store to get it, which allowed me to stay home to make a salad.  I had a bag of greens from the garden in the fridge that I could use.  I put the salad greens in the wooden salad bowl and then added 1 chopped Roma tomato, 1/3 of the new cucumber sliced, a hard boiled egg sliced, a few of the new capers, four radishes sliced, and an avocado sliced and chopped.

I also freshened up the blue cheese dressing by adding the juice of ½ lemon, about 1/3 cup of Sprouts’ Spanish olive oil, and a small tsp. Of French Herbs Provence salt, a couple of cloves of garlic pressed, and a dash of black pepper.

When Willy returned with the pizza we removed its saran wrapper and pre-heated the oven to 425 degrees.  Suzette read the instructions, which called for baking the pizza for 12 to 18 minutes at 425 degrees, but to check it at 10 minutes. She set the timer for 10 minutes and poured the last of the Cherry Blossom Pinot Noir into wine glasses.  When the buzzer went off I tossed the salad with dressing and Suzette checked the pizza and declared it done.  We removed it with a pizza paddle and I sliced it into eight wedges.  It was easy to slice with a knife because the thin crust had become very crisp so broke easily under the pressure of a knife.

We served ourselves pizza and salad and enjoyed a pleasant meal with the pleasant pinot noir (Trader Joe's for $3.99), thankful for not having to cook.

The reality is that this dinner was more expensive and less healthy than if I had sautéed the chicken and cooked a vegetable.  The only thing going for it was it freed us from the time and effort of prep and clean up, which tonight was important because both Suzette and I were tired.

Bon Appetit