May 25, 2015 Lunch – Azuma Dinner – Cassarecce Pasta tossed with Pesto and Sautéed Zucchini, onion, Oyster mushrooms, garlic, and Oregano with hamburgers

May 25, 2015  Lunch – Azuma  Dinner – Cassarecce Pasta tossed with Pesto and Sautéed Zucchini, onion, Oyster mushrooms, garlic, and Oregano with hamburgers

I tried to walk with Suzette and got weak, so I decided to get some serious protein.  I suggested sushi to Willy and he was happy to go to Azuma.  I ordered my usual, Chirashi Donburi lunch for $14.99 with 2 salmon slices, 2 octopus slices, 4 Yellowtail, 2 Ultra white, and 2 tuna.

Here is a picture:

Willy ordered a Bento Box with grilled Teriyaki salmon, tempura, a California Roll, and rice.

We enjoyed lunch.  I took half of my lunch home.  On the way home we stopped at Fano and I bought two baguettes for $3.00 each.  Fano is my current favorite French bread bakery.

For dinner I had thawed out two large hamburgers and two small sliders.  We talked about the rest of dinner.  Willy wanted to do something with pesto.  We finally agreed to make Cassarecce pasta tossed in pesto.  I sliced up two zucchini squashes, an onion, about three ounces of fresh oyster mushrooms grown by Suzette’s people at the Center, two cloves of garlic, and the leaves stripped from six or seven sprigs of oregano.  The oregano in our garden is at its best now, almost fully grown but still young and tender.  

I sautéed the onions and squash first for about ten minutes and then added the mushrooms, garlic, and oregano, and tossed all the ingredients together and covered them with a wok cover to sweat them.  Suzette drained the pasta and added the pesto to it while she was also grilling the hamburgers. We turned off the heat to the pasta and Sauted vegetables and let them sit covered.

When the hamburgers were cooked to medium, she took brought them in and Suzette mixed the Sautéed vegetables with the pasta and pesto. Suzette then plated the pasta in a pile and put the hamburgers on the pasta.  I sliced and toasted two frozen dinner rolls for Willy’s sliders and a piece of freshly baked baguette from Fano that approximated the size of my hamburger and toasted the pieces and used two of them as a bun for my hamburgers.  I spread some of the basil mayo Willy had made yesterday on one piece of bread and catsup on the other for a heavenly delicious hamburger sandwich.  

I opened the bottle of 2015 of El Prado Spanish red wine I bought at Total wine for $8.99 less 20% on Saturday.  It was a 70% Temranillo 30% Cabernet Sauvignon blend fro The Valencia Denominacion de Origen.  We found it a bit heavy and bitter compared to our favorite la Granja 50% Tempranillo 50% Grenache blend from Rioja that we buy at Trader Joe’s for $4.99.  This illuminates a difference between Total Wine and Trader Joe’s worth noting.  Trader joe’s excels at finding the $4.00 to $7.00 bottles of wine.  Total wine has very few of these wines, which leads me to conclude that Total Wine marks up their cheaper wines to $8.00 to $10.00 per bottle.  These wines should be avoided.

What Total Wine excels at is the middle range of wines, those that retail at $12.00 to $18.00 per bottle.  Their middle priced wines are superior to any I have found anywhere else in New Mexico and a really good value when purchased at a 20% discount, which Total often offers.

I had the distinct feeling that the El Prado was a wine intended to compete against the super Tuscans that are Sagiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blends.  In my opinion the better blend would have been Grenache/Cabernet Sauvignon, but for my money I would still choose a Tempranillo/Grenache blend.  I just like the softer less acidic wines that are more pleasant to drink with food, like La Granja,especially at $4.99 /bottle.

Bon Appetit