I rode to Montano and back which tired me a bit.
For lunch I wanted a simple healthy meal, so I went to the garden and picked a basket full of the new lettuce and two ripe yellow tomatoes, which I combined with 3 oz. of diced PPP rib steak, ¼ of a cucumber, goat cheese, and black olives and dressed the salad after I reconstituted the Cesar salad dressing with some olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon juice.
I was hungry for some carbs so I took two round knackebrod rye crackers from IKEA and smeared them with butter and then one with cod roe and the other with goat cheese to make smorbrod.
I enjoyed this simple tasty lunch.
After lunch I checked the flyers of sale items at several stores and was attracted to the cherries at El Super for $1.23. Since I did not have anything planned for dinner I shopping for food at El Super, which is our closest supermarket.
I found amazing prices. Cherries were on sale for $.99/lb. (which is the cheapest price for them I have ever seen). Likewise, Persian cucumbers were the cheapest I have ever seen at $.33/lb. There was a Muslim young woman picking cucumbers at the cucumber pallet area, who was feeling and examining each cucumber, so I asked her what was her selection criteria and she said, “I look for the ones that are smooth, without dimples.” So I picked a couple of pounds of smooth cucumbers and watched her pick about ten pounds of cucumbers. These small Persian cucumbers are perfect for pickling and I am sure that is what she was going to use hers for.
I then bought three chayote for $.99, two avocados for $.99, ripe Roma tomatoes for $.50/lb. a head of bok Choy for $.59/lb., mushrooms for $.99 for 1/2 lb., yellow onions for $.33/lb. and bananas for $.50/lb.
I then went to the dairy area and bought a container of Best Choice yogurt for $2.69 and a container of sour cream for $1.99. I wanted a meat for dinner, so I went to the meat area at the north end of the
store and immediately found fresh cut chicken thighs for $.99/lb., so I bought a six pack for a bit over
$4.00.
The total for everything was a little over $26.00. I was happy, because I will be able to replenish my jar of pickles, make another blueberry and cherry Clafoutis, a mushroom spaghetti sauce, and have fresh chayote to grill and avocados to stuff with a neat and vegetable salad.
At 6:00 I decided to cook. I called Suzette and asked her how she wanted to prepare the chicken. We decided on grilling the chicken, so I made a marinade for the chicken with Italian lemon juice, grape seed oil and fresh tarragon and put the chicken thighs into it and turned them to coat them with the marinade and put the bowl into the fridge until dinner.
I then decided to use the two old chayote and five tomatillos with a new onion and ½ of an old poblano chili to make a Mexican vegetable stew. I peeled the two old chayote and diced them and the five tomatillos, and a small onion and the ½ poblano chili. Then I put all the diced vegetables in a large skillet with 2 T. of melted butter and 1 T. of olive oil and sautéed them and then covered them with a wok cover to sweat a bit. I then decided to try to integrate the flavors of the vegetables and soften them further, so I made a cup of chicken stock with Knorr chicken stock powder and poured it onto the vegetables and covered the skillet with the wok cover and reduced the heat to allow the vegetables to stew for another ten or fifteen minutes.
When Suzette got home she started cooking the chicken on the stove in the Bobby Flay manner of weighing down the sautéing chicken pieces with another skillet filled with water until they brown and then baking them in the oven.
I decided to drink one of the Sauvignon Blanc blends we have. I went to the cellar and picked the first thing that I saw p, which was a 2013 Mendoza Valley, Argentina Sauvignon Blanc because it has a buttery texture and is not as citrusy or acidic, which goes better with chicken.
I chilled it for a bit in the freezer while we were cooking dinner.
When the chicken and vegetables were cooked, Suzette plated a piece of chicken and we each ladled vegetables onto our plates. I opened and filled glasses with ice and poured the wine and found the
Mango and jicama salsa in the fridge and put it on the table. Suzette would not eat the mango salsa
because it was a week old, but I found it delicious. The lime juice in the salsa had softened the
jicama a bit, although it retained its crunch, and preserved and helped blend the salsa ingredients’ flavors.
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The wine was nondescript in its own right but complemented the crisp grilled chicken perfectly. I drank a glass, but the true test was passed when Suzette refilled her glass two additional times. I think the wine was so appealing because we have been drinking mostly French and American wines lately and a wine from a different terroir was more interesting for a change. |
I lay down and read at 7:45 and went to bed at 9:00 after listening to Suzette’s big adventure on I-25 when one of the shelving units she bought flew out of the little truck and she had to run a quarter of a mile back up the highway to retrieve it.
Another chapter for her annals of owning an assisted living facility.
Bon Appetit
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