October 4, 2017 Lunch – Salad. Dinner – PPI Pork Tapa with Sautéed Chard
I ate a late breakfast of whitefish on toasted everything bagel smeared with cream cheese from Donut Mart. I offered Aaron ½ of ½ of the bagel and he liked it.
I went to the bank a little after 1;00 and then around 2:00 ate a quick salad of roast pork, romaine lettuce, a Mexican green onion a diced tomato from our garden, and a handful of grated Parmesan cheese, plus about.1/4 oz. of chopped pickled ginger. I made a dressing by adding about 1 ½ T. of olive oil to about two T. of PPI dill, mayonnaise and sour cream dressing I made for the artichokes last week.
Then at 4:30 I went to meditate and Todd and I sat and talked afterwards until 6:15.
When I returned home Suzette surveyed the abundance of PPIs in the fridge and determined that we needed to eat the Roast Pork Tapa. Since we usually eat that with Catalan Chard she suggested we take a shortcut and simply sauté some chard with the tapa. I went to the garden and picked a large handful of chard and de-stemmed it and Suzette cleaned the leaves and added them to the tapa already re-heating in a large skillet. There was lots of sauce with the tapa that easily coated and combined with the chard to create a uniformly integrated dish.
We discussed what wine to drink. Suzette said she wanted a light red wine. I said, “How about a Tempranillo?”
She said, “Perfect.”
So I went to the basement cellar and fetched a bottle of 2015 La Granja 50% Tempranillo/50% Grenache blend Spanish wine (Trader Joe’s $4.99). La Granja is from the Carinena Denomiacion de Origen Protégé in Spain near Zaragoza. This region is located in a valley of a tributary of the Erbo downstream and about halfway between the more famous Rioja region and the terminus of the Erbo at the Mediterranean near Zaragoza.
We visited Zaragoza several years ago and enjoyed our visit immensely. Zaragoza has a fantastically rich history. It was the Roman’s main garrison town from which the Romans attempted to control the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, so there are lots of Roman ruins. I think it is navigable from the Mediterranean, so it has been a port city for this region of Spain since Forever. It also was an important Moorish seat of government with a large castle/fort built by the Moors called Altaferia on the old Roman foundation. After the Christian expulsion of the Moors in 1492, Ferdinand turned the Altaferia fortress into his castle from which he ruled Aragon. Zaragoza is the capital of the
Province of Zaragoza. Some of the government’s administrative offices are still housed in the Altaferia. It seems like everywhere you look in Zaragoza you see layer upon layer of history.
Here is some information from Wikipedia.
Roman Caesaraugusta
Roman theatre
The Sedetani, a tribe of ancient Iberians, populated a village called Salduie
(Saldubain Roman sources). Later on, Augustusfounded a city called Caesaraugusta[6] at the same location to settle army veterans from the Cantabrian
wars. The foundation date of
has not been set with exact precision, though it is known to lie between 25 BC and 12 BC. The city did not suffer any decline during the last centuries of the Roman empire and was captured peacefully by the Goths in the fifth century AD.
(Saldubain Roman sources). Later on, Augustusfounded a city called Caesaraugusta[6] at the same location to settle army veterans from the Cantabrian
wars. The foundation date of
has not been set with exact precision, though it is known to lie between 25 BC and 12 BC. The city did not suffer any decline during the last centuries of the Roman empire and was captured peacefully by the Goths in the fifth century AD.
Taifa of Zaragoza
From 1018 to 1118, Zaragoza was one of the taifa kingdoms, independent Muslim states which emerged in the eleventh century following the destruction of the Caliphate of Córdoba. During the first three decades of this period, 1018–1038, the city was ruled by the Banu Tujibi. In 1038 they were replaced by the Banu Hud, who had to deal with a complicated alliance with El Cid of Valencia and his Castilian masters against the Almoravids, who managed to bring the Taifas Emirates under their control. After the death of El Cid his kingdom was overrun by the Almoravids, who, by 1100, had managed to cross the Ebro into Barbastro, which brought Aragon into direct contact with them. The Banu Hud stubbornly resisted the Almoravids and ruled until they were eventually defeated by them in May 1110.
Aragonese era
On 18 December 1118, the Aragonese led by Alfonso I conquered the city from the Almoravids,[7] and made it the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon.[8] After Alfonso's death without heirs in 1134, Zaragoza was swiftly occupied by Alfonso VII of León and Castile. The city control was held by García Ramírez, king of Navarra, until 1136 when it was givento Ramiro II the Monk in the treaty signed at the betrothal of Ramiro's daughter Petronila and Alfonso's son Sancho. The wedding never happened, as Petronila ended up marrying Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona.[citation needed] The marriage union was the origin of the Crown of Aragón.
Assault of the French army at Santa Engracia Monastery on 8 February 1809 during the Peninsular War. Oil on canvas, 1827
13th century Zaragoza was the scene of two controversial martyrdoms related with the Spanish Inquisition: those of Saint Dominguito del Val, a choirboy in the basilica, and Pedro de Arbués, head official of the inquisition. While the reality of the existence of Saint Dominguito del Val is questioned, his "murder" at the hands of "jealous Jews" was used as an excuse to murder or convert the Jewish population of Zaragoza.[9]
Zaragoza suffered two famous sieges during the Peninsular War against the Napoleonic army: a first from June to August 1808; and a second from December 1808 to February 1809, surrendering only after some 50,000 defenders had died.[10]
Modern history
Despite a decline in the outlying rural economy, Zaragoza has continued to grow. The General Military Academy, a higher training center of the Spanish Army, was re-established on September 27, 1940 by Minister of the Army José Enrique Varela Iglesias. During the second half of the 20th century, Zaragoza's population boomed as a number of factories opened in the region.[11]
In 1979, the Hotel Corona de Aragón fire killed at least 80. The armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization ETA from northern Spain has been blamed, but officially the fire is still regarded as accidental.[12] ETA carried out the 1987 Zaragoza Barracks bombing in the city which killed eleven people, including a number of children, leading to 250,000 people taking part in demonstrations in the city.[citation needed]
I poured us two glasses while Suzette divided the dish into two pasta bowls. The blending of the lighter Grenache with the heavier Tempranillo grapes made for a solid but pleasantly light red wine that was perfect with the sautéed pork, apples, and onions of the tapa dish and the chard completed the dish with a fresh green vegetable. I loved dinner.I finished my wine with a square of dark 72% chocolate and at 8:00 went to read The Song of the Sirens by Ernest Gann, our October book club selection.
Bon Appetit
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