December 16, 2017 Lunch – Salad with Chicken and liverwurst sandwich. Dinner – PPI beef stew with posole and spinach

December 16, 2017 Lunch – Salad with Chicken and liverwurst sandwich. Dinner – PPI beef stew with posole and spinach

 I spent much of the day shopping for food.  After ½ bagel spread with goat cheese, Lax, and thin slices of red onion and a hot tea I drove to Keller’s Westside store and bought two ducks.  I then drove to Sprouts at Alameda and Corrales Rd. Where they were holding another duck for me.  While at Sprouts I also bought three brats at $2.99/lb., 1/3 lb. of Boar’s Head Liverwurst, celery root, parsnips, rutabagas, sweet onions, oranges, 2 eggplants at $.98 each, cream cheese, milk, and oranges.

I then drove to El Super and bought posole, Bosc pears, sweet potatoes, sweet limes, a pineapple, a bunch of beets,

I arrived back home around 2:45 and made a simple salad with sliced radishes and red onion and diced tomato, roasted chicken, and cucumber and chopped a head of romaine and drizzled the whole salad with Cesar dressing.  I toasted a slice of rye bread and lay slices of liverwurst and cucumber on it to eat with the salad.

Then at 3:45 I rode five miles halfway to Rio Bravo and back.  Then I rested until 7:00 when I heated the dinner I had assembled yesterday by combining the PPI stew I had made by combining Roasted Vegetables and hamburger helper with a rich brown sauce with spinach and a scoop of posole from last year.

I opened and poured a glass of La Granja Red Rioja wine, a pleasant blend of 50% Grenache and 50% Tempranillo for $4.99 at Trader Joe’s.

After dinner I cored, peeled, and sliced the four Bosc pears I had bought at El Super for $.69/lb. and poached them in La Granja red wine using a recipe from Epicurious.

Here is the recipe I worked from:

INGREDIENTS
1 750-ml bottle dry red wine
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
4 firm but ripe pears, peeled, stems left intact
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 plain or almond biscotti, crumbled
Orange peel strips (optional)
PREPARATION
Combine first 7 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to simmer. Add pears and return mixture to simmer. Reduce heat and simmer slowly until pears are tender when pierced with knife, about 25 minutes. Transfer pears to plate. Boil liquid in saucepan until reduced to 3 cups, about 20 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill pears in poaching liquid. Before serving, rewarm over medium-low heat until pears are heated through.)
Arrange 1 warm pear and 1 scoop of ice cream on each of 4 plates. Drizzle some poaching liquid over. Sprinkle with biscotti crumbs. Garnish with orange peel strips, if desired, and serve.

I reduced the amount of red wine, water and sugar by half and substituted about 1 cup of old rose’ wine and a cup of Quince syrup Suzette made.

Bon Appetit