April 25, 2018 Lunch – Salad with Melted Cheese sandwich Dinner – Shrimp Primavera served over Voodles

April 25, 2018 Lunch – Salad with Melted Cheese sandwich  Dinner – Shrimp Primavera served over Voodles

The usual breakfast! Granola, yogurt, milk and diced banana, apple, and blueberries.

Aaron came over and we worked for a while and then made lunch.  I suggested salad, so we picked a basket of lettuce and three or four stalks of tarragon and three stalks of green garlic chives in the garden.   I rinsed and spun the lettuce to dry and I placed it in the fridge to rejuvenate while I made the rest of the salad.

I sliced two Roma tomatoes, two radishes, ½ cucumber, two green onion, the garlic chives, and an avocado.  Aaron plucked the leaves from the tarragon stalks.  I diced about three oz. of PPI grilled ribeye steak for my salad.  I then toasted slices of nine grain bread and lay slices of Jarlsberg cheese on the toast and melted it in the microwave.

We drank glasses of Gruet Still Rose of Pinot Noir and ate at the patio table.

I finally had a decent day in the market.  Hopefully President Trump will stop talking about tariff wars and bombing Iran long enough for the market to stabilize.

After I worked for a while I took a nap until 4:15.  At 4:30 I drove to El Super for the Wednesday produce specials.  I bought an eggplant for $.67/lb., white onions 4 lb. for $.99, mangos and avocados for 3 for $.99, carrots were 3 lb. for $.99, chayote were 4 for $.99 and limes were $.99/lb. I also bought a lb. of small heads off shrimp for $4.49/lb. and chicken thighs for $.97/lb.

When I returned home, I ate a toasted piece of bread smeared with basil mayo and garnished with slices of a Roma tomato.

At 5:45 I  went to meditate.  I returned with Etienne at 7:00 to pick up his pie plate and we invited him to stay for dinner.

We decided to cook the 1.18 lb. of small shrimp I had bought at El Super In a Primavera style.

I diced 1/8 red bell pepper, 1/16 pasilla chili, five cloves of garlic, I small white onion, the handful of chive blossoms, two Roma tomatoes.  Suzette and Etienne decided to flavor the dish with oregano and fennel, so she went to the garden and picked several fennel fronds and some oregano.  I chopped the delicate feathery ends off the fronds and Etienne carried the small pile to a Suzette to put into the dish with the oregano leaves.

Suzette fetched the newly purchased wedge of Pecorino-Romano cheese from the garage fridge and opened it and I shaved a pile of slices of cheese off the wedge with a cheese slicer.

Suzette also fetched the four zucchini from the garage fridge.  I shaved slices of squash from ½ of a zucchini and Suzette shaved the other half.  She then placed the slices of zucchini in a Pyrex baking dish with a bit of water, covered the dish with Saran and cooked the squash slices in the microwave.  The resulting cooked strips of zucchini were what we call  voodles because they look like noodles, but are made from squash.

Suzette quickly sautéed the ingredients in butter and olive oil and added white wine to make a light
sauce and we were ready to eat.  I was interested in trying the King’s Estate Pinot Gris I had bought at Costco for $12.95, so I fetched it from the garage fridge and opened it and poured three glasses.
Suzette plated three plates by laying a pile of voodles on each plate and then ladling the shrimp primavera mixture on the pile of voodles.  We each lay slices of cheese on our primavera to finish the dish. We each carried our plate of food and glass of wine to the table under the gazebo by the pond in the garden and had a lovely dinner. The temperature was about 72 and it was still twilight.  We talked until long after dark.  Etienne was  a winemaker for years, having worked many years for Wilson Winery in Temecula and Kendall Jackson in California.

He tasted the King Estates Pinot Gris and said the slight bitterness at the end of the palate that I had noted had been adjusted for by the addition of sugar.  I tasted the steely taste of sugar.  I like the Elk Cove Pinot Gris better because it does not seem to have that defect.  Both are enjoyable wines.  I buy Elk Cove at Total Wine for $17.99 and King Estate at Costco for $12.95. Both have a good balance of acidity and fruity sweetness.

We said goodnight to Etienne at 9:30 and went to bed.

Bon Appetit