January 15, 2022 Lunch - Steak, chicken, and mushroom Quesadilla, Dinner - Baked Rigatoni and Salad

January 15, 2022 Lunch - Steak, chicken, and mushroom Quesadilla,   Dinner - Baked Rigatoni and Salad

I watched soccer starting at 6:15 the first match was the best of the day.  No. 1 Man City against No. 2 Chelsea.  The action was fast and it took 70 minutes for Man City to score the only goal to increase its lead over Chelsea.

I ate a bowl of fruit salad with yogurt and granola at 10:30.

25 minutes into the second match between Aston Villa and Man United I left wIth Suzette to visit a client in Rio Rancho.

It took a long time and then we drove to Costco.  They did not have glucose tablets but we bought a bottle of Malbec and a bottle of Portuguese red wine and Suzette bought a couple of containers of Lysol cleaner.

We then drove home and Suzette made a wonderful steak, chicken, cheese, and mushroom quesadilla. And I made three open face sandwiches with basil Mayo, salami, ham, ant prosciutto, plus tarragon mustard and finally slices of Iberico cheese.

Suzette drove to the store for more mushrooms and a bunch of green onions and picked up glucose tablets for me.

The Baked Rigatoni

After lunch I cut ingredients for dinner, an onion, a head of garlic, three Italian sausages, a can of pimientos diced, about a lb. of mushrooms, 1 1/2 cup of olives, and 1 1/2 cup of artichoke hearts and Suzette sautéed the ingredients p.

Suzette boiled rigatoni macaroni and sautéed the ingredients and mixed  the heated and 3/4 cup of marsacapone cheese and a cup of fresh mozzarella diced. Then Suzette added three cups of warm spaghetti sauce  and poured the mixture into a greased deep dish baking dish and topped the mixture with grated Pecorino-Romano cheese and covered the dish with aluminum foil and baked for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Suzette actually did not bake it after lunch, but saved it for after the symphony for our dinner with Cliff and Nancy.

Dinner - At 4:30 we got ready for the symphony and drove to Popejoy Hall at 5:30.  The program was Brahms’ Violin Concerto played by Midori and Brahms’ 2nd Symphony.  I think I am not a violin enthusiast or a Brahms enthusiast.

We drove home and put the pasta dish into the oven to bake for 45 minutes.

Cliff and Nancy arrived soon after with a bottle of Ruffino Chianti and a bag of almond biscotti.  You call them biscotti, we call them “mandel brod”.

Suzette fetched the Spring Mix salad greens , cucumbers, and Roma tomatoes and I fetched the radishes and then reconstituted the salad dressing with juice of 1/2 lemon and about 1/4 cup of olive oil and helped Cliff open the bottle of Chianti.

I also sliced a piece of baguette into slices and wrapped it in aluminum foil and placed it in the oven to heat.

Suzette put some dressing into a pitcher. 

We served the salad and bread and poured glasses of wine and sat at the dining room table. I was happy we had recovered the chairs.

After we finished the salad, Suzette served pasta bowls with spoonfuls of the baked pasta.

Cliff ate two helpings and said he would have eaten three if it did not seem like he was a glutton.

After dinner Suzette served thin slices of the chocolate mousse cake and whipped cream with coffee.

We talked and looked at the newly reupholstered indigo covered chairs and look at recent acquisitions until 11:00. It was a pleasant evening.

One of the most interesting thing about Nancy and Cliff is that they grew up within four houses of our house and they knew the history of every house and every family going back seventy years.

A lovely day and evening.

Bon Appetit