January 8, 2022 Lunch - Posole and tamales. Dinner - Eggplant Parmiagiana with spaghetti and spinach

January 8, 2022 Lunch - Posole and tamales. Dinner - Eggplant Parmiagiana with spaghetti and spinach

I read the New Yorker, an article in the August issue by Jain Mayer about how big right wing foundations are supporting the efforts to suppress voting and an article in the current issue on how Iran is building up an unassailable missile capability and is enriching uranium to build atomic bombs because Trump terminated the six party anti-nuclear treaty.  

I stayed in bed until 11:30 when Suzette suggested we fix lunch.  Suzette thought we needed to eat all the five pork tamales left and the Posole.  I heated the Posole with two tamale’s pieces, some red chili and Ann egg white.  Suzette sautéed the other three and cooked an egg on them.

We drank beers.

After the K. C won against Denver we walked and then drove to Lowe’s and bought an eggplant, mushrooms, a can of spaghetti sauce, an orange bell pepper, and two avocados.

Lynne is a vegetarian and Todd eats no red meat so we picked a menu everyone would like, Eggplant Parmiagiana with spaghetti and spinach.

The Spaghetti Sauce

When we returned home we started cooking dinner. I diced an onion, 1/2 head of garlic, and the bell pepper while Suzette diced three tomatoes and a handful of cherry tomatoes.

Suzette then ground a handful of dried basil leaves into powder in an electric coffee grinder.

I then sliced five or six portobello mushrooms and opened the 24 oz. can of mushroom flavored spaghetti sauce.

Suzette sautéed the onion and garlic until it was tender and then added the tomatoes and basil and then the mushrooms and cooked all that until every ingredient was cooked.  Then she added the spaghetti sauce and two 7 oz. containers of tomato sauce to complete the sauce.

The eggplant Parmigiana 

Suzette slices the two eggplants and brushed them with olive oil and grilled them on the propane grill until they softened.

She the opened a package of fresh mozzarella slices and lay slices of cheese between slices of grilled eggplant until they filled a ceramic baking dish.  

Then she filled the dish with the spaghetti sauce. Finally Suzette grated and covered the top of the dish with about 1 cup of Pecorino-Romano cheese and baked the eggplant dish in a 350/degree oven for forty minutes.

Suzette then boiled a lb. of spaghetti and the drained it.

She then tossed the spaghetti with olive oil and 1 bunch of fresh spinach destemmed.

When the eggplant was fully cooked, Suzette filled pasta bowls with spinach and the added several spoonfuls of eggplant Parmagiana to each bowl.

I poured a glass of Malbec for Suzette and I filled my glass with the last of the Portuguese Tuella.

Todd and Lynne drank Pellegrino water.

We enjoyed dinner.  During dinner I watched Dallas beat Philadelphia impressively 51 to 26.

Lynne is a lawyer currently serving as a Federal public defender in Las Cruces so we swapped lawyer stories during dinner.  Lynne was curious about Suzette’s  career and business, so that was discussed also.

After dinner Todd graciously cleaned the dishes and Lynne cleaned the stove.

Suzette and I drank glasses of limoncello over crushed ice as we talked as they cleaned.

Lynne had gotten up at 3:00 so she and Todd went to bed around 8:30 and Suzette and I watched the last half of Father Brown and all of Death in Paradise.

I made a cup of tea and ate chocolate wafer cookies with it.

Suzette went to bed at 10:00 and I followed shortly after.

I blogged and read until midnight.

Bon Appetit