December 16, 2023 Brunch - Chili Relleno, beans, and Eggs Vara tasting, Dinner - Beef Stroganoff with PPI spaghetti.

December 16, 2023 Brunch - Chili Relleno, beans, and Eggs Vara tasting, Dinner - Beef Stroganoff with PPI spaghetti.

A rather marvelous thing happened in the shower this morning. I was dazzled by a glistenly bright shower of lit beads of shower droplets that instantly reminded me of my favorite water jet among those that surrounded the large indoor mineral pool at Solares, Spain in late September. The jet was located just below the surface of the pool and spread a glistening mist of droplets lit by sunlight as it cascaded over your shoulders.

I showered this morning just after reading an article about the poet Christian Dimar, who now teaches Poetry at Yale, but grew up in a very small town in West Texas near Snyder.

Perhaps reading his poetry and life story triggered the acuity to experience the burst of brightly lit shower droplets.

Anyway it was a marvelous experience.

I watched some soccer (Everton v. Burnley and Mexico v. Colombia) and lots of football.

Around 9:30 Suzette made the leftover chili Relleno and beans and a bit of her potatoes and carnitas from Padilla’s Thursday lunch with two eggs sunny side up and 1/2 of a sopapilla.  Suzette ate hers straight and  wrapped mine in a toasted flour tortilla to make a chili Relleno burrito.

Suzette went out to do some shopping and I rested in front of the TV.  

When she returned we drove to Vara for its new release Christmas party. There were three wines and each was served with an appetizer.  The first was a Chardonnay served with a petit four of puff pastry. I actually liked the Chardonnay best of the wines because it was lightly oaked from aging in American oak barrels.

The second wine was a red Mencia served with a BBQ pulled pork and cole slaw on a small pancake topped with Vara’s homemade BBQ sauce that was the best appetizer.

We then went into the large tasting room side where they poured a new pink sparkling wine made by Laurent that was quite lovely served with fried chicken and Ranch dressing.  There was also a table of appetizers with three or four types of olives, almonds, serrano ham, smoked ham, a mustard seed cheddar, and a another white cheese with toast points.

They were also serving tastings at the bar and Suzette tasted their gin and liked it so we bought a bottle of it and took our allocation of four bottles home.

When we arrived at 4:00 we turned on the New Mexico Bowl, but it soon became clear that Fresno State was crushing NMSU, so we turned to other more interesting bowls.  The best was Louisiana v. Jacksonville State that went into overtime tied 31 to 31. Jacksonville won with a field goal and score of 34.

I took the frozen 3 lb. of pork stew meat and Posole from the freezer when we returned home and left them out to thaw.

We then made the dessert for the dinner party tomorrow night, the Jose Andres apple balls in a red wine syrup served over ice cream.  Suzette made a red wine syrup by reducing sugar, cinnamon, a bay leaf, and red wine by half and then cooking the apple balls for a few minutes at high heat to infuse them with the red wine syrup. I peeled 7 gala apples and Suzette cut balls out of the peeled apples and I ate the thin margins of apple left after Suzette cut balls out of the apples.

I snacked on a white vermouth and a piece of knackebrod spread with Murray’s cheese spread before we began cooking.

While the syrup was cooking I filled a large pot half full of water and when the Posole was thawed rinsed it in hot water.  I then added the Posole to the pot and soon added the partially frozen pork stew meat, which I diced as it melted.  I added 2 1/2 onions diced, a head of garlic minced, a handful of oregano, six or seven dried chili pods, a dash of cumin powder, some cumin seeds, and salt as it cooked and after all the ingredients were added the Posole finally tasted right.  

Around 7:00 while I was fixing the Posole, Suzette cooked dinner. She converted the rump roast into beef Stroganoff by cubing the roast and combining the brown gravy and adding diced asparagus and sliced mushrooms and finally sour cream and cream. She heated some of the PPI spaghetti and served the stroganoff over a pile of warmed spaghetti.

We loved the stroganoff, but discussed how we could convert it into goulash by adding paprika and tomato. 

Suzette fetched a German sweet Riesling from the garage that we  that was rather sweet, but that Suzette enjoyed with the meal.

We cooked the Posole until 10:00 when Suzette put it out on the patio when she went to bed. We had watched Sister Bonafore, Death in Paradise and some of Saturday Night Live.

I stayed up to watch football and then Austin City Limits and blogged past midnight.

It was a day of good cooking, some of which utilized PPIs.

Bon Appetit