June 17, 2024 Lunch - Padilla’s Dinner - Bob’s PPI Spaghetti Sauce over PPI orecchiette Pasta

June 17, 2024 Lunch - Padilla’s  Dinner - Bob’s PPI Spaghetti Sauce over PPI orecchiette Pasta

I woke around 7:20 and watched the market open down.

I checked my mail and talked to a client about a lease and then showered and got dressed and at 10:15 drove to my 10:45 appointment.

The appointment lasted until after non and I was hungry so on my drive to Smith’s to shop for ingredients Gravad Lax, I stopped at Padilla’s for lunch.

I ordered my favorite: Chili Rellenos with double beans, onions, no cheese on the beans, green chili, and sopapillas after the meal.

I had eaten granola with milk, yogurt, and blue berries for breakfast, so I was not exceedingly hungry. I ate one of the two rellenos and half the beans and one of two sopapillas and took the other 1/2 of the meal home in a take out box.

I then continued to Smith’s, where I bought 5 lb. of fresh salmon, a tuna steak, two packets of fresh dill, green onions, a bundle of large asparagus, and a handful of green beans. Plus a mild cheddar from the discount cheese bin.

I drove home, unpacked and as I lay down to cool off from the 95 degree temperature, I received a call from Matt requesting that there was a file to review at Bill Turner’s office.

We decided if I arrived between 4:00 and 4:30 it would be sufficient.

It was 3:00, so I rested for 45 minutes. The swamp coolers are working really well this year and cooling the house better than ever, so I cooked down by 3:50 when I left to go to the bank and then arrived at Bill’s office at 4:00.

I finished the review in less than an hour and was home by 5:00.

Suzette arrived at 6:00 tired from her long day of work.  She had gotten up at 4:30 to start the work day and could not cook, so I became the designated cook for the evening meal and for the foreseeable future as Suzette works overtime on her business.

We went to the kitchen and threw out dolmas, and there was left several smoked pork cutlets and a 1 inch wide strip of roasted chicken breast from the meat drawer. I diced the chicken and pork cutlet and then sliced five leaves of Napa cabbage, six or seven stalks of asparagus, thee cloves of garlic, a shallot, a handful of enoki mushrooms and two portobello Ella mushrooms plus a1 inch strip of red bell pepper for color.

I sautéed, blanched these ingredients in a mixture of olive oil, butter, water, and red vermouth for about 20 minutes.

Suzette opened a bottle of Kirkland Riserva Chianti and I heated the PPI Orecchiette pasta and filled pasta bowls with the pasta and Suzette spooned the sauce over the pasta.  We enjoyed the light dinner.

Suzette and had not eaten lunch, so she ate all of hers. I ate only about 1/2, so we have some sauce and pasta left for another meal.

We discussed how our new cooking arrangement will work and decided that we would agree during the day on the dinner menu and who would cook, with me stepping into the executive chef position.

Tomorrow night the menu will be grilled octopus with sushi rice cooked with chard and seaweed. Suzette will grill the octopus and I will make the sushi rice.

We watched a 2017 episode of Antiques Roadshow in Fort Worth and Boston win the NBA title and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit