La Quinta, California: We have pretty-much settled-in to our normal life here in La Quinta after six weeks away. Exercise in the morning, housekeeping, etc., and then we each spend a few hours changing/updating our new email addresses. (If you missed the memo, our 32-year-old email server is shutting down at the end of September. Aaaaaccck!) It's a tricky business because often if I change my email address at a certain website, the website will send an email to my current/old email address with a link to update. If we don't get everything switched-over before the end of September, we may not be able to change our addresses at a few sites because after September 30, we will no longer have access to our old server. The entire process is so annoying: we are receiving an email at our old and our new email addresses stating our email addresses have been updated... not to mentioned we have lived in La Quinta for over a year and I have found a few sites with our Oregon postal address. HELP!) A few websites take one minutes to update. A few websites take ten minutes. Let's not get into the websites that send a confirmation code to our cell phones!
The only positive thing from this process is I will probably no longer receive emails from Russian brides, penis-enhancement companies, nor tactical flashlights. Goodbye!
Hopefully, my multi-millionaire Nigerian uncle will still send emails.
Sister Gina gave us a big bag of tomatillos from her garden. Saturday, I roasted them (quartered) in the oven, tossed in olive oil, along with an onion, a spicy pepper (also from Gina's garden) and many cloves of garlic.
After the roasted tomatillos had cooled, the mess was pureed with lime juice, cilantro, and salt. The result was two cups of salsa verde.
Appetizers before dinner Saturday! The Oregon Ducks beat the Stony Brook Seawolves 48-7. Tailgating!
Mary & Captain Jim's son (Ron) sent this photo (below) from Autzen Stadium in Eugene, just at kick-off. Prior to the game, it poured buckets, but the rain relented for the game. Obviously, the rainbow was an omen.
I made four chicken enchiladas (Costco rotisserie chicken) for our dinner (and another four for the freezer), and used only one cup of the salsa to complete the dish.
Bad photo of two chicken enchiladas in salsa verde. We each had an individual portion of two enchiladas. So delicious, and served with the rest of Gina's Ambrosia melon:
On Sunday, we golfed! In just a few days, the course groundskeepers will scalp the golf course. It is a controversial thing, but around here golf courses are shredded down to the bare nibs at the end of September, over-seeded, and then watered like crazy. Usually, one grass variety is used in the winter and another used in the summer. I don't really know. The only thing I know is our pool will be filled with flying grass clippings next week and the course will be closed for a month, so we are going to golf as much as possible this week... before hunkering-down with all doors/windows closed, and taking antihistamines like it's our job. Here are photos of the scalping last year.
Pretty view from the #2 green. Not a lot of watering this week. Things are getting a bit parched.
Flowers still gorgeous though!
Sunday night = Pizza Night. Jamie Oliver did an Instagram post this week about pizza with grapes and honey. I did not have grapes, but I did have figs... and rosemary... and burrata... and pine nuts... so I improvised. Dave grilled the pie on our outdoor grill. We ate it all. So yummy. I did not drizzle honey. The figs were so sweet and we were over honey after Rosh Hashanah. After we finished, I remembered that I forgot the red onion. Dang! Red onion would have been spectacular.
Since Gina also sent us home with a gallon of tomatoes, I tried a very famous recipe from Marcella Hazan. I suggest you google Fish in Crazy Water, because every cooking magazine/website has adapted Hazan's recipe, so you will have to decide how to make it your own. Basically, sliced garlic, red pepper flakes, and some sort of herb (or fennel seeds?) are sautéed in olive oil until fragrant, then chopped tomatoes are added and cooked-down with a lot of water/white wine. Rumor has it, Italian fishermen used sea water on their boats when making this dish. Who knows? Sounds crazy to me! When the sauce is thickened, fish (I used the wonderful frozen cod from Costco) is poached in the mélange. The whole mess is served with sliced baguette to sop-up the sauce.
Appetizers tonight.
Crazy Delicious.
So good! Plus, I made the sauce early in the day and only needed to heat it up to poach the fish. Dinner-party-friendly, and really healthy... if you don't have chunks of cheese as an appetizer.
Wait. What's a dinner party again?
Tomorrow, we golf!
Until my next update, I remain, your cooking correspondent.
This week I roasted 9 pounds of tomatoes, 1 large red onion and a head of garlic. In small batches it went into the Vitamix and blended and then into a 9 quart Le Creuset cast iron Dutch oven with chopped basil, tomato paste, chicken stock, water, salt, pepper and heavy cream. This is the best fresh tomato soup. I served it with a grilled cheese sandwich made with shredded colby jack and seriously sharp cheddar on Italian bread.
I am going to try your fish in crazy water recipe, it sounds yummy.
FYI the Nigerian prince will still find you. The sites you’re updating your email address on sometimes sell that information. Anything for a dollar anymore it seems.