Italian Dinner – October 28, 2011 – Clams in white wine sauce on Linguine with fresh sautéed Zucchini, Chanterelles, garlic greens, cipollini onions and garden greens.

Italian Dinner – October 28, 2011 – Clams in white wine sauce on Linguine with fresh sautéed Zucchini, Chanterelles, garlic greens, cipollini onions and garden greens. 

Dessert – Apple Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream 

Lunch - Café Istanbul.

I was out running around today, so it was easy to do some wine and food shopping. So, this is an example of a meal created on the fly from available ingredients and how I combine shopping into a busy day with a lot of running errands. 

It started with a doctor’s appointment and an early lunch at Café Istanbul of Kibbeh, Greek Salad, tabbouleh, Kalamata olives and a pickle and turmeric rice ($7.95).  I love Istanbul’s Kibbeh, the combination of bulgar wheat wrapped around a core of ground lamb and then baked and served thinly sliced onions and a dash of fenugreek and other spices with a small cup of Theziki to coat the dry Kibbeh with a cool yogurt sauce.  After the lovely lunch I shopped a bit and bought Cardamom flavored tea (Canary 14 oz for 7.99), along with dried dates from a large box from a recent delivery and Lebanese halevah with pistachios.  I believe Café Istanbul carries the widest selection of Middle Eastern products in New Mexico, including many fresh items, such as the dates.  I almost bought some fresh sweet lemons, but passed because the owner was too busy to ask for a recipe for the lemons.

Then I ran by Trader Joe’s for several bottles of its pleasant (not bitter or harsh) Cognac Claude Chatelier VS ($20.00) and Chianti and several bottles of La Granja 2010, a Spanish red blend of 50% garnacha and 50% tempranillo.

Then home for work and two appointments at home and two appointments on the run to the Courthouse to file papers and by the bank, I. stopped at Jubilation to buy their last 21 bottles of Cutler Creek Vineyards California Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio (3 for $10.00) and two more bottles of the light but pleasant Monterval Calvados ($30.99 each).

My last stop was Costco for gas, so I ran in to see if it had a fresh fish shipment.  Luckily it did and I got the last bag of fresh Washington State Manila clams ($3.49 per pound - $17.10).   

I took my clams home and put them in cold water and ice to revive them and put up all the wine and spirits. 

Then I cut into ½ inch cubes a large fresh zucchini we had picked from the garden the day before because I already had an idea that we would cook clams with pasta and make an Italian meal, so sautéed Zucchini fit into that menu.

When Suzette arrived we discussed the meal and decided to do Clams in a white wine sauce, which is one of her best dishes, with the sautéed zucchini and decided to throw in some fresh greens from the garden.  When we went out to pick the greens (Spinach and Kale), I saw that a new crop of garlic plants was already about one foot high, so I picked a handful of garlic greens and then grabbed three stalks of Italian broad leaf parsley.

When we returned to the kitchen, we looked for garlic for the dish and only found a rather dry bulb picked from our garden this summer.  While digging around for garlic, we discovered with glee the cipollini onions we had purchased last Saturday at the Farmer’s Market, so I cut up one of the onions (1/2 cup) and we worked together to remove the central stem from the greens (about two cups) and then I chopped two stalks of the parsley and garlic greens (1/4 cup) for the vegetable sauté while Suzette started cooking the pasta, vegetables and clams.

With the water on for the pasta, Suzette melted about 6 T of butter into a large cast iron pot and threw in the about two T of the chopped garlic greens and 1 T. of  chopped parsley.  Once the butter had melted and the herbs wilted, she then added ¾ C. of chicken stock and ¾ C. of white wine.  When this came to a rolling boil, Suzette began adding handfuls of fresh, rinsed clams to the liquid.  The cover went on tight and in 2-4 min. the clams did their magic, opening and releasing their fabulous liquid and aroma. The secret to steamed clams is to rinse them several times, so they release a lot of dirt and sand. When done steaming the clams, the steaming medium is best poured off, leaving any sediments in the bottom of the pan.

I got the bottle of wine and the dessert from the basement and then watched TV and shucked clams as Suzette brought them from the kitchen. Unfortunately, Costco sells the clams in five pound bags so it took four batches in a large, covered enamel pot of the wine sauce to steam them all open (See picture).

The clams were especially plump (filled their shells) and had a texture that could be bitten threw and were not chewy.  Eating the clams as you shuck them is of course the best way to eat them, fresh from their shells, hot, with a hint of the cooking medium; herbed white wine sauce.   While the clams were being processed, Suzette sautéed in a large skillet the cipollini onions and garlic greens in 2 T. of olive oil and 1 T. of butter.  Then, after 3-4 min., the zucchini went in, then when the zucchini softened, the chanterelle mushrooms and about ½ C. of the white wine clam sauce along with the greens were thrown in and covered to steam.  Once the greens had steamed into the sauce, the clams and an additional 1 C. of the white wine clam sauce was added to create the final sauce for the linguine.

When the clams all had opened and vegetables sautéed and linguine boiled, Suzette plated up the meal, I garnished it with fresh, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese and  poured us each a glass of the Cutler Creek Pinot Grigio.  We had never tried the Cutler Creek Pinot Grigio, so we were more than pleasantly surprised that it was okay (not oxidized or mildewed) with a floral bouquet and the herbaceous and slightly citrus taste and good character one associates with Pinot Grigio.  We were both satisfied with the wine and felt lucky to have ten more in the basement.

The leftover clams filled a quart container.  We also saved the about 1 1/2  cups of the clam cooking medium and bagged the pasta.  Suzette said that with the leftover clams and stock, there was a fish soup in our near future.

About one hour after dinner Suzette had some of our new cognac and I had a cup of the new Cardamom tea with some of the Menorval Calvados Prestige and a slice of the Apple Tart baked at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery with some Edam’s Organic Vanilla Ice Cream ($5.99 at La Montanita Coop) for dessert.  The Apple Tart had a strong but pleasant lemon flavor that complemented the fresh baked apples nicely.  One of the secrets to the lemony flavor of the Apple Tart is the addition of grated lemon to the pastry dough, according to Carol Wood, Pastry Chef at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery.  

As I savored this lovely meal, I could not help comparing my busy day spent working, shopping, picking vegetables, and cooking the fresh ingredients from out garden to those busy days of gathering the Earth’s bounty that our ancestors must have spent in preparation for Winter’s harsh arrival.

Bon Apetit

   

October 27, 2011-Dinner and Lunch, Gourmet Mac and Cheese Casserole with sautéed fresh greens

October 27, 2011-Dinner and Lunch

Gourmet Mac and Cheese Casserole with sautéed fresh greens

I had to leave for a book club meeting at 6:30 p.m. and rode my bike until 5:30 p.m. so we did not have enough time to plan and cook a full meal and we both wanted a smaller meal.  Suzette suggested that we use the Gourmet Mac and Cheese Casserole cooked on Tuesday, October 25, 2011 and simply add to it some fresh greens from the garden.

We are painfully aware that we are reaching the last days of fresh ingredients from the garden and should use as many as possible.   

While I showered, Suzette picked fresh spinach and kale in the garden and when I returned from my shower she was de-stemming the leaves.  I then heated up some of the leftover Casserole with a splash of milk to loosen it up and add to its creaminess and to counteract the ill effects of heating it in the microwave.  Suzette said she would have added red wine instead of milk.

We then tossed the fresh greens in the wok with some olive oil and two cloves of minced garlic, sautéed it and then covered it to steam slightly, till wilted.  Suzette sprinkled hers with Balsamic Vinegar as we tossed the greens into a pasta bowl with the side of the heated Casserole. 

We drank a glass of Lagranja 2010 Tempranillo I had bought at Trader Joe’s today for $3.99 and tested it against the red California Cabernet Sauvignon I had bought for $3.33 the other day.  We both liked the Cabernet Sauvignon better, perhaps Suzette suggested because the oxidation or opening up of the Cab had helped soften its tight flavor of yesterday.

Then I had to leave for my book club meeting without getting a chance to eat the lovely apple tart Suzette brought home from the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery.  When I returned, Suzette was in bed but mumbled that the tart was delicious with the vanilla ice cream that we had in the freezer. 

I have a standing schedule with Mike Verhagen for Thursday lunch and this week we were both available and since we were both near East Ocean, 3601 Carlisle NE, one of our favorite restaurants; it was easy to decide to go there.  We each had our favorite dishes.  Mike’s is Kung Pao Chicken.  Mine is the No. 8 lunch menu item of Shrimp in Lobster Sauce, except I request the substitution of scallops for the shrimp.  I love the dish with its silky smooth sauce made of chicken stock thickened with corn starch, egg clouds, ground pork, bits of chopped green onion and cooked scallops, all adding their flavors to the sauce.  

Lobster Sauce seems to me to exemplify one of the unique characteristics of Chinese cooking, the emphasis on recipes of “things that create a delicious dish when combined with rice”.  What I mean is that most Americans think in terms of rice being a pile of starch to be eaten along with the meal, while the Chinese integrate rice into the recipe, like America’s Southern dish of Red Beans and Rice.  Lobster Sauce is a perfect example of this Chinese Cuisine concept because you can not pick up the slippery sauce with chop sticks.  To eat the sauce you must mix it with the dry rice and then you can pick up the clumps of delicious sauce coated rice and scallops, plus the rice is no longer dry.    

Bon Apetit       

Dinner-October 25, 2011 A Gourmet Hamburger Helper Casserole

Dinner-October 25, 2011

A Gourmet Hamburger Helper Casserole or Boeuf Bourguignonne with Macaroni and Mornay Sauce

This meal is a good example of Suzette’s creativity with leftovers.

She made a cheese spread with bits of different cheeses from the fridge.  “The best way to use left over cheeses is to make a cheese spread.” “To make the spread add into a food processor four or five of you left over cheeses (from which all obviously bad parts and rinds have been removed) cut into small chunks, with two table spoons of butter and two tablespoons of white wine and process the mixture until almost smooth.”  We used Welsh cheddar, goat cheese, French brie, and some unidentified hard cheese, perhaps Comté.  We had rejected as choices a Danish Bleu and Mexican Mennonite cheese and threw out several pieces of moldy cheese as unusable.

Then Suzettte made a Béchamel Sauce by sautéing flour and butter and then adding milk and then added to the Béchamel Sauce ½ cup of the cheese spread to make a Mornay Sauce.

To this sauce she added about three cups of left over macaroni (leftover from Monday’s Pasta dinner) and about two cups of Boeuf Bourguignonne.  The Boeuf Bourguignonne was leftover from the batch made by the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery for the Equestrian Event on Sunday October 24, 2011.

Then Suzette placed the (cheese) Mornay Sauce, Macaroni and Boeuf Bourguignonne mixture in a 2 quart soufflé dish that had been sprayed with olive oil and sliced several of the yellow fuzzy peach tomatoes bought at the Albuquerque Farmer’s Market on Saturday and layered them on top of the mixture and I grated about 2 tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese on top and we baked the soufflé dish in the oven at 350°F for 45 minutes. 

During this 45 minute time I snapped the last two cups of the green beans bought on Thursday and we steamed these for about 8 minutes.

We tried a bottle of the Cutler Creek Cabernet Sauvignon and it was okay.  Not great; but okay, especially at 3 bottles for $10.00.

So we made a container of cheese spread that can be used as an appetizer.  I spread some on two slices of the bread we had left over from the Equestrian Event and ate them with some of the Cabernet Sauvignon as an appetizer while the Casserole was cooking.  It had a slight zippy taste (from over ripe cheese) and was a little chunky, but was definitely edible with a glass of red wine. 

So, we now have an almost complete casserole of the Macaroni and Cheese and Boeuf Bourguignonne and some leftover blanched green beans in the fridge with ¼ bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

This meal illustrates how we use leftovers to make new dishes.  The casserole was surprisingly delicious.  The chunky cheese bits, wine and butter and milk in the Mornay Sauce had melted into solution and combined with the moisture in the Macaroni and the mushroom, vegetable and meat sauce in the Boeuf Bourguignonne to make a new delicious, creamy meat sauce. Voila, Suzette made a new sauce and dish; our own version of gourmet hamburger helper.

We thawed out two frozen balls of hamburger meat for tomorrow evening’s meal.  I am guessing it will include hamburgers garnished with a slice of Bleu Cheese served with fried macaroni and cheese with red wine and a green vegetable.  That is how the trajectory of our meal planning works.  We still have that bucket of turnip greens picked from the garden.

       

Bon Apetit

Dinner - October 26, 2011 Hamburgers with stuffed Delicata squash and green beans

Dinner -  October 26, 2011 Hamburgers with stuffed Delicata squash  and green beans

and a luscious lunch at Cafe Lush

I had to work until 6:15 pm filing documents in my Lower Rio Grande case, so we had only a short discussion about dinner before I went to meditate and our neighbor, Susan Palmer, arrived with a container of chanterelle mushrooms from Costco and the left over roasted vegetables from Saturday evening’s meal at their house.

The extent of our dinner planning was Suzette asking if I wanted to use the thawed out hamburgers and my saying, “Yes, with a slice of blue cheese” and Suzette saying, “I would like to bake the squash,” and a short discussion about what would be a good green vegetable with us deciding to use the leftover green beans.

So when I returned home around 8:30 p.m. I discovered that Suzette had created two new recipes for dinner, one new and one with leftovers.

Suzette sautéed onions and the chanterelle mushrooms, pinon nuts and roasted green chile (locally grown in Peralta, N.M.) with the hamburger and split the delicata squash along its length to form a boat and filled the boat with some of the leftover roasted vegetables, some fresh eggplant (purchased at the Farmer’s Market) and a bit of butter and baked them in the oven for an hour.

It made a beautiful plate: the yellow delicata squash with its green stripes filled with colorful roasted vegetables: (red and striped beets, carrots, potatoes (Peruvian purples, red skinned and white skinned), onions, carrots, the eggplants and parsnips, all tinted pink by the red beet juice; the stocky hamburger with melted blue cheese mounded high with the mushroom, pinon nut and green chile medley and a pile of dark green beans.

We drank beer with the meal to ease the distress in my stomach caused by my super Callans Pizza at Café Lush .  I love Café Lush  (corner of 7^th and Tijeras) because it makes so much first rate food in such a small space and is near my house.  What I call a Super Callans Pizza is not a regular menu item but a Callans pizza with its red sauce, homemade green chile sausage, and mozzarella cheese, to which is added a pile of fresh spinach leaves, fresh sliced mushrooms and several cloves of roasted garlic found on Lush’s Booby Pizza.  The pizza is constructed on a thin crust, 7 or 8 inch round, pre-baked flat bread, so each person gets their own individual pizza pie, which I think is a fun meal.  I took my friend and sometimes art dealer, Peter Eller, for his first visit and he loved it.  Peter also thought the Agnes Sims painting I had purchased last weekend was the best he had seen of her sandstone petroglyph genre and that made me really happy.   

Bon Apetit    

Dinner - October 26, 2011 Hamburgers with stuffed Delicata squash and green beans

Dinner -  October 26, 2011 Hamburgers with stuffed Delicata squash  and green beans

I had to work until 6:15 pm filing documents in my Lower Rio Grande case, so we had only a short discussion about dinner before I went to meditate and our neighbor, Susan Palmer, arrived with a container of chanterelle mushrooms from Costco and the left over roasted vegetables from Saturday evening’s meal at their house.

The extent of our dinner planning was Suzette asking if I wanted to use the thawed out hamburgers and my saying, “Yes, with a slice of blue cheese” and Suzette saying, “I would like to bake the squash,” and a short discussion about what would be a good green vegetable with us deciding to use the leftover green beans.

So when I returned home around 8:30 p.m. I discovered that Suzette had created two new recipes for dinner, one new and one with leftovers.

Suzette sautéed onions and the chanterelle mushrooms, pinon nuts and roasted green chile (locally grown in Peralta, N.M.) with the hamburger and split the delicata squash along its length to form a boat and filled the boat with some of the leftover roasted vegetables, some fresh eggplant (purchased at the Farmer’s Market) and a bit of butter and baked them in the oven for an hour.

It made a beautiful plate: the yellow delicata squash with its green stripes filled with colorful roasted vegetables: (red and striped beets, carrots, potatoes (Peruvian purples, red skinned and white skinned), onions, carrots, the eggplants and parsnips, all tinted pink by the red beet juice; the stocky hamburger with melted blue cheese mounded high with the mushroom, pinon nut and green chile medley and a pile of dark green beans.

We drank beer with the meal to ease the distress in my stomach caused by my super Callans Pizza at Lush Café.  I love Lush Café (corner of 7^th and Tijeras) because it makes so much first rate food in such a small space and is near my house.  What I call a Super Callans Pizza is not a regular menu item but a Callans pizza with its red sauce, homemade green chile sausage, and mozzarella cheese, to which is added a pile of fresh spinach leaves, fresh sliced mushrooms and several cloves of roasted garlic found on Lush’s Booby Pizza.  The pizza is constructed on a thin crust, 7 or 8 inch round, pre-baked flat bread, so each person gets their own individual pizza pie, which I think is a fun meal.  I took my friend and sometimes art dealer, Peter Eller, for his first visit and he loved it.  Peter also thought the Agnes Sims painting I had purchased last weekend was the best he had seen of her sandstone petroglyph genre and that made me really happy.   

Bon Apetit    

Dinner-October 24, 2011 Macaroni with an Italian Sausage and three pepper and fuzzy tomato sauce

We worked late and rode our bike until almost 7:00 p.m. so we wanted a quick dinner.

I chopped up the two Italian Sweet Sausages I had purchased at Sunflower Market on Thursday, October 20, 2011.

I then chopped up one-half of one of the pimientos and one of the Italian sweet peppers bought at the Taos Farmers' Market on Saturday October 15 and one old slightly shrivelled up yellow cherry pepper from Suzette's garden in Los Lunas, plus about one-fourth of a yellow onion.  Suzette quartered several yellow fuzzy peach tomatoes we had also purchased from Amayo Farms on October 22, 2011.

Suzette then sauteed all the sauce ingredients with a dash of salt as she boiled some elbow macaroni while I cut up a bunch of frilly mustard greens we also had bought from Amayo Farms at the Farmers' Market on October 22. 

I had never seen a yellow fuzzy peach tomatoes before.  They were quite lovely.  They seemed to shimmer like jewels as their slightly translucent skin and tiny hairs caught the bright morning light.

Suzette got out the wok and put some Spanish olive oil into it and then I smashed a clove of garlic and fried it in the heated olive oil for a minute while I fetched a bottle of chianti from the wine celler.  We then threw the mustard greens into the wok and cooked them while Suzette drained the cooked macaroni.  The mustard greens were tougher than I had thought they would be so we turned up the heat and tossed them to coat them with olive oil and then pushed them down into the wok and put a wok cover over them to steam them a bit.  After a few minutes the mustard greens collapsed.

We piled some of the cooked macaroni in a pasta bowl and mounded on it some of the sausage, tomato and pepper mixture and placed some of the sauteed/sweated mustard greens on the side of the mound in the bowl.

I heated some fresh bread we had gotten at the 20-30 Club Equestrian Event on Sunday in the microwave and placed in on the table in a bread basket. 

A lovely and very quick meal that we ate in front of the TV while we watched the Antiques Roadshow.  

 

Dinner-October 22, 2011 Veal Scaloppini in a Calvados Cream Sauce, Roasted Vegetables and Green Beans

Dinner-October 22, 2011

Veal Scaloppini in a Calvados Cream Sauce, Roasted Vegetables and Green Beans

We were invited to our neighbors, Charles and Susan Palmer’s home for dinner.  I was looking forward to it, because Susan said she would serve veal and a white Burgundy.

Their other dinner guests were Dr. Steve Padilla and his partner, Maggie Santiago.

When I arrived there was a lovely selection of cheeses and crackers and French bread and a pate spread out on the counter next to the kitchen.

Steve and Maggie are serious food and wine lovers.  I believe Steve said he is the President of the local chapter of a national wine organization and he goes to wine events all over the U.S..  So we compared recollections about wine and food events and travels.

Finally, around 8:00 we called Suzette and found out that she was on her way home after a record evening’s business at the Bistro.  The favorable restaurant review in the Friday Albuquerque Journal Venue section must have made an impression on lots of folks. http://www.nmagelessliving.com/ here is the link to Suzette's website for the Center where you can read the four star restaurant review of the Bistro in the Albuquerque Journal.

When Suzette arrived, Susan asked me if I could fetch the roasted vegetables left over from our Friday evening meal and I did.  Then she asked me to help her cook the veal dish.  One of the best things about eating at the Palmer’s is that we get to cook the beautiful ingredients she buys and Susan graciously cleans up our cooking mess, so their dinner parties are perfect, because we get to cook and enjoy a lovely dinner and do not need to clean up.

The recipe for the veal was from the Gourmet Cookbook and quite simple. Sautéed veal with the pan deglazed with Calvados and then cream.  Susan and I were not sure whether to add any extra flavorings to the dish and finally decided to keep it simple and as near the recipe as possible.  I lightly salted and peppered the beautiful thinly sliced fresh veal scaloppini from Tully’s and then we sautéed them in butter and canola oil and then set to the side.  Then we poured off the excess cooking oil and deglazed one pan with the ¼ cup of the same Calvados Menorval that we had served last night and poured that over the veal slices. I then deglazed the other pan with 2 or 3 cups of heavy cream and then added to it the accumulated pan drippings and Calvados from the veal slices and added one smashed clove of garlic and a little more salt and thickened the cream sauce and then returned the veal slices to the thickened sauce and reheated and turned the veal slices to integrate the sauces and coat them with the sauce and heat them.  The result was a sauce of great elasticity, yet one that clung to the meat and still flowed freely.  I do not understand the chemistry of how the sauce gained elasticity but it was pretty neat.

The sauce’s flavor was a very mild but subtle, a delicious white sauce; although most people at the table added salt and pepper.  Susan had roasted potatoes, so we plated up the veal slices with some of the sauce and some of the roasted vegetables, some beautiful blanched haricots vert (Costco) and the roasted potatoes.  Then we poured the left over sauce into a pitcher and served it with the plates of food.  Susan also served a Louis Jadot Pouilly Fuisse 2008 and we also drank some of the lovely Chateau Serene Pinot Noir that Steve and Maggie had brought.

After dinner I went home again and got a bottle of sauternes which I served with the lovely chilled lemon mousse Susan made.

A wonderful evening of cooking and conversation about the some of the things I love best; food and wine.

      

Dinner-October 21, 2011 Pot Roast with Roasted Vegetables and French Apple Tart

Dinner-October 21, 2011

Pot Roast with Roasted Vegetables and French Apple Tart

This evening we fixed dinner for 8 persons and had our last dinner party of the year in our garden.  The garden is still lovely with its zinnias and snap dragons in bloom and a fresh bloom of lavender. 

In the morning we picked turnips, carrots and beets from the garden.  We cleaned them and I spent several hours chopping them into cubes and then chopped the parsnips and some garlic and onions and potatoes and placed them in water to hold their tenderness and color (I filled a large pot with the unused freshly picked, cleaned turnip and beet greens and put it aside for later).

Later in the afternoon, Suzette tossed the vegetables with olive oil and roasted the 7 or 8 pounds of chopped vegetables in the oven in a large roasting pan for about 1 ½ to 2 hours while the pot roast (we purchased at Costco October 20, 2011) cooked.  Suzette updated the traditional Lipton’s cream of mushroom soup cooking medium by making her own cooking medium with chopped mushrooms and onions sautéed in butter and olive oil with salt and pepper and then stewing the sautéed mushrooms and onions in beef bouillon with fresh chopped sage.  Suzette then put the pot roast into a large roasting pan covered it with the stewed mushroom, onion and beef broth medium, wrapped the pot roast up with aluminum foil, and put the large roasting pan into a 350°F oven for 3 hours or from 3:00 pm until 6:00 pm when our dinner guests arrived.

While the meat and vegetables were cooking, I snapped the ends off about two pounds of the green beans and Suzette made a cranberry sauce with cranberries, orange slices, chopped Jonathan apples, and sugar.

I also made a last minute run to La Montanita Coop for some heavy cream, vanilla ice cream and a loaf of fresh French bread (a double baguette from Parisian Bakery).   I then made a Frozen Horseradish Sauce (Joy of Cooking page 312) with 1 cup whipped organic heavy cream, ¼ cup fresh orange juice and 1 teaspoon of sugar and a dash of salt.   

Mark Dawson arrived first around 5:30 p.m., bearing a bottle of Château d’Aqueria, Tavel 2010 by S.C.A. Jean Olivier, which had been the Dawson’s favorite wine at a recent rosé tasting.  Since it was still chilled, we opened it immediately.  It had a clean taste with a robust flavor/character profile and the complexity that one associates with Rhone wines.  The label indicated that it was a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Clairette varieties of grapes.  Almost a tangy flavor.  Really interesting.

Bill and Regina Turner also brought a bottle I had never drunk before; a 2010 Riesling from Corrales Winery, which was put aside for later and a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

Suzette’s best friend, Debbie and her husband, Jeff, also joined us for a total of 8 persons.

Suzette made plates up with meat, roasted vegetables, blanched green beans, and cranberry sauce and I poured Valréas, Cuvée Prestige, Cote du Rhone Villages 2008 bought at Trader Joe’s.  The Valréas was 75% Grenache and 25% Syrah and went particularly well with the roasted meat.  We passed around the Horseradish and Au Jus Sauces and bread.

After the main course we ate a cheese course with goat cheese, brie, and Collier’s Welsh Cheddar (from Costco) with more Valréas and more bread.  The wine and cheese went well together as suggested on the wine’s label.  The cheese was a lovely second course after the meat.

Then Suzette brought out her French Apple tart (October 20, 2011) and served slices of it with an organic vanilla ice cream (from La Montanita Coop) and I poured shots of the new Calvados Prestige, Menorval, (Imported by Halby Marketing, Inc., Sonoma, CA) I had bought at Jubilation on Thursday.  A very French finish to the dinner.

We served dinner in the garden from about 6:15 to 7:30 pm in the half light of evening and candle light.  It was a lovely warm evening until about 7:15 p.m., when the first chill of the evening sent us back inside.   

After a discussion between Mark Dawson, Bill Turner and Bob of New Mexico water and litigation history fueled by more shots of the light, young and smooth, yet tangy Calvados Prestige Menorval, while Suzette and Regina cleaned up the dishes and food, we parted company around 9:30 pm. (the traditional after dinner evening of men in the library with their drinks and women in the kitchen, I fear)

Suzette said it best.  She was happy we took the day off work so we could cook a proper meal.

This meal is also a good example of how we shop and cook for a medium sized dinner party.  I often do most of the shopping for ingredients because of Suzette’s demanding work schedule and because I like to shop for food. We each assume responsibility for different dishes, although there is often a sharing of labor and the recipe decision on large dishes, such as the vegetable dish, with both of us picking and cleaning the vegetables from the garden and then me doing the cutting and prep and Suzette doing the cooking.  Suzette does most of the real time cooking on the stove or grill, such as watching the meat and vegetables and cooking the cranberry sauce for this meal, while I prepped the horseradish sauce and ran to the store for the last minute ingredients.

I salute the great French artisans who made the Calvados as I sip the last drop of Calvados of the evening and I write this final sentence.

Two more interesting things occurred today.  Suzette had a throw down with her pastry chef, Armando, in a head to head competition of French Apple Tarts.  Suzette lost because Armando knew the trick of enforcing the edge of the tart pan with a double layer of crust so it would hold its shape when cut and his extensive decoration with sliced strawberries and mint sprigs, but her tart was recognized as having the best flavor with its apricot-honey glaze.

The other, more interesting, event was a great review of the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery in the Friday, October 21, 2011, Albuquerque Journal “Venue” insert.  The Journal restaurant reviewer, Andrea Lin, gave the Bistro her highest rating of four stars.  I told Suzette that based upon my experience as a restaurant reviewer, a four star rating is worth $25,000 to $50,000 of extra revenue.  What a wonderful surprise! Go to the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery site if you wish to read the review.

Bon Apetit 

    

Dinner-October 20, 2011-One Skillet Dinner of Smoked Pork Chops

Dinner October 20, 2011

One Skillet Dinner of Smoked Pork Chops and Leftover Brussels Sprouts

Today was a shopping day.  At lunch I went to Sunflower Market and purchased lovely green beans ($1.79 per pound), an artichoke, two Italian sweet sausages, two parsnips, and a ½ pound of fresh mushrooms for the pot roast dinner Friday night.  Then I went to Jubilation and picked up three bottles of 3 for $10.00 wines: a South African Chenin Blanc, a California Pinot Grigio and a California Cabernet Sauvignon, plus a bottle of Calvados and a bottle of Orange Liquor. 

When Suzette came home, we went to Costco and purchased the Chuck roast and five packages of duck halves (See Dinner-October 18, 2011). 

When we returned home Suzette was not feeling like cooking so I threw together a one skillet meal of smoked pork chops, onions, a sliced Jonathan apple and onion slices sautéed in butter and grape seed oil with sliced fresh sage and a sliced clove of garlic.

When the dish was almost ready we threw in the ¾ cup of left over roasted Brussels sprouts, onions and pinon nuts from October 18, 2011 (See Dinner-October 18, 2011).  Pretty tasty

We tried the South African Chenin Blanc with it, but the wine's taste was so muddy that Suzette could not finish hers.  I drank three glasses with the aid of an ice cube to mask and chill the muddiness/earthiness of the wine’s terroir.  Most of the South African wines I have tried seem earthy to me.  That earthy flavor seems okay for the Syrahs but not so good for the others.

One lesson from this meal is that a good wine can enhance a meal and a bad wine can detract from the enjoyment of a meal.

As my old friend Ed Louden used to say, “Life is too short to drink bad wine”.  In fairness to the rest of us, Ed started Bacchus Wines, so he had access to the best wines in the world.

Bon Apetit

October 19, 2011 Dinner-Sauteed Sea Scallops with Vegetable Medley and French Apple Tart

Dinner, October 19, 2011

Sauteed Sea Scallops with a sautéed Medley of Vegetables
and French Apple Tart

I guess I did not sleep as well as I thought last night, because I became very tired around 4:00 p.m. and did not feel like cooking a big meal, especially, since I promised to help Suzette make an Apple Tart.. 

Luckily, Richard Donfro, a friend, brought by a lovely cream of parsnip soup with a lemon flavored shredded kale garnish that we ate around 5:30 p.m. as an appetizer, so we were not hungry for a large meal.

After Suzette made her dough and it was resting in the fridge, Suzette peeled while I thinly sliced about eight or nine of the Jonathan apples we had purchased at the Fruit Stand in Velarde, N.M. last Saturday for the apple tart she was making for an “apple tart throw down“ competition she was having with her pastry chef, Armando, at the Greenhouse Bistro on Thursday.  Since we used high carbon steel knives to slice the apples, Suzette sprinkled the apple slices with lemon juice to keep them from discoloring.  The thin irregular lines of red running through the apples were beautiful.

While Suzette made the dough for her Apple Tart, I went to the fridge and gathered, and sliced:

Two Portobello mushrooms

Two Zucchini squashes, from our garden

½ brown onion

One long Italian sweet red pepper, bought at the Taos Farmer’s Market

Two cloves garlic

While Suzette constructed her Apple Tart by lining a tart pan with parchment paper and rolling the dough and fitting it into the tart pan and laying the apple slices on the dough in the tart pan in the shape of a flower, I sautéed the vegetable mixture in a skillet with some butter and olive oil, a dash of white pepper, about ¼ teaspoon of French Sea Salt, and about a tablespoon of dried oregano for about twenty minutes at medium heat (to avoid scorching the vegetables) and then added about two teaspoons of lemon juice and covered the skillet with a wok lid and sweated the vegetable mixture for another twenty minutes.

While the vegetables were sweating during the last twenty minutes and Suzette had put her Apple Tart into the oven, she dried the defrosted Sea Scallops between layers of paper towels and then sautéed them in a skillet with heated butter and olive oil and finished them with a pinch of salt and a splash of white wine to make a light sauce.

She also cooked about a cup of left over apple slices and lemon juice and in a different sauce pan cooked about one cup of unsweetened apricot preserves with honey to make a glaze.

When the scallops were lightly browned, Suzette made a bed of the sautéed vegetables in a shallow soup bowl and garnished the vegetable medley with the Sea Scallops, which we ate with a glass of Champlou Vouvray, a lovely, elegantly light dry Vouvray with a slight citrus flavor.  I also had a slice of whole wheat toast to soak up some of the vegetable and scallop sauce. 

  As we finished our dinner, the timer sounded and we ran to the oven to take the lightly browned Apple Tart from the oven.

While Suzette was glazing her tart with the Apricot glaze, I ate several slices of the lemon-flavored cooked apple slices and watched the first game of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and Saint Louis Cardinals.  Suzette then combined the remaining glaze with the remaining cooked apple slices and we put the leftover sautéed vegetables and the cooked, glazed apples slices and the remaining Cream of Parsnip Soup and kale garnish into the fridge.

Since we often construct our meals using available leftovers, it is important to track our leftovers so you can see how we construct our menus utilizing those leftovers; if I don’t eat them for lunch or snacks.

For example, there was some L’Orange Sauce left over after last night’s meal (October 18) that went back into the fridge.  

We actually have three fridges, which I sometimes think of as living beings that inhale purchased ingredients and leftover dishes and exhale those leftovers and ingredients for future meals.  They function as an expanded larder that allows us to keep and choose a wide variety of ingredients and leftover dishes as the foundation for meals without having to shop for each meal, as you will see as this series of articles progresses and as evidenced by this evening’s meal, which was gathered entirely from the fridge.

Bon Apetit

Dinner October 18, 2011

                                Eating with Bob and Suzette - Dinner - October 18, 2011

It is appropriate to start this endeavor with a truly celebratory but simple meal. 

Duck L’ Orange with roasted Brussels Sprouts and a fresh sliced Tomatoes

While I rode my bike ten miles, Suzette prepped and baked about a pound of halved fresh Brussels Sprouts with one-half chopped onion tossed in organic Spanish olive oil and one-quarter cup pinon nuts and a dash of French small grain coarse sea salt in a ceramic baking dish at 350°F for 45 to 60 minutes until tender.

After I returned home and showered, I began the duck entrée.

The Duck was bought at Costco.  There were two cry-o-vac plastic bags, each one containing a pre roasted duck half (leg, thigh and breast) for $13.99 produced by Maple Leaf Farms in Indiana (http://www.mapleleaffarms..com/).  Besides the two bags containing the roasted duck halves there were two bags of a sweet orange sauce.  

We chose the conventional method of finishing the duck; putting the duck halves in a shallow baking pan and roasting them in the oven at 375 °F for 15 to 20 minutes.  We chose to use the oven’s convection setting so more air would move around the duck and hopefully make the skin more crisp and drive off more fat.

While the duck roasted, I peeled an orange and put the orange sections into an enameled sauce pan with what was left of a previous orange sauce from the fridge, added one bag of the commercial sauce and added a little onion, Marsala and juice of one-half lemon and then strips of one lemon and one orange cut with a zester to replicate the Julia Child recipe to balance the sweetness of the commercial sauce and give it some body and a more winy, citrus flavor.  The sauce still did not have enough onion flavor, so I added some chopped chives to it at the end, which gave it a little fresh onion flavor and added a little green color to the dark orange color.   

While I was preparing the sauce, Suzette and I discussed what might be a good accompaniment for the duck and Brussels sprouts.  We rejected a green vegetable because the Brussels sprouts were green and she finally suggested slicing some of the fresh tomatoes we had.  So Suzette sliced a medium sized yellow tomato we had purchased at the Taos Farmers’ Market the preceding Saturday and several fresh red grape tomatoes from our garden and drizzled the sliced tomatoes with a dressing made from some of the fig balsamic vinegar we had made last year wisked with some fresh Spanish organic olive oil we had purchased in Spain in April 2011.

So the plate was a symphony of colors, yellow slices of tomato sprinkled with halved red  grape tomatoes, green and white roasted Brussels sprouts and chopped onion and golden brown duck coated with bright orange sauce L’ Orange.

For such a special meal I decided we needed a special wine.  I prefer Cotes Du Rhone or Chateau Neuf du Pape with duck and I was lucky to find a bottle of 2003 Domaine Roger Perrin, Vielles Vignes, Cotes Du Rhone that had probably been lying in my basement cellar (imported by Charles Neal Selection, Richmond, CA $16.99) for over five years.  We both agreed that the wine had a dark prune like finish with great character and a dark, mercurial texture.  There was some sediment in the bottle and would probably have benefited from being decanted but we did not.

The meal took less than one-half hour to prep and cook, not considering the prep and roasting of the Brussels sprouts.  Super simple and the result: wonderful.

After this sumptuous dinner we just sat and watched a movie on TV while we each ate a few chocolate truffles (Kirkland Chocolates of the World from Costco) and sipped cognac.  We slept like rocks.