November 30, 2011 – Extravagant Continental Thanksgiving Dinner and Italian pasta lunch

 

November 30, 2011 – Extravagant Continental Thanksgiving Dinner and Italian pasta lunch

Kitchen in the Bali House, Sayulita, Mexico

If I had to describe how I feel about the last day’s food and activities in an anthropomorphic simile, I would say I feel like a happily overstuffed sausage.

I started the day getting packed in the Teak wood house in the jungle south of Sayulita.

I then fixed breakfast of left over fish stew on a toasted tortilla with a fried egg on it and a cup of peppermint tea.

After packing and a near disaster backing out of the driveway of our rental house, it was on to Puerto Vallarta to meet Harold Lott, Suzette’s ex-husband for lunch.  We suggested meeting him at a small Italian Restaurant named Moka Caffe located at Plaza Marina just south of the airport.  He arrived a bit after 11:00 am with a friend from Lake Chapala named Lupe.  Suzette and I split a Ceasar Salad and a fresh made linguine with butter and sage and we opened our bottle of French champagne that Billy and Elaine gave us. Luke and Harold ate fresh gnocchi in a tomato sauce and Lupe had the special of the day Lasagna.  I loved the lightly sauced fresh pasta, although the Ceasar salad was dressed with a mayonnaise and worchestershire dressing that as goopy and there were no whole anchovies as I had requested. Total bill 530 pesos.

After lunch Harold invited us to visit his boat at the marina about one mile south of the restaurant.  Harold owns a 38 foot Juneau that has four rooms that sleep two comfortably  or three uncomfortably and a space for crew with a large galley and bathroom and shower.

We sat on baquettes on either side of a table under the main sail on the deck behind the galley and in front of the steering wheels and drank beer for about an hour in the sun and shaded by a rigged bimini utilizing the tarpaulin cover for the lifeboat.  There is not a lot of room on a sailboat but it was comfortable.   We met Harold’s other sailing mates, Mary Ann and Tom and Rick, who had accompanied him from PV to San Diego and back on the fourteen day sail from which he had just arrived back.  In fact on November 29, 2011 we had seen them motor into the Banderas Bay from the restaurant at Punta Mita at around 1:30 p.m.

Harold has a home at Lake Chapala that he is developing into lots and condominiums that we discussed among other things, like old friends; as we caught up on the last few years of individual histories.       

After a pleasant visit on the boat we drove to the airport and returned the rental car and departed PV at around 4:00 p.m.  We arrived in Dallas and made our way through customs and immigration by around 7:00 p.m. and were met by Elaine Simon, Bob’s sister in law.  She called Billy, Bob’s brother and told him we were on our way and Billy started the final prep of dinner.  When we arrived at Billy and Elaine’s house in north Dallas, dinner was prepped and the table set and wine decanted.  So as soon as we dropped our bags in our respective rooms, we re-assembled in the kitchen.  While Billy and Elaine did the final cooking, we nibbled duck pate on toasted slices of French bread and Leyden cheese (which we all love).  Elaine sautéed blanched broccoli in a pan with minced shallots, lemon, thyme, black pepper and garlic (America’s Test Kitchen Recipe for Pan-Roasted Broccoli with Lemon Browned Butter).  Billy heated up broad strips of Carmelized butternut squash garnished with a sage, ricotta salada, and crushed hazelnut Pesto (http://www.food52.com/ Carmelized Butternut squash Wedges with Sage Hazelunt Pesto).  Billy also had made a lovely sweet potato casserole with sweet potatoes cooked in cream and sugar and garnished with a streusal of flour, cream, butter, brown sugar and pecans Sweet Potatoes with Streuseled Topping from Cook’s Illustrated).  The meat was slow cooked pork tenderloin (America’s Test Kitchen.com Pan Seared Oven Roasted Pork Tenderloins) served with a lovely sour cherry and white onion in port sauce (Americastestkitchen.com Dried Cherry-Port Sauce with Onions and marmalade) but without the marmelade.  Finally there was a bowl of brown rice risotto.  A real Thanksgiving feast. 

Let me discuss an issue that I noticed when both I and Billy cooked the slow cooked pork tender described above.  Billy has a fancy thermometer that has a long probe that he used to measure the internal temperature of the pork tenderloin.  The recipe says to cook the meat until it reaches an internal temperature of 135 to 140°F, which we did.  Unfortunately, the meat does not appear cooked because the center of the meat is not fully coagulated and still appears undercooked at this temperature, but I encourage you to fight your tendency to continue to cook the meat until it looses its color and turns pink or gray and try to eat the meat a little less cooked than you are used to because that is the way the Spanish and French eat it. Billy did what I usually do and that is to slice the meat and place it in the sauce to “finish cooking it”, but I do not think that is the intent of the recipe.  Billy left some pieces less well cooked and they were very tender to the point of melting in your mouth.  

To accompany this lovely array of foods, Billy opened two beautiful bottles of wine; a silky smooth and elegant Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru La Combe aux Moines 2000, Domaine Dominique Gallois and a Savigny-Les-Beune, veille vignes, 2006, Domaine Phillip Girard, fruity with a hearty finish.  We could not have had a better Thanksgiving meal.

After we ate our fill of these lovely dishes and the food cleared and talked for a few minutes, Billy said are you ready for coffee and a disgutive and brought several hands full of bottles to the table, including Mathilde Liquer Poire, Cognac Claude Chatelier XO, a Mercedes Eguren Aguardiente de Orujo, Licor Valvanera from the Hospederia (Monastery) of Valvanera in Rioja, a Pere Magliore Calvados and a Germain Robin brandy.  Then Billy served coffee and delicious Ghirardelli Ultimate Chocolate Cookies (allrecipes.com) and fresh pineapple.  Billy and Elaine had purchased the Aguadiente the day we had our lunch at Eguren Vineyard near Laguardia, Spain, in April 2011.  After lunch Billy, Elaine and Rebecca took the vineyard tour while Suzette went to the spa in Laguardia and I took the vineyard tour at Marques de Riscal at Elciego.  What a nice surprise!   The Aguardiente had a lovely, clean slightly fruity eau de vie, grappa taste; just the way you would want it to taste.  Then I tried a few sips of the Licor Valvanera.  We had thought hard about going to the Monastery when we were in Rioja, but we did not have time.  Billy said he found the Licor in Segovia.  I missed it.  What a nice treat and memory of our trip to Spain, reignited in my mouth.  Then after a few sips of coffee and a cookie, I poured a glass of the Chatelier XO and it was much softer and nicer than the VS cognac we buy at Trader Joe’s.  What a pleasant finish to a fabulous meal. 

It is interesting that Billy and Elaine use the same method for constructing dinners that we do of going to the internet to research dishes and construct menus.  It is also interesting that Billy and I seem to have inherited from our Mother and share the same Simon gene that constantly fires our passion for fine food. 

Although it is not often that one finds the type of meal described above, such a meal is out of the price range of almost every person, surely us, unless one buys the ingredients and makes the meal oneself.  The other reason to cook yourself is that you can adjust recipes to your specific taste as noted above with regard to the pork tender. When you love the above kind of foods, how and where are you going to find them, except perhaps in Paris, Madrid, or New York?  Otherwise, you can only assemble them and cook them yourself to achieve such a high quality of food and wine on any kind of regular basis. I hope everyone who reads this blog realizes that they too can stand at the top of the food chain and enjoy such wonderful food on a regular basis.  Perhaps not as grandly or in such plentitude, but at least sequentially and of the same quality and that is just as satisfying.  Only occasionally does one enjoy such a meal as the magnificent Thanksgiving table laden with so many wonderful dishes and wines presented to us by Billy and Elaine. 

Another reason to give thanks to God; that I have a brother and sister-in -law who have good food genes.