July 14, 2012 A magical day of food

July 14, 2012 A magical day of food    Breakfast – Greek yogurt with white grapes and strawberries, Lunch – Book Signing and Georgia O’Keefe luncheon, Dinner –Cockles with herbs and kale and spaghetti

I rode 18 miles and tired but not sore, I gobbled a bowl of strawberries and white grapes and Greek yogurt.

I then showered and dressed and drove to the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery at the Center for Ageless Living for Margaret Wood’s book signing and lunch commencing at 10:30 a.m.  When I arrived I was amazed that the Bistro was full of people.  There were 27 reservations.  At the table with Margaret was Wanda, her friend who had worked for Georgia O’Keefe in 1978 and also wove with Margaret for Janusz and Nancy Kuzikowski’s tapestry workshop in Santa Fe for several years.  If we think in terms of degrees of separation, suppose I have four degrees of separation from Margaret.  I was married to Amy, who was best friends with Marilyn Maxwell, who had a house on Canyon Road in Santa Fe and was friends with Ernesto Mayans and collected and was friends with David Barbero, the artist, whose partner was Margaret Wood, with whom we would socialize when we were in Santa Fe in the late 70’s. 

Margaret is now a speech pathologist in Santa Fe and Suzette and I met her at an opening at Andrew Smith’s Gallery about 6 months ago and she mentioned that she had written a new book titled “Remembering Miss O’Keefe”.  When we knew her in the 70’s Margaret had previously given Amy and me a lovely cookbook she had written titled “A Painter’s Kitchen” with recipes from her five year period of being Georgia O’Keefe’s cook and companion from 1977 to 1982 in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. 

So when Margaret mentioned her new book Suzette mentioned the possibility of hosting a book singing and luncheon at the Bistro and viola, here we were.  Margaret spoke and then we sat down to lunch.  The first course was a salad made with a unique fresh beet and string bean salad dressing the combined a large array of herbs, including dill, basil, tarragon, and several other herbs.  The salad was delicious.

Margaret and Ann Setler, the Executive Chef of the Bistro, spoke before the courses.  Margaret said that Miss O’Keefe allowed Margaret to prepare all the recipes except for one of O’Keefe’s favorites, fresh garlic sandwiches, slices of freshly baked whole wheat baguette, slathered with butter, and then covered with thin slices of fresh garlic.

The second/main course was a plate with a wedge of twice ground beef meatloaf, with a twice baked potato stuffed with cheese and chips of crisp bacon and a pile of fresh steamed spinach.

I sat at the table with Margaret and Wanda and Margaret’s comment when she took her first bite of the steamed spinach was, “This is perfect.  Exactly like Miss O’Keefe liked it.”  A lovely compliment to the Bistro kitchen.

Dessert was a scoop of ice cream using O’Keefe’s recipe, cream, sugar and egg, stirred and then frozen.  It was not cooked and was both extremely rich and delicate.  It was served with a small mound of cooked Rhubarb, the way Miss O’Keefe liked it.  Miss O’Keefe liked fresh food, simply prepared.  Perhaps that is how she lived to be 96.

After dessert and introducing the Bistro staff and Margaret did her book signing, and then, since Margaret had described in detail the extensive gardens that Miss O’Keefe maintained in Abiquiu,  Wanda, Margaret and I joined Suzette for a tour of the facility including the new certified organic garden.

I consider this a rare and wonderful event, joining the recognition of Margaret for her work and experiences with Georgia O’Keefe and her capturing for us all her remembrances of that time in well done job of writing with the fruition of Suzette’s vision of a sustainable community for ageing with its extensive gardens including an emphasis on delicious food prepared with fresh ingredients from the garden.  Margaret told Suzette that there had been a similar, but more expensive lunch and book signing in Santa Fe, at which the food was not as good or as true to the spirit of cuisine that Miss O’Keefe adhered to.  Margaret mentioned that Miss O’Keefe adhered to the principles of Adele Davis and others who emphasized fresh natural ingredients.

When Suzette arrived at home around five we were still confronted by a large bowl of cockles that had to be eaten.  We cooked one of our favorite recipes, cockles on spaghetti.  I fetched an open bottle of Pinot Grigio and chopped up about two Tbsp. of fresh garlic and 1 Tbsp. of thyme and 1½ Tbsp. of fresh basil and 1 Tbsp. of tarragon and two cups of kale from the garden.  The Suzette steamed open the cockles in a broth of water, wine and butter, and then added the herbs and kale to the broth and cooked that while we boiled ½ lb. of spaghetti. 

When the spaghetti was cooked to soft and the vegetables cooked in the broth we plated up pasta bowls with spaghetti and then covered the spaghetti with clams and the kale herb broth.

In honor of our impending trip to the Loire region of France in August I opened a bottle of 2007 Chateau de La Fessardiére Muscadet “Climat” that we had bought at Kokoman in 2011 ($14.95).  The wine was tangy and dry and perfect with the delicate clams and kale in the lightly herbed broth.  I can hardly wait to taste the seafood along the Atlantic coastal where the Loire empties into the Atlantic with the fresh Muscadet of that region.

Bon Appétit