A
pretty big day. We drove to the GreenhouseBistro and Bakery at the Center for Ageless Living at around 9:45 a.m. after
dropping off more folding chairs at the Palmers. The dining room was set up and Suzette told
me that there were 13 reservations for lunch for B.J.’s book signing for her new cookbook "Food, Fun, Family and Friends Cookbook". B.J. and her friend Pauline arrived at around
10:30 and started setting up for the book signing. As it turned out there were about four or
five attendees who had heard about the book signing from the Center’s
advertisements and the rest were family and friends of B.J and Orlando Lucero,
her husband. I met Orlando’s Dad and Mom
and aunts. I sat with two friends of
B.J., Terry Jiron Gordon and ________ Molina.
Although there was a smaller crowd than that for Margaret Wood’s signing
lunch, it was an enthusiastic, chatty group of mainly friends and family and BJ
gave a wonderful presentation about the history of her journey to cooking and
how she came to write the book and its publication. I was inspired to think about
self-publishing a cook book.
The
other thing that made the lunch wonderful was the execution of the recipes by
the Bistro. The lunch was a February
meal from B.J’s cookbook with an antipasto plate, a salad with a creamy
balsamic dressing, spinach lasagna and a cream puff filled with chocolate ice
cream.
Here are the pictures of each dish.
The
special dish was the spinach lasagna. It
was a lot like the pastitcio at last night’s Greek meal at the Bistro, a pan
layered with lasagna noodles, chicken, spinach, herbs, sweet red peppers, and
cheese and smothered with a Sauce Béchamel.
The big difference in today’s preparation was that the kitchen could not
find spinach lasagna noodles, so Suzette made fresh spinach lasagna noodles
yesterday. So the dish was more alive
and fresh tasting than the pastitcio with its store bought dried noodles and
less sauce.
As
you can see the sauce and cheese are flowing all around the lasagna, so it is
incredibly creamy. A very different dish
than the cakelike pastitcio in both texture and effect although using similar
ingredients.
At
7:00 we walked over to the Palmers’ house for their first harpsichord
recital. Chairs were set up in his shop
where the harpsichord was sitting.
Charlie was doing some last minute tuning of the harpsichord when we
arrived, so I busied myself in the kitchen and checked the wine situation. Susan and Charlie had arranged a huge spread
of mostly cheeses and breads and crackers on the kitchen island and the dining
room table was filled with desserts including the gold leafed sheet cake, petite madeleine,
lemon bars, brownies, and green and red
grapes and pear slices.
Charlie
bought a case of lovely wines at Costco that included reds such as Maison
Jadot’s Beaujolais Villages, Chateau Ste. Michelle’s 2010 Indian Wells Cabernet Sauvignon, and Rosenblum’s Old
Vines Zinfandel.
The white was Maison Jadot Fouilly-Fuissé, les Petites
Pierres and there were several champagnes, including Gruet Brut, a Henriot Brut
Souverain that we brought and a lovely Kirtland French Champagne from Sezanne,
France. There were other soft drinks. I
tried to serve wine and keep wine glasses filled during the evening.
The cheeses were lovely also, brie and English cheddar, and smoked gouda and regular gouda and even a wedge of one of my new favorites, Cabrales, and on and on.
After everyone had a glass of wine or other beverage and a few nibbles of cheese, we were directed out to the shop for the recital. Charlie introduced Kathy Mcintosh and Susan Patrick, the two performers. Charlie said they were considered the two best in the State of New Mexico. The music was fabulous and I was taken back to the 1700’s by it. Spanish, French and German pieces were played and the harpsichord’s sound was terrific throwing out cascades of notes as the performers’ fingers raced across the keys. Something I learned was that the harpsichord had three different settings that could be adjusted to create three different timbres (tone qualities). The other thing I learned from Kathy Mcintosh was that Charlie had come to her house to measure the weight required to depress the keys on her harpsichord so he could get the feel of the keys just right. That gives you an insight into the degree of care to detail that Charlie used in making the harpsichord.
After the recital we returned to the house for more wine and cheese and desserts. I loved spreading herb Boursin on WASA whole wheat crackers dotted with oat flakes.
Finally at 10:00 we went home. Susan was lovely and gave us the Bouchon Baking Book by Thomas Keller, which Suzette promised to use at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery.
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