March 16, 2014 Breakfast – ham and cheese and miatake mushroom omelet Dinner- at Cynthia and Ricardo’s house. Roasted Chicken and vegetables and sautéed kale and Glögg poached pears

March 16, 2014 Breakfast – ham and cheese and miatake mushroom omelet    Dinner- at Cynthia and Ricardo’s house.  Roasted Chicken and vegetables and sautéed kale and Glögg poached pears

We slept late and when we got up Suzette said she wanted a ham and cheese and mushroom omelet for breakfast, so I cut up about ½ lb. of the PPI smoked ham, chopped about 3 oz. red onion and 2 oz. of red bell pepper and cleaned the 2 or 3 oz. of miatake mushrooms I had bought at TaLin about two weeks ago (about $3.00 for 4 oz.).  The Miatakes are beautiful delicate trumpet shaped mushrooms.

Suzette began sautéing the bell pepper and onion and then added the ham and mushrooms and then grated gruyere cheese.  I diced up an avocado to garnish the omelet and we were ready to eat.  After breakfast we worked in the yard and covered one of the raised beds to allow the earth the heat so we can plant seeds.  

Two of the beds are already sprouting with volunteer lettuce and wintered over onions, celery and lovage.

Cynthia and Ricardo rode over yesterday and we discussed getting together tonight for dinner.  When I asked what we could bring, Cynthia said wine and a dessert.  She was going to cook chicken.

At breakfast I asked Suzette if she thought the Wellington Chardonnay would be okay with the chicken dinner because I like a chardonnay with chicken if it is not too oaky and she agreed and said, “Yes”.

I went to the basement and put the Chardonnay into the fridge and looked for cheap brandy and a sweet wine for the poached pears and found a Camino Real Late harvest Merlot that seemed to fit the ticket and an old bottle of California brandy.  I then peeled and sliced the six bosc pears I had bought at pro’s Ranch Market last week ($.69/lb.) and put them in a large sauce pan and added about equal parts of the brandy, ruby port and the Camino Real Merlot and about ¼ cup sugar and four cardamom pods and I stick of cinnamon and about 12 cloves and the peel of one orange and simmer the pears for about thirty minutes until they changed from white to a dull brownish purple.

I then turned off the heat and let the pot sit on the stove to coalesce the flavors.  Suzette returned with two dozen heads of cauliflower that needed to be cleaned and have their flowerets de-stemmed.  I cleaned about one dozen of the cauliflowers for about an hour and then rode to Rio Bravo, while Suzette finished the cleaning job.

Then I showered and we got our stuff together and went over to Cynthia and Ricardo’s house.  When we arrived they had set their kitchen table with a lovely assortment of appetizers; hummus, crackers, a 1 lb. block of cream cheese with a peach and chili jam, green olive and a large plate of canapés made with slices of pumpkin sage bread from Bosque Bakery, with a dab of cream cheese and a slice of smoked salmon and another dab of cream cheese and a garnish of sliced green onions and a few capers (beautiful and delicious).  

Ricardo opened a bottle of La Garnja Cava from Spain that I had never had before and suspect was bought at Trader Joe’s (they did not know where it came from and said it was brought as a gift).

After we finished the cava, we decided it was time to eat dinner.  Cynthia took a roasting pan full of roasted chicken thighs out of the oven and put it on the table with another large baking dish full of roasted carrots, potatoes, onions and yellow squash and then put a smaller pyrex baking dish with sautéed curly kale and onions and tossed a salad with salad dressing and I opened and poured the chardonnay and we were ready to eat.  We passed the bowls around family style and took a bit of each dish.

 

I loved the chardonnay with dinner.  It reminded me of a good French Burgundy, light flavorful without much vanilla malolactic fermentation or oakiness.  Ricardo put it nicely when he said, “This wine has good minerality.”   I think of minerality as being a goodly amount of tannins with which I agree.  The Wellington made a pleasant tasting chardonnay.  Again Wellington surprised with its strong wine making skills.           

For dessert I heated the poached pears and served them over scoops of Blue Bell Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.   It was a bit of Swedish Christmas cheer with a bowl of ice cream and poached pears.

Ricardo retired shortly after dinner at around 8:30 p.m. so he could get a night’s sleep before having to get up and get to the Rail Runner station for a 6:15 a.m. ride to Santa Fe for his new job as a set designer for the “Manhattan” T.V. series set in Los Alamos, so we said goodnight and departed for an early night’s rest also.

I awakened at around 1:30 and watched “Ides of March” by George Clooney with Bryan Gosling, which was an interesting view of politics as we now experience it.    

Bon Appétit