Monday, September 8, 2014

September 6, 2014 Lunch Harry’s Roadhouse Dinner Calabacitas with a grilled pork sirloin chop. A day in Santa Fe


We awakened at around 8:00 a.m. at Amy and Vhal's and had tea with spoonsful of Suzette’s new crop of honey she gave Amy and Vhal when we arrived late last night.  Vhal had a tennis match in Albuquerque at 8:00 so we missed him in the morning but Amy told us about their recent trip to Scotland and their visit with Dela and Willy, showing us pictures of the Loch Ness and other notable sites like the Isle of Skye, which is the McCrimmon's ancestral homeland. 

We planned to meet for lunch at Harry’s Roadhouse and drove to the Farmer’s Market in Santa Fe and bought rhubarb, delicate squashes, beautiful yellow and red tomatoes, green chili for Vhal and okra for Amy.  We then went to the Trader’s Market north of the opera and Suzette was successful in finding the gauzy white embroidered Indian shirt she wanted and also found a lovely black and grey layered cotton shirt.

At around 11:30 we drove to Harry’s Roadhouse for our noon rendezvous with Amy and Vhal.  They arrived a couple of minutes after we did.  Vhal had won his doubles match in Albuquerque and when pressed announced that his is the top seated doubles pair in his age category in New Mexico.  We discussed his trip planned for Tuesday when he travels to Washington to play Tom Udall in a match and his planned visit to the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. Vhal and Suzette ordered a daily special of fried Mahi Mahi sandwich with fried plantains and black beans and a mustard dressing, which was very crisp and delicious.  Amy got her favorite New Mexico breakfast, Huevos Rancheros, which we discovered is served all day long.  I ordered vegetable couscous, which was described as a pile of couscous covered with a vegetable stew including an assortment of butternut squash, raisins, potatoes, cauliflower, and garbanzo beans served with harissa and charmoula sauces.  

Unfortunately, when it arrived it had lots of potatoes and no butternut squash.  I complained to the waiter and sent it back to be re-done.  When it was returned it had four or five pieces of butternut squash and only one or two pieces of potato and I enjoyed it very much and offered it to the others to try.  I liked the charmoula sauce and harissa sauce, that seemed to be freshly made at the restaurant.  I got a very direct recollection/hit of Morocco.   Here is a recipe for charmoula sauce, which can be used with many dishes, either as a sauce or a marinade:   
Servings:
2-3
Servings
·                    
Update
·                     1/2 tablespoon paprika
·                     1/2 small dried red chilies, crushed or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
·                     1 teaspoon ground cumin
·                     2 cloves garlic, finely minced
·                     4 tablespoons lemon juice
·                     1 tablespoon dried parsley
·                     1/4 cup chopped cilantro
·                     1/3 cup fruity olive oil
·                     salt and black pepper

After lunch we returned to Santa Fe and visited Zaplin-Lambert Gallery where we were pleasantly surprised that Richard had sold Suzette’s consigned George Catlin drawing for a price of $14,400.00 to the director or one of the curators for the Peabody-Excess Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.   She was happy that it had found a good home.

We then went to visit with Aaron Payne at his gallery and admired his Cady Wellses and especially his catalogs.  Aaron gave us a great tip about how to find rare publications by going to bookfinder.com.

True to Nat Owings' word on Friday, Owings’ Gallery was closed, but we could hear the music from the Santa Fe Fiesta street festival still going strong a block away.  I came to the conclusion that buying art requires silence and contemplation and street fairs are not conducive to buying fine art.  

We decided to leave downtown Santa Fe and look for hinges for a shelf for the new mud room we had constructed where the utility room used to be in our house in the architectural furnishings galleries along Cerrillos Road.  I read the New Yorker while Suzette shopped.  She did not find any hinges but she did find a nice newly made Mexican wrought iron garden hose rack for $45.00.

We then drove back to Albuquerque. 

When we arrived in Albuquerque, we drove to Costco and bought 10 boneless sirloin pork chops, a piece of tuna, a box of organic lettuce, white fish salad and few other items.

We drove home and made Calabacitas, using one of the pitty pan squashes we bought at the Chile Connection the other day, the kernels from the last 2½ ears of corn boiled for Wednesday’s party, four green chilis that had been bought and roasted at Chili Connection, and an onion.  When the calabacitas were cooked we grilled two of the pork chops and opened a bottle of 2013 D'Autrefois Pays d'Oc Pinot Noir Rosé ($9.99 at Total Wine).


After dinner we each ate a fudge brownie left from Suzette's girls' group birthday party with scoops of vanilla ice cream and spoonfuls of whipped cream.  I really liked the combination of whipped cream and ice cream together.

Bon Appétit

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