October 1, 2016 Breakfast – Toasted Banana Nut Bread Lunch – Ming Dynasty. Dinner – Tapas in Willy’s Roof Garden
It is October 1 and I am thrilled to announce that it feels like Fall has officially arrived, the days are cool with a crispness in the air. The top temperatures are around 78 degrees and the leaves are changing colors.
We slept until 8:00 this morning and then lay in bed discussing our schedules. When Suzette mentioned the Farmers’ Market, we both felt a surge of energy and simultaneously bolted from bed and threw on our clothes and decided to walk the five blocks to Robinson Park. When we arrived the Park was filled with booths and people selling and buying produce, prepared foods, and crafts of all sorts. For example this week I noticed a new addition, a Mexican liquida stall with its large glass containers of mango, horchata, sandia, and jamaica liquidas right next to the Mexican taco stand; a sort of nascent Mexican food village springing up.
The peppers were lovely this week, so Suzette started buying them with the explanation that she was going to make a pepper medley. She bought sweet Cherry peppers, long red Italian peppers, and several orange and several red pimientos. We also saw lots of shishito peppers, which I love, so I bought a small bag of those for $2.00. At Chispa farms Suzette bought an assortment of tomatoes from Marjorie.
The assortment looked wonderful when we arrived home. I saw a truck full of squashes and pumpkins of all kinds that I could not resist. I bought a French pumpkin.
Then we saw a table full of canary melons and I had to have one of them, with the idea of making a melon and prosciutto appetizer for our Sunday evening Bocce party and dinner. Finally we saw a booth selling fresh baby ginger root and we instantly decided to grow ginger in our garden with there century purchased horseradish root next year. So we bought a root with several knobs and walked home. When we arrived home Suzette surgically removed the knobs from the ginger root and pushed bamboo skewers through them and balanced the skewers over water so the knobs would be submerged in water and could sprout roots.
We then changed clothes and went to the pond and dug water lily plants out of the muck for repopulating our pond. Mario had completed the Herculean task of removing all the water and plants from the pond and he and Suzette had put the water lilies into a small plastic children’s swimming pool, but we now had to decide which plants to keep and to throw away the rest. We found about a dozen plant pots and I separated the keepers with a spade and Suzette planted them in the pots with muck up to her elbows.
We called Willy and he arrived about the time our work detail ended, so we went into the house and I made three open faced sandwiches with provolone and salami rolls Suzette liberated from the Cocktail party last night. I sliced and toasted three slices of Fano baguette that approximated the size of the unrolled salami slices and the added slices of Pecorino Romano cheese to cover the pieces of bread. Since the provolone slices were hopelessly stuck together, I laid the salami on top of the cheese slices and then lay the irregular tubes of provolone on top as a kind of garnish. I then melted the three sandwiches in the microwave for 45 seconds and poured glasses of Craydon Rose’ from France and we had a lovely little tapa snack. Suzette was hungry, so she heated a bowl of the PPI pesto pasta seafood salad.
Willy cued up Bill Maher’s September 30 show onto the TV and we enjoyed watching that as we snacked.
At 1:30 Suzette’s new wine purveyor brought a case of Austrian Gruner Veltliner white wine that will be the featured wine with the Greenhouse Bistro’s Oktoberfest menu. While they talked about a The Bistro and its wine needs I showered and got dressed. Then when they finished their business meeting I carried the case of white wine to Suzette’s car and she drove the wine to the Bistro in Los Lunas and I started my afternoon’s food and wine shopping spree at around 2:30.
I first drove to Trader Joe’s to replenish our every day wines. I bought a case of mostly roses (the Alero, the Craydon, and the La Granja), plus an Italian Aquino Chianti, a Portuguese Tuella, and a La Granja Tempranillo/Grenache red and a Cotes du Rhone Famille Perrin white (the most expensive bottle at $7.99) and a La Granja Viura/Verdejo white. I also bought two containers with 4 small artichokes each for $2.49 and a baguette for $1.99.
Then I drove up Indian School Road to Eubank to go by Ming Dynasty on my way to Costco. When I arrived at a little after 3:00 the owner and staff were eating but there was still one waitress available to take my order and apparently one cook in the kitchen, because my order of three dim sun dishes and a pot of teas was soon served. I ordered shrimp in a clear tapioca paste dumpling, shrimp stuffed tofu sitting a shallow bowl with a bit of chicken stock, and my favorite BBQ Pork stuffed Steamed Buns. Each of the items I ordered were $3.20, but there are other priced items. The tea is fresh brewed oolong at $.70. The total bill with tax was $11.05. I loved the lunch, light well prepared, and as the billboard on the street says, New Mexico’s only authentic Dim sum restaurant.
I then drove to Costco and bought two salmon filets and drove home at 4:30.
When I arrived at home I made teriyaki sauce to marinate the salmon.
Teriyaki Sauce
7 T. Each of saki, Aji Mirin, and soy sauce plus 1 T. of sugar, heated until the sugar went into solution but did not boil.
I then cut the tail sections off the salmon filets and put them in a gallon freezer bag poured the teriyaki sauce into the bag after it had cooled and put the bag of salmon into the fridge to marinate.
I then watched The super exciting finish to the Tennessee v. Georgia football game and the less than exciting TCU v. Oklahoma football game. Suzette came home around 6:00 p.m. instead of our planned 5:00 p.m., so we called Willy and pushed our dinner back from 6:00 to 7:00. I the sliced 1 red onion, three Italian cherry peppers, three Italian long red peppers, two red and two orange pimientos into long thin strips and Suzette sautéed them with a handful of shishito peppers. I also cubed 2/3 of a cucumber and the tomatoes we had bought at the
Farmers’ Market while Suzette made her lovely German style sugar and white balsamic vinegar dressing to dress the cucumber and tomato salad.
Suzette also sliced the approximately 1 lb. of Morcilla blood sausage I had bought at El Super last Wednesday for $4.97/lb. into 12 slices and sautéed them in olive oil. She the placed the pepper one onion mixture into a chafing dish and garnished the peppers with the sautéed slices of Morcilla and sliced and wrapped in foil, and heated the last of the loaf of Fano baguette in the oven I put Saran over the bowl of cucumber and tomato salad and Suzette poured the newly purchased bottle of La Granja into a thermos and we packed the food and wine into a basket with paper plates, cups, and napkins and drove to Willy’s apartment at 3rd and Silver.
He led us to the roof garden, which has many raised beds filled with all sorts of vegetables and herbs; Ichiban eggplants, many varieties of tomatoes, spinach, basil, lettuces, and mint to name just a few.
We set our dinner on a table near the north side of the building with its exquisite view of downtown and the Sandias behind.
It was after sunset but there was still a bit of a glow.
The blood sausage and pepper dish was delicious on the slices of warm baguette with sips of red wine. The evening was still a comfortable 71 degrees.
After we finished dinner we returned to Willy’s apartment where he made us cups of celestial Seasonings’ dirty chai with milk and honey and served us Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies while we listened to Hindi Zahra sing on Willy’s computer.
At 9:00 we said goodnight and went home. I went to bed but Suzette stayed up through the opening comedy skit on Saturday Night Live.
Bon Appetit
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