Another unusual and fun day.
We woke up at 4:15, dressed and drove to the Science and History Museum. At 5:00 the doors were opened and we followed the crowd to the observatory located upstairs on the south side of the building where we found a number of members of The Albuquerque Astronomical Society and telescopes and astronomical grade binoculars set up on the walk way surrounding the building.
When we arrived the eclipse of the moon by the sun had already begun, within about twenty minutes the moon turned a russet orange as it was completely shadowed by the sun. It was very exciting to see this natural phenomena in real time and be with lots of other curious folks of like mind. We then stood in line to see Jupiter and its four largest planets through the Museum’s telescope, which was totally cool.
Suzette told me Maximum coverage was at 6:38, which we saw, a fuzzy dark grayish orange. Although still in totality, we returned home at 6:00 a.m. just as it was the sunrise was beginning because Suzette was unable to find a decent restaurant open.
Suzette decided to make a BLT salad; several slices of crisp fried bacon laid on slices of Roma tomato and Romaine Lettuce with a dab of mayonnaise. Here is a picture.
We both worked after that. Aaron came over a bit before lunch with a bottle of Bogan’s newly bottled 2017 Sauvignon Blanc that had won a silver Medal in the Paris Wine competition, so at 12:20 when we finished our tasks, I toasted an everything bagel from Donut Mart and smeared the two toasted halves with cream cheese and lay slices of red onion and Lax on them and smeared the Lax with dabs of Swedish Lax Sauce and we opened the 2017 Sauvignon Blanc and had a lovely small lunch. The wine was exceptional. I have never had a biodynamic produced Sauvignon Blanc before. It was exceptionally clean tasting with a lightly fruity and strong grapefruit favor. Like an elegant Sancerre or Vouvray. We liked it a lot and hope to order it for sale in the U.S.
After talking to Suzette and inviting Willy for dinner at 7:00 at 5:45 I thawed a lb. of sea scallops and went to meditate. At 7:00 when I returned home I found Suzette seated in front of the TV unable to move, so I decided to cook the Julia Child recipe for Provençal Scallops from Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1. This is a dish we have cooked several times recently that is relatively easy. I started by slicing and dicing about 2/3 cup of yellow onion and sautéing the onion over low heat in 2 T. of butter in a small skillet until the onions become translucent. The I added 1 ½ T. of finely minced shallot and 2 cloves of garlic to the onion.
While the onions, shallot, and garlic were simmering I dried the pound of scallops on paper towels and sliced them horizontally into ¼ to 1/3 inch thick slices and salted and peppered them and threw them into a plastic produce bag filled with about ½ cup of flour and chuck the bag and separated any scallops stuck together so that each slice of scallops was fully coated with flour. Willy arrived at this time and we discussed what green vegetable he wanted with dinner. He decided on spinach, so we removed the bag of spinach from the fridge and he set the table. I heated 2 T. of Butter with 1 T. of
olive oil in a large skillet and fetched the wok cover. When the butter was sizzling I laid the scallop slices in the hot butte4 and olive oil and lightly browned them for two or three minutes, then turned them and browned the other side for two or three minutes. I grated about ½ cup of Jarlsberg cheese and then added the PPI scallop liquid from the bag they had been stored in plus about ¾ cup of French Belles Vignes Sauvignon Blanc ($4.95 at Trader Joe’s) and the sautéed onion mixture to the skillet and Willy covered the scallops with handful of spinach and I then covered the spinach with the grated Jarlsberg cheese and I covered the skillet with the wok cover and held it down to get a good deal and steamed the entire dish for another five minutes.
Suzette went into action at this point. We decided to serve the dish with slices of buttered bread, so she toasted four slices of the lovely French baguette made by her baker at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery.
After five minutes I ladled 1/3 of the dish into three pasta bowls. The cream sauce was a little thick. I added a T. of butter to mine and Suzette added a splash of Sauvignon Blanc to her dish. Willy and i buttered our two slices of French baguette and I dipped mine in the last bit of sauce.
Suzette really liked the 2017 Bogdan Sauvignon Blanc as did we all. It went well with the rich buttery flavor of the scallops and the clean slightly astringent flavor of the spinach. This meal was a total success. It was fun to prepare an entire dish for a change from only prepping, especially with Willy’s help.
This was an easy, quick dish that lent itself to a one dish meal with the addition of spinach to the last step of steaming all the ingredients, especially when I combined Julia’s last step, which was to broil scallop shells filled with the mixture and garnished with Swiss cheese.
We were tired after our long days, so we said goodnight to Willy and I went to bed and read a few pages of The Ancient History of England by Oliver and drifted off to sleep while Suzette probably did the same while watching the latest news on MSNBC.
The maneuvering by Republicans to discredit and stop the investigations of collusion and cover up by the Trump campaign and Administration is looking like a re-run of Watergate more and more every day.
At least there is good food and wine to ease the shock I feel from the attack on our democratic system by the Russians during the last election that the Trump White House and some Republicans seem to be covering up.
I hope the Mueller investigation can put an end to this painful charade soon, just as the Select Committee did to Nixon’s cover up of the Watergate and Ellsberg break-ins by the Republicans in the 1972 election.
The interesting thing I have learned recently from our book club reading of Chernow’s “Alexander Hamilton” biography is that bitterly salacious press articles have been a component of public discourse since the founding of our Nation.
So what appears to be new shocking spin by each political party in every news cycle is a repeat of the same pattern that has existed since at least 1791; so in some way that pattern of published discourse is “old news”.
Perhaps the only difference is that Alexander Hamilton was a more masterful purveyor of it.
Bon Appetit
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