I awakened at 7:00 and started watching the news shows and toasted a wholewheat bagel and spread cream cheese on it and slices of Vidalia onion and Lax and dotted it with about six capers which I ate with a cup of Earl Grey chai tea.
Then I made the
Dressing for the crab and Shrimp salad.
Last night I finely minced a medium shallot (approximately 1 ½ T.) and covered the pieces with Italian Volcano lemon juice bought at Costco (approximately 1/4 cup). This morning the red in the skin of the shallot had bled into the lemon juice, which I took as a good sign that the shallot had become pickled. I added 1 cup of mayo to the shallot/lemon mixture and whisked it until the texture was smooth without any lumps. Then I added the PPI ¼ cup of salad dressing a Suzette had made last night with apple cider vinegar, honey, and mayo.
Suzette then went to the garden and picked several stalks of tarragon and I de-stemmed about 1 T. of leaves and added them to the dressing. I covered the dressing with Saran and put it in the fridge to mix flavors.
Fig Clafoutis
We then turned our attention to the Clafoutis. Suzette selected approximately four cups of white and mission figs and sliced them into halves and I sprinkled them with 1 T. of Grand Marnier and 1 ½ T. of cognac and put them to the side. I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees on a baking setting.
Suzette then buttered a ceramic baking dish and coated the butter with granulated sugar.
Then I measured 2 cups of heavy cream and 1 ½ cups of half and half into a sauce pan and heated it until it came to a boil and started to form a bubbly crown and turned it off and allowed it to cool.
I measured 10 T. of white all purpose flour, 12 T. of powdered sugar, and ½ tsp. of salt into a large mixing bowl and stirred to mix thoroughly. I then whisked 5 large eggs and added them to to the bowl of dry ingredients. Then I poured the scalded milk mixture through I strainer to keep the gooey accumulation of butter fat from falling into the mixing bowl of ingredients and whisked the mixture to mix all ingredients .
We then put the ceramic dish on an aluminum baking pan and poured in the stirred custard mixture and then added enough figs and their marinating liquid of cognac and Grand Marnier to fill the ceramic baking dish to within ¼ inch of the top edge.
We then put the baking dish on its baking pan into the oven and baked it for 1 hour.
Here is a picture of the result.
The Crab and Shrimp Salad
Suzette then went to the garage and fetched a 1 lb. bag of large shrimp and thawed them in warm water. Then she boiled the shrimp in a pot of water seasoned with thyme, a bay leaf and some lemon juice until cooked.
Suzette then diced about ¾ lb. of shrimp and mixed them with the 1 lb. of Phillips Lump crab meat we had bought at Costco yesterday for $16.99 and added the dressing. The shrimp were de-veined and the shells split open at the top, which makes me believe they were bought at Albertsons.
At 10:00 I took a shower and dressed. When I returned to the kitchen I found plates spread with Caprese salad (slices of red and green tomatoes grown in her garden at the Center separated by slices of thin slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and basil leaves) on one 1/3 of the plate and saw that Suzette had filled the large appetizer platter with fresh figs we had picked in the neighborhood stuffed with a dab of goat cheese (we had bought at Costco yesterday) and squares of peach and blueberry Clafoutis.
I heard voices in the garden and went to investigate and found Cynthia and Ricardo and Suzette conversing and sipping glasses of lItalian Prosecco (they had bought at Trader Joe’s) at the table under the gazebo in the garden. I joined them and we sipped and talked until we finished the Prosecco.
We decided to serve lunch. Cynthia had brought a kale salad so she spooned a small pile of that onto each plate, leaving room for two avocado halves covered with crab and shrimp salad on the other 1/3.
We filled water glasses with water and I took a bottle of chilled Gruet Brut Rose, the water glasses, and our plates of salads to the table under the gazebo. We ate and talked until about noon.
Then I fetched the dessert platter and a bottle of Gruet still Rose’ and filled the glasses again.
We said goodbye to them around 1:00 and I lay down to read and nap and slept until 4:00. When I got up I called Tom and found out the Shell club meeting was at 5:00 so Suzette stopped her menu planning and dressed and we grabbed a bottle of Vino Real Rioja Reserva and the fig Clafoutis and drove to Donnie and Tom’s house in northern Rio Rancho.
When we arrived Mike, Bruce, and Charles had already arrived. Mike is the exhibitions curator at the Science and History Museum, Bruce is the Science and Engineering Librarian at Texas A & M, and Charles, I think, is a research paleontologist at the Science and History Museum currently working on preparing the newly found Bisti Badlands 72 million year old mollusks for display. Charles is a new member of the club. Tom is the leader of our High Desert Shell Club and editor of the Conchologist, the Conchologists of America! Quarterly publication. Tom wrote the book on the genus Nerites or Neritidae and Bruce helped write the book on the genus Epidoniidae or
, so both are world class experts on shells. Tom has over 9000 different species of shells in his collection. Although small our club is very distinguished with world experts on shells, so it is always interesting to attend the meetings, which are now once or twice a year.
After we arrived Laura, our other member arrived with two bottles of red wine from her sister’ Gold Medal Wine Club in California, one a Cab and the other a blend.
Tom and Donnie had prepared a buffet dinner of a whole roasted beef tender; a squash, corn, bell pepper, and cheese casserole, a spinach salad, roasted potatoes and onions. After talking a while and holding the 72 million year old Clams, we served ourselves and sat at the long dining table set up in the den beside the saltwater aquarium. I collect cowries, so I took four tiger cowries and a panther cowrie from my collection so we could compare the newly identified sub-species of cowrie by Lorenz in his new book, Tigris Pardalis Shaw 1795 to the species nominate Shell, Tigris Tigris, which is locally found in Cebu, Philippines. There are several other sub-species of which I have a couple. I am excited to get Lorena’s new book, published in May, and identify my shells. On casual observation the one we thought might be Pardalis had a more pyriform shaped Shell. I did not have the collection data on all the tiger cowrie shells so we had to guess as to which were from Cebu.
Here is a picture of the two different shells, I think. Tiger Pardalis is on the left. Tiger tiger is on the right.
After dinner Suzette and Donnie served plates of dessert; a slice of a lovely key lime pie that Charles brought and a piece of our fig clafoutis.
At 9:00 Suzette and I began to fade and excused ourselves, which appeared to signal the end of the party.
We went home and crawled into bed after a full day of food and parties.
Bon Appetit
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