I got up at 5:00 and finished editing a document by 6:00 and notarizing a document for Aaron. I then made food lists for Sprouts’ 72 hour sale and El Super and checked opening times. Sprouts and El Super opened at 7:00 and Donut Mart was already open. So, at 6:45 I drove to Donut Mart and bought 6 fresh bagels and an 8 oz. container of fresh cream cheese.
Then shortly after 7:00 I drove to Sprouts and bought three bunches of asparagus for $1.48/lb., two three lb. salmon filets for $6.99/lb., 2.75 lb. of thick sliced smoked bacon for $2.99/lb., eight deep sea scallops for $9.99/lb., 2 lb. of 16-20 count shrimp for $6.99/lb., 2 small containers of fresh dill weed for $1.99 each, a 1 lb. Container of baby portobello mushrooms, a 1 lb. container of Campari tomatoes on sale for $.99, a bag of red seedless grapes for $.77/lb., a lb. of raw almonds for $2.99/lb., a pineapple for $.98, some green beans for $1.49/lb., a 19 oz. container of medium tofu for $1.49, and finally I selected an approximately 6 lb. half loin of boneless pork roast for $1.77/lb. and asked Robert, my new friendly butcher, to slice it into about ten 1 inch thick steaks, which he did without charge. The entire bill was $102. I loved replenishing our larder and looked forward to making Gravad Lax to eat with the fresh bagels and cream cheese in the coming week.
Then shortly after 8:00 I drove to Costco and filled up with gas.
I then drove to Pastians and bought three loaves of day old bread, which are $.54 each; a whole wheat French baguette, a loaf of whole wheat, and a loaf of Jewish rye.
It was about 9:00 when I delivered the notarized paper to Aaron’s house and I was getting hungry. Suzette has called to ask me to pick up milk, so I drove south on 12th to Lowe’s and fetched a gallon of whole milk on sale for $2.00 and drove home.
Suzette and I made breakfast burritos. I diced ¼ cup each of poblano chili and onion and sliced about six slices of Jarlsberg cheese and whisked three eggs and fried four slices of the thick sliced bacon. Suzette sautéed and seasoned with salt and pepper the chili and onions, crumbled the fried into the skillet, and added the eggs and cheese slices. I fetched the whole wheat flour tortillas I had bought at El Super a week ago and Suzette heated tortillas and filled them with the egg mixture. I shuck some Cholula hot sauce on my burrito and ate it with a cup of hot green tea. I think Suzette drank a Fat Tire beer with her burrito. Luke ate the last bit of egg mixture after removing the bacon, which I combined into my burrito.
Soon thereafter at around 11:30 Willy arrived to watch the Arsenal v. Liverpool match. He was hungry and I mentioned we had made burritos. He asked if we had any bacon left and when I threw the 2.75 lb. pile of bacon onto the counter in front of him he immediately decided to make bacon burritos. He fried five pieces, while I diced 1/3 cup each of poblano chili and onion and sliced six more slices of Jarlsberg cheese and whisked four more eggs. Willy sautéed the chili and onion and I added the egg and we lay cheese slices on the eggs and covered the skillet to cook the top of the eggs and melt the cheese. We each toasted a whole wheat tortilla on the open gas flame on the stove and made another round of bigger burritos. Soon, Luke came into the kitchen and Willy and he each toasted a fresh bagel and spread cream cheese on it and ate that for lunch also.
After lunch I sat by the fireplace and watched football and dozed. At 2:00 I watched Texas v. West Virginia and TCU v. Kansas State, which both lasted until almost 5:30, when we left for the NM
Philharmonic concert. Texas lost and TCU won.
As we walked to Popejoy Hall we met Nancy and Cliff Blaugrund and I invited them to dinner. The original menu I mentioned to them was grilled pork steak and asparagus with sautéed baby potatoes, but during the concert, Suzette changed the menu to the Jose Andres’ Roasted Pork, apple, and onion tapa and steamed asparagus because she did not want to go outside to grill in the cold night air at 9:30 after the concert.
The concert was wonderful. It included a Leonard Bernstein piece created for Rostropovich upon his emigration to the U.S. call Slava and then a terrific Argentinian baneon concerto by Pianzola. The baneon is an Argentinian accordion with finger pegs instead of piano keys. Before the intermission the symphony played another two tango like pieceas by Pianzola featuring an even fuller range of melodious baneon musicality.
After intermission the symphony finished with selections from The Three Cornered Hat written by the Spanish composer, Falla, in 1917 for Diagalev’s Ballet Russe, which became an instant success when premiered in London in 1919 after WW1, in part because Picasso designed the sets and costumes.
We saw Nancy and Cliff after the concert and Nancy said they would stop and pick up dessert on the way over. We drove home and Suzette started cooking. She sliced an onion, an apple and several frozen poached Quince quarters and began sautéing them in olive oil in the large French sauté pan. I went to the garden and picked a handful of oregano and slices three pork steaks into three thick strips. Nancy and Cliff arrived with a whole key lime pie from Flying Star. I fetched the Calvados and poured 2015 Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore produced by Pasqua, a lovely smooth red wine.
I set the table, got Cliff a rye whiskey and poured Nancy, Suzette, and me glasses of red wine.
When the pork was roasted, Suzette transferred the sauté pan from the oven to the stove top burner and deglazed the pan with duck stock and returned the vegetables to the pan and then deglazed all the ingredients with Calvados and we were ready to serve. Suzette plated each plate with sautéed potatoes, steamed asparagus, two pieces of roasted pork garnished with some of the apple, Quince, and onion mixture. After we were served I passed the warmed pitcher of Hollandaise sauce around the table so each could dab their asparagus with hollandaise.
After dinner I made a pot of Lavender Earl Grey tea and Nancy and Suzette served slices of Key Lime pie.
We said goodnight a bit after 10:00 after a lovely evening of music and food.
Bon Appetit
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