I slept until 8:00 and ate my usual breakfast and then rode eight miles south to the end of the big field.
I then showered and dressed and worked a bit and then went to the bank and then picked up Peter at 12:15. We started for the Chinese buffetbut diverted to Azuma when Peter said he was in the mood for fresh broiled fish and tempura. I ordered my usual Chirashi and Peter ordered the salmon bento box. We had a new waitress who failed to take Peter’s order, so twenty minutes later she took Peter’s order.
My Chirashi was its usual wonderful dish of thick fresh succulent fish, salmon, Aji tuna, super white tuna, and yellowtail, and cooked octopus. I ate half and boxed the other half for lunch tomorrow
Peter’s bento was not up to snuff perhaps because to make up for her error of failing to take his order, the waitress asked the kitchen to rush his order and they cut the pieces of vegetable for the tempura to thick. Peter’s bento had a slightly sweet cucumber salad that was very nice instead of an egg roll. His salmon was a thin slice cut vertically and a bit overcooked. Alas a not very wonderful lunch for Peter.
I should have shared my lunch with him, but did not.
After lunch I took Peter home at 2:00 and drove home for my 3:00 arbitration hearing that lasted until 4:30.
I was so thrilled about our good luck to be selected for an episode that I wrote my check for my annual contribution to University of Texas Law School Foundation as I paid other bills.
I then talked with Matt and JJ about the shoot. As we were finishing our conversation, mostly me trying to explain zen meditation, they received notification that the Art director and director for another episode of Briarpatch wanted to scout locations at our house next Wednesday at 1:00. The house is going to be the star of the family this year.
As part of the shoot that just finished the crew repaired the gate and fence, reattached the fallen bricks on the brick wall and painted a portion of the front of house and the fence, besides paying us a handsome fee for the rental of the house.
Neighborhood Cocktail Party
I have developed a strategy for creating the dish that we take to our monthly Neighborhood Cocktail Party. I go to Costco and select the most appealing finger food item that is being promoted by discounting its price. Last month I selected pandora coated flattened shrimp that were pre-cooked and only needed to be heated and served. I went yesterday to Costco and found that a regular item that we had bought many times in the past when our children were young was on sale, Delimex beef taquitos were discounted from $10.99 to $6.99 for a box of 66.
Salsa
When Suzette arrived home at around 5:30 with some fresh tomatoes and a desire to make the Mexican salsa we learned how to make at the cooking lesson in PV several years ago. She roasted six tomatoes and a sliced large clove of elephant garlic from her garden at the Center in the oven and soaked several different types of mild dried chili, such as mulatto, Anaheim and guajilla. I peeled the tomatoes and Suzette processed the ingredients with salt in the Cuisinart to make a delicious mild salsa.
Guacamole crema sauce
We had about a bowl with some guacamole in the fridge that I had made a few days ago, so I asked Suzette if we should mix the guacamole with some Mexican crema I had bought at El Super last week and she thought that was a good idea.
We both like guacamole crema. We first discovered it about twenty years ago at the fish market in Ensenada, Baja California. It served as an accompaniment to seafood soup (caldo de Mariscos).
There is a warren of open air restaurants around the fish market. They have large cauldrons of fish stock simmering on a stove and bottles of ingredients on view. You simply select your desired ingredients (such as fresh diced fish, two or three types of clams, shrimp, and/or octopus) that are placed in a small sauce pan to which some of the hot fish stock is added and heated to a boil on the stove and poured into your bowl. Each restaurant has tables and chairs with three or four types of red and green salsas and bowls of guacamole crema. We ate one of the best breakfasts I have ever had at the fish market in Ensenada. Suzette wanted a clam that was not among the offered selection, so she walked into the fish market and bought a handful of the clams she wanted and brought them back the restaurant we selected and the restaurant boiled them in the fish caldo for an even fresher soup. My point is that guacamole crema is ubiquitous at the seafood restaurants in many parts of western Mexico. I mixed crema with the guacamole and Suzette fetched s bowl to place it in.
We opened the frozen box and heated about 45 taquitos on a large cookie sheet for the suggested 9 minutes in a pre-heated 400 degree oven set on convection until they were slightly charred on the edges and very warm. Suzette placed her bowl of freshly made salsa in the center of a new shallow serving platter and placed the taquitos around it. She covered the platter with Saran and I grabbed the bottle of Milagro rose I had chilled and the bowl of guacamole crema I had covered with Saran and we drove to the Buckhalter’s. Here is a picture of the food table.
Our offering was the best dish although there was a lovely platter of roasted bell pepper slices, an antipasto platter, and a platter of deviled eggs.
It was a lovely evening as we sat and ate and drank. We actually liked the bottle of Milagro rose a lot. It was much better than the last bottle I tasted.
At 9:20 we said goodnight, grabbed the remaining salsa and taquitos, and drove to Marble Brewery to hear the Band, Heartburn? from Austin. After drinking a beer and saying hello to a Cynthia we drove home around 10:30 and went to bed.
Bon Appetit
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