July 18, 2022 Brunch - Egg, sausage, Potato, onion and Wild Mushroom Burritos. Dinner - Cajun BBQ’d Shrimp with Rice

July 18, 2022 Brunch - Egg, sausage, Potato, onion and Wild Mushroom Burritos. Dinner - Cajun BBQ’d Shrimp with Rice

Another odd food day. It was a rest day for the Tour, so I started working at 7:00 then at 9:30 showered and dressed.

Suzette worked at home and spent the morning planting the red wooly thyme we bought on Saturday in the crevices between the concrete pavers on the back porch.

At 9:45 I started cooking breakfast.  Suzette wanted a sausage burrito.  I diced a 1 inch slice of Jimmie Dean sausage, 1/8 of an onion, and two slices of PPI grilled potato and added the PPI sautéed wild mushrooms and Shishito peppers left from our steak dinner.

I sautéed all the ingredients and when they started to brown I poured four eggs plus 1/2 T. of water and salt and white pepper I had whisked over the ingredients.  I let the egg settle and set a bit and then began to flip sections of the egg combined with the ingredients into a scrambled mass.

I called Suzette and when she looked for a drink she discovered we were out of Clamato juice, so she filled two glasses with water. I toasted two flour tortillas and handed Suzette one that she filled with egg mixture.  There was a lot of mixture left so I poured the rest onto my tortilla to make a sort of flour tostada because the mixture covered the tortilla.

We added dashes of Cholula hot sauce and enjoyed our burrito and tostada. The quantity filled me up completely and I returned to the brief and worked on it until 3;00 when I made a gin and tonic to rehydrate and try to cool down from the 99 degree temperature.  I worked until 5:00 when Suzette made a pitcher of mojitos.

We watched the news until about 6:00 when Suzette decided to make BBQ shrimp for dinner.  Suzette uses the Paul Prudhomme recipe fro his Louisiana Kitchen Cookbook.  

We had PPI rice, so the dish went very quickly because Suzette has made it many times.  By 7:00 we were eating BBQ shrimp over rice and watching the Antiques Roadshow with glasses of mojito.

Suzette went to bed at 8:00 and I stayed up until 11:30 so I could view the Rachel Maddow show and a few minutes of Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.

I then blogged this blog.

I must have caught up on my sleep on the weekend because I am still feeling good.

My hips are feeling less painful and I am beginning to gain enough strength or experiencing enough less pain to be able to push up using my hips out of a chair.

The leather is ordered and the new chairs will soon be in production and Suzette took the cow hide she bought to an upholsterer to reupholster our other ottoman.

We will soon have a new all leather look in the TV room.

We also ordered four bundles of cedar shakes for Carlos to fill in the missing ones on the roof and then spray pentafin on the roof to preserve it.

I did not miss lunch for a reason I did not know.

Bon Appetit 

July 17, 2022 Lunch - Steak Salad. Dinner - Charcuterie

July 17, 2022 Lunch - Steak Salad. Dinner - Charcuterie 

The food theme during these dog days of Summer is usually light and healthy and today was no exception.

I ate a bowl of granola with milk and yogurt and diced apple for breakfast while I watched the news shows and Stage  of the Tour De France, which ended with a sprint finish that was won by a couple of inches by a Belgium rider named Phillipsen.

Then at 10:15 I ate a fig bar and drank a glass of water and walked 1/3 mile with a sugar pill and no pain or weakness.  I good start for the day.

When I returned I worked in the brief until Suzette arrived at 12:30.

Suzette ate a bowl of a pork and bean stew for lunch and I made a salad with a slice of grilled steak diced, a slice of grilled potato diced, a hard boiled egg dice, a tomato diced, several slices of onion diced and five leaves of romaine lettuce cut into bite-sized pieces.  I dressed the salad with my all purpose Caesar dressing.

After lunch we napped to avoid the afternoon heat, although it only reached 98 degrees today, so it was a bit more bearable.

We were not hungry for dinner until around 8:00 and did not want to cook so Suzette made a charcuterie and cheese board with the last of our duck mousse pate’, a wedge of brie, Boursin, and goat cheese, and salami and cured ham.

I sliced and toasted 10 slices of French baguette and Suzette poured out the rest of the two open bottles of red wine, a Beau Rivage from Bordeaux and a Kirkland Rioja.

We watched Hotel Portofino, Grandchester, and Cobra on PBS from 7:00 until 10:00 and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit

July 16, 2022 Lunch - Tuna Salad Salad. Dinner - BBQ Pork and Bean Stew

July 16, 2022 Lunch - Tuna Salad Salad. Dinner - BBQ Pork and Bean Stew 

Today was a day of comfort food.

I worked from 5:30 until 8:00, while Suzette worked in the garden.

I then made oatmeal with raisins, brown sugar, and diced apple for breakfast.

After breakfast Suzette returned to watering the plants to stave off shock from the 100 degree weather.

I tried to watch Stage 14 but kept dozing and missed both the stage finish and the race to the line by the GC contenders.

Michael Matthews, an Australian, won a stage for the fifth time but this win came five years after his last stage win.

There was no change in the standings of the first three CG contenders, Vingegaard, Pogacar, and Thomas.

When the bike race ended we drove to Albuquerque Water Gardens and bought creeping plants for the spaces between concrete slabs in our patio, water hyacinths for the pond and a repair kit for the pump in the pond.

On the way home we stopped at Lowe’s and bought the last bottle of club soda and few last bottles of tonic water.  I know how some folks are dealing with the 100 degree weather.

When we returned home we made tuna salad with celery, onion, tuna, hard boiled egg, and a dressing containing mayonnaise, pickle relish, and lemon juice.

I cut a large avocado in half and Suzette chopped the last heart of a head of romaine lettuce and I cut two tomatoes into wedges and bar ranged the tomato slices and avocado halves on the lettuce.  The Suzette filled the cavities in the avocado with tuna salad.  I opened a chill bottle of 2019 Calstar Rose of Petit Meunière.

We rested in the afternoon in our bedroom, which is the coolest room in the house.

When I awakened at 4:40 Suzette was binging on a new home remodeling show with an interesting concept.  Two designers do the remodel and after return of their remodeling costs, they and the home owners split the difference between the original appraised value of the house unimproved and the actual sales price less costs of sale.  This only works for house the owners wish to sell.  I also noted that most of the houses are smaller and of lower value value.  It seems the remodelers are aware that there is much more upward price pressure at the lower end of the market for furnished ready to move in houses.

I watched one or two episodes and then finished yesterday’s blog and then went to kitchen to help with dinner.

Pork and bean stew

We had originally discussed making a pork spaghetti sauce, but Suzette changed her mind and decided instead to make a pork and bean stew with tomatoes, an onion diced, a 24 oz. can of pinto beans, a can of Spanish pimiento, and the meat from the PPI BBQ pork ribs we made several weeks ago.

The result was very tasty stew and Suzette heated the lovely rosemary flavored dinner rolls made by Brianna, the new baker, at the Greenhouse Bistro. 

We rhe open carry laws or a bottle of 2019 Calstar Rose of Petit Meunière.

We made a full casserole of bean stew so we will be eating it for a while.

We watched Father Brown and then Death in Paradise and went to bed at 10:00.

Bon Appetit

 

 

July 15, 2022 Lunch - Potstickers. Dinner - Bandol Rose’ Tasting in Santa Fe

July 15, 2022 Lunch - Potstickers. Dinner - Bandol Rose’ Tasting in Santa Fe

Today was a great food and wine day.

It started badly. I tried to walk without eating anything and faulted  even though I had a sugar pill.

When I returned I toasted two slices of bagel and spread cream cheese on them and garnished them with slices of red onion, Gravad lax, and capers.

I then watched the Tour de France. A Dane won the stage, so a Dane is in Yellow and polka dot Jerseys.  A lot of talent from a small country.

  

I then took a nap until 1:00.  I wasn’t sure when or if we would eat dinner so I sautéed a dozen pot stickers until golden brown.  I also made a dipping sauce of garlic and chili paste, soy sauce and the white portion of a green onion.   Drank a beer with lunch.

Suzette arrived and helped me finish the beer.

I then worked until 4:00.

Suzette made a avocado sandwich and showered and dressed.

We left for Greg O’Byrne’s Bandol Rose Tasting in Santa Fe.

It was held outdoors at a new food court at 505 Cerrillos across the street from Hotel Santa Fe at the intersection of Cerrillos and Paseo de Peralta.

We arrived twenty minutes early and walked around and saw that this was the location of the Poke Bar featured in today’s Venue plus a pizza restaurant, and a Cambodian noodle shop.

We said hello to our host, Greg, who is a sommelier and organizer of the two big wine events in New Mexico each year, the Chile and Wine Festival in September and the Winter Wine Fest in Taos at the end of January.

We then sat outside and waited at one of the reserved six top tables for the event.

Soon we were joined by a couple who lived in Phoenix and had a home in Santa Fe, named Amy and Lee. She was a doctor and I did not catch what  Lee did other than cycle.

At 6:00 Greg with the help of the Pizza restaurant owner’s daughter handled the entire tasting.  We were given two glasses and a sheet of paper with the pairings printed on them. The first pairing was a Domaine Tempier 2020 and 2019.  The 2019 was more complex and assertive.  The 2020 was more acidic and fruity, so we already could taste differences.

Soon a tray of antipasti and a plate filled with crackers was brought to our table.  It included three cheeses, a soft farmhouse cheese smeared with fig jam, an orange chedder and a white cheese, plus prosciutto, salmi and a peppered salami plus pitted Nicoise olives and green olives.

Greg had created a French picnic to celebrate Bastille Day. Dinner became irrelevant.

Here is a picture of the tasting wines.

Greg went around the patio at the end of the tasting to ask each of the forty attendees to vote on their favorite.  The wine that garnered the most votes was the 2020 Bastide de la Cisalette. A surprise in the company of the greatest roses of Bandol, iconic brands, such as Tempier, Ott, and Pibarnon.

I voted for the 2015 Domaine de Gros Nore’ because it seemed the most elegant and still was fruity after over six years in the bottle.

As we tasted a magnum of 2016 Domaine de La Gros Nore 750 ml bottle with the same year and producer but from a magnum bottle that this was a very special wine tasting and that many of the wines we tasted had come from Greg’s cellar.  We were experiencing deeply Greg’s love of Bandol roses.

Greg recommended an American rose, Bedrock Ode de Lulu, which is an homage to Lulu, the wife of the owner of Tempier.

We left happy at 7:15 and drove to the Railyard to hear music and specifically Matt Chavez, but we soon found out that he had already finished his set.  We went upstairs to the Opuntia Cafe and sat at a table on the balcony with a good view of the music stage under the water tower.

Suzette was hungry and ordered fried oysters on a bed of arugula.

I ordered a slice of flourless chocolate cake.  

The oysters were served with two incredibly hot salsas, so we requested a ramekin of lemon aioli.  Also the breading was polenta which had lots of sharp edges.

I loved my chocolate cake with layers of crushed walnuts and coconut flakes and puddles of delicious dark chocolate sauce.  The sugar and chocolate energized me to drive home at 75 to 80 mph.  

Suzette ordered a Pilsner and I ordered a pint of Scrumpy’s Organic Farm Cider from JK’s Farmhouse Ciders in Flushing, Michigan, which is one of the best American ciders I have ever tasted.

There was a good crowd of patrons and the area near the music stage in the Railyard was filled with revelers also. 

Here are some pictures.

At 9:30 we drove home after a super pleasant evening.

Bon Appetit

July 14, 2022 Breakfast - Sausage, Eggs, and toast, Snack - Open faced herring sandwich. Dinner - Grilled Steak, Potatoes, and asparagus with sautéed Wild mushrooms, shallots, Shishito peppers, thyme, and garlic

July 14, 2022 Breakfast - Sausage, Eggs, and toast, Snack - Open faced herring sandwich. Dinner - Grilled Steak, Potatoes, and asparagus with sautéed Wild mushrooms, shallots, Shishito peppers, thyme, and garlic 

Today I was awaken at 7:00 to order cedar shakes which we did.  I was still tired and so watched stage 12 of theTDF which ended on top of Alpe de Huez, a 16 km. climb of over 1 hour.  What was amazing today was that  at the end of the day there were no changes in the first and second position overall and Geraint Thomas moved up one place into third place.

What was amazing today was that a 22 year old, Pidcock from Great Britain, won the stage in his first TDF on one of the highest climbs.

At 9:30 I fried a piece of sausage and two eggs and toasted a slice of Russian Rye and spread it with butter and Orange marmalade.

I then worked a bit until 1:30 when I became hot and lay down until 2:30 when I toasted Asher slice of Russian Rye and spread sour cream on it and lay pieces of pickled herring and onion in wine sauce on it.  It was delicious and reminded me of living in Denmark.

After lunch I filled the dill pickle jar with quartered Persian cucumber sticks.

I worked until 5:00 and meditated until 5:40.

Suzette came home at 4:45 and watched T.V. until 6:00 when we started dinner. 

I had thawed a steak.  We decided to grill everything outside to avoid heating the kitchen as much as possible.

I sliced four russet potatoes into 1/2 inch thick slices. and brushed them with olive oil and dusted the slices with fetched a bunch of thick asparagus.for grilling which Suzette tossed with olive oil and salt and pepper. Suzette salted and peppered the steak while I minced a large shallot, two cloves of garlic, six or seven Shishito peppers cslicedk and the rest of the white and blue oyster mushrooms and the Lion’s mane mushroom.  Suzette fetched a handful of thyme from the garden.

We stripped the leaves yielding approximately 1 T. of thyme leaves.  Suzette heated butter and olive oil in a skillet and I added the ingredients and sautéed them for about ten minutes.  I fetched the Amontillado sherry and added a T. at two different times to cook and flavor the ingredients and make a light sauce.

Soon Suzette brought in the grilled potatoes, steak and asparagus.

I sliced the steak and the green end of a green onion and Suzette arranged several slices of grilled potatoes added a dab of sour cream and several slices of green onion. Suzette lay a small bundle of asparagus and we each added slices of steak and garnished the steak with the shallot, garlic, Shishito pepper and wild mushroom medley.  The steak was a bit overcooked, perhaps because it was dried out to begin with. We agreed that we had messed up the aging process and instead of aging the beef we hash added salt and dried it out or cured it.

When we previously grilled one of these steaks, there were 14 steaks, we had agreed to sauté the next one in butter on the stove but we were more interested in grilling outside to avoid heating up the kitchen, so it was rather tough. Both the steak and the asparagus were enhanced with the flavor of the sherry flavored vegetable medley.

I ate everything on my plate, but Suzette left some of her dinner.

We poured second glasses of Rioja and I put some ice cubes into mine and enjoyed it more.

We watched the Midsomer Mystery until 10:00 and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit

July 13, 2022 Brunch - Curious Toast. Lunch - Sandwiches and garnish. Dinner - PPI Stir Fried Scallops with Yu Choy with rive and asparagus

 July 13, 2022 Brunch - Curious Toast. Lunch - Sandwiches and garnish. Dinner - PPI Stir Fried Scallops with Yu Choy with rive and asparagus 

I worked in the morning until 8:30 when I ate an apple and two fig bars while I watched the last huge climb of the day on Stage 11 of the Tour de France.  It was an amazing day because the yellow Jersey leader Pogajar cracked and Vinegaard, the Dane, who was in second place by 40 seconds won the stage by 2 minutes and 40 seconds to go ahead of Pogajar by 2 minutes and into the yellow Jersey.

After the race Suzette and I drove to Curious Toast on Central for brunch.  The food was creative, but the kitchen is small so everything is elegant but undersized and not inexpensive. I ordered golden waffles and was served three mini waffles spread with ricotta cheese that created a palette for a lovely arrangement of fresh berries on each.  Suzette ordered the Bendi which was a toasted piece of bread spread with lemon aioli and garnished with a sliced 1/2 avocado two halves of a soft boiled egg and pomegranate seeds.  It was pretty but I was happy to have eaten an hour before I went.  I probably will not go back.

We then went home and worked. I stopped at 1:30 and made myself three small open faced sandwiches; one with butter and pate and slices of Jarlsberg cheese, one with Mayo and slices of salami, some mustard, and slices of Jarlsberg cheese, and one spread with sour cream and garnished with sliced red onion and herring in wine sauce. I added dill pickles, a Persian cucumber, carrot sticks and tomatoes.

I fetched a Negra Modelo from the garage.

Suzette took a sip of beer on her way out the door with one of the ottomans to have it upholstered with the steer hide she bought last week.

I watched the EUFA match between Portugal and the Netherlands.  Portugal tied at 2 to 2 early in the second half but The Netherlands scored one more goal to win the match even though they were without two of their best players.

I then lay down and read and napped until 4:30.

Suzette had returned but did not disturb me and the she came in and rested for an hour.

Suzette is driven. She got up and made a liner for the new cover for the other ottoman.

Suzette asked me to prepare dinner.  There was not much to do.  I cooked a cup of rice and sliced seven or eight asparagus into 1 inch slices and added then to the rice to steam with about 2 T. of chopped red onion.

When the rice was ready we heated the PPI stir fried scallops with Yu Choy in the microwave, Suzette fetched a bottle of Gruet Petit Meunier from the garage. The wine was perfect with the food and we enjoyed drinking the rest of the bottle after the meal. We loved its nutty, yet strong character.

We watched the Somebody Feed Phil episode on San Francisco and found out Phil and Alice Waters are old friends. Phil gave Alice a lovely compliment that was also true when her said, “Alice Waters is why we eat the way we do in America.  She started the farm to table movement.”

That quote told me Phil was a hard core, well informed foodie.

After Phil’s eating in San Francisco ended we walked 1/3 mile around the block and then soaked in the hot tub.

Finally, we went to bed refreshed.

Bon Appetit.

July 12, 2022 Lunch - BBQ Chicken Salad. Dinner - Oyster Dirty Rice and Stir Fried Yu Choy, onion, and Scallops

July 12, 2022 Lunch - BBQ Chicken Salad. Dinner - Oyster Dirty Rice and Stir Fried Yu Choy, onion, and Scallops 

I woke up and dressed and walked 1/2 mile.  I slowed down terribly towards the end but made it.  We will see if I feel better tomorrow.

When I returned I watched the finish of Stage 10 of the Tour de France and ate granola, milk, blueberries, and yogurt for breakfast.

Then I talked on the phone until 11:00 when I watched the seventh January 6th hearing.  This one was just as revelatory as the last few.  I showed how Trump turned to a new strategy for staying in power as each other strategy failed.

Finally after The Electoral Vote count on December 14, he was left with only one good strategy, to disrupt the certification on January 6 or have Mike Pence decertify the electoral vote in the hope he could prevent completion of certification and throw the election into the House of Representatives where each state would get one vote and he would be elected.

The evidence showed that Trump refused to concede the election and then appointed Sidney Powell special counsel to investigate voting fraud on Dec. 18 and tweeted on the 19th, “Come to Washington on January 6th. It is going to be wild.”

That set in motion a number of White Nationalist Paramilitary groups to organize an attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6th. Two the groups were affiliated with Mike Flynn and Roger Stone.

The evidence also showed that Trump had told several people he intended to call for the crowd to March from the Eclipse to the Capitol before the rally. That it was not a spontaneous  action by the crowd. But planned by Trump.  I think it is a federal crime to incite a riot and conspiring to create an insurrection.

The testimony and evidence was chilling.  There just no doubt in my mind that many of the plotters, perhaps even Trump, will face criminal charges.

I made a salad at 3:00 with the leftover gourmet lettuce, a tomato, the leftover BBQ chicken, the five marinated asparagus and two green onions sliced and dressed it with the refreshed Caesar salad dressing.

I then worked until 5:30 when Suzette said she wanted to fix dinner.

Suzette had arrived at 4:00 but collapsed until 5:30 after another hard day of cleaning out a shed.

Suzette thawed about 1/2 lb. of sea scallops and decided to make dirty rice by combining the leftover rice with a jar of oysters chopped.

I agreed to make a stir fry of the scallops with Yu Choy and onion.

I separated the green leaves from the stalks and cut each into bite sized pieces.  I sliced 1/2 onion into thin strips and minced two cloves of garlic and 1 oz. of ginger.

I then stir fried the hard ingredients in peanut oil and sesame oil and then added the green leaves and scallops.  We made a seasoning sauce with cornstarch, Chinese Cooking wine, soy, and sesame oil that I added when the scallops seemed cooked.

We then served the stir fried over the rice.  Both dishes were delicious together and would have been delicious separately.

We watched the news and the Finding Your Roots at 7:00.

Suzette went to bed at 8:00 and I stayed up to blog and read.

Bon Appetit