October 3, 2015 A Day in Santa Fe, Dinner - Shrimp Scampi, artichokes, PPI scallops and pasta
We left for Santa Fe at 7:30 to get the Stephen’s Paris Flea Market Sale by 9:00 but the day was so warm and clear and windless, as soon as we drove north on 1-25, we saw hundreds of hot air balloons aloft for the Balloon Fiesta, so we decided to exit at Paseo del Norte for a picture, after we pulled over Suzette suggested that we stop at Gruet Winery, and have a glass of wine and take more pictures.
Gruet was having a Champagne breakfast and with tables and chairs set up on the walkway in front of the Winery facing I-25 and the Balloon Park, which offered a great view of the valley and the balloons. Here are some pictures. When I walked into the tasting room, Justin, the Club Member director, was pouring and when I asked him if we could have out free glass of wine for the month, he gladly poured me two full tulips of Gruet extra dry champagne, which would have been my choice for a morning drink, especially for mixing with orange juice to make a mimosa. Extra dry has a bit of residual sugar, far less than Demi-sec, but more than Brut or Blanc de Blanc. The air temperature must have been about 65 degrees, so it was pleasant to sit and watch the balloons and sip champagne at one of the empty tables. Actually someone had left glasses of orange juice on the table we sat at, so after we sipped a bit of the champagne, we added a it of orange juice to make mimosas. Unfortunately the orange juice was made from reconstituted concentrate and only added a bit of opaque orange flavor, but orange flavored champagne was good enough for us.
Soon a balloon came over and landed in the parking lot with just a couple of feet to spare from hitting the winery. The Winery staff scrambled to hold the gondola down, so I assume the landing was pre-arranged. In moments the chase Crew arrived and the balloon was collapsed into the parking lot. As we left by 8:30 the crew was placing straps around its body so it could be loaded into its carrying case. All the out of town guests were excited and ran to help and it was a great participatory event.
We then drove to Santa Fe and exited at 599, the bypass road and exited it at Airport Blvd and drove to 4641 Airport Rd., where Stephen’s Consignments had rented two spaces in a strip center dominated by Mexican businesses. We were a little hungry, so we stopped at a Panaderia and bought two empanadas. When we were standing line, I asked a lady standing in another line obviously waiting for a To Go order what she had ordered and she said, “Menudo. The menudo here is really good.” So we walked on to the first of two spaces filled with sales items. At the first space Suzette found three antique Plant holders, which I took and pad for while she continued to shop. When she was ready to go to the next space, I told her I did not want to go to it and would wait for her at the car. I the returned to the Panaderia and ordered a 32 oz, container of menudo with all the fixings, powdered oregano, chopped onions, and a lime with a napkin and a spoon for $8.50, which I thought was a little expensive until I tasted the menudo. It was the best I have ever tasted. Small cut pieces of tripe, a delicious broth and lots of well cooked posole. I loved eating bites of it in the cool morning air of Santa Fe in the parking lot until Suzette arrived. I put the container back into the bag and rested it between the back seat and my meditation cushion, so the container would be stables enough to not spill in a quick stop.
We drove around 10:30 to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum and parked next to it in Andrew Smith’s parking lot at the Grant Street Gallery. We went in and saw the two new shows, the Vilcek Collection, which is essentially an impressive body of early 20th Century American Modernist works, with lots of Arthur Doves, Stuart Davis, and Marsden Hartley works. Here are some of the paintings. They would not allow taking of pictures of the Stuart Davis works.
The Black Place.by O'KEEFE
We then walked to the Fine Art Museum, where we saw the Georgia O’Keefe in Process Exhibit that matched photos of her art in her studio and preliminary sketches with the finished works of art installation the new wing and an exhibit of ?Modernist works in the downstairs main galleries, with a nice abstract Stuart Walker that Aaron Payne probably sold to the Museum from Walker’s estate and many other wonderful pieces of art, including three Paul Strand photos. No pictures allowed unfortunately.
By 11:30 we were done and returned to the car and drove to Lan’s on Cerrillos Rd. Near St. Michael’s Dr. to meet Amy for lunch. Amy ate her favorite vegetarian noodle dish, Suzette ordered the house made lamb wontons in their slightly sweet sauce, which we shared, and then Suzette ordered the squid and noodle special. I ordered the coconut milk soup with seafood, which the best soup on the menu in my opinion. The waiter’s comment, was “perfect” when I ordered it, and it was. It contained three large shrimp and two large green lipped mussels with rice vermicelli noodles in a coconut broth with lots of chopped herbs and spices, such as cilantro, basil, kefir leaves, fried garlic and a spicy infused oil. I loved it.
After lunch Amy gave Suzette a lovely long vest made by Char with stenciled suede and the she went to Restore It while I waited and read my New Yorke in the car. We then drove the few blocks to Stephen’s Consignment’s main store looking for a wine rack but did not find one.
We drove home at 1:45. When we got home I took an hour nap.
At around 4:30 Jesus Ibarra, the cabinet man came with the upper cabinets and cutting board for the kitchen. The cutting board support legs were a little tall an Suzette and I decided the cut 1 ¼ inches off the bottom of them. Jesus left and returned with the shortened legs and installed the cutting board table top and upper cabinets. Here are pictures of them. The legs are original headboard supports from the Harvey House La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe.
While Suzette and Jesus installed the kitchen cabinets, I chopped ½ of a red bell pepper, 2 cloves of our garlic, two mushrooms, ¼ onion, and peeled and deveined 37 16-20 count large shrimp (Sprouts Farm Store for $6.99/lb.) and watched the news. After the cabinets were installed we watched “Looking for Bobby Fisher” from 6:00 until 8:00 which had an amazingly good cast and plot.
At 8:00 we quickly cooked dinner. Suzette sautéed the onions and red bell pepper, and two red Thai red bird chilis in butter and olive oil and then added the shrimp, garlic, and mushrooms and white wine (the standard seafood saute prep), while I heated the PPI pasta with scallops, yellow squash, mushrooms, red bell peppers and onions in the microwave with the artichoke halves we had cooked two or three nights ago in the pasta water after we cooked the pasta. We had overlooked the artichokes and they turned out to be extremely soft, which yielded a much greater amount of edible leave. Suzette did not like them and said, “I prefer to undercook them and the grill them.” Perhaps we shall see Sunday night if we grill a rack of lamb.
We loved the scampi dish, which Suzette sautéed beautifully.
The thing I noticed how the sauce picked up all the flavors of the ingredients to even a greater extent than Friday night’s meal of scallops. I was particularly impressed with how the spiciness of the Thai chilis integrated into the buttery seafood sauce . This was a great new discovery and we still have about a dozen Thai chilis left.
We drank the 2010 Spanish Nesso Albariño I bought at Quarters for $4.99 on Friday, We both enjoyed it. It was not too sweet and not too dry. It was just right, which is what we prefer with our seafood dishes.
After a perfect day of activity and wonderful food, Suzette soaked in the hot tub and I drank some Calvados and two of the new box of chocolate truffles (Trader Joe’s for $2.99 for 8 oz. and watched TV until 10:00, when we went to bed.
Bon Appetit
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