We had cups of espresso coffee with steamed milk for breakfast. Around 10:30 we took boxes and bottles to the recycling center and then went to several antique malls near the corner of San Mateo and Lomas but they were closed. We decided to go to Que Houng for brunch. When we arrived a little after 11:00 there was already a table of six older Vietnamese men chattering in Vietnamese.
We took my favorite table by the window facing Central and the Sandias, which were brilliantly lit with sun light reflecting off the fresh snow. I ordered a bowl of Pho with rare beef and beef meatballs. Suzette was tired of noodles, so she ordered a plate of fried broken rice with chunks of beef in a thick slightly sweet sauce, which we both liked very much. My pho was very plain, without any extra seasoning, so the onion and beef flavored the hot broth as it cooked in the soup. I found it rather elegant, although I seasoned the pho soup with Que Houng’s special blend of Hoisin Sauce and pineapple juice, a fresh jalapeño pepper, the juice of ½ lime, and lots of basil and cilantro.
After lunch we drove west on Central toward Whole Foods and stopped at a consignment store just west of San Pedro, where we found a book shelf for our cookbooks for the kitchen and an ironing board for Suzette’s new sewing area in the basement.
We then drove to Whole Foods, where I bought a 3/5 lb. piece of fresh Swiss Raclette cheese for the Potatoes Savoyard.
I took two aged rib eye steaks out of the freezer when I returned home and at about 3:00 rode to Rio Bravo. After showering I turned on the Alamo Bowl to watch TCU play Oregon at 4:45. I made guacamole and sliced ½ onion, six Shitake mushrooms, 2 cloves of garlic, and about a dozen snow peas. I then went to the garden and grabbed a handful of thyme and pulled about a tsp. of leaves off and added them to the mushroom mixture. I found the recipe for Julia Child’s Potatoes Savoyard on the I Pad and handed it to Suzette. Here's the recipe for Potatoes Savoyard from Food.com: http://www.food.com/recipe/potatoes-savoyard-61710?nl=email_share
Mike and Kathryn arrived from Phoenix shortly after 7:00 which also corresponded with the end of the first half of the Alamo Bowl, which I had almost stopped watching because Oregon was up 31 to 0 on TCU and it looked like a blow out, like so many other bowl games in the last few days.
We served guacamole and rice crackers and poured Kathryn a glass of 2013 Estancia Chardonnay that Mike and she brought. We made gin and tonics with the lovely Rehorst gin produced by Great Lake Distillery that Mike and Kathryn brought us mixed with Fever Tree tonic and fresh lime juice.
Suzette had put the potatoes into the oven around 6:15, so they were ready by around 7:30, which is when Suzette heated the grill and started grilling the steaks. We also started sautéing the shishito peppers in olive oil and I sautéed the mushroom mixture in olive oil and butter and finished it with a couple of Tbsp.s of Amontillado Sherry and covered it to sweat the vegetables in about ten minutes.
I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2006 Londer Vineyard’s Corby Vineyard Pinot Noir produced in the Anderson Valley of California, which was incredibly smooth and elegant and yet a very solid wine. Everyone loved it. It is one of America’s great Pinot Noirs.
By the end of the third quarter the football game was getting interesting because TCU scored 17 points to Oregon’s 0 points. We became more excited as we ate and watched TCU score two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 31 each and send the game into overtime.
Each team scored in the first overtime and in the second overtime when each team was required to go for a two point conversion, instead of a 1 point conversion, TCU scored but failed to convert its two point conversion first. Things looked bleak when Oregon got the ball but TCU’s defense prevented Oregon from scoring or getting a first down and the biggest comeback in bowl history was won by TCU.
We went wild, as did everyone who ever went to TCU. My dad, who was a TCU letterman in golf, was probably smiling in heaven.
I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture of the plates filled with food.
I don’t think Kathryn had eaten aged heavy beef before and she was amazed by its texture, density, and tenderness, especially with the elegant pinot noir.
We finished the wine with the meal, so we poured small glasses of the 2010 Gruet Blanc de Blanc champagne Mike and Kathryn had brought to celebrate TCU’s victory. Then Suzette cut pieces of her Cloud Cake and placed it on dessert plates on a puddle of Crème Anglais we had made flavored with coffee and vanilla and I peeled and sectioned a Texas ruby red grapefruit and placed two sections on each piece of cake. The grapefruit was both sweet and sour and its Citrus flavor went vey well with the delicate meringue cake and creamy custard. I think I heard the word, “fabulous”, expressed by Kathryn, who had not had the cake before.
Kathryn mentioned some of the cool things her American Women’s Club had done lately and gave as an example, visiting the Grand Marnier factory. Mike asked what was the difference between Cointreau and Grand Marnier, so I grabbed a bottle of each and poured him a side by side taste of each as an after dinner drink.
Suzette and Kathryn excused themselves around 10:45 and Mike and I talked for a while and said goodnight at around 11:30.
Mike and Kathryn are house guests for a few days, while they visit friends and family in Albuquerque.
Bon Appetit
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