March 10, 2016 Lunch – PPI Mapo Dofu, Dinner – Greenhouse Bistro

March 10, 2016  Lunch – PPI Mapo Dofu, Dinner – Greenhouse Bistro

I ate granola for breakfast with yogurt and fresh blueberries.  I spent a busy day mostly trying to get the development with the Village of Los Lunas and SODA done and helping the Kassams with a Management agreement for their hotel.

I ate a quick lunch of Fried Rice and Mapo Dofu reheated using the “Sensor Reheat” function on the new microwave, which worked perfectly.  I drank cups of green tea with the Chinese food.

Then at 2:00 I showered and dressed and drove to Larry’s office in Los Lunas, arriving a few minutes after 3:00.  We spoke to the attorney for SODA and Aaron and changed the Development Agreement to reflect the new deal worked out this morning by the principals for all parties, which is a much better deal for everyone, whereby the Village will finance the purchase of the land, our developer fee, and the initial infrastructure and acquisition of portable classrooms for SODA’s initial campus for a total of $3,200,000 by issuing its government bond secured by the Village’s gross receipts revenue to be repaid from  SODA’s revenues from the State’s education funds.  

Larry and I finished our changes to the draft of the Development Agreement at 5:00 just as I was getting a call from Marty and Suzette that they were waiting for me  at the Greenhouse Bistro restaurant, so I drove to the restaurant in major 5:00 traffic arriving around 5:20.

I told Suzette to order me the special, so shortly after I arrived we were served.  Joe ordered the white bean and kale soup, which is a delicious soup that includes fresh organic kale in a vegetable soup with white navy beans.  Mike and Marty ordered desserts, Mike ordered the multilayer chocolate cake and Marty ordered a white lemon cake with blueberries and whipped cream. Suzette and I split the entrée from this week’s special three course dinner of poached salmon on a warm salad of honey dew melon chunks and strips of warmed prosciutto garnished with lightly sauteed slices of zucchini and grape tomatoes and herbs.  It was as elegant and clean tasting an entrée as any I have eaten in any restaurant anywhere in a long time.  Chef Kelly Potter, who cooked in the Pacific Northwest before returning to Los Lunas, has a special feel for seafood and appears to be creating excellent elegant spa cuisine dishes.  

    

   Marty's Lemon Cream Cake 

Unfortunately, I was not able to linger over the meal and talk to the chef, because we had to leave to attend the Village Council meeting that began at 6:00.

Larry G. and Christina A. did a great job presenting the project and the Council approved the project, our RFP, and our Development Agreement.  It looks like I am finally doing a development deal as a principal for the first time, carrying on the family tradition.  

I arrived home at 8:00 and made chocolate chocolate chip cookies with pecans and raisins, but this time I used too much cacao powder and baked the cookies at 400 degrees so the did not spread out and they were scorched by the high heat.  Next time I will use 1/8 cup cacao powder instead of ¼ cup, bake at 350 degrees and use 1 ¾ cups of flour instead of 2 cups of flour and 1 2/3 cups of butter instead of 1 ½ cups of butter.

Willy and Suzette were watching the Republican debate, which was much more civilized in tone than the mud slinging of the last debate, which gives one the distinct feeling that these debates are completely orchestrated down to the number and type of signs and supporters in the room.

Bon Appetit