November 1, 2016 Lunch – PPI Enchiladas. Dinner – Grilled Ribeye steaks, sweet potatoes, asparagus with sautéed mushrooms and shishito peppers and a caprese salad

November 1, 2016 Lunch – PPI Enchiladas. Dinner – Grilled Ribeye steaks, sweet potatoes, asparagus with sautéed mushrooms and shishito peppers and a caprese salad

This was a busy and fun day. I slept until 8:00, then showered and dressed and drove to the bar center to attend a two hour seminar of practice succession, which dealt with how to transition a practice when a lawyer dies or becomes incapacitated. After forty-four years of practice I felt I owed it to my clients and Suzette to start preparing for that. I found out there are only two things needed. The selection of a lawyer or lawyers to take over the cases and a power of attorney to grant the successor attorney access to trust accounts, etc.

At 11:00 I drove to Rietech to meet with with Rich about a new project.

Then I drove to Costco and purchased items for dinner. I selected four lovely ribeye steaks at $7.99, a leg of lamb to marinate in pomegranate juice and olive oil, bacon for BLT sandwiches, butter for the Béarnaise Sauce I planned to make for the steaks, fresh sliced mozzarella cheese for the caprese salad, hot chocolate and Nutella on special, a new organic yogurt, and Romaine lettuce.

I drove home, stopping at Southwest Food to buy a gallon of red wine vinegar, and arrived around 1:30.. Suzette had already arrived and she and Don and Bev were eating enchiladas with the mango salsa we made last night. I heated a plate of enchiladas, changed clothes, returned some calls, and ate my lunch. As soon as I finished lunch we were ready to leave for the Albuquerque Art Museum. 

We saw the Mable Dodge Lujan exhibit, which is the best exhibit of her life and the works of the artists in her circle I have ever seen. Don and Bev were walking through and Suzette is always faster than me, her comment was, “do you have to read every word.”, so I had to move along. We then went through the permanent exhibit and finally the miniatures show, which was also extensive. I caught up with them at around 3:20 and we decided to go get a pastry and coffee. I drove us to Central Grill and coffee shop, but it was closed, perhaps due to the road construction for the new ART rapid transit in front of its door, so Suzette said she wanted to go get a beer at Boise Brothers Brewery, but I said I wanted to go to Marble and sit on the newly constructed roof patio. We all agreed that a beer to wash down the enchiladas was a good idea, so we drove through the old Downtown neighborhood to view some of the old mansions and then we drove to Marble brewery. The Waters's was pleasant and gave us tastes of whatever we wanted. Don and I selected 16 oz. glasses of Oatmeal Stout to sort of keep on the Guinness stout theme and Bev and Suzette selected 10 oz. glasses of Dubbel, a Belgium style ale. We climbed the stairs and found a table with a good 210 degree view of the mountains and sipped our beers and enjoyed the warm slightly sunny afternoon. 

At around 5:00 we went home and Bev took a nap while we prepared dinner. Willy called and we told him 

When we got home I decided to make the caprese salad first, so I went to garden and picked large leaves of basil and a sprig of lavender and four sprigs of chives.

I made the caprese salad and Suzette made the balsamic and olive oil dressing for it and drizzled the salad with the dressing. 

Then Suzette sliced the sweet potatoes and snapped the ends off the asparagus and coated them in olive oil and salt and pepper in a gallon freezer bag and grilled them and the steaks.

While she was doing that Bev and I made the Bearnaise sauce using Julia Child’s recipe

Bearnaise Sauce

¼ cup of wine vinegar

¼ cup of white wine

1 T. of tarragon

1 T. of shallot

A dash of salt

1/8 tsp. of white pepper

3 egg yolks

½ lb. of butter

We brought the vinegar, wine, tarragon, shallot, salt, and pepper to a simmer in an enameled sauce pan until it reduced by 2/3.

We beat the egg yolks in a separate enameled sauce pan.

When the liquid was reduced, we let it cool and then strained the liquid into the egg yolks and over a very low heat began adding butter 2 to 3 T. at a time until the butter melted. We then turned off the heat and stirred the sauce until it thickened and cooled.  I then poured the sauce into a ceramic pitcher and put it into the fridge to cool.

When we served the dinner, the sauce was still warm and poured easily but it congealed overnight in the fridge.

I destemmed the shishito peppers and sautéed them with the beech mushrooms from which Suzette had cut the dirty stems.in olive oil and butter and four or five basil leaves and two cloves of garlic thinly sliced and added a dash of Amontillado sherry when the vegetables started to soften.

I went with Don to the basement wine cellar and picked a bottle of 2010 Clos de Val Cabernet Sauvignon to encourage him to go to the east side of Napa Valley to the Stags Leap area.

The wine was delicious, soft luscious with a good balance of fruit and tannins.

The steak was a little tough, but that may be because we have become acclimated to heavy aged beef.

Everyone loved the meal.  The grilled asparagus and sweet potatoes were cooked to perfection, tender and still with a bit of char on the edges, as were the steaks.

Bon Appetit