I have a cold again so not much appetite for cooking or eating elaborate food. Yesterday I made one of my Vietnamese pho miso soup with tofu, 1/3 of a PPI boneless pork steak diced, four heads on shrimp, spinach, brown miso, a shallot diced, two mushrooms sliced, and about 1 tsp. of dehydrated chicken stock. In the afternoon after I finished my work for the day at around 4:00 I drove to Sprouts to shop the Wednesday double specials. The store was packed with like minded shoppers. I bought 6 nice sea scallops at $12.95/lb. for a little over $4.00, 6 bratwurst at $2.50/lb., a lb. box of button portabella mushrooms for $3.49, a bunch of organic golden beets for $1.99, a 5 lb. bag of russet potatoes for $1.50, about a lb. each of chocolate covered blueberries and almonds for $4.99/lb., two medium avocados for $1.00, a one pound bunch of asparagus for $1.98, a 1 liter bottle of Spanish olive oil for $6.99, 2 eggplant for $1.00, two hot house raised heirloom tomatoes for $1.99/lb. , a large sweet potato, and two bunches of green onions for $.33 a bunch.
I got home a little after 5:00 and rejoiced that the Dow Jones went down but my portfolio increased in value, which is a pretty rare event.
Suzette has been involved in a matter that required her to discuss on the phone her taking a deposition, so was unavailable for to cook dinner. In the morning we had discussed making roasted root vegetables with the fresh turnips we picked from our garden on Tuesday, which had prompted me to go to Sprouts to buy the root vegetables so at 5:45 I went into action. I peeled and diced two russet potatoes, ½ of the sweet potato, the two largest of the fresh turnips, one onion, three cloves of garlic, two of the golden beets and tossed them with salt and olive oil and covered them with aluminum foil and popped them into a 375 degree oven to bake, handed the timer set for 45 minutes to Suzette and drove to my meditation group at 6:30. When I returned home at 7:45 Suzette was still talking to her attorney on the phone and found that she turned off the heat on the vegetables. I decided to eat the ½ pot of PPI Vietnamese noodle soup from lunch and went to bed at 9:00 because I had a mediation in Santa Fe on Thursday.
On Thursday I drove my client to Santa Fe for the mediation at 9:00. We successfully concluded the mediation at 2:45 and decided to get a bite of lunch and do a couple of errands. I had to pick up a William Penhollow Henderson ink drawing I bought at Owings Gallery, so we parked at the Gallery on Marcy St. I had noticed a couple walking into La Boca as we passed it on Marcy and asked Mark if we could leave the car and walk down for a tapa and return for the drawing. We walked to La Boca and arrived a little after 3:00. We took a table near the street. Soon a few more groups arrived. We requested the Happy Hour menu, which I noticed is a little more limited and a little pricier than my last visit about a year ago. When I commented on the changed menu, Roberto, out waiter, said, “We change the menu periodically. I was satisfied with the choices and ordered shrimp and morcilla tacos, a yogurt marinated chicken pincha (a skewer of chicken) and salad from the Happy Hour menu. I ordered Martine a glass of sangria and a glass of Albariño for myself to celebrate our successful completion of his mediation. We had to return to review the settlement agreement by 4:00 but I have to admit the food and service were superb. We first were served our drinks and the salad of fresh romaine lettuce with shaved strips of red cabbage and carrot, thin slices of fresh red bell pepper, halves of small grape shaped red tomatoes and large flat slices of Granny Smith apple dressed with a lovely tahini, cumin, and honey dressing. Then Chef owner James Campbell Carasco came by to say hello.
In a few more minutes Roberto brought us the two hot tapas. On one plate were two soft tacos served on the usual Mexican small tortillas filled to the top with warm diced shrimp that had been sautéed in a wonderfully flavorful sauce mixed with diced morcilla (blood) sausage that had been flash fried. The tacos were served on a small oblong platter with a ramekin of red Chile sauce made with Chile de arbol that was quite spicy and a fabulous fermented pile of strips of mango, cucumber and red onion. Martine mentioned that his father raised pigs and when he was young they ate every part of the pig. I hope eating the tacos with the Chile arbol reminded him of his youth, one of those “Ratatouille” deja vu moments. The tacos were fabulous and worth a return visit. The pincha was also delicious served on a small mound of fermented thinly sliced small Middle Eastern cucumber rounds flavored with quite hot chili also. The prices for the hot tapas were $6.00 each and the salad, the sangria and glass of Albariño were $7.00 each, so reasonably priced for a top 10 restaurant in Santa Fe.
We went back to pick up the drawing and drove back to the mediator’s office to finish the settlement agreement in a very good mood after our short excursion into Spanish Cuisine.
After mediation at 5:00 I took the Swiss Chalet painting back to Justin’s Framing and discussed its conservation with him and David and picked up the Von Hassler print and two paintings and we drove back to Albuquerque.
When we arrived home at 6:30 Suzette was on the phone with her attorney so I made a gin and tonic and then made guacamole and ate some with the fresh corn strips I had bought at Costco on Tuesday.
When I climbed in bed to read at around 8:30 Suzette was still on the phone. Another self invented dinner, although admittedly a good one, of fresh creamy guacamole and chips with a gin and tonic.
Bon Appetit
No comments:
Post a Comment