July 2, 2017 a full Day Adventure in Taos. Lunch – Lambert’s Birthday Dinner at Barry and Kylene’s
I woke up at 6:45, just in time to figure out how to get the TV going and tuned to CNN for Jake Tapper’s Sunday Morning news program. Then I watched Fareed Zacharia GPS switching during commercials to a stage 2 of the Tour de France (Düsseldorf to Leige, Belgium) and Sunday Morning on CBS. After I watched the 9:00 news programs and the sprint finish of a Stage 2, Suzette prepared breakfast of the filling of potatoes, sausage, and onions sautéed and then eggs poached into it and covered to cook.
At 11:00 we walked around the ballfields and past the old cemetery on Dragoon Street where Kit Carson is buried to Kit Carson Park to visit the Arts and Crafts Show, we found a ceramics dealer whose work I liked and bought a small pitcher glazed with a Shino glaze.
We stopped at a juice bar near the arts and craft fair and shared a fresh carrot and orange juice. Then we walked north to the Fechin House to the Taos Art Museum. It was showing an exhibit of W. Herbert Dunton, one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists.
There was a Taos newspaper on a table on the patio behind the Fechin House, so we examined the Tempo and discovered that there was a quilt show at Stables Gallery, a colcha show at the Martinez House, and a flea Market at the KTAO parking lot, so we decided to walk back to the apartment to fetch the car so we could drive to the different locations.
We first drove north to the flea market. We walked around and saw there were pretty slim pickings. We found and bought a nice prison art basket with a handle made out of folded cigarette packages. On the way out we walked by the back of a truck with several paintings leaning against the back of the cab. One was a Jim Wagner watercolor of a chicken which caught my eye. I talked to the vendor, who was named John McCullogh, and bought the Wagner chicken. Suzette came up and started looking and I noticed that one of the other paintings was a large painting of pink calla lilies by Stephen Kilborn. I also bought the Kilborn. Then we started talking about other Taos artists and found out that John is a passionate picker and dealer with a good eye and sense of art history. We had a number of Martha Reed items and talked about Helen Martin.
We made friends with John and look forward to dealing with him in the future. After he helped load the pictures into the mini we said goodbye and drove back south toward the Martinez House, but when we were on the by-pass around Taos, I suggested we stop at Robert Parsons’ Gallery and Stephen Kilborn’s Gallery. We parked in the public parking lot next to Bent Street. Robert Parsons’ Gallery was closed so we walked toward Kilborn’s Gallery on Camino Pueblo. Suzette said, “I would like a drink.” Since we were beside Lambert’s, we decided to go to its bar for a drink. Suzette ordered the special gin drink, which she often does at Lambert’s. Today it was heirloom gin with cucumber juice, a slice of jalapeño, and fresh chopped cilantro served in a martini glass with a sugar and red chili encrusted rim. Suzette asked the bartender to leave out the jalapeño and ordered one. I was more interested in food so asked for the menu. The bartender handed me a Brunch menu on which I saw an interesting dish; cured and smoked trout served with an arugula salad dressed with only olive oil and a sprinkle of salt garnished with heirloom (Kumato) tomatoes, a semi-firm boiled egg, pickled red onion slices, and capers with a freshly baked everything bagel on the side for $17.00. I decided to order the Trout dish and tasted a glass of Cote Mas Brut rose’ champagne for $12.00. I liked the champagne, so ordered a glass.
The trout was amazing. The cured and smoked trout was a little firm to my liking, but the salad was great and the house baked bagel was amazing. The bagel was feathery soft and melted in my mouth with a dense flavor from all the different types of seeds.
The champagne was a light rose of pinkish amber color that slid easily down my throat. I had to resist drinking the entire flute in one great gulp.
After our repast at Lambert’s, we walked around the corner to Stephen Kilborn’s Gallery and were pleasantly surprised to find similar sized paintings selling for from $1,900 to $2,900.00. So we had done well on the Kilborn.
We then walked across Camino Pueblo to the Quilt Show at Stables Gallery. There were many lovely quilts and lots of the quilters were in attendance. Stables is the community Gallery. This was a show hung by the local quilting society. We both immediately noticed a small quilted piece of fabric with a mermaid in a fantastic scene that we both liked. It was $35.00. Suzette decided to buy it and make it into a pillow for Luke.
We then drove out Lower Ranchitos Rd. to the Martinez house and paid our $15.00 admission fee to spend fifteen minutes seeing the colcha show. Colcha is a traditional embroidery technique. Usually it it is done on hand spun cotton or wool fabric. It is an ancient craft in New Mexico dating back to the first Spanish settlers. The scenes are mostly out of perspective and very much a folk art craft, but one with deep roots in early New Mexico history.
We were vert tired, so after seeing the colcha show we drove back to the apartment for naps.
I woke up at 5:00 and took a shower and got dressed for dinner. At 6:30 we drove to Kylene and Barry’s house high situated on the southern ridge line with an incomparable view of Taos Valley and Wheeler Peak.
We took a bottle of 2011 Gruet Sauvage Blanc de Blanc and the blueberry and apricot cobbler Suzette had made with apricots we picked from Megan’ tree. Kylene and Barry are neighbors and know Megan and her wonderful fruit trees, so there was an immediate connection.
When we arrived there were two wedges of Brie , one French and the other, the German Brie, Cambozola with cheese crackers and triscuits, plus a bowl each of dried apricots and almonds. We decided to open the 2011 Sauvage champagne. We took the appetizers out to the patio table and I poured flutes of champagne. We talked and watched the sun set in the west. There is a 240 degree view from the east to the southwest. Here are several photos:
As we finished the champagne and the sun was setting behind the mountains to the west, Barry excused himself to go to the kitchen to make the risotto for our meal, of grilled steaks, asparagus risotto, and salad. Barry had baked fresh baguettes, but we told him we could not eat bread.
I went in a few minutes later, curious to know how he made risotto.
Barry’s Asparagus Risotto
6 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine
2 cups arborio rice (Italian shirt grain rice)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 shallots
3 T. of olive oil
½ lb. steamed asparagus, optional
Green peas and parsley, optional
Before I arrived Barry had minced the shallots and sautéed them with the two cups of rice.
Then when I arrived he added a cup of stock and began stirring the rice to evenly absorb it into the rice.
After several successive additions of most of the stock, Barry added the cup of white wine, stirring occasionally.
This process took twenty or thirty minutes.
After the wine was absorbed Barry and the risotto began to stick to the large skillet, Barry added the cup of cheese and stirred it in. He explained that the traditional pairing is peas and parsley, but since we did not have either of those and we had asparagus instead, he diced ½ of the stalks of asparagus into a size resembling a pea.
After the cheese melted into the risotto, Barry added 1/3 to ½ cup of heavy cream and the risotto became creamy. He then added the last ½ cup of stock and the chopped asparagus and stirred to mix the asparagus into the risotto. He then said it was finished and turned off the heat.
We then grilled the steaks and Kylene dressed her kale, lettuce, shaved Brussels sprouts and cabbage and lettuce with a poppy seed dressing
Everyone likes their steak rare so it took less than ten minutes to grill the steaks.
When the steaks were ready we put one on each plate, and then Barry ladled a pile of risotto on each plate and garnished each pile of risotto with ¼ of the remaining asparagus spears. We took our plates to the patio table and served ourselves with salad.
I opened the 1997 Silver Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon before we began cooking so it had had thirty minutes to open up. It was smooth with great character. It had a heavy fruity flavor without any bitterness.
We ate and talked and sipped wine. Until it was gone.
Then the blueberry/apricot was heated and a scoop of vanilla ice cream was added to the warm cobbler. Barry fetched an open bottle of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey and we finished it as we ate our dessert.
Finally, at 10:00 Suzette became tired and we said goodnight.
Bon Appetit
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