June 30, 2018 Lunch – Cosmos. Dinner – Turkey Soup and Artichokes.

June 30, 2018 Lunch – Cosmos. Dinner – Turkey Soup and Artichokes.

I started the day with Lax and onion slices on a slice of whole wheat bagel smeared with cream cheese.

Then Suzette and I went to the Farmer’s Market where we bought three baguettes of Bosque Bakery bread and three cucumbers from Silverleaf farms.

Suzette dropped me off and I worked until noon when Peter Eller came by to go to lunch so we could discuss his newest venture.  He was buying to pay for legal advice, so I asked him to pick the restaurant. He picked Cosmos, which suited me because it was close and hopefully we could return home in time to see some of the Uruguay v. Portugal match.

Peter kept mentioning Cesar Salad with sautéed fish, so when he ordered a small Cesar a Salad with double sautéed fish, l said, “I’ll take the same.”

Peter took a high IPA beer and I took water.  I looked at the menu and saw there were several interesting fried potatoes.  When I asked Peter, “What is your favorite potatoes?”

He said, “The Sputnik Potatoes.”

So I yelled out to Cloye, our waitress, “Cloye, can we have an order of Sputnik potatoes, please.”   Soon our lunch appeared.  Here is a picture.

The Cesar salad was great and I loved the Sputnik fries.  They were swooping curves of thick potatoes deep fried.  We ate them with lots of catsup.  The fish was fresh cod sautéed in browned butter to give it a little more flavor.  The salad was fresh also and the Cesar was creamy and tasted of anchovies.  The lunch was delicious and healthy.  I loved it.

After lunch we returned home and watched Uruguay beat Portugal while we ate bowls of Clafoutis and sipped German pear brandy.

When Peter left I fell asleep until Suzette called at 5:30.

When she arrived we decided to make turkey soup and eat the boiled Artichokes.  Suzette made the soup with ½ of a turkey breast, onion, carrots, celery and the kernels from 3 ears of corn.  I added the turkey stock we had made from the turkey bones to the pot.

  Then I went to garden and picked dill for the dill artichoke dipping sauce and a dozen sage leaves,  I chopped the dill and placed it in a mixing bowl with mayonnaise, juice of ½ lemon, and a chopped shallot.

I then went to the garden again and picked a dozen sage leaves, sliced them into thin slices and added them to the soup.

Suzette went to the garden and picked a basket of sorrel and chard, which I de-stemmed and cut into bite-sizzle pieces.  Suzette made rivels and added them to the soup.

GRANDMA'S RIVELS

5.0  (4)
Recipe by MariaCBarton


“This will forever be a soup that makes me think of my grandma. Rivels are kind of simple ..

READY IN: 20mins SERVES: 6-8
UNITS: US
INGREDIENTS Nutrition
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1⁄4 teaspoon salt

10 cups chicken broth
DIRECTIONS
Bring broth to a boil while you make the rivels.
To make rivels:
Put flour and salt in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, scramble eggs with a fork.
Add eggs to flour/salt mixture and "rivel 'em up" (just stir around with a fork until mixture becomes crumbly).
Drop by small handfuls into boiling broth.
Boil for 15 minutes and enjoy!
**If the broth isn't flavorful enough, add some chicken soup base.
**You can pinch some of the dough together to get bigger "rivels".
**You can also add cooked chicken to the soup.
**Also works well with ham or beef broth.

After the soup cooked long enough to cook the carrots and corn we were ready to eat.  I fetched the ½ bottle of Robert Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc Susan gave me after the book club on Thursday night and we poured it into two glasses and we dipped artichoke leaves into the dill dipping sauce and then ate a bowl of soup.

Willy came by around 9:00 and said hello.

Later we watched Grandchester PBS Masterpiece theatre and I ate several hone roasted pecans and a sip of Calvados.

Suzette went to bed but I stayed up to blog.

Bon Appetit

June 29, 2018 Lunch – Amerasia. Dinner – Sautéed Hamburger with onions and blue cheese, steamed Asparagus and a Baked Sweet Potato

June 29, 2018 Lunch – Amerasia. Dinner – Sautéed Hamburger with onions and blue cheese, steamed Asparagus and a Baked Sweet Potato

I awakened at 4:30 and blogged until 6:00 when I rode to Rio Bravo and back.  When I returned I ate yogurt, milk, blueberries, and granola.  I took a shower and dressed and went to a 10:00 closing which went very smoothly.

When it ended a bit before 11:00 I called Aaron to see if he wanted to go to lunch.  He suggested Dim Sun so we met at Amerasia.

When Hyangmi brought the tray by she had my two favorites on it plus lots of other items.  She served me the steamed buns filled with a mixture of sweet bean paste and BBQ pork and a small bowl filled with deep fried tofu stuffed with shitake mushrooms and black wood ear strips rehydrated in a broth served in the bowl of tofu.  Aaron chose a bowl of rice with spicy pork and we selected steamed dumplings filled with beef and chestnuts.  Later we tried steamed dumplings wrapped around a pork and ginger filling.  We drank tea.  After we finished lunch I went home and worked for a while and then napped until I was awakened by Mr. Nagji’s ringing the doorbell to deliver utility bills and give me a tip.  I was touched by his kindness and appreciation for my effort to assist him in selling his motel.

After he left I watched Cramer but was unable to find out why my portfolio fell from strongly positive to negative in a matter of minutes at the end of the session.  Finally, when the nightly business report came on I discovered that the drop was caused by Canada placing $20 Billion of tariffs on U.S. goods entering Canada.  Looks like The President has started a trade war.

I started dinner at 5:00 by thawing two hamburgers.  I started baking fours sweet potatoes and the last four russet potatoes at 6:15.  Suzette arrived around 6:30, while I was making guacamole.  We decided to steam asparagus, so I snapped 19 stalks.

Suzette took over and sautéed the hamburgers and onions and steamed the asparagus while I went to the basement and sorted wine bottles a bit and selected a 2010 Wellington Mohrhart Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, which is my favorite cab.  I opened and let it breath a few minutes before serving it.  I also decanted the wine to a wine pitcher.
I also warmed the Béarnaise sauce by placing it near the skillet Suzette was using to sauté the hamburgers and onions.  When she flipped the burgers she melted slices of blue cheese on top of the burgers.  When all the food was ready Suzette plated a sweet potato, and  hamburger coveored in sautéed onions, and steamed asparagus and I dabbed Béarnaise sauce on the asparagus and poured glasses of wine. We put guacamole on our plate and ate it with the burgers. Suzette put butter on the potato and we had a great meal.

The 2010 Wellington Cab is still my favorite.  It is fruity and balanced in tannins and fruit.  I love it.

After dinner we made reservations for the Gruet July 4th dinner and then made clafoutis. I had soaked the cherries I pitted several days ago in Grand Mariner and and cognac for several days.  I scalded 3 cups of milk, heavy cream and half and half.  In a mixing bowl I measured out 7 T. of flour and 10 T. of confectioner’s sugar and ½ tsp. of  salt.  I then whipped 3 eggs and mixed them with the dry ingredients and then added the scalded milk .  Suzette buttered and coated the butter with sugar in a ceramic baking dish. I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I poured the custard batter and cherries into the ceramic baking dish and slid it into the heated oven and baked it for an hour at 350  degrees.  Voila.

Bon Appetit

A Day of Short Rations and lots of action. Lunch – PPI Turkey Soup and Turkey Salad. Dinner Turkey Salad Sandwiches and Book. Club

A Day of Short Rations and lots of action. Lunch – PPI Turkey Soup and Turkey Salad. Dinner Turkey Salad Sandwiches and Book. Club

There are some days when food is secondary because the legal activities are so consequential.  Today was one of those days.

In the morning I overcame the last obstacle to closing the $1,200,000 sale of a motel by proposing a form of affidavit acceptable to underwriter’s counsel at the title company that deleted a title exception objected to by buyer.  This meant the transaction would close and was the last action in two month’s of work to complete the sale.

I ate yogurt, milk, blue berries, and granola for breakfast, then worked on the closing affidavit.  Then started calling the title company to see if they received the affidavit and if their title attorney had read and accepted it.  Finally just before noon our title officer called to confirm that the affidavit was accepted and the title exception was deleted and confirmed that the transaction would close.

I heated the plastic container containing the last of the turkey soup and ate it while watching the World Cup match between England and Belgium that turned out to be a yawn because both teams were at the top of their bracket and were assured of a place in the knockout round and no one was playing with much intensity.

A board meeting with one of my corporate clients was scheduled for 2:00 and I had promised to bring turkey salad and pickles, so at 1:30 I checked the turkey salad and found that it had dried out a bit and the tarragon and port wine vinegar flavor had become stronger, so I added about ½ cup of mayonnaise to loosen it up, taste less vinegary,  and more easily spread on bread, because there would be no other condiment like mayonnaise available at the meeting to make the salad palatable.  After I stirred in the mayonnaise and packed the salad in a 32 oz. yogurt container,  I grabbed my  jar of homemade pickles and my corporate files and drove to the meeting.

Every one liked the turkey salad sandwiches on dark nut bread and the pickles and we had a successful board meeting.

At 4:00 I drove to Talin, that was on the way home and bought a yogurt drink, a 14 oz. package of Swedish hard rye bread, a kilo package of German fullkorns bread, shallots, a magnum of sake, a kilo plastic package of my favorite red miso, a package of white beech mushrooms, and a can of Spanish pimientos.  I love the multi cultural shopping experience at Talin, which is has the greatest variety of imported specialty foods in New Mexico.

The I went to the bank to make a deposit on my way home got to sit in the drive through lane for about ten minutes waiting for service, which gave me the opportunity to observe the thermometer in the car register a temperature of 103 degrees, thankful that I was in an air conditioned car in the shade under the drive through awning and contemplate global warming.

I arrived home at around 5:15 and listened to the news while typing the minutes for the board meeting.

Suzette arrived at 5:45 hungry, so after discovering the departure of the turkey salad she made some more with red cabbage, Cole slaw, celery mayonnaise, and turkey.  I fetched a tomato and she made a tomato and turkey salad dinner/snack and I spread the rest of the turkey salad on two slices of Danish cocktail bread.

We watched the news at 6:55 I walked to the Palmers for the Book Club Meeting.  Charlie picked Tuxedo Park, which I liked very much.  It is the biography of Alfred Loomis, who was one of those rare persons who excelled at everything he did.  He was instrumental in the scientific research into radar and development of the atomic bomb that helped the Allies win WWII.  He was also a corporate attorney and financier who became one of America’s wealthiest men by owning The Wall Street firm that financed the electrical grid in the 1920’s.  He retired after the crash and devoted himself to scientific research, building a private lab at Tuxedo Park located about 40 miles north of NYC that transitioned into the Rad Lab and the Manhattan project during the war.

It helped that he had a scientific mind and was fabulously rich, like Bill Gates, and also that his favorite cousin was Henry Stimson, who was Secretary of War during WWII.

Loomis knew everybody, had virtually unlimited funds to make anything happen and was smart enough to know what actions were consequential and the organizational skill to orchestrate a strategy to successfully execute the necessary action, like develop radar into operational applications and help fund and develop the seven or eight discrete scientific and engineering functions necessary to make the atomic bomb.

He spent much of his spare time on Hilton Head Island which he and his brother-in-Law business partner bought for $3.00/acre and sold thirty years later for $500.00/acre.  Almost every decision he made was consequential and right.

I was thrilled to learn this bit of American history.

Susan made brownies and chocolate chip cookies and bought cream puffs at Costco that we ate with Hershey’s chocolate syrup after the meeting.
A really fun day.  I realize that the most fun thing for me is to see if I can make things happen, like Loomis. Today was one of those days when I was able to achieve consequential results in two different transactions, one completed and one started toward an uncertain but hopefully attainable goal.

Bon Appetit

June 27, 2018 Lunch – Turkey Soup Dinner – Isotopes Baseball Game

June 27, 2018 Lunch – Turkey Soup Dinner – Isotopes Baseball Game

Another busy day.  I ate two fried eggs and two crisp fried strips of bacon with a cup of green tea.



We got our refrigerator fixed today.  When the repairman left at 1:00 p.m. I heated the PPI turkey soup and ate two bowls.

After a busy afternoon I took a shower and then a nap from 4:00 until 5:00.  I got dressed and went to meditate.

 I returned home at 6:30 when Suzette arrived and at 7:00 Suzette and I drove to
Isotope Stadium to see the Isotopes play the Sacramento Rivercats.  We wanted to eat dinner at the ball park.  After looking at the choices we decided upon bratwurst for $8.50 each and $9.00 beers.

We found seats behind the first base line where we ate and watched the rest of the game.  In the 8th inning Suzette bought a pile of potato threads drizzled with nacho cheese that were delicious, thin and crisp.  She also got a glass of pink lemonade.

Generally, the food choices were not many and not very good.

After Sacramento won 4 to 3 we drove home at 9:30.  After a gin and tonic and a bit of Rachel Maddow we went to bed.

Bon Appetit

June 26, 2018 Lunch – Danish Open face Sandwiches. Dinner – PPI Pork Ribs, Cole Slaw, and Corn on the Cobb

June 26, 2018 Lunch – Danish Open face Sandwiches. Dinner – PPI Pork Ribs, Cole Slaw, and Corn on the Cobb

I breakfasted on yogurt, granola, milk, and blueberries.

I had a busy day today.  I worked on the water case until 10:00.  Then I rode to Campbell Rd. And took a shower when I returned home.

 At noon I made four open faced sandwiches, one with beef pate’ topped with a slice of cucumber on a slice of buttered whole wheat bread, one on buttered whole wheat bread with thinly sliced onion, turkey salad and slices of Roma tomato, the final sandwiches were also on whole wheat bread but I spread the bread with crema and lay thin slices of onion and pickled herring on them.

I drank a Negra Modelo with the sandwiches and ate cracked green olives as a condiment.

I then worked until 4:30, when I went to the bank and then a client’s to review and sign a contract.

Then I drove to El Super and shopped for produce.  I bought a head of Romaine lettuce, 9 small avocados, four sweet potatoes, bananas, broccoli, cilantro, yellow onions, green onions, blueberries, eggs, six smoked pork cutlets, limes, and a bunch of red beets.  I am ready to stay inside our house and cook for a while.

I returned home at 6:30 and Suzette arrived a bit later.

We were both bushed after working all day and enduring today’s 103 degree temperatures, so I suggested the easiest dinner possible; heating PPI spare ribs that we cooked on Sunday and serving them with the Cole slaw we made to go with them.  I was pleasantly surprised when a Suzette suggested we boil some of the ears of corn we bought at Sprouts last Saturday and agreed immediately.

The meal was delicious.  Suzette filled a small ramekin with BBQ sauce for dipping the rib meat and we dipped and ate our way through the plate of food with relish.

Suzette drank a beer and I drank cold water.

After dinner I drank my new favorite after dinner drink; rompope mixed with cognac, fancy instant egg nog.

Bon Appetit

June 25, 2018. A day of snacking and the creation of a new dish

June 25, 2018. A day of snacking and the creation of a new dish

I started working at 4:30 and worked until noon, when I made myself two slices of bagel smeared with cream cheese with layers of Vidalia onion and Lax and garnished with a few capers.  I drank green tea with my first snack.  I watched soccer during and after lunch, two ties with Portugal and Spain moving on. At 2:00 I rode 7 or eight miles on the Southern route.  I showered at 4:30 and dressed.  As I was making an open face sandwich with the lovely turkey salad Suzette made last night plus onion slices and tomato slices at 5:00 suzette arrived so I left the salad and tomato out and she diced the tomato and added a couple scoops of turkey salad in a bowl for a light snack. I then sliced another slice of whole wheat bread and smeared it with crema and lay thin slices of Vidalia onion and pickled herring on it and ate my third sandwich of the day.

A Sweet Melon and Prociutto Ham Summer Salad

While we were snacking Suzette told me she had an idea for a new salad, braised red cabbage seasoned with apple cider vinegar and sugar with mint infused fresh cheese, cubed melon and torn pieces of prosciutto with a drizzle of olive oil.  I checked the fridge and found that we had a head of red cabbage.  The only ingredients we were missing were  fresh made mint infused cheese.  I suggested we substitute chopped mint, which we had and Suzette suggested we use the crumbled feta we had bought last week at Costco.  So we decided to try to create the dish.

I cut a small head of red cabbage in half  and sectioned it into four pieces that Suzette chopped it finely in the Cuisinart and then sautéed in a skillet with olive oil and a bit of white pepper, red wine vinegar, sugar, and salt to give the cabbage the sweet and sour flavor Suzette prefers and then turned off the heat so the cabbage was lightly braised.

While Suzette was preparing the cabbage I sliced and diced 1/3 of a cantaloupe melon into 1 x 2 inch pieces and finely minced ¼ cup of fresh mint.

Suzette fetched the feta from the garage and then arranged the salad by spooning a pile of red cabbage in the bottom of a pasta bowl, then adding about 1 cup of melon cubes, then garnishing the top of the melon cubes with pieces of prosciutto ham and finally sprinkling the pile of ingredients with feta crumbles and minced mint.

Suzette thought the combination of the juice from the melon and the olive oil from the braised cabbage was enough of a dressing and wanted the individual ingredient’s flavors to predominate, which they dis.  The result was a little austere for me.  I would have added more cheese, but I tend to over sauce things and Suzette wanted the salad to be an expression of the sweet seasonal flavor of melon and freshness of  mint.

We both liked the salad.

After dinner I was still hungry so I made three small sandwiches of pate and onion on cocktail bread squares with a slice of cucumber.  The pate was delicious and had been made by the staff at the Greenhouse bistro with leftover fresh cow’s liver donated for the big food event last week, so very fresh.  Then I ate three ribs.

Suzette ate a bowl of ice cream for dessert.

We went to bed at 9:00, happy to have created a lovely, interesting new salad that will soon be on the menu at the Greenhouse Bistro.  Suzette will make fresh mint flavored cheese for the salad instead of using crumbled feta cheese, so the salad will be still fresher and lighter tasting.

Bon Appetit

June 24, 2018 Brunch – BBQ Spareribs, steamed sugar snap peas , and Cole slaw. Dinner- Turkey Soup

June 24, 2018 Brunch – BBQ Spareribs, steamed sugar snap peas , and Cole slaw. Dinner- Turkey Soup

I watched soccer and then the news programs.  England gave Panama a drubbing but Senegal and Japan played an exciting 2-2 draw.  We brushed two racks of ribs with BBQ sauce, covered them with aluminum foil and them into the oven at 8:15 at 350 degrees.  We brushed more sauce onto them at 10:00 and uncovered them and cooked them until 10:45.

At 9:00 we went to the garden and picked about 24 sugar snap peas growing in our garden.  We also made Cole slaw with ½ of the head of green cabbage we bought at Sprouts on Saturday.  I peeled a carrot and Suzette suggested adding an apple and raisins.  Suzette made the Cole slaw in the Cuisinart in just a couple of minutes by pushing the ingredients through the shredder attachment.  She then made a dressing by mixing port vinegar with sugar and adding a bit of mayonnaise and mixed it into the Cole slaw, which gave it a slightly sweet and bitter taste.  Suzette steamed the sugar snap peas in the microwave with a bit of water covered with Saran and I cut the ribs and we plated a plate with ribs, peas, and Cole slaw and we each grabbed a beer and took our plate to the table in the garden and enjoyed a BBQ rib dinner.

At 4:30 we decided to cook turkey chowder and boil the PPI turkey bones to make a stock.  The chowder included Onion, celery, corn kernels, diced potatoes, turkey, cooked in turkey broth to which about a dozen fresh sliced sage leaves and some milk was added.  We purchased six ears of corn for $1.00 yesterday at Sprouts.

The we made turkey salad in the Cuisinart with turkey, four hard boiled, an apple, celery, and onion mixed with a fresh tarragon, white wine vinegar and mayonnaise and crema dressing.

After an hour the turkey chowder cooked long enough for the flavors of its ingredients to blend and we ate bowls of soup for dinner as we watched 60 Minutes.

After dinner we each ate a bowl of vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

Then I pitted four cups of cherries I had bought at Sprouts on Saturday for $1.98/ lb. and drizzled them with cognac and Grand Marnier and put them into the fridge to marinate in the liquor over night.  Tomorrow I will make Clafoutis.

We often spent Sunday’s cooking as we did today, especially if we have cooked or purchased ingredients for dishes such as the turkey and turkey broth and cherries.

Bon Appetit

June 23, 2018 Lunch – Turkey Sandwich. Dinner – The Center for Ageless Living’s Annual food Event

June 23, 2018 Lunch – Turkey Sandwich. Dinner – The Center for Ageless Living’s Annual food Event

I watched Soccer, then helped Suzette dig up the garlic in the garden, then made breakfast of yogurt, milk, blueberries, and granola.

When the Sweden v. Germany ended in dramatic fashion, we drove to the new Sprouts on Coors and I bought bacon, dark chocolate covered almonds, cherries, corn, a loaf of Danish style rye cocktail loaf, and asparagus.

Then we went home and I watched the next game which I think was Mexico v. South Korea.  After the games we ate lunch.  Suzette fetched the cantaloupe I had bought at El Super last Wednesday and I skinned and cut ¼ of it into chunks and opened one of the two containers of prosciutto Suzette bought at Costco yesterday.  Suzette tore thin pieces of the prosciutto and lay them on the pieces of melon.  I also toasted a piece of Komissarbrod, spread basil mayo on it, added a slice of cheese and finally slices of turkey.  We each drank a beer with lunch.  The cantaloupe was surprisingly sweet, although not as sweet as the Santa Claus melon we purchased last week.  The sweet melon and salty prosciutto made for a great combination of flavors.  After Suzette lay down I made two Danish open faced sandwiches, one with mayo and two slices of Roma Tomato and the other with sour cream and a piece of pickled herring on slices of cocktail bread.

After the game at 3:00 I lay down and napped for 1 ½ hours until 4:30, when I showered and dressed.  At 5:40 I drove to the Center.

This was Suzette’s annual fund raiser for SC, Inc.  the non-profit she owns that provides fresh produce and herbs to house bound elders.  The theme this year was “It’s a Really big Dill” featuring dill in most of the five or six courses.  The meal is very unique because it is a  gourmet menu made with local organic ingredients and wines produced within 100 miles of the Center.  When I arrived I tasted the beef and liver meatballs with the dill tzatziki sauce.  They were delicious.  Then I walked to my assigned station under the gazebo were there was a case of Gruet Brut chilled in a ice chest and a table filled with 100 champagne glasses. Here is a picture.

                                           The chefs cooking the meal in the kitchen

I poured  Champagne until 7:20 when every one had eaten their meatball appetizer and were seated under the tent by the stage.  I then went through the line and filled my plate with four more meatballs garnished with the delicious tzatziki dill sauce and home made whole wheat crackers with a dab of dill cheese spread that was also delicious and joined Etienne, La  Marie, and Willy at a table for four.  The tent was filled with about 100 people.  We fetched a glass of the Pasando Tiempo Vineyard Rose of Zinfandel, which tasted much heavier and syrupy than what I recalled drinking at the vineyard.  It was interesting discussing each of the wines with Etienne, who has been a wine maker for over 35 years and could critiques each wines flaws.  As it turned out the Corrales Winery Riesling and Pasando Tiempo Chardonnay were the best of the lot.

We then went through the serving line and got our the main course, which included a fresh salad with a buttermilk dill dressing, a beet, carrot, and Creme fraiche soup, a sautéed trout filet dusted with blue corn meal and served with a dill sauce, which I missed and a wonderful lasagna made with fresh ingredients from the Center’s garden.  I loved everything and so did everyone at the table.  Slices of homemade bread made with Valencia Mill’s flour were also served with dill infused butter, which Willy really enjoyed.

                                             Willy, Etienne and the buffet line

             

La Maya and Willy

My dinner

After dinner sopapillas made with Valencia Mills’ sopapilla mix were served with lavender infused honey for dessert.  As far as I could tell everyone liked everything and the dinner was  a great success.  Suzette read a funny vegetable punned poem that made everyone laugh and the staff was introduced and the Kilt Check beer and Valencia Mills folks spoke about their businesses.  I left around 9:30 and arrived home a bit after 10:00 we watched a few minutes of a Saturday Night Live re-run and then went to bed.

I can not explain how wonderful a gourmet meal made with all local ingredients is.  You feel extremely satisfied but do not feel the normal feeling of eating food with preservatives.  I guess the best way to describe the food is “clean”.

Bon Appetit

June 22, 2018 Lunch – PPI Turkey Divan. Dinner – Vintage Albuquerque

June 22, 2018 Lunch – PPI Turkey Divan. Dinner – Vintage Albuquerque

What a food and wine day!

It started simply with granola, yogurt, milk, and blueberries.

Then for lunch I de-stemmed a handful of chard leaves and lay them in a pasta bowl and lay the PPI Turkey Divan on top and poured about ¼ cup of Turkey stock on top of the turkey, covered the bowl with Saran and heated it in the microwave twice because I became busy with a transaction.

When I returned to the meal it had boiled twice and become a rich liquified stew of mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, chard, and asparagus tips.  It was a really delicious hot stew.

At 4:00 Suzette returned home and we drove to the Balloon Museum at 5:00 for Vintage Albuquerque.  We love this event because it features food booths serving interesting dishes by most of Albuquerque’s best restaurants and wines from many good producers like Banfi and Gruet, as well as importers.  This year there was an abundance of good Italian wines from regions other than Tuscany, such as Campania, Puglia, and Sicily made from grape varieties I had not ever tasted, such as Aglianico.   What fun.

We roamed the food tables and wine tables for 1 ½ hours until we were exhausted and full of wine and food.  My favorite food dish was a pile of deliciously tender pulled pork on a bed of creamy whipped potato and celeriac by Savor, a local caterer.  They are doing pop up meals at Gruet, so I hope to sample more of their food in the near future.

There were lots of good runner ups.  The boys at Seasons and Savoy offered seared Aji with wasabi and shredded cabbage tacos that were delicious and a decadently rich and tenderly cooked pork rib on a bed of marinated lettuce salad topped with a housemade BBQ sauce.  Each restaurant offered food within it specialty area, Blue Azul, a Mexican Restaurant served chicken mole in a crisp taco shell, for example. Zacatecas served small glasses of spicy watermelon soup. Here is Suzette checking out the watermelon soup.

Vintage Albuquerque is a multi-day event, but we only go to the to the trade tasting starting at 5:00 on Friday because it is free and Suzette can taste and talk to the wine importers about prices, which is its purpose.

Then at 6:00 the doors open to the flood of public foodies and frenzy of gastronomy ensues.

We saw lots of old friends like Suzette’s friend Linda and Anthony, who has run the Quarters Wine store at Wyoming and Montgomery for over 20 years.

We said hello to Stephanie and Walt, who publish Edible Santa Fe and of course Byra and a couple of the other serious winos.

My favorite wine table was Banfi, with something for every one from Oregon Chinen Blanc priced at less than $10.00 per bottle that Suzette loved to its stellar flagship Banfi 2013 Brunello di Montalcino that is ranked above 90 points by all and sells for $60.00 and up that I loved.

My favorite new wine was an Italian pink prosecco, Lunetta Rose, that was dry and hinted of its red grape origins at the same time.  Here is a picture of it.

At 7:00 I drank 20 oz. of cold water to sober up enough to drive home.

At 7:15 we returned home and were in bed by 8:30 to sleep off our wine and food stupor.  I awakened at 2:15 a.m. refreshed.  The food and wine must have been good, which is amazing because the temperature was over 100 degrees on the field where the tents were set up.

Bon Appetit

June 21, 2018 Lunch – Chile Rellenos At Padilla’s. Dinner – Teriyaki Salmon Grilled on a cedar plank with sautéed string beans, mushrooms, garlic, and shallot and rice

June 21, 2018 Lunch – Chile Rellenos At Padilla’s. Dinner – Teriyaki Salmon Grilled on a cedar plank with sautéed string beans, mushrooms, garlic,  and shallot and rice

Yogurt, granola, milk, blueberries and mango for breakfast.

At 9:00 I got back on my bike and rode about 3 miles around the duck ponds and to Marquez.

I screwed up a stock trade, making $21.00 intend of $1,200.00 by buying my position back before the market turned sharply downward.

Then Peter Eller came by for lunch and a review of a contract.

We drove to Padilla’s.  Peter ordered beef enchiladas with rice and beans and a fried egg on top.  I ordered chili rellenos with beans and quelitas (spinach and beans).

I loved my dish and ate the whole plate of food, perhaps because I had ridden and not taken vitamins today.  Peter liked his enchiladas but true to form, only ate ½, taking the rest home in a box.  Padilla’s serves real home style New Mexican food and wonderful sopapillas.

I rested a bit until 4:00 when I made a teriyaki marinade by heating ¼ cup each of soy, Aji Mirin, and sake with ¾ T. of sugar and when the mixture cooled a bit put the marinade and the 1.2 lb. piece of salmon I bought at Sprouts yesterday in a 1 gallon freezer bag in the fridge.

 When Suzette arrive around 5:30 she soaked a cedar plank in water.

Willy’s plane arrived at 6:11 and I drove to the airport to pick him up.  When we returned home I offered to make a vegetable dish with string beans, sliced mushrooms, garlic and shallot and we decided to heat the PPI rice from my lunch at East Ocean several days ago.

Suzette snapped the green beans I had bought at Sprouts on Wednesday while I sliced four large portobello mushrooms, a shallot, and a small head of garlic.

Suzette put the marinated salmon filet on the soaked board on the grill and I sautéed the vegetables in butter and a bit of olive oil in a large skillet and then covered the skillet to steam the green beans.  I did not put any salt or herb on the vegetables, but did douse them with 1 ½ T. of Amontillado sherry to make a light sauce and help create some steam.

When Suzette brought in the grilled salmon in about fifteen minutes, we heated the rice in the microwave and were ready to eat.  We decided to drink water with the meal.  Suzette divided the salmon into 1/3s; Willy took the well done 1/3, suzette took the medium done 1/3, and I took the less well done 1/3 and we each spooned vegetables and Willy and I spooned some rice on our plates.  Here is a photo of my plate.

I thought two things about this meal.  I usually marinate salmon in teriyaki sauce for two days and it becomes saturated with the teriyaki flavor but today I only marinated the salmon for a bit over two hours and I liked the lighter less salty teriyaki flavor that allowed the flavor of the salmon to shine through.

The other thing I noticed is a rather California Cuisine thing.  Not seasoning the vegetables with salt allowed for better integration of flavors between the Vegetables and the salt in the soy in the teriyaki marinade when eaten together, as we each did.  It also allowed the vegetables and the salmon to express their unique flavors, which I liked a lot.

“Less is more”, as Suzette often says.  Tonight’s meal was a great example of that.

After dinner Suzette made dessert.  She fetched the PPI apricot cobbler and Blue Bell vanilla ice cream from the garage,  warmed the cobbler in the microwave, divided it into thirds and placed a piece on each of three small plates.  We each scooped ice cream onto the cobbler in each of our plates  to let the ice cream melt a bit to make a cream sauce and enjoyed a lovely dessert.

I later drank a glass of Rompope mixed with cognac and went to bed at 9:00 and slept soundly until 2:15.



As I finish this blog a bit after 3:00 a.m. I shall return to bed until 6:00 when World Cup soccer matches begin being televised.

Bon Appetit

June 20, 2018. Lunch – PPI Fried tofu, mixed meats, and mixed Vegetables. Dinner – Turkey Divan.

June 20, 2018. Lunch – PPI Fried tofu, mixed meats, and mixed Vegetables. Dinner – Turkey Divan.

This was a huge food day.

I ate four meals.

For breakfast I fried two pieces of bacon until crisp and then a slice of onion with two over easy eggs and toasted and buttered a small piece of whole wheat bread and spread peach butter on it.

At 12:30 I heated the PPIs from last night’s agglomeration of fried tofu, mixed Vegetables an three meats.i t was very filling but about fifteen minutes after I finished it I ate the last wedge of Santa Claus melon with a scoop of chunky peanut butter in the cavity.

Then at 5:15 I toasted two pieces of Kommisarbrod. I spread butter on one and laid slices of Jarlsberg cheese on it.  I spread sour cream on the other and lay slices of Vidalia onion and pieces of pickled herring and drank water with them as I watched the business news.

I meditated for about an hour and returned home a few minutes after 7:00.

Suzette wanted to recreate our turkey dinner in one bowl.  She layered mashed potatoes, asparagus with bread points, gravy, and turkey and pieces of chard from the garden  in bowls and heated them in the microwave to heat the dish and cook the chard.  Then suzettte added a spoonful of the PPI apricot /cherry compote she made for the turkey dinner.

My mother used to make a similar casserole with broccoli instead of chard and made a mornay sauce by adding grated cheese to a cream sauce or gravy and then baking it in the oven.  Mother called the dish turkey divan.  For lack of a better name I call the dish Suzette constructed tonight by that name because it is so similar.

I went to the garage and fetched a bottle of 2016 Gruner  Vetliner (Trader Joe’s $6.99) and poured each of us a glass.

We took our plates and glasses to the garden and ate all fresco.  Even at 8:20 it was fully light due to our proximity to the summer solstice tomorrow.

Bon Appetit

June 19, 2018 Lunch East Ocean Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables Dinner – PPI Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables Sautéed with PPI Halibut, salmon and Pork Rib meat

June 19, 2018 Lunch East Ocean  Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables Dinner – PPI Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables Sautéed with PPI Halibut, salmon and Pork Rib meat

I ate the usual yogurt, milk, granola, and blueberries, plus banana slices and ½ cubed mango for breakfast so I was not hungry until 1:00.

I drove to East Ocean and ordered my new usual lunch; Deep Fried tofu with mixed vegetables and rice.  I only ate 1/3 of the dinner platter portion and boxed the rest and brought it home.

We had no grand menu plan like last night, so we decided to sauté the PPI  Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables  with small pieces of PPI Halibut, salmon and Pork Rib meat we saved from prior meals.

I added some water to the sauce in the vegetables and then some Amontillado sherry to keep the sauce from drying out.

 We plated the result.  It looked like a mess but was a very protein rich dish that was very satisfying. Neither of us could finish our dinner, so here is a picture of what was left.

We poured the last glass of each of the 2014 Benton Lane Rose of Pinot Noir and Ti Point Marlborough, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

After dinner I tried the ruined Nuestro  Rompope we bought in San Miguel de Allende.  It tasted weird but was still marginally drinkable.

We still have no ice but have ordered the part that will hopefully fix the refrigerator, which is scheduled for delivery tomorrow.  It is amazing how one can become attached to the convenience of ice on demand from one’s fridge.

Bon Appetit