June 10, 2018 Steak, avocado, cheese, and onion Omelet with Tomato Slices. Lunch – Liverwurst Sandwich. Dinner Party – Grilled Rack of Lamb and Asparagus with Bobby Flay Mint Sauce and Roasted Potatoes.

June 10, 2018  Steak, avocado, cheese, and onion Omelet with Tomato Slices. Lunch – Liverwurst Sandwich. Dinner Party – Grilled Rack of Lamb and Asparagus with Bobby Flay Mint Sauce and Roasted Potatoes.

We made an omelet today with some of the PPI steak, 2 or 3 oz. of red onion, a diced avocado, and slices of Swiss cheese. I sliced a vine ripened tomato to garnish each plate and to accompany the omelet.

I drank camomile tea with the juice of ½ lime and Suzette drank coffee.


We worked in the yard and gardens after breakfast.  Mario and his girl friend came and I supervised as they trimmed bushes in the front and side yard.  Then I helped Suzette spread manure on the
freshly planted bed and water it in.



We fixed liverwurst sandwiches for lunch, mine on a toasted slice of Rye bread and Suzette’s without bread.  I think has been a year since she has eaten a piece of bread or pasta.

We rested and showered and began getting ready for dinner at 3:00.

I diced potatoes and Suzette roasted them.  Suzette picked mint for the Bobby Flay Sauce and the potatoes.  I stripped about ½ cup of leaves for the sauce and then chopped the rest to toss with the roasted potatoes.

Here is the Bobby Flay Mint Sauce.  We used chili instead of Serrano chili.

I then cleaned the Gravad Lax and sliced 20 slices for the appetizer.  Suzette and I then sliced chunks of Santa Claus melon and Suzette stuck toothpicks into a slice of Gravad Lax on a piece of melon.  The Santa Claus melon Is a lovely white and exceedingly sweet.  Here is a picture of the tray of
appetizers.  I also chilled a bottle of 2012 Gruet Blanc de Blanc to drink with the apps.

I chilled a Bruner Vetliner ($6.99 at Trader Joe’s) and an Albrecht Alsace Pinot Blanc ($14.99 less 20% at Total Wine).

I checked the wine fridge and located a 2000 Domaine Du Galet Pape from Chateauneuf Du Pape and a 2009 Chateau Nerthe.

Suzette put the potatoes in the oven at 5:00 and set the table in the garden.

We watched the news until 6:00 and then Suzette started prepping the asparagus and racks of lamb. Suzette salted and peppered the lamb and  destemmed the asparagus and shuck the stalks in a gallon freezer bag with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper and we took the Biscochito Cake out of the box.  Here is a photo of it.

At 6:30 Macon arrived with a 9x9 cake pan filled with a light apricot mousse made with fresh apricots, whipped cream, whipped egg whites and a bit of sugar garnished with a crumble crust on
top.  Here is a picture.

Charlie arrived shortly after and a bit later Penne and Armin arrived with a bucket filled with elderflower boughs, a bottle of elderberry lemonade and a bottle of elderberry tonic, a lovely seasonal gift, plus a half gallon of Blue Bell ice cream.

Charlie, Penny and I were all raised in Texas, so we love Blue Bell ice cream, especially since it only recently came back into our market due to a listeria share.

Suzette filled the wine bucket with ice and put a bottle of 2012 Gruet
Blanc de Blanc and removed the roasted potatoes from the oven and tossed them with salt and chopped fresh mint.

We have cables tracing through our kitchen connected to the blowers in the basement, so we decided to serve the meal outside.  Suzette led everyone to the table in the garden with the appetizer tray in her hand.  I took the mint sauce and bottles of red wine out and opened and poured glasses of champagne and we nibbled on apps.

Suzette then started the new grill.  She turned off the central burner and put the meat and asparagus in the middle, which kept them from burning, letting the cook more slowly but more uniformly.

We talked, Frank, and ate apps.  Charlie told an amazing conspiracy story involving Blue Bell in Texas, started by someone during the crazy suggestion that the U.S. was going to take Texans guns away from them when talk started of Texas seceding.  The story linked Blue Bell to the conspiracy because one of its trucks was photographed in a line of reserve trucks during maneuvers.  The link was that Blue Bell’s refrigerated trucks were engaged to ferry dead bodies to the morgue, as U.S. reservists killed people who resisted  giving up their guns.  It was all just a crazy Conspiracy theory.  We all laughed and felt great that I had decided to move to New Mexico thirty- five years ago, before all the right wing craziness throttled into high gear.

When the lamb and asparagus were cooked Suzette plated each of six Francona wagon wheel plates with a couple of lamb riblets, some grilled asparagus and some roasted potatoes and I poured glasses of 2000 Chateau de Galet Pape.

Talk traveled back and forth from Mexican folk art to art, to politics, to Los Poblanos new restaurant, and on and on.

After we finished and cleared the plates Suzette filled dessert plates with a slice of biscochito cake, a square of Mecan’s apricot cold mousse, and a scoop of Blue Bell ice cream.  We congratulated Mecan and Suzette’s baker for their superb efforts.  I asked if anyone wanted a dessert wine and folks voted against Sauternes because of its sweetness, so I opened the bottle of Albrecht Pinot Blanc I had
chilled and poured it.

By 9:30 we started to feel like ending the meal.  After a short detour to the dining room for Mecan to translate the inscription on the back of a Huichol thread painting and to show Armin several transcendental paintings, we said goodnight.

Bon Appetit