Today was Suzette’s Birthday. She wanted to go to the polo match in a Santa Fe. We wanted to take a picnic lunch.
We went to our two favorite fig trees and picked figs. Then Suzette made cris crosses cut into the figs and stuffed them with goat cheese. We packed the ice chest with containers of olives, cucumber sticks, the PPI slices of bread from our dinner last night at Amore. Suzette made a Caprese salad with the PPI fresh mozzarella from our dinner at Amore last night, fresh tomato slices from tomatoes grown in her garden in Los Lunas, and fresh basil leaves from our garden, plus the marinated asparagus and the stuffed fresh figs. We put in the egg salad, the chilled bottle of Sauvage, and two bottles of beer and left for a Santa Fe at 9:00..
We arrived at the Hipico Center at 10:00 and did not see anyone, so we called and were informed that the match would begin at 11:00.
We decided to drive to Stephen’s where Suzette found a watercolor by Ann K. of Indians at Taos Pueblo Church. Suzette also bought a cute menorah in the shape of a box of crayons.
Then we returned to the Hipico a few minutes after 11:00 and drove to the awninged area at the edge of the parking lot at the end of the polo field where there was a picnic table and about ten folks watching.
Most folks were sitting on portable chairs near the fence, except for Warren and his wife Anouck, who were sitting on the field side of the picnic table. We said hello to Warren and Anouilh and asked if anyone had taken the far side of the table. They said, “No”, so that is where we sat and used the picnic table for our picnic. We laid out our lunch items and poured glasses of Gruet Rose’ Sauvage champagne and ate a delicious meal of egg salad, Caprese salad, olives, asparagus, cucumber sticks, and finally goat cheese stuffed fresh figs. Suzette is still not eating bread, but I spread egg salad on the three PPI slices of fresh bread served with the stuffed mozzarella last night at Amore to make open faced sandwiches.
The polo field was about ½ mile long so we were rather detached from the play and there was a lively banter among the watchers as they came to know each other.
I got a good laugh from several of the more serious viewers who had chairs at the edge of the field a few feet in front of us, when at the end of the match, one of the asked me, “Did you enjoy the Match? and I replied, “It was very exciting.” Watching 8 riders hit and chase an almost invisible small white ball ¼ to ½ mile away, was a bit like watching paint dry and they good natured lay knew it. But the day was sunny and there was a brisk breeze that kept most of the flies away from the food, so it was near perfect weather for a picnic with billowing clouds all around the polo grounds.
We got to know Anouk and Warren a bit and when he said he was a structural engineer specializing in building with reinforced concrete, we became very interested in talking to him about the restoration of our concrete basement floor that has a bloom of crystallized salts from being submerged in water for days, when our hot water heater burst.
Amazingly, I think he mentioned the name Fila, which is probably the largest surface treatment solutions company in the world. We instantly got excited because we were hosted by Fila at the Las Vegas Surface Show several years ago thanks to our friend Mike Livingston. We saw a strategy for dealing with the problem and were thankful to Warren.
Everyone had left by this time, probably to take care of their horses. I gave Warren my card and we said goodbye and drove back to Santa Fe. Suzette was interested in visiting the ZoZo Fest, which is an annual event celebrating Zozobra. Zozobra is a large figure about sixty feet tall devised by Will Shuster 94 years ago and sponsored by the Santa Fe Kiwanis which is set afire in a exotic ritual during Santa Fe’s Fiesta to dispel gloom. It was a quirky Anglo celebration that was added to the Santa Fe Fiesta, which is a traditional Spanish celebration. We found the fest location in a large empty space in the Santa Fe Place Mall, next to Appleby’s. It was filled with mostly kids, but we soon found the art donated to the fest that was on sale and Suzette fell in love with a scorched wooden plaque with the image of Zozobra carved into it and I was charmed by a painted retablo of Zozobra Helping San Pasquale make tamales. I bought both of them.
Here is Suzette standing in front of Zozobra’s Head. Zozobra is usually set afire on the Friday night of Santa Fe Fiesta weekend, which will be on August 31 this year.
While we were at the Fest, the King and Queen of Santa Fe Fiesta and their procession of attendants decked out in their traditional 17th Century garb made a procession through the Fest area, for one of
those wonderful moments when cultures and history mix so easily in Santa Fe.
After our fest visit we drove home and I took a nap until 4:30, when Billy called and reported on his and Eliane’s hiking trip to Yosemite.
I got up and watched the news and then some of the coverage of the death of a John McCain. At 7:00 we decided to make dinner. Suzette had thawed out a rib steak. We decided to make a vegetable medley to go with the steak. I sliced about 1/3 lb. of white mushrooms and peeled 9 cipolini onions and a clove of garlic and a sweet pepper. Suzette fetched the PPI sugar snap peas and bag of diced purple potatoes from the fridge and started sautéing the cipolini onions and sweet pepper in a large skillet in butter and olive oil.
I went to the garden and picked seven or eight sprigs of thyme, a sprig it tarragon and five or six chive stalks, which I de-stemmed and chopped. Suzette started sautéing the purple potatoes in another skillet in heated butter.
I then took over at the stove while she grilled the rib steak.
In about fifteen minutes everything was ready. I had added sherry to the vegetable medley but forgot to add the herbs, so I fetched the Béarnaise sauce from the fridge to flavor the steak.
I selected a bottle of 2015 Trader Joe’s Growers’ Select Petite Sirah ($7.99) and opened it. When we first tasted it, we did not like it. Suzette said, “It is overproduced.” I thought it had an overwhelming fruitiness of dark berry flavors, but as we drank it with the meal it’s flavor softened and in about 45 minutes, it was silky smooth and very drinkable while still retaining its fruitiness. We liked it.
I kept turning the potatoes until most sides of each piece was crisped, which made them very delicious. The steak was heavily marbled and cooked the rare and then covered to allow it to cook to medium rare, so it was also wonderful. We did not eat all of the steak, so we will probably make a steak and potato omelet for breakfast tomorrow.
We watched Bill Maher’s August 24 show and went to bed at 10:00 after a full day of activity.
Bon Appetit
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