August 31, 2018 Lunch - Padilla’s. Dinner – Gazpacho and Shrimp and Chile Relleno

August 31, 2018 Lunch - Padilla’s. Dinner – Gazpacho and Shrimp  and Chile Relleno

I started the day with a bowl of Mary Ann’s fruit salad, granola, milk, and yogurt.

I finished the draft of the water pleading and helped Aaron file a pleading by about 1:00, at which time we drove to Padilla’s for lunch.  There was still a line of people waiting when we arrived.  I am convinced that Padilla’s is one of those special New Mexican restaurants with a multi-generational following.  It looked like Friday is “Take your Parent to Lunch Day”.  I think of La Salita and Mary and Tito’s in the same way.  The one big difference is that the value formula at Padilla’s is far better.  I offer today’s meal as an example.  I ordered my usual, which is the Chile Relleno Plate that contains two Chile Relleno battered in the traditional flour, milk, and egg and deep fried served with two side dishes and two sopapillas for $8.85.

Padilla’s is less expensive than both La Salita or Mary and Tito’s for the same amount of food.

Also I like the traditional style of Relleno at Padilla’s better than the Relleno coated with a corn meal batter at La Salita.

Aaron ordered tacos in a crisp shell and enjoyed them.  Tacos seem to me to be a kind of kid friendly food.  It was Willy’s favorite meal when he was young and I suspect it was for everyone raised in the Southwest.  So another multi-generational aspect of Padilla’s menu.

The hot sopapillas are so good and you get two that I only ate I Chile Relleno and ½ of the beans and took the other ½ of my meal home in a plastic food service box.

Which brings us to dinner.  I worked until 5:15 on another water matter when Suzette arrived.  We had planned to go to Gruet to pick up a case of wine I had bought.  Once we confirmed that the Gruet Tasting Room stayed open until 9:00, we relaxed and thought about eating dinner before driving to Gruet.

We had put the 3 lb. of chicken thighs and leg quarter into the crockpot with water and about ¼ lb. of de-husked tamarind pods at breakfast before Suzette went to work.

The tamarind pods with their husks still on

When Aaron arrived at 11:30 I added 1 can of coconut milk, 1 ½ onion chopped, 2 T. of Madras curry powder, 1 Granny Smith apple diced, and a handful of raisins.

When Suzette came home we agreed to sauté some of the pumpkin she brought from her garden in Los Lunas with mushrooms and serve with a steak for dinner tomorrow evening and to put some chunks of pumpkin into the chicken curry, instead of the usual sweet potato and serve it on Sunday evening.

So we agreed that Suzette would eat the PPI Chile Relleno from my lunch for her dinner tonight and I would eat the PPI Gazpacho with croutons and diced avocado with boiled shrimp from Tuesday’s girl club BD dinner for my dinner.  I guess this is a tandem dinner, like tandem group play among kindergarteners.

We both enjoyed our separate dinners and then I boned and diced the chicken in the crockpot that was falling off the bone while Suzette peeled and diced ¼ of the pumpkin and added the pumpkin pieces to the crock pot.  Since the crockpot was quite full and still has a large quantity of liquid, we decided to let it continue to cook, but uncovered while we went to Gruet.

So after the PBS news at 7:00 we drove to Gruet.  The tasting room was full when we arrived, with as it soon became apparent, Friday evening happy hour revelers.

Gruet has changed its tasting menu and currently offers a daily selection of available wines.  Today’s tasting included tastes (about 1 ½ oz. each) of Sauvage Blanc, the newly released 2015 Reserve Blanc de Noir, the always dependable Extended Tirade Rose, a still Chardonnay, and the 2015 still Cabernet Sauvignon.  As members of the wine club you get a free tasting every month, so we more than willingly agreed to try the tasting menu.

We prefer the Pinot Noir grape to the Chardonnay grape as a general rule and that is why I had ordered another case of champagne during the August rose’ special at a 40% discount being 20% off plus a wine club member’s usual 25% case discount.  I had bought 4 bottles of Rose Sauvage, which is 100% Pinot Noir, and 8 bottles of Brut Rose’ that is about 90% Pinot Noir.  The $216 vineyard total cost for the case was reduced from $129.00 to $10.75 per bottle with the two discounts (the Sauvage Rose’ is usually $20.00 and the Brut Rose’ is usually $17.00).

Tonight our tastes were I bit divergent.  Suzette liked the Sauvage and I did not.  I liked the freshness and character of the 2015 Blanc de Noir and Suzette did not.  But then they converged and we both liked the Extended Tirage Rose’ and still Pinot Noir and did not finish our tastes of Cabernet Sauvignon.  When the attendant carried our case of champagne to the car at 8:45 we were the last guests in the Tasting Room.  What a pleasant evening.

When we got home we had to make room for the crockpot in the garage, so we emptied the last of the fruit salad from its big bowl into a plastic storage container and removed the plastic covered platter of assorted cheese cake slices from the fridge, which created enough space for the crockpot.

We finished our evening by eating the last of the cheese cake slices, me with green tea and Suzette with a sip of cognac.

At 10:00 we fell into bed.

Bon Appetit