September 30, 2019 Lunch – Capo’s Restaurant. Dinner – Sautéed Filet Mignon with Cottage Fries, onions, mushrooms and sautéed Shishito peppers

September 30, 2019 Lunch – Capo’s Restaurant. Dinner – Sautéed Filet Mignon with Cottage Fries, onions, mushrooms and sautéed Shishito peppers

What a busy day with several work and food surprises.

 I was awakened by Buddy at 7:15.  I met with him and we caught up on doings and I completed some corporate work for him that lasted until 9:30 that  caused me to miss my breakfast, my shower, and my bike ride.

I got dressed and grabbed an apple and drove to my podiatry appointment at 10:45.

After the appointment I went to Trader Joe’s and bought, two chocolate bars, Artichokes, a loaf of ciabatta bread, and 15 bottles of wine.

I took those home and then drove to Capo’s to meet Patty, Steve, Bill, Sally, and Matt for a working lunch.  We all ordered the daily special of lasagna and a salad.  It was delicious, as usual and a bargain for $6.99.

I then returned a book to the library and drove to Bill Turner’s office to complete an order in Steve’s case.

I got home after 2:30 and Pat called and wanted to come over to finish the review of his Sales Agreement.  He arrived around 3:00 and we worked on the final revisions until almost 5:30, when Suzette arrived.

I had not made any plan for dinner but after some discussion we decided to use some of the ingredients we had to create a one skillet dinner. We thawed two small filet Mignons. I then peeled and diced a russet potato, an onion, and sliced five or six portobello mushrooms.  Suzette sautéed them in a large skillet and in another skillet sautéed a handful of shishito peppers we bought at the Farmers’ market last week.  I fetched a bottle of 2014 Chateau Rodier from Montaigne-St.. Emillon Appellation Controlle and Suzette fetched the pitcher of Bernaise Sauce.  The smooth red mostly merlot red wine went perfectly with the sautéed steak and vegetables.  We loved our spontaneous elegant dinner.

After dinner we finished the bottle with a few Belgium chocolates as we watched the Antique Roadshow.

Suzette went to bed at 9:00, but I stayed up to watch the Queen’s 90th photo album and drink a bit of Calvados and a couple more chocolates with a couple of cups of chai.

What a fabulous finish to a busy day that started so inauspiciously.

Bon Appetit

September 29, 2019 Lunch – Dungeness crab with Vegetables and Bob’s Special Crab Sauce. Dinner – Teriyaki Salmon with Stir Fried Baby bok Choy and beech Mushrooms and Brown Rice

September 29, 2019 Lunch – Dungeness crab with Vegetables and Bob’s Special Crab Sauce. Dinner – Teriyaki Salmon with Stir Fried Baby bok Choy and beech Mushrooms and Brown Rice

Today’s meals illustrate that if you mess up one dish in a meal it can ruin the entire meal no matter how wonderful the other dishes are.

I toasted a bagel for breakfast and smeared cream cheese on it and garnished it with thin slices of red onion and bits of white fish and drank green tea with it as I watched the Sunday morning shows.

Suzette and I drove to Home Depot and bought 4 cycle fuel and  2 bags of potting soil.

When we returned home we discovered the tiller required 2 cycle fuel, so Suzette went to Lowe’s for that and I started pulling weeds out of one of our four raised beds.

Then we discovered that the mini-tiller did not start.  So, Suzette transplanted herbs from out garden into the two large pots she had bought for Willy’s new apartment deck.

By 1:30 we were tired and hungry, so we stopped working and I rested a bit while Suzette showered.  I made teriyaki sauce by heating 1/3 cup each of soy sauce, Aji Mirin, and sake plus 1 T. of sugar until the sugar melted.  When the teriyaki sauce cooled, suzette placed it and the salmon filet in a gallon freezer bag to marinate in the fridge.

Bob’s Special Crab Sauce.

This is a combination of a French mignonette sauce and an American tartare and cocktail sauce.

I finely minced 1 1/2 T. of shallot and added to it juice of ½ lemon and 1 tsp. of chopped capers and a bit of the caper liquid and let that sit for about ½ hour to let the lemon juice cook the shallot.

While it sat I sliced ½ cucumber, four radishes, a tomato and Suzette boiled three eggs and steamed about fifteen stalks of asparagus..

We arranged two sliced eggs, the steamed asparagus, the sliced radishes, the sliced tomato, ¼ of a large avocado sliced, and the slices of the ½ cucumber on a large platter.

Then i finished the sauce by adding 2/3 cup of prepared mayonnaise, 2 tsp. of horseradish, and 1 T. of catsup and whisked the sauce until smooth. I refrigerated the sauce until the crab was cleaned and the Gruet Rose Sauvage was fetched from the fridge and iced in an ice bucket.

Suzette had thawed the crab in the fridge overnight in a bowl to catch the melting ice water.  I removed the shell covering the body and the innards and washed away everything except the meat, inner shell structure and claws and put it on a tray.

We took everything to the patio table and ate a lovely slow late lunch as we broke off each claw, removed the meat from each and dipped it into the sauce with pieces of vegetable and sipped Sauvage.

Sauvage is one of my favorite Gruet produces because it has the greatest taste of Pinot Noir and the greatest cleanest of any wines because there is no second dosage of sugar added.  It is just the fermented grapes, as far as I know. Therefore, it does not intrude its flavor very far into the taste of the meal.  For something like crab or oysters that had a very mild flavor that is important for me.



Suzette rested after lunch and I watched TV.

Willy called a said he would join us for dinner and asked me to prepare brown rice.  I was a bit lazy and decided to use the PPI Miso Soup as a base to give the rice some flavor and not need to dirty another pot, so I added 3 cups of water to the soup and heated it and added a cup of rice and cooked it 45 minutes.  Something was wrong, because there was still lots of liquid at the end of 45 minutes.  Suzette wanted to grill the salmon. Willy suggested pouring off part of the liquid, which I did.

The result was a thick rice porridge, like a Chinese or Japanese breakfast, which was delicious but not what we wanted.

Suzette over-cooked the salmon a bit and it was raw in the center.

Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy

I separated the thick white stalks from the green leaves and cut all into bite sized pieces on five large Baby Bok Choy.  I then cut the ends off a package full of white beech Mushrooms and put them in the white heavy ingredients bowl.  Then I diced about 1 ½ T. of fresh ginger root and three cloves of garlic.

I sautéed the heavy white parts, ginger, garlic, and mushrooms and then added the tender leaves with some Chinese cooking wine and covered the wok to steam them.  They became very soft.

So we ended up with a rather disappointing meal of over and undercooked salmon, stir fried Baby Bok choy, and Japanese or Cinese rice porridge.

I putout the Japanese pickled vegetables and we served a bottle of Gruet Chenin blanc thar was lovely, and lifted our spirits somewhat, but could not fix what was beyond fixing, a bad meal.

Bon Appetit

September 28, 2019 Lunch -Vietnam 2000. Dinner – Steamed Clams with Asparagus and Pasta Primavera

September 28, 2019 Lunch -Vietnam 2000.  Dinner – Steamed Clams with Asparagus and Pasta Primavera

I awakened at 6:30 when Suzette was already up and getting ready to orchestrate a big wedding at the Center.

She left around 8:00 and at 9:00 I rode to Rio Bravo and back.

I watched a Soccer match and then TCU win its game against Kansas.  Willy came over and he drove us to Vietnam 2000 for lunch. We each ordered a No. 21.  He ordered a Dr.Pepper and I ordered a Vietnamese iced coffee.  We both ate most of our bowls of lettuce, cucumber strips, Mung bean sprouts, cilantro, oriental basil, topped with warm steamed rice vermicelli, and garnished with two fried egg rolls and a pile of grilled marinated pork.

After lunch we drove to Sprouts, where we purchased 1.3 lb. of Atlantic fresh Farm raised salmon, a lb. of sea scallops, blueberries, eggs, fresh turmeric root, and asparagus.

We then drove home and I gave Willy a cucumber and two lemons and said goodbye.  I lay down and watched TV until Suzette arrived around 6:00.

We rested until about 7:00 and then started dinner with glasses of the PPI Cotes de Provence.

 We decided to make it as simply as possible.

I went to the basement and found a bottle of 2005 Satis Pinot Grigio that I bought at Kokoman’s in 2011 for $12.99.  It turned out to be a very nice bottle of wine, rich in flavor, slightly oxidized,  bordering on sherry, but still full of character and very drinkable.

Suzette made a poaching medium of white wine, four cloves of pressed garlic, and water in an enamel casserole.  She then steamed the Manila clams in the covered casserole until they cooked and opened.  We shucked them and she heated the PPI bag of spaghetti from last night and I poured the wine and she lay a pile of clams in pasta bowls, covered the pile with Pasta, finally added more clams and asparagus and some of the poaching medium clam broth.  We had an excellent dinner.  Simply filling and rich in protein from the fresh clams.

I drank a mug of hot clam broth with dinner, one of my favorite drinks.We watched an episode of Death in Paradise and Suzette went to bed at 9:00.  I stayed up until 1:00.

We will have Dungeness crab for brunch tomorrow and salmon for dinner, most likely.

Bon Appetit

September 27, 2019 Lunch - Rose all Day Dinner – Pasta Primavera with Sautéed Monkfish

September 27, 2019 Lunch - Rose all Day   Dinner – Pasta Primavera with Sautéed Monkfish

I did not exercise or eat breakfast today.

We both worked until 10:00 then I got ready and we drove to Santa Fe for the Chile and Wine Festival’s Rose all Day luncheon event that began at noon.

“

There were six food booths and about the same number of wine tables each with two to four wines, all roses.  The best food booth was a St. Louis seafood restaurant that made an amazing deep fried clam roll with a brioche roll and a light tartare sauce.  I thought I was in some New England food heaven.  SPQR  made an interesting dark pasta in a mushroom bolognese sauce using fifteen different mushrooms and mushroom powder.  Redfin Restaurant from L.A.made fried shrimp with a Japanese Aioli sauce. Everything was garnished with micro greens.  Laura Winkler?? Selected four interesting cheese that I loved.

The wines were equally interesting.  Our two favorites were a German
Rose Krupp and a French Rose from Sancerre named Vacheron.  There were only three cases of Vacheron allocated to the US and one of them was served today.

We liked the event and thanked Greg for creating it and told him we would come next year if he repeats it.  Suzette and Greg agreed that music would be nice, so next year there may be music. The event was held outdoors on the patio of the Santa Fe Convention Center.  It was a perfect day weather wise, sunny, light breeze 70 degrees.

At 1:30 we drove to Stephen’s Consignment and bought two tables for Willy’s apartment.  They are a deco design, so we think he will like them.

We drove to Costco and shopped a bit about 4:00 and then drove home. Suzette bought clams and a Dungeness crab.

We rested until 6:30 when we decided to cook.  We had monkfish that needed to be eaten.  Suzette decided to make pasta primavera, so I diced a shallot, a tomato, about 1 cup of zucchini squash, and two carrots.  Suzette sautéed the vegetables in white wine and butter and olive oil.  In a separate pan she sautéed the monkfish in butter after she took away the tendons and diced it and she boiled spaghetti in a boiling pot of water.

I chilled a bottle of 2018 Cotes de Provence.

Soon we had a light pleasant dinner.

I was inspired by the tiny dice of cucumber at Audrey’s in L.A. so I did a smaller dice of the vegetables tonight.  It did not take much longer and the vegetables cooked faster.

We loved the food and rose at lunch and Suzette rightly told Greg that she liked the smaller gathering in an outdoor venue that was very much like the Summer Wine Festival at Taos Ski Valley last month.

I thought it was a misnomer to say Rose All Day for a two hour event in Santa Fe but it was truly Rose all day for us today.

Bon Appetit

September 26, 2019 Lunch – Cesar Salad Dinner – Book Club

September 26, 2019 Lunch – Cesar Salad   Dinner – Book Club

Breakfast was wonderful.  I made an omelet with the PPI julienned eggplant and yellow squash plus white beech mushrooms and thinly sliced green onions with two egg whites and 1 whole egg. I also fried two strips of thick cut bacon.  I ate a great breakfast.

I then rode three or four miles and showered and met with Shahin.

At 12:30 I made a Cesar salad with Romaine, grated Pecorino Romano cheese, croutons, a diced tomato, three sliced green onions, and ¼ diced large avocado.  I dressed it with the great Cesar salad dressing I made two days ago with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and smoked anchovies.

At 4:45 I went to meditate and returned at 6:00, had a drink and then grabbed a bottle of 2016 De Ponte Dundee Hills Pinot Noir .

Charlie drove us to Keith’s house n Ridgecrest.  I ate Fritos and peanut M&Ms at book club. Mothered was a broad difference of opinion, but I loved the House Full of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday that won the 1969:Pulitzer Price.

I recommend it.

Bon Appetit

September 25, 2019 Lunch – Padilla’s dinner – PPI Padilla Mexican food

September 25, 2019 Lunch – Padilla’s  dinner – PPI Padilla Mexican food

I slept until 7:45, then worked for a while and then ate yogurt, milk, granola, and ½ peach diced.

Then I walked to Modern General and met Amy and Luke until 10:30.

We then walked back home so I got a mile walk in for the day.

I was tired but showered and felt better.  I had suggested going to lunch at Padilla’s at 12:15.

I picked up Willy at noon and we drove to Padilla’s.

Luke went with Amy shopping after we returned from Modern General and met us at Padilla’s.

It was great having the family together for lunch.  I ordered my usual, Chile’s Rellenos.  Amy ordered two chicken tacos.  Luke ordered cheese enchiladas and Willy ordered a combination plate with a taco, a tamale, and a cheese enchilada.  None of us could finish our lunches, so I boded all the leftovers and took it home.

                                                              Cheese Enchiladas

Combo

                                                             Chile Relleno

Chicken Tacos

Suzette came home at 1:45 sick and we decided to not drive to Santa Fe for the “To the Trade” tasting at the Chile and Wine Festival.

We rested and then ate the leftover Padilla’s Mexican food for dinner.

Today was the beginning of the end of the Trump Presidency with the release of the transcript of his July 25, 2019 telephone conversation with President Zelenky of Ukraine.

Tomorrow may be even more historic, with the release of the whistleblower return about the actions by Trump related to Ukraine and Congressional hearing with DNI McQuire.

Bon Appetit.

September 24, 2019 Lunch – Miso Noodle Soup with Fish ballad and shrimp. Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak and Shishito peppers with baked potato and Cesar Salad

September 24, 2019 Lunch – Miso Noodle Soup with Fish ballad and shrimp. Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak and Shishito peppers with baked potato and Cesar Salad

I ate granola, yogurt, milk, and ½ peach diced for breakfast and then rode 10 miles.

At noon I made a pot of miso soup with three kinds of noodles, buckwheat/soba, bean cellophane, and wheat vermicelli plus dashi, red miso, green onions, a shallot, several diced leaves of baby bok Choy, four shrimp, ten white beech mushrooms, and four fried fish balls.

After lunch I thawed two rib steaks

I worked until 5:30, although Suzette arrived at 4:30.  We put four russet potatoes in the oven to bake for 45 minutes at 5:30 at 375 degrees.

Luke came home at 6:30 and Willy arrived at 8:00.

I made a Caesar salad with the fresh head of Romaine, grated Pecorino Romano cheese, and Suzette made croutons from six or seven diced slices of German Whole Wheat bread.  I made a fresh Caesar dressing with 2/3cup of olive oil, ¼ cup of fresh lemon juice, six diced anchovy filets, and two egg yolks.

Suzette Grilled the steaks and shishito peppers and I fetched a bottle of DePonte red blend Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

We had a family dinner on the patio in the cool.

After a Willy left and a Suzette went to bed at 9:30, Luke and I watched the third installment of Country Music.  Luke left, but I stayed to the end and went to bed around midnight with my head swimming with music.

Bon Appetit

September 23, 2019 Lunch – American Breakfast. Dinner – Sautéed Hake and pole beans

September 23, 2019 Lunch – American Breakfast. Dinner – Sautéed Hake and pole beans

I showed the property this morning and this afternoon.  After the morning showing I went to the bank and then to El Super to replenish our produce.  I bought oranges, papaya, pineapple, and a green mango for a tropical fruit salad.  Then I bought yellow onions, sour cream, green onions, radishes, Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bananas, limes, lemons, an avocado, celery, chayotes, and cilantro.  It is time to do some cooking.

Tomorrow Suzette wants to make grilled steak and sautéed sushito peppers.  I will probably bake several potatoes and we may cook poke beans again.

When I finally got home it was after 11:00 and I was hungry, so I decided to fry the last three slices of bacon and two eggs.  After I fried the bacon, I poured off the grease and added about ½ T. Of butterto the skillet plus about 2 T. Of the eggplant and yellow squash blend from last night’s dinner, plus the about ¼ cup of PPI black beans, chives and garlic and sautéed them for a while.  I whisked two egg whites and one egg yolk and a few dashes of Mexican Hot sauce added that to the skillet and scrambled everything together.  The result was a nasty looking mess, but very tasty.

At 4:00 I became hungry again, so I made myself two open faced sandwiches on toasted slices of rye bread, one with mayo and tomato slices and the other with sour cream and pickled herring.  I put slices of onion on both. Mi really liked them, so I made two more sandwiches and drank a cup of green tea with them.

When Suzette came home at 4:30 I lay down to finish my book club book, House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday.  I liked it a lot because it is about two places I am familiar with, Jemez Pueblo and L.A., especially since we just visited L.A. this last week.

Suzette came to get me to help make dinner at 6:30.  I filleted the hake steak into two filets while Suzette snapped the ends of a handful of pole beans.  She then sautéed the fish in one skillet covered to steam the top and the beans in another skillet.

When the fish was cooked she lay each filet on a fresh Hoja Santa leaf, like they did at Audrey’s at the Hammar in L.A. last Wednesday evening with a grilled sea bass filet.

I loved the dinner and enjoyed the fresh sautéed pole beans, although several larger ones were to tough to swallow.

We drank the rest of the bottle of 2018 Belles Vigne with dinner.  At 7:00 we watched the Ken Burns documentary on Country Music on PBS.  Suzette heated two Swedish desserts during the show.  I drank a cup of tea with my dessert.

Suzette went to bed at 9:00 when the show ended.  I stayed up to work and blog.

Bon Appetit

September 21, 2019 Globalqurque

September 21, 2019 Globalqurque

We rested today. The day started wonderfully with Leiscester City beating Tottenham in PL soccer.

Then Willy came over and we walked 7 blocks to the Farmers’ Market, where we bought three kinds of beans, and a honeydew melon and we ate carne adovado tacos at Senor Taco’s food stand with a glass of horchata for Willy and a glass of watermelon fruit juice for us.  The tortillas were sprinkled with quest fresco and heated on a grill to melt the cheese. Then the tacos were filled with beans and meat and garnished with squirts of crema and guacamole, and small handfuls of onion, lettuce and tomato.  They were served three for $10.00. We ordered two orders and ate two each.

We rested after we walked home until 3:00 when I snacked on PPI gazpacho and ½ of a sandwich left by the film crew while I watched TCU struggle to overcome a 14 point deficit gained by SMU over them in the first few minutes of the game.

At4:30 I made four sandwiches by toasting four slices of fullkorn bread and smearing them with butter and then Kalles creamed cod roe and adding thin slices of onion and finally slices of Jarlsberg cheese.

I packed them in a sandwich bag and then a shopping bag so I could carry them easily around my wrist and we went to the Globalquerque music festival.

The festival was great this year with high quality acts from all over the world.  We particularly like the Inuit group from Greenland, the Persian tar player and drummer, and the Hawaiian slack string guitar player.  Here are pictures of each of those.

At around 8:30 we ate our sandwiches with water and a beer sitting in the Plaza Major watching a lady named Dat Garcia from Argentina sing and play instruments accompanied by her recorded musical compositions.
We went home at 10:30.

Bon Appetit

September 22, 2019 Brunch – American Breakfast.  Snack – Pesto and Yellow Squash Bruscetti. Dinner – Foil baked fish wrapped in Hoja Santa with retried black beans

I watched the news and at 9:30Suzette made an American breakfast: two eggs over easy, two slices of bacon fried crisp, two toasted slices of buttered whole wheat toast and country fries.

I rode six miles at 11:00 and we went shopping at 12:30.  We went to Total Wine and bought scotch, a 12 pack of Negra Modelo, a six pack of Sam Adams Oktoberfest, a bottle of gin and a cheap bottle of brandy.

We then drove to Talin, where we bought a small can of pimientos, 1 lb. of fresh hake, 1 ½ lb. of fresh monkfish, baby bok Choy, shallots, White beech Mushrooms, and squid ink.

We then drove to Sprouts where we bought yogurt, milk, and several other things.

On the way home we stopped at the Chile Cinnection at the corner of Mountain Rd. And a Broadway, where they were roasting bags of green chile, so Suzette could order two 30 lb. bags off Lemitar mild green Chile for delivery on Tuesday.

When we returned Suzette created an interesting new snack.  She toasted slices of whole wheat rolls and spread them with pesto and a slice of cheese and finally slices of yellow squash and baked them in the oven until to cook the squash and melt the cheese.  We drank glasses of red wine with the snack.

Then at 6:00 we started cooking dinner.  Suzette wanted to make Foil Baked Hoja Santa wrapped fish.  She decided to use the monkfish, so I butchered three sections of monkfish and refrigerated the
rest.  I then sliced pimientos, yellow squash, onions, chives, and oregano and Suzette piled those ingredients on the fish in two layers of aluminum foil that she crimped and baked on the grill with a pile of fresh carrots we bought yesterday at the farmers’ market.

Willy came over for dinner.  Suzette also made retried black beans.  She opened and sautéed a large can of black beans and then added chopped garlic, Hoja Santa, artichoke leaves, oregano from the garden, and some chopped pimiento.

I opened a bottle of Los Alamos Argentinian Red blend that as mostly Malbec grapes for Willy and opened a bottle of Belles Vignes French Sauvignon Blanc and poured glasses for Suzette and me.

We ate under the gazebo and got a full report from Willy on his trip to
Toronto and Montreal.

The evening was cool with a slight breeze so we enjoyed s pleasant conversation and meal.

I was enamored with the grilled sea bass on a bed of fresh Hoja Santa leaves at Audrey’s in LA., but tonight’s meal was delicious.

Bon Appetit

September 20, 2019 Lunch – Falafel Sandwich. Dinner- steamed buns

September 20, 2019 Lunch – Falafel Sandwich. Dinner- steamed buns

Today was an interesting food day.  My cousin introduced us to what a good falafel tastes like and we got to be with her again for a couple of hours more.

Luke took the car to meet friends for breakfast.  We packed and then made a simple breakfast.  Suzette stuffed the last three or four figs with goat cheese and I fried two eggs over easy and we spread slices of fullkorns bread with goat cheese and drank the last of the Rose with it.

When Luke returned around 10:30 we packed the car and drove to the Benito Juarez Market in downtown LA and found the fresh holy leaf (Hoja Santa) we had been looking for since we had it at Audrey’s.  Now all we need to do is to figure out the adobo sauce and find a fresh sea bass or red snapper and we can replicate the recipe.

We then drove to Dharma Damama’s apartment. Gee, GPS is wonderful.  She had ordered falafels.  There was a bit of an adventure with a neighbor’s cat, Orlando, that was locked out of the apartment.  Dharma gave the cat some milk but the cat kept meowing. We sat at a picnic table outside Dharma’s
apartment and talked and drank glasses of raspberry tea.

When the falafel delivery man came Dharma told us that the restaurant was Israeli owned shop.  So I realized these were the real thing.

Here is a basic recipe for falafels in pita bread.

INGREDIENTS
FOR THE FALAFELS
1 (15-oz.) can chickpeas, drained
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 shallot, roughly chopped
2 tbsp. freshly chopped parsley
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying
FOR YOGURT SAUCE
1/2 c. Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. freshly chopped dill
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
FOR TAHINI SAUCE
1/2 c. tahini
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. warm water (plus more as needed)
Kosher salt
FOR SERVING
Pitas
Chopped lettuce
Halved cherry tomatoes
Thinly sliced cucumbers
GET INGREDIENTS
Powered by Chicory
DIRECTIONS
In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine chickpeas, garlic, shallot, parsley, cumin, coriander, and flour and season with salt and pepper. Blend until mixture resembles a thick paste.
Form mixture into falafel balls about 2" in diameter.
In a pot, heat 1” vegetable oil until a drop of water added to the oil sizzles and pops.
Fry falafels until golden, then transfer to a paper towel–lined plate and season immediately with salt.
To make yogurt sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, oil, and dill. Season with salt and pepper.
To make tahini sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and warm water. Season with salt. (If you prefer a thinner sauce, whisk in more warm water 1 tablespoon at a time.)
Serve falafels in pita with lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber and drizzle with either sauce.


What I can tell you after eating my first official Israeli falafel sandwich is that both the pita and the falafel were incredibly tender.  The falafel was not very flavorful. In fact it was rather doughy, but the Tzatziki (cucumber, lemon, and yogurt sauce) was tangy and delicious.
There were small containers of a thin hummus or tahini sauce that we drizzled on the sandwiches for extra flavor.  So, I can see that the range of variation in the falafel category includes a complex assortment of ingredients and sauces.

Dharma, who is a vegan, told us a funny story.  She ordered a falafel sandwich with hummus and they delivered a hummus sandwich.  She called the restaurant back and they checked their order and confirmed she had ordered a hummus sandwich, but sent a falafel sandwich over anyway.  The apparent joke was that hummus is a light sauce and she was overwhelmed when she bit into a sandwich with no falafel and only sauce.

We sat and Luke asked Dharma about her daily practice and she said it started around 3:30 with a cold shower and yoga.  Then he asked her about her how they became attracted to the Sikh practice.  She said they found the apartment they now live in because it was across the street from Robertson park that is a pocket park near Beverly Hills, where her parents lived and where she was raised, because it had basketball courts and they were playing lots of basketball in those days.

The Sikh temple was located at the end of the block, as it still is.  Dharma Damama Singh went To a yoga class there and then a lecture and when they said, “This our practice and this is why we do it, but you can do whatever you want,” he and they were hooked and became Sikhs.  They were among the earliest American Sikhs and know all the founders of the American movement.  So she concluded by saying, “So, our love of basketball led us to the Sikh religion.”


I realized something fundamental as she spoke these words as three members of the Simon family sat around the table, one a Sikh, another a Buddhist, and the other oriented to Hinduism and a pure spiritual practice.  It is not the religion that attracts a person to a spiritual path.  Instead, it is the proclivity of the person to choose a spiritual path that attracts them to a type of spiritual practice they prefer.  Most of us follow the religious path of our forefathers, but some of us seek a different spiritual path and that is what each of us Simon’s did.

At 1:15 we said goodbye and Luke drove us to LAX for our return flight to Albuquerque.

When we arrived in ABQ, we decided to go home and find something to eat in the fridge.  When Suzette opened the freezer section, I saw a package of frozen steamed buns.  I said, “I have been wanting to see if we can make these in the steaming oven.”

That was enough of a challenge for Suzette.  She read the instructions and put them on a tray covered with parchment and into the dreaming oven.  The first setting she used did not contain enough steam and the began to brown, so she reduced the heat and increased the steam to its highest setting and that worked fine.

While she was steaming the nine buns, I made a dipping sauce with 1 tsp of Chinese red chili sauce, about 1 T. of fresh finely minced shallot and about 3 T. of soy.  It was too spicy, so I added some rice vinegar and then lots of hoisin sauce and a T. of Mirin.  It was still spicy, but not unbearably spicy.  Suzette fetched a shallow bowl and we mixed spoonfuls of the chili sauce I made with hoisin sauce until we had a spicy sauce that we found to our liking.



We finally got the sound on on the TV and watched the news. The most recent Trump perversion seems to be coercing Ukraine into investigating Biden’s son in exchange for releasing the $250,000,000 of foreign aid that Congress adopted for Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion.

We went to bed at 11:00.

Bon Appetit

September 19, 2019  Lunch – Café Gratitude. Dinner – Rustic Canyon

I replicated the Vietnamese Crepe for breakfast perfectly.  I whisked three egg whites and one yolk and fried them into a large egg pancake.  I flipped it and cooked the other side slightly and then removed it to a plate.  I then sautéed the PPI bun noodles, ground beef, and fish from our dinner at Pho.  When the noodles, meat, and sauce were heated I laid them on one-half of the egg pancake/crepe and folded it in half. Voila, I had made a Vietnamese crepe.

We left around 10:30 and picked up Luke’s friend, Jacqueline, and drove to the Armand Hammer Museum downtown.  We arrived at 11:45 just in time for our entry reservation at 12:00.  We did not like much of the contemporary art, except for the large central gallery of large works by Mark Bradford.  We were especially impressed with the large mostly blue work depicting the fires in Watts during the riots in 1968.

At 1:00 we had seen all the art on the third floor and were hungry, so Luke drove us to what he called a typically California vegan restaurant Named Café Gratitude in a trendy new urbanism development with apartments and commercial establishments mixed together.

Suzette and I had trouble finding a dish to order.  Suzette ended up getting a falafel with black beans and toast and I ordered a salad with slices of avocado, Bibb lettuce, sunflower sprouts, and a bitter dressing.  Luke ordered an awful tasting dish of boiled rice vermicelli noodles coated with a tahini pesto. They each got cups of coffee.  The bill was $91.00 without tax.  Amazing.

I

                                                   Vegan Guacamole and fried corn chips

We then drove Luke and Jacqueline to her apartment and we then drove to Santa Monica and after stopping on the beach for a restroom stop we drove up onto Ocean Ave. and walked along the path on the crest of the cliffs next t the ocean.  The views were great and the vegetarian was magnificent.  I loved the old eucalyptus trees and unbelievably tall royal palms.

We then drove the  few blocks through Santa Monica to the Rustic Canyon restaurant at 1119 Wilshire, eleven blocks from the beach.  We were seated at 5:30 and perused the menu.  We son came to the decision t split three dishes; figs charred under the salamander filled with guacamole and garnished with trout caviar.  This was a highly successful dish, with the softness of the trout eggs and guacamole complementing each other. We hade never had a broiled fig before and rather liked it.

We then were served Beets and Berries with avocado, rancho gordo quinoa, and pistachio "soil".  I liked the red quinoa, but the pickling medium on the beets was to vinegary.

Finally our entrée arrived and again I marveled at the skill the fancy California Cuisine restaurants have in handling fish,  we ordered Rockfish and it was more like monkfish.  Tender but firm to the touch. Our waitress said the cooking method used was to put the filets in a pan and let them sit until
the entire fish is fully cooked.  Interesting.

I am beginning to think my blog is more like food field notes, rather than fully vetted recipes.

Our entrée was served with Sautéed Romano Beans, in a Middle Eastern sauce of Sumac, a bit of olive is, and puréed eggplant, which was my favorite part of the meal, like the roasted carrots were my favorite part of the meal last night along with the grilled sea bass on fresh Hoja Santa leaves.

I think I understand the gist of New California Cuisine.  It is based on freshness of ingredients
presented simply or in combination with fusion with other cuisines, depending upon the inclination of  the chef.

For example, Robust Canyon’s menu changed every night with lots of fusion sauces, while Audrey’s was a more static menu, with more emphasis on clean well defined flavors of ingredients.

Actually, the wine list was better and its wine prices were better at Rustic Canyon.  We shared a ½ bottle of 2018 Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc that is arguably the best Sauvignon Blanc made in America for $35.00.

At 7:00 after dinner we drove the 3.5 miles up the Pacific Coast Highway to the J. Paul Getty  Villa to see the Greek tragedy called Heal in the recreated Greek/Roman outdoor amphitheater.  We claimed two seats by leaving our extra shirts on them and then ran t the snack bar and bought a slice of flourless chocolate cake that tasted a lot like my recipe for French flourless cake made with eggs, chocolate, sugar, and a T. of flour.  We then walked to the coffee kiosk and ordered a cup of Café au lait and returned to our seats and enjoyed our dessert with coffee in the cool night air.

 

The Heal is a professional production by the Roundhouse Theater of Bethesda, Maryland of an modern adaptation of Sophocles play named “Philoctetes”.  It has a universal theme of how we are all wounded by events in life, usually of our own making, that we must learn to overcome.  For more detailed information, check out the Wikipedia entry at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philoctetes_(Sophocles_play)

After the play ended we drove back to the Silver Lake.  What was really cool was we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway and through a series of underground tunnels and ramps onto I-10 from the Pacific Ocean.  So we started our trip eastward from the shore of the Pacific Ocean, the largest Ocean in the world.

Driving on the freeways at night is like a continuous act of faith that no one else will screw up or get overly aggressive, including yourself.  I tried to keep six or seven car lengths distance between the Prius at 60 mph and the vehicle in front  while more aggressive drivers weaved in front of me.  I had to control my emotions he hold my lane and maintain my distance as the assholes sped by. Our speed varied from 65 to 18 mph as we wove through downtown and changed from the I-10 to the I-5.

Finally we made it home alive and in one piece and celebrated with a glass of rose.

A beautiful day of art, food, and culture.

Bon Appetit