January 31, 2020 Brunch – Michael’s Kitchen. Dinner – Roast Leg of Lamb, sesame rice, green beans, and tossed salad

January 31, 2020 Brunch – Michael’s Kitchen.  Dinner – Roast Leg of Lamb, sesame rice, green beans, and tossed salad

The most interesting part of the day was not food oriented, it was a wine tasting of Heitz Vineyard wines at 12:30.  There were seven wines tasted, a Sauvignon Blanc, a Chardonnay, a Rose, a Napa Valley 2014 and 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, a 2013 single vineyard Trailblazer Cabernet Sauvignon, and the great 2013 Martha’s Vineyard single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.  The Chardonnay was startling good.  According to Daniel Wu, the Heitz rep, aioli of Heitz’ wines are high acid wines made without any malolactic fermentation.  They tend be fruit forward also so they have a powerful combination of high acidity that gives them a brightness mixed with lots of fruit flavors, which creates a powerful combination.

We enjoyed the tasting.  There were no bad wines.  The Rose was made from a really interesting Italian grape, grinolla??? That tasted like no other Rose wine I have tasted.

This morning we got dressed and decided to go to town to eat breakfast.  We drove directly to Michael’s Kitchen.  Suzette and I ordered the breakfast enchiladas, which were sautéed corn tortillas covered by an round omelet and rolled.  We asked for red chili on the side.  It was red chili cooked with meat.  I loved it.

We then drove to Cid’s to shop for groceries, buying eggs, a baguette, two bulbs of celeriac, bananas and rolled oats for Billy, yogurt, Chimayo red chili, and shallots forBilly’s rice dish tonight.

Then we drove to Taos Ski Valley and waited about twenty minutes until 12:30 for the Heitz tasting.  The day was sunny and calm with a warmth to it, so it was great to walk to the restaurant where the tasting was.

When the tasting ended around 2:00 we drove back down to Taos and went to the Taos museum in the Fechin house.  There was a Marjorie Eaton exhibit.  She was an amazing woman, born in 1901 and died in 1987.  She studied art, lived in France and Italy.  She was Diego Rivera’s assistant in New York and lived in Mexico for three years. And then moved to Taos where she fell in love with Juan Mirabal, a resident of the Taos Pueblo.  Around 1934 she moved to L.A. and became a moving picture actress for the last 40 years of her life.

We then drove to the Harwood Museum on Ledoux street to see its exhibits, including an exhibition of the evolution of Larry Bell’s vapor etched glass boxes.  There was also an exhibit of Bea Mandelman’s  WPA prints and a culcha exhibit, but the most arresting painting that I saw today was Agnes Martin’s “Artic” from 1967.  It is an amazing painting that perfectly expresses her style of minimalism. Four six separate pieces of paper or canvases spliced together wherein the minimalist areas of shading shift one’s perception from the grid of sheets of paper to the design.

Of course, the Harwood has two other works I love, Victor Higgins great 1931 painting of a Winter Burial and Ron Davis’ large fiberglass painting, Six Ninths.

We then drove out NM 240 to the house and rested for a few minutes until we began dinner at 6:00.

Suzette and I removed mold from the cheese.  We made a cheese board with wedges of fresh goat cheese and wedges of Manchego, Saint Andre, and Stilton.  Suzette sliced 10 slices of the baguette we bought at Cid’s and buttered and toasted the slices.

Suzette found a cooking rack and I removed the lamb from the marinade that it had been in for two days of Pinot Noir, pomegranate juice, rosemary sprigs, and garlic slices to the rack to drain in the sink.

We fetched a roasting pan and Suzette discovered that the oven only baked at 350, so we decided to bake the lamb for 50 minutes instead of the recommended 15 minute sear at 425 and then baking for 40 minutes. When we removed the lamb at 50 minutes it was still not done so we roasted it 10 minutes longer and it was perfectly cooked to rare and medium rare depending upon the size of the piece.  I sliced several larger pieces  into ½ inch thick slices on the wooden serving board.

Billy began making his rice dish by mincing the two shallots and then simmered the basmati rice and sesame seeds he brought from Dallas in a covered pot.

Suzette prepared about 1 1/2 lb.  of the 2lb. bag of French cut green beans we had bought at Costco by snapping the ends off them and breaking them into forkable pieces and cooked them in a covered pot win boiling water.

Barry and Kylene arrived while we were cooking at 7:00 with a salad of apples, blackberries, diced dried apricots, and lettuce and spinach with a vinaigrette dressing plus a bottle of Spanish sparkling Cava.  We immediately opened the Cava and drank it with the cheese course.

We then sat at the dining table in the kitchen by the window facing the mountains and served ourselves Kylene’s salad.  While we were eating salad the lamb, green beans, and rice finished cooking.  I sliced the lamb and laid it on a large wood serving  board in two piles, one of medium rare and one of rare.  Billy and Suzette put their pots of green beans and rice beside the board on a peninsula of the counter and we each took a plate and served ourselves.

Luckily everything was perfect.  The lamb was perfectly roasted and tender because I had removed all of the fat, tendons, and silver skin.  The rice was wonderfully flavorful and nutty with the addition of sesame seeds, and the green beans to which Suzette added a pad of butter, were tender but with just a bit of crunch.

I had divided the 2010 Chateau Nerthe from Chateauneuf du Pape among the six wine glasses and poured glasses of water before we sat down.

Willy had called earlier and was on his way up and arrived around 8:00, while we were eating and joined us after Suzette heated his plate of food in the microwave.

After we finished the Chateau Nerthe I passed the bottle of 2014 Haute Cotes du Nuit Burgundy.  We all agreed that the Burgundy was a weaker wine that lacked the power and character of the Chateau Nerthe, but it was an exceedingly light clean tasting wine even though it paled in comparison.

We talked a bit after dinner and then Suzette passed the raspberry mousse topped chocolate filled cake cups and we each took one.  Then Suzette sliced and served sLices of the chocolate mousse cake from Costco.

We talked a lot about Barry and Kylene’s daughter, Melody, who is a film producer and the entertainment business and different films and TV shows they are watching, such as this year’s film, 1917, which they love.  Barry is a cameraman and producer and Kylene has worked as a location person in lots of films and they own Southwest Productions in Albuquerque, so they are incredibly knowledgeable and it was fun to hear their stories about films we had seen and books we had read that were made into films they had worked on that we had not seen yet, like Side’s Ghost Soldiers about the Bataan Death March.

At around 10:00 we said goodnight after a lovely and very successful meal.  This meal was just like the meal we cooked Wednesday evening in Albuquerque.  Each of the three of us had specific dishes we prepared and each of the dishes were prepared to perfection.

Suzette, Billy and I cleaned the kitchen up a bit and put away the food and cheese and Suzette and I went to bed and Billy and Willy stayed up watching Netflix.

Bon Appetit