March 24, 2021 Lunch - The Shed. Dinner - Salad and a bowl of French Onion Soup

March 24, 2021 Lunch - The Shed. Dinner - Salad and a bowl of French Onion Soup

This was a super fun day and a super busy day.

We worked until 10:00. Then we ate a quick breakfast. I ate two slices of toasted bagel with lax, red onion, cream cheese, and capers.

Suzette heated and ate the leftover pork egg foo young I made yesterday.

We then loaded some of the art we picked up in Las Vegas and drove to Santa Fe.  We stopped first at Stephen’s Consignment. Stephen looked at the pieces and rejected several and took pictures of several for his appraiser to consider for consignment.

While at Stephen’s we looked around and Suzette soon found a lovely silk embroidered coat that fit her perfectly.  I bought it for her for a Mother’s Day gift.  As we were paying and talking to Stephen I noticed an interesting silver brooch and earring set.  Stephen took it out of the case and it turned out to be Taxco silver in a design resembling a Paloma Picasso design done for Tiffany and the designs by Millicent Rogers.  Suzette bought the set. As suzette said as we left Stephen’s with all of the art packed back into the Highlander, “I sure is nice to be able to buy nice things.”  

I replied, “Amen.”

We then drove to the Santa Fe Auction warehouse and picked up the three pieces we bought in the auction last week.  

During the drive to Santa Fe I had called The Shed for a reservation for 2:30.  

It was 2:00 when we left the Auction warehouse and drove to Owings Gallery downtown on Marcy Street.  Nat was in, so I grabbed the Eva Hauser drawing and showed it to Nat.  Unfortunately, he could not shed any information on the artist or the work.

We walked through Sena Plaza, which I always love to do to The Shed under the Portal and arrived almost precisely at 2:30.  Lunch service was winding down and the restaurant was becoming far less crowded as we were shown to my favorite table I requested in the narrow windowed atrium overlooking the patio, now filled with outdoor seating.  

The table I love was warm and cozy and usual third table had been removed, which left our table a very comfortable about ten foot space between our table and the other table in the alcove.

When our waitress arrived I knew exactly what we wanted, I immediately ordered a No. 5 with beef and double Posole and two Negra Modelos.  There was some confusion about the type chili.  I thought the dish was served with red chili, but apparently now both green and red chili are available. Fortunately, our waitress thought I said green.  When the dish came with green chili, we simply ordered sides of red chili and sour cream to dampen the sauce’s extreme picante flavor.  

I went to the bathroom and when I returned the food and beer had been delivered and zsuzette had requested an extra plate and divided the dish in half with each of us having one rolled blue corn enchilada and half the posole, which turned out to be the perfect portion for each of us.

We spread red Chile and sour cream on our enchilada and slowly ate it with bits of Posole and chili sauce so our mouth could acclimate to the hotness of the chili.  It was a lovely meal.  One of the best ever in the 50 years I have been eating at the Shed.

After lunch it seemed to be threatening to snow, so we decided to drive directly home.  The sky cleared at La Bajada so it was an easy and fast trip home.

It was lucky we left, because when we arrived home at 4:30 I found that I had a number of issues that I had to deal with that kept me at my desk until 6:30.

When I finally finished the tasks we discussed dinner and we agreed to make a salad with the last of the Liverwurst slices.  We went to the garden and uncovered the raised bed with lettuce and picked a basket full in a matter of minutes.  The lettuce is really beautiful now, young tender and productive.

The weather was quickly getting colder, so Suzette said she would like to have a bowl of French Onion Soup with the salad for dinner. 

So we fetched the two hard boiled eggs, the marinated asparagus, a tomato, radishes and the casserole with the soup. Suzette rinsed and spun the lettuce and placed it in large pasta bowls and peeled the eggs.  Then I sliced the tomato, eggs, radishes, and asparaguses and Liverwurst and lay them on the lettuce in a composed manner.  Suzette fetched the Swiss Gruyere cheese and sliced it and I toasted a slice of French baguette for my soup and handed it to Suzette with two ceramic brown French Onion soup bowls.  Suzette then made a simple balsamic dressing by adding more olive oil to the asparagus marinade and drizzled it onto the salads.

We heated the soup and Suzette filled the soup bowls and laid the bread crouton on my bowl and then cheese slices and only cheese on her bowl and placed the bowls in the 350 degree oven we had preheated.

Suzette fetched a bottle of 2016 Chateau Vallier Appellation Cotes du Bordeaux from Cadillac, a Grand Vin de Bordeaux.  Unfortunately, I do not recall where I found this bottle, I suspect it was at Costco and probably cost $11.00 or $12.00.  The wine was good, not great, but extremely drinkable, although having a slightly greater tannic acid edge.  Suzette stopped drinking after dinner, so the wine does not get zsuzette’s highest rating, as the Trader Joe’s Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon last night did.

Here is one rating service’s notes and rating.

Made using single-variety vats in the early stages, this is a big, ripe and fruity wine with weight and attractive acidity. Its smoky edge and licorice flavors don't mask the black-currant fruit and acidity. Drink from 2021. ROGER VOSS

• RATING
  87

After dinner we watched news until 9:00 and then got in bed and watched Trevor Noah until 9:40.

Bon Appetit