Eating with Bob and Suzette: May 1, 2021 Lunch - Grilled Sausages, Asparagus and Ramps with Potato Salad and Bologna and cheeses. Dinner - Lake Fish cooked in foil stuffed with ramps and Braised Broccoli.

May 1, 2021 Lunch - Grilled Sausages, Asparagus and Ramps with Potato Salad and Bologna and cheeses. Dinner - Lake Fish cooked in foil stuffed with ramps and Braised Broccoli.

I slept in because the bed was so comfortable. After we dressed Luke served us a slice of his olive oil bread with a cup of tea for breakfast.

Suzette and I then made the potato salad for lunch I cubed purple and red potatoes and 1/2 shallot and four chopped eggs, plus a dressing with 1/2 cup of celery leaves chopped with a dressing made with 1/3 cup each of olive oil and apple cider vinegar, 1 T. of honey and dash of salt.

We then left when his photographer friend Christian came to take his photo for the back cover of Luke’s new book.

We drove to Woodstock, which was a little zoo like with all the tourists, so did not park. We went to Sunflower market, but it’s prices were so expensive we left and drove back toward Hurley to Hannaford Market to buy the ingredients for dinner tomorrow, chicken enchiladas. To give you an idea of how expensive Sunflower Market was, Suzette priced a 4 oz. package of gravad lax and it was $12.99. Suzette serves 4 oz. of gravad lax on the cured salmon with clementines for $10.00. If one pays $8.00 per lb. for the fresh salmon, the cost to make gravad lax is essentially $8.00 per lb. or $2.00 for 4 oz.

At Hannaford we bought a chicken, tomato juice, Monterrey Jack cheese, sour cream, corn tortillas, Rolling Rock beer, a zucchini, for the enchilada dinner and mustard, horseradish, charcoal, and Breton crackers for lunch.

We then drove back and arrived as Christian was leaving.

It was 1:00 ish and we were getting hungry so Suzette and I built a fire in the canister fire starter with a paper towel, some kindling and a layer of charcoal briquets. Then I started organizing a cheese board. I laid it with the wheel of Isigny brie, the local goat milk feta, the dill cheddar, a container of Boursin with garlic and herbs, and a pile of Lebanon Bologna and sweet salami.

As I was finishing Rebecca and Mickie arrived in Mickie’s folks’ Tesla and gave us a large handful of ramps. We put the board on the picnic table outside and I opened the bottle of Spanish Rioja and took it with the 1/2 bottle of Maris La Toupe and five glasses out to the table. Luke had served glasses of water, apple cider, and seltzer. We talked and nibbled and sipped for a few minutes and then Suzette decided to start grilling the sausages, I cut the roots off 10 ramps and she grilled the ramps with the 4 rabbit and 4 elk sausages on the outdoor grill and Suzette brought out the potato salad. Mickie and Rebecca eat a gluten free diet, so the potato salad and grilled sausages and ramps was a perfect lunch for them.

When everyone said they thought the sausages were done I cut each into 3 pieces so everyone could have four or five pieces.

We drank the wine and ate all of the sausages and potato salad and then suggested that we drive to the Menla center in upper Phoenicia to see its garden. When we arrived we were greeted by Lisa Romano, the chief gardener, and Luke’s friend who he worked for as a volunteer at the Mensa garden and who is advising him on the garden he is starting at Maha Rose North.

Lisa explained the fascinating history of the Menla property, that had been a an Indian ceremonial area, a Jewish resort, a boy’s school, and the world headquarters for the Pathway religious movement before it was given to Robert and Nena Thurman’s Tibet House. There is not enough room to blog about all the connections of the Thurmans, but simply Robert Thurman is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher and was a professor at Columbia and Nena was a model in the 60’s and briefly the wife of Timothy Leary and Uma Thurman is Robert and Nena’s daughter, so they are part of the psychedelic Buddhist wave of the 60’s and Menla is a part of their Buddhist tradition.

On our way back to Hurley we stopped at Migliorelli Farm Store and Seafood market where we bought a freshly caught 3 1/2 lb. lake fish and broccoli for dinner and Luke bought Suzette a dozen tulips as her Mother’s Day gift. Salvador cleaned and cut off the fish’s head and tail and double wrapped the fish in Saran.

When we returned to Luke’s house at around 6:00 we said goodbye to Mickie and Rebecca and Luke went into the woods to continue the work of removing an invasive bind weed vine that was choking trees and bushes. Suzette fell asleep and I looked at the garden and then joined Luke’s effort after a few minutes.

I cut the vines off a tree and Luke pulled and chopped the vine’s roots out of the ground in that area.

When we returned to the house Luke took a shower and then wanted to eat dinner.

We decided to charcoal grill the two foot long fish and stuff it with ramps and orange slices since we did not have a lemon.

Suzette made a boat for it to rest in out of aluminum foil and I showed Luke how to start a fire with the canister fire starter. Soon we had a fire.

Luke and I chopped broccoli flowerets from the stalk of a head of broccoli, which Luke sautéed in garlic and grape-seed oil and then braised it with a bit of water covered so the broccoli did not lose it bright green color.

We put the coals in their basket in the grill and placed the foil wrapped fish on the grill and cooked the fish for about fifteen minutes when we realized that it was cooking rather slowly. I suggested removing the grill and placing the foil wrapped fish directly on the coal and in ten more minutes the fish and ramps were cooked to perfection with the butter sauce remaining in the foil wrapping.

I filleted the fish into four sections and I placed them on plates Luke had spooned a pile of braised broccoli.

We opened the chilled bottle of 2020 Les Hauts Plateaux from the Alpes Haute Provence Indication Geographique Protégée; a new area for me.

The wine had a slightly syrupy flavor for a Provence Rose. Here is the reason why.

Though the appellation for this cheerful and well-priced dry rosé has Provence in its name, it is not technically a "Provence Rosé". The Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department is actually northeast of Provence and, as the name suggests, is climatically influenced by the French Alps. Its cool growing season and hilly terrain make for stressed vines which in turn make for great wine! In this particular bottle, that leads to a more concentrated and juicy iteration of the Provence style. Heading towards the fuchsia/magenta side of the pink spectrum, Les Hauts Plateaux, a blend of Syrah (40%), Grenache (40%) and Cinsault (20%) has a bounce in its step with ripe black cherry, strawberry and plum. That relatively high Syrah proportion will help this rosé stand up next to hearty fare yet allows for comfortable sipping situations. At this price, those situations may arise more often! Food Pairings: Grilled Potato Salad; Squash Blossom and Black-Eyed Pea Succotash; Cold Buckwheat Noodles

The wine went well with the dense flaked lake fish that reminded us of shark steak. I guessed the fish was pike, which would be the first pike for me. It was definitely not trout.

We each ate about a lb. of fish and Luke’s delicious braised broccoli and were very satisfied. The dark fruit flavor of the wine was also interesting.

A meal with three interesting new tastes, quite a treat.

After dinner I fetched the cognac and Suzette fetched the Wilber Nibs and Luke and I made cups of herbal tea.