May 29, 2021 Lunch - Duck and Beet Salad. Dinner - Broccoli Pesto Pasta with Chicken

 May 29, 2021 Lunch - Duck and Beet Salad.  Dinner - Broccoli Pesto Pasta with Chicken

Today I awakened at 8:21 having stayed up a while during the night.

I was rested and ready to bid on art at the Santa Fe Art Auction.  Suzette wanted to bid on several lots also.

Suzette worked in the garden and then at her desk and I worked at my desk until about 10:00 when I heated the almond chocolate croissant we bought last week at the farmer’s’ market and split it with her.  I ate mine with a cup of tea and she ate her half with coffee.  I showered about 10:30 and we set up my computer in the bedroom to project the auction on the TV monitor.  There was no sound but we were connected to the auction and could click the mouse to send a bid.

We missed the first two items we tried to buy, a painting by a female painter Suzette was interested in and a 1949 William Lumpkins water I liked.

It was an odd auction because many pieces were going for more than their estimate and other pieces were receiving no bids.   Soon a nice Dean Porter watercolor came up and there were no bids, so I made the first bid at $150.00. There were two counter bids and I won the bid at $190.00, which is less than the cost of the frame and definitely lease than the $750.00 I paid for my Dean Porter watercolor of a similar image.

Then Suzette became interested in a Joseph Imhoff print of an Adobe house.  The bidding started at $300.00 and she won the bid for $700.00.  Imhoff was a member of the Taos Society of Artists, so $700.00 seems like a steal.

Around 11:30 we decided to fix lunch although Suzette monitored the auction on her cell phone.

Lunch - Duck Salad

We picked a basket full of lettuce from the raised bed and spun it to clean it.  I cubed two tomatoes, 1/3 cucumber, two radishes, and 1 1/2 duck breasts.  Suzette composed the salads in pasta bowls and added the diced beets we had roasted several days ago and clumps of fig flavored goat cheese and made her usual,lovely balsamic and olive oil dressing that we drizzled over the salad.

I fetched a bottle of Sauvage white 100% chardonnay Gruet champagne from the garage fridge and an ice bucket that Suzette filled with ice cubes.

We took the champagne in the ice bucket and our salads to the table in the garden and enjoyed a lovely leisurely lunch.

We continue to marvel at the wildlife that frequent our garden.  Today we saw two mourning dove and a ground squirrel.

During lunch we monitored the auction and after we finished our salads, we sipped the rest of the bottle of chilled champagne.  When a beautiful tooled leather rocking chair and ottoman was reached Suzette bid on it but did not get it, so our lunch and auction experience ended. We were happy with each our purchases without any regret that we had been outbid on the pieces we wanted.

After lunch I started boiling the four fresh artichokes for 45 minutes and retired to my bed to read my new Book club book, Behind the Lovely Forevers, snd napped until 5:30 and Suzette read her new Martha Stewart magazine.

Suzette started locating snorkeling gear for our trip to Mexico.  

At 6:30 we discussed dinner and I was thrilled when Suzette said, “Let’s make a recipe I just saw in the magazine.  We have all the ingredients for it.”

Dinner - Pasta with Broccoli Pesto

Suzette threw herself into making the dish. We decided to add the last PPI baked chicken thigh and garlic scapes to the dish.

I went to the garden and picked about 1 cup of basil leaves from the new basil plants Suzette planted yesterday and about ten chives.

I diced the PPI baked chicken thigh and scapes and sliced the chives finely while Suzette made the pesto, chopped and cooked the broccoli, and then combined those ingredients with ricotta and the cooked Casarecce pasta and a little pasta water.  Suzette said the secret to making the dish creamy was the addition of ricotta and pasta water, so this is a new cooking technique for creamy pasta, instead of Suzette’s usual technique of adding heavy cream.

We garnished the dish with Pecorino-Romano cheese and chives.

I went to the garage and fetched a bottle of Kirkland Pinot Grigio and poured glasses of it.  The wine went exceedingly well with the creamy pasta and chicken.

After dinner we watched the Stanley Cup playoffs in Hockey for a while including a surprise goal by Montreal against Toronto in the second overtime to bring that series to a game 7 match to determine who advances and then a new episode of Death In Paradise while I drank a few sips of grappa and nibbled two almond cookies.  

Suzette went t bed at 10:00.  I stayed up and watched an old episode of Grantchester and then blogged at 11:00 after a very pleasant day.

Bon Appetit