June 14, 2021 Lunch - Padilla’s Family Restaurant. Dinner - Chicken Salad and Vichyssoises

 June 14, 2021 Lunch - Padilla’s Family Restaurant. Dinner - Chicken  Salad and Vichyssoises 

I ate granola, milk, banana slices, and yogurt for breakfast and drafted a legal opinion to a client in the morning.

Then I met Mike at Padilla’s at 12:15 to eat my first lunch there inside and unmasked.  Mike ordered enchiladas and I ordered the Chili Rellenos with beans.  

We had a lively discussion until after 2:30.  I called Suzette to make sure it was okay to invite Mike to dinner since Willy was coming to dinner.

After Lunch I drove t the Food Coop and found some extraordinary items that I bought, including a wedge of Spanish Izariazal cheese, a loaf of Fano Sourdough bread, and a loop of Spanish Iberico pork chorizo, and a celery root.

When I returned home I discovered that I had had a good day in the market with most of the big tech stocks rising and my portfolio gaining over 1% in value.

At 6:00 we started making dinner which was simply a salad and a bowl of PPI Vichyssoises.  I went to the garden and picked chives and thinly sliced them and put the slices in a bowl with a small spoon for serving with the soup.

I then sliced two tomatoes and 2/3 of a cucumber into short wedges.  While Suzette sliced strips of carrot and made deviled eggs and spun lettuce, I sliced and diced a few slices of sweet onion and then thinly sliced one of the roasted PPI chicken breasts.  Suzette composed the salad greens and ingredients in pasta bowls and made a salad dressing with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and some tarragon.

Mike came at 6:30 with a wedge of Cambozola cheese, a package of rice crackers, and a nice bottle of French rose from Aix-en-Provence.  I added the wedge of Izariazal and a fig flavored goat cheese and We put the rice crackers in a bowl.  I toasted several slices of sourdough bread and fetched the butter. When Willy arrived we gathered around the table in the TV room and talked as we sipped Rose and nibbled on cheese and crackers and bread and butter.

We looked outside and saw our neighborhood Coopers hawk.  

After a bit we decided the coolest place to eat dinner was in the dining room so Suzette spooned bowls of soup and we each carried a salad to the dining room and I fetched the chives. 

I opened and filled glasses with the new bottle, a Calstar 2019 Dry Creek Petit Meunier Rose.  I liked the Petit Muenier a lot because it had a smoky gun metal taste combined with a fruity slightly sweet flavor.  A little different, but nice.

When we finished that bottle I opened a Herman Wiemer estate bottled Riesling with perfect balance between pretty high acidity and residual sugar. It blew Mike away and would have us if we had not tasted it at the winery a few weeks ago.

After dinner Willy said goodnight and Suzette went to bed and Mike and I drank a shot of German pear brandy and talked until almost midnight.

Bon Appetit