February 29, 2024. Lunch - La Salita Dinner - Ricotta frilled ravioli served with butternut squash sautéed in a tomato, carrot, and onion sauce
Today was action packed. I got up at 6:30 and showered and dressed and ate a bowl of granola with milk, yogurt and blueberries.
Then at 7:45 I drove to NM Otho’s Winrock Facility and went through its pre-op procedures at 8:20. I was finished by 9:00 and drove to Pres for the labs required by NM Ortho and my registration and PASS procedure for the hip surgery scheduled for March 15.
Amazingly, by 10:45 I finished the two procedures and lab draws, so I drove to Charlie and Susan’s to await Peter driving us to book club. Susan offered and I drank a cup of coffee and a heated Madeline by the time Peter arrived at 11:30 and drove us to La Salita for our book club luncheon.
Nine book club members lunched today. I ordered a single chili Relleno garnished with Swiss cheese and green chili with cooked beans and refried beans.
Peter ordered a bowl of red chili with beef. The coating of chili rellenos at La Salita is uniquely different from the traditional Mexican Relleno coating of egg and flour. La Salita uses a rough cornmeal coating and deep fries the Relleno rather than sautéing it as the Mexican do.
Many others such as Pradip ordered a combination plate with several items.
After lunch we drove to Mike’s house for the meeting and discussed the Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham. The book was well received and a rather revealing real life drama for 1926 of a married woman in an adulterous relationship who is transformed from a conventional society girl into a person who is more aware of and willing to address human suffering, rather than being repelled by it.
It was a surprisingly good discussion about a surprisingly good book.
The meeting ended with a lovely dessert of chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream from Costco.
After the book club Peter drove us home.
Again, Suzette was at home and neither of us was hungry so we deferred a discussion about dinner until 7:00 when we decided to combine the leftover Jose Andres sauce made with a carrot, a tomato, 2/3 of an onion and 5 sprigs of parsley with a dash of Spanish paprika with diced PPI baked butternut squash and asparagus, finished with 2 T. of heavy cream to garnish raviolis stuffed with ricotta and lemon that we had bought at Costco. Suzette also sprinkled the dish with flakes of Parmesan cheese.
This thrown together vegetarian dish was a great success.
Willy came over and enjoyed the dish as much as we did as we finished the open bottles of Emroidery and Cherry Blossum Pinot Noir.
This was among the most filling vegetarian dishes I have ever tasted.
The firm yet tender consistency of the butternut squash had a meat like feel on the palate and the slight sweetness of the butternut squash contrasted with the slightly smoky pungent flavor of the sauce was very interesting.
We loved dinner.
Willy is getting ready to launch into another multi-country travel adventure to South America this time to include Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil starting on April 8 after we go to Dallas to watch the total eclipse.
We went to bed at 9:30 again but instead of sleeping until 6:30 we awakened at 3:00 when I finished this entry.
We invited Aaron, Monica, and Alexi over for dinner tomorrow night of steak and oysters.
Bon Appetit
No comments:
Post a Comment